Unsaved Christians

  

Parmigianino:The Conversion of Paul

There is no question but that the church today is but a pale shadow of its former self. Long gone are the days of revival, when preaching was powerful, when worship was lively and heartfelt, and multitudes pressed into the kingdom of heaven with tears of repentance. Today the sermons are dull and flat, the congregations half-asleep. We are smug, complacent, and spiritually sound asleep. And worst of all, we are so used to this dull routine that we can scarcely imagine that there was ever anything else. In the words of the apostle, we have a "form of godliness" but deny "its power" (II Tim. 3:5). What has gone wrong?
    There are several causes of our predicament. First of all we have a professional clergy that tends to look at ministry as a career. Pastors tend to measure their success in terms of attendance and budgets. Their aim tends to be making the organization as a whole appear successful, and they focus on numerical growth instead of spiritual growth.
    Compounding the problem is the fact that many churches are working with a type of theology (certain forms of Dispensationalism) that downplays the moral law and holds that it is possible to accept Jesus as Savior and not as Lord. This, coupled with the natural reluctance of most pastors to cause offence, means that we rarely hear sermons about the law of God, about sin and repentance, or about heaven and hell.
    What typically passes for "evangelism," then, is this: the evangelist is anxious to press people to make "decisions" on the spot. Seekers are asked to repeat a "sinner's prayer," and then they are declared to be "saved." Theoretically, if the prayer is said sincerely the person really would be saved. But what happens all too often in this scenario is that there is very little real conviction of sin. The person merely gives mental assent to the idea that "I am a sinner," but often there is a kind of mental reservation. In reality the person being "saved" is comparing himself to everyone else he knows, and really does not think that he is such a bad person. Thus when he says "I acknowledge that I am a sinner" what he is acknowledging is that as a human being he has his share of faults, but to his way of thinking this is more or less normal, and the offenses are fairly trivial. He really does not see himself as a guilty sinner under the wrath of God. He says the prayer, then, as a kind of ritualistic formula to take care of a technical difficulty. There is no real conviction of sin and hence little real repentance.
    Our new "convert" is then baptized and joins the church. But he tends to think of the church primarily as a social organization with its own standards and entrance requirements. The chief function of the church is to put on a program on Sunday morning. The pastor carefully organizes the whole thing; the members contribute financially, and hopefully everything is pulled off without a hitch. The members sits quietly in the pews, listening passively to the "special music" and the "message," which is usually a comforting homily that is neither especially profound nor inspiring. At the end of the "service" the congregation leaves the building self-satisfied. They return to their houses and live out their lives during the rest of the week engaged in a variety secular pursuits. They go through life making pragmatic decisions based on their own sense of self-interest.
    What is missing in this whole exercise is any real sense of the divine or eternal. The whole thing consists in externals. During the week the "Christian" is likely to give scarcely any thought at all to God, to prayer, or to holiness.
    If the church is fairly conservative and tries to maintain some standards of conduct, the "Christian" will likely begin to chafe under the restrictions. Deep inside he wants to be free to just be himself; he wants to be free from external constraint. He begins to resent the idea of having to meet someone else's expectations. He begins complaining about "legalism" and "judgmental church members" – "Fundies" who take the Bible literally. He may eventually become weary of the whole thing and just walk away, never to return.
    In most cases the underlying cause of all of this is that the person was never really converted in the first place. If we may use a paradoxical form of expression, he is an "unsaved Christian," which is to say that he is not a real Christian at all. He never really repented, and he was never really born again. Inwardly he is still very much the same as people outside of the church, and he has the psychology of an unconverted person. His affections are on the things of this world. He mostly pursues his own self-interest. There is no interest in spiritual matters, no real desire to please God. If he has any inkling of what the Bible actually says he will try to find a way either to discredit it or at least a reason not to take it seriously. Church, to him, was never anything more than a sociological phenomenon, but it is a phenomenon that is increasingly making him feel uncomfortable.
    What is easy for us to forget in our spiritual stupor is what is at stake in all of this, viz., eternity itself. We were created by God – we would not even exist at all if it were not for Him. Thus every day we refuse to acknowledge Him and refuse to submit to His will is a day lived in open defiance of His authority. Someday we will have to stand before Him and receive His just sentence on our lives. Our church membership will do us no good if in fact we are not really saved. God looks at our hearts, not the church membership rolls.
    It is incumbent upon each and every one of us to examine himself. "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified" (II Cor. 13:5; NKJV). We cannot afford to deceive ourselves on this point. God will be the final Judge. Be sure that you are right with Him!

Related articles:
What Must I Do to Be Saved? 
What is Saving Faith? 
Born Again! 
Misunderstanding the New Birth 
What Is "A Personal Relationship with Jesus"? 

Regeneration

We continue our examination of the "Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God's Plan of Salvation":

Article Five: The Regeneration of the Sinner

We affirm that any person who responds to the Gospel with repentance and faith is born again through the power of the Holy Spirit. He is a new creation in Christ and enters, at the moment he believes, into eternal life.
We deny that any person is regenerated prior to or apart from hearing and responding to the Gospel.

 
    In Article Five of the Statement we come to a point that has very much agitated supporters of the "Traditional Understanding." Their main concern here is to emphasize that we are saved by believing, and they specifically deny "that any person is regenerated prior to or apart form hearing and responding to the Gospel."
    What exactly is "regeneration"? Is faith the cause of regeneration or is it the effect? The fact of the matter is that the Southern Baptist Convention does not have a consistent record on this issue. For many years the Convention never had a formal, written confession of faith. When it finally decided to adopt one, it adopted a modified version of the New Hampshire Baptist Confession. But in so doing it made a subtle but profound change regarding regeneration. The original New Hampshire Confession state that regeneration "is effected in a manner above our comprehension or calculation, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the Gospel . . ." In other words, regeneration is what enables us to believe. In the version adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1925, however, the wording of this section was changed so that it read as follows: regeneration "is a work of God's free grace conditioned upon faith in Christ . . ." In other words, faith is the antecedent cause of regeneration. Then, in 1963, we see yet another change. Now the article was amended to read that regeneration "is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." Thus regeneration is equated with the conviction of sin and is placed prior to repentance and faith. The language of the 1963 version on this point remains current.
    Part of the confusion on this point stems from the fact that there have always been two streams of thought among Southern Baptists, going all the way back to colonial times. One stream is represented in early times by the "Regular Baptists," who adhered to the strongly Calvinistic Philadelphia Baptist Confession. But another stream, the "Separate Baptists," arose out of the Great Awakening of the 1740's and was more geared toward intense evangelism and emotional expression. They tended to have mixed feelings about Calvinism. One early Separate Baptist leader, John Leland, is reported to have said that the best theology had enough Calvinism to believe man was lost and enough Arminianism to believe he could be saved (H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage, p. 274). The Separate Baptists were originally fairly Calvinistic in their theology, but over time they tended to adjust their theology to their practice. Southern Baptists, it would appear then, are in a profound state of confusion over the nature of regeneration.
    What exactly happens when a person in "born again"? In the "Calvinist" (and we believe biblical) scenario, regeneration is an entire renovation of the inner man. He heart, mind, affections and will are all affected. The sinner is enabled to do what he was never able to do before. And this is all the result of the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the dead brought back to life.
    But let us say that repentance and faith precede regeneration. What, then, is regeneration? In this scenario the sinner already has a rational mind and a free will. He is already capable of making a decision, and of deciding to do good. There is nothing that God has to do to change him in order to enable him to believe. He already has the ability.
    What, then, is the change wrought in the new birth? At this point it is no longer clear. The Statement of the Traditional Understanding says that the sinner "is a new creation in Christ and enters, at the moment he believes, into eternal life." But what does it mean to be "a new creation"? And what is "eternal life"? The sinner has already repented, and already believed, presumably without the Holy Spirit doing anything at all to him other than adding a little bit of moral suasion. What else needs to be done? Not much, apparently.
    And therein lies the whole problem. We can no longer tell whether or not someone has been born again, because we are no longer sure what the new birth is. In a denomination like the Baptists that professes to believe in a regenerate church membership, this is fatal. We are tempted to use any method available to elicit a bare profession of faith, and then admit the person into church membership with no further evidence of new life. And even worse, we no longer pray for revival because we no longer see the need for the Holy Spirit to do anything. We are attempting to use carnal means to achieve spiritual ends.. It will not work.
    What we need is a genuine outpouring of the Spirit.

Related posts:
"Born Again!"
"Misunderstanding the New Birth"

Born Again!

Parmigianino, The Conversion of Paul

    The phrase "born again" is standard jargon in the evangelical lexicon, yet few understand what it really means. What exactly is "the new birth"? What is the difference between someone who has been "born again" and someone who has not?
    The phrase itself goes back to a conversation that Jesus once had with a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, recorded for us in John chapter 3. Nicodemus was interested in learning more about this famous miracle worker, and was astonished when Jesus told him right at the outset of the conversation, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3; NKJV). Nicodemus was befuddled by this cryptic remark, and asked how it would be possible to reenter one's mother's womb and come back out again. Jesus went on to explain that what He was talking about was a spiritual birth, and that the agent of this birth was the Holy Spirit: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (v. 6).
    So what exactly is the new birth? The apostle Paul gives us a description in Eph. 4:17-24. He begins by describing what the Ephesian Christians were like before they became believers. The Gentiles, he says, "walk in the futility of their mind" (v. 17). The word "futility" suggests that their reasoning processes routinely arrive at the wrong conclusions. Why is this?
    Paul points to a variety of psychological factors. He says that their understanding was darkened, they were "alienated from the life of God," their hearts were blind, and they were "past feeling" (vv. 18,19). In other words, their hearts were unreceptive to the truth of God. This, in turn, ultimately led them to a lifestyle of licentiousness and greed. Once the external restraints were removed, their self-centeredness knows no bounds.
    The genuine Christian, however, has experienced something different. "But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus" (vv. 20,21). When the gospel is being preached a variety of people may hear the audible words being spoken, but they do not all respond alike. For some, the message makes no sense. It is out of synch with their own perception of reality. But for others the message rings true in an uncanny sort of way. It unnerves them. They are undone. The have caught the awful sight of their own depravity, and finally understand why Christ had to die on the cross. The light breaks through, the way of salvation becomes clear, and they tearfully embrace it. "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God," as Paul says elsewhere (I Cor. 1:18). The difference is that in the case of the believer, Christ Himself has spoken to the heart with indelible force and conviction. He has been taught by Christ Himself.
    So what, then, is the end result? First of all there is a clean break with the past: "that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man" (Eph. 4:22). But more than that, we are to "be renewed in the spirit of your mind" (v. 23). We acquire a new way of thinking: new motives and a new outlook on life. As Paul puts it in Rom. 12:2, we are not to "be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." The Christian life begins with an inward transformation. This, in turn, results in "the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:24).
    How can one tell whether or not he has been genuinely born again? For someone converted as an adult it can be fairly easy. He knows what he was like before. He knows how he came to understand the truth. He is conscious of the decision he made. He is now experiencing a different life and a meaningful relationship with God. He has passed from death into life, from night into day.
    But for a young person raised in a Christian home it can be a much more difficult question to answer. He has always been told what to believe. He has always been told how to behave. He is actively involved in a whole range of church programs. But is he saved?
    Only he and God know what is really in his heart. But there are several things to look for. Since salvation involves a conscious choice to trust in Christ as your Savior from guilt and sin, there must be a cognitive understanding of the basic facts of the gospel, a consciousness of one's own sin and guilt, and a conscious decision to trust in Christ. There should presently be signs of spiritual life – a desire to know God, a prayer life, serious Bible study, and a willingness to serve others. In the final analysis you are spiritually what you are in your prayer closet. Where there is no regular, consistent prayer there is no relationship with Christ.
    The question is an all-important one. Let each be honest with himself. "Examine yourselves as to whether your are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified." (II Cor. 13:5).

Dear Dan Barker – II

What's it all about?

Frans Hals, Young Man with a Skull

Dear Mr. Barker,
    You will recall that we were discussing the chapter "Dear Theologian" in your book, the chapter that was written as though it were a letter from God addressed to theologians. In the first section of your "letter" you had raised certain objections to the argument from design, which we attempted to answer in our last blog post. In the next section, which we consider today, you went on to discuss the meaning and purpose of life. The thread of your argument was a little hard to follow, consisting as it did of one objection after another, but if we understand you correctly, the point you were trying to make is this: if human beings find meaning and purpose in life by submitting to the will of God, then how does God find meaning and purpose? Conversely, if God can exist happily without being created or submitting to someone else's will, then why cannot humans?
    We would begin by pointing out the obvious difficulty with this line of argument: it basically puts you, a finite human being, in the position of pcychoanalyzing the Deity, not that theologians haven't tried to do it themselves from time to time. Because God is infinite and eternal, all-knowing and all-wise, there are some things about Him that we can never hope to understand, and, frankly, some things that are just plain none of our business. For the most part what we know about God, about how He thinks and why He does certain things, is based solely on revelation; we only know what He Himself is pleased to tell us. Beyond that we must maintain a respectful silence, and not pretend to know more that we do.
    What the Bible does tell us, however, is that God is actively involved with His creation. In fact, in one sense the whole biblical narrative is the record how God has acted in human history. You are familiar, no doubt, with the doctrine of divine providence, as well as the plan of redemption. At one point in your argument you picture God as saying "I created the universe from quarks to galactic clusters, and it runs okay on its own . . . there is nothing in the universe for Me to do. It's boring up here" (p. 149). Yet that is not the way God would have put it. What the Bible actually says is that universe does not "run okay on its own." "By him all things consist" (Col. 1:17), and He is "upholding all things by the word of his power" (Heb. 1:3). "For in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). While He may ordinarily use natural causes to govern His creation, that does not preclude the fact that He is the ultimate, controlling cause. Moreover, He indwells believers by His Spirit, hears and answers their prayers, and guides and protects them through life.
    You then raise some questions about the nature of God's love, and wonder how He can be omnipotent, and a God of love, and yet consign billions to hell. This, as you well know, is the classic problem of "theodicy," the justice of God in the permission of evil, and it is one of the most impenetrable mysteries of theology.
    However, if you think that there is some sort of contradiction here, consider this: what occasioned the paradox or anomaly is our own irrational, abusive and self-destructive behavior. Before we ask, "why did God permit sin?," we should first as the question, why do we commit it? After all, we have no one to blame for our predicament but ourselves. God did not force us to sin – we do it voluntarily.
    As for eternal punishment, let us ask ourselves these questions: Does God love human beings? Then how should He react when to those who harm are injure others, the people whom He loves? With benign indifference? If God is at all just, He must punish and destroy evil. He could have simply consigned the entire human race to hell and that would have been the end of it. But instead He chose to do something else: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoso believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I know that this is a verse that you yourself have quoted many times in the past. But it means that God can both forgive sin and punish it at the same time. Is there a contradiction here in His character?
    You point out that any love that is motivated by fear of hell is no love at all, and you are quite correct in this. But you surely have heard of the new birth and how it changes a person's heart. The regenerate person is given a new heart so that he loves God freely and spontaneously. He loves God because of what Christ did for him. It is love responding to love. There is nothing forced or coerced about it.
    We also note that in the next section of your "letter" you objected to the idea of a substitutionary atonement. People should have to pay for their own sins, you say. First you complain that God is unloving because He sends sinners to hell; then you complain that He is unjust because He provided a substitute to take our penalty for us. Your suggested alternative is that God is just a made-up concept, which leaves us with neither justice nor redemption. You will forgive us if we appear to be less than enthused with the prospect.
    You may certainly pay for your own sins if you so desire; that is your prerogative. But as for us, we would rather avail ourselves of the grace and mercy freely offered us. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!