The Resistance – Evangelism and the Lordship of Christ – Part 4

Due to the events currently taking place in New Zealand, we had to postpone continuing The Resistance series. The events including mandated vaccines for health care professionals, teachers and others as well as rules that will punish churches who choose to operate non-segregated services. This only goes to prove what we suggested at the beginning of this series.

It certainly feels like we are on the edge of something. And when I say “something”, I do not mean pink cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles. More the kind of something that Gandalf refers to when sitting with Pippin on the walls of Minas Tirith and says, “It’s the deep breath before the plunge.”

Things are certainly intensifying, fault lines are showing, and we are beginning to see division. In some ways this is healthy. All around New Zealand the reactions to what is going on are telling. We learn which pastors are courageous, and those who can only talk a good game. Those who have sold out because of their desire to look socially acceptable to the powers that be are obvious as are those who are controlled by fear of man rather than fear of God. We continue to see the divide between Christians who actually have a Christian worldview and those who have a personal faith, but have been deluded by the shallow and deceptive philosophies of this world. I suspect these divisions will become clearer and lead to changing alliances and movement among churches.

So now is a good time to once again continue our series on Christian resistance in these times. Thus far we have covered the first 3 requirements: repentance over individual and corporate sin, dependence on the Word, Spirit and prayer and confronting the dualism that has stripped the church and its members of strength.

Today we will briefly focus on the fourth requirement of Christian Resistance.

We must develop and practise an evangelism that not only calls for personal salvation, but Christ’s lordship in every sphere of life. In other words we must disciple the nations to obey everything that Christ taught and call unbelievers to recognise Christ’s kingship on earth.

The Problem

We’ve all seen a typical evangelical gospel tract or heard a ‘gospel presentation’. The big focus is in getting a person across the line to pray a prayer inviting Jesus ‘into their heart’. I remember in my late teens being trained in a particular methodology of evangelism. I went out with a young woman who was my trainer to save souls. We were invited to the home of a young teenager who was spiritually awakened. I became more and more concerned as the presentation went on, because my reading of the situation was that she was being manipulated into praying a prayer. At the end of this, my trainer and I gave her ‘assurance’ that she was now bound for heaven. I have never forgotten this interview and have reflected on it many times; it has never sat well with me. It was clear she didn’t understand what she was doing and unless there was some serious follow up (I was out of my home town for this training), I am unsure where she would have ended up.

Now while this is a particularly bad example it exemplifies the problem with the evangelical church’s approach to evangelism. There is a focus on personal salvation and getting a person to level one. Jesus is played up as personal Saviour, but the lordship of Christ and his call to obedience seems lacking. Getting people to level one is relatively easy. Getting Christians to apply the lordship of Christ to every area of life is another thing entirely.

Evangelism needs to be informed by our post-Christian context. We are proclaiming the kingdom and the king to people who do not know there is a king or a kingdom! We are asking people to repent of their rebellion against his law and bow the knee to the king and his law. That means we are not in the business of eternal fire insurance marketing. This is a process. Generally this takes time and education. It will take repeated exposure to Scripture. We might get people into a Church with a ‘pray the prayer’ evangelism, but if we don’t preach Christ’s lordship in every area of life, the church will remain filled with spiritual babes. And we don’t take infants into the battle. No wonder we are losing.

Causes

Why are we in this situation? Again, I am no expert on these things. I’m a member of the laity, but I do have theological training and I try to read widely and think carefully about what is going on. One significant reason for this predicament is the separation of the realm of ‘spiritual’ from the physical realm. This flows from the ideology of Enlightenment thinkers as Christians like Schaeffer and Nancy Pearcey have ably demonstrated. Unfortunately, instead of our minds being renewed through Scripture, Christians have been taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition (Colossians 2:8).

Another significant problem is that most of our clergy have been trained in government schools or schools that are ‘Christian’ in the sense that they train their students in a secular worldview but throw Christianity a bone with the odd prayer and Bible reading. Hence, our pastors often do not have a Christian worldview themselves because they have been discipled in the secular worldview at school. One might have hoped seminary would help, but it seems that seminary equips our leaders to deal with exegesis and hermeneutics. It might help them critique ‘higher criticism’ or theological issues from the early and mid-20^th century, but gives little in the way of a broad, let alone deep Christian worldview of practical matters.

If you doubt this, ask your average pastor (and apologies to those to whom this does not apply) for their take on what a Christian view of gender, economics, education, work, or wealth is. It’s like asking a nun to lecture about sex. Prepare to hear socialist nonsense that comes less from Scripture than the cultural milieu they have swum in. Given the average Christian pastor is secularised and lacking in a robust Christian worldview, how can they be expected to impart one to their congregations? They have been trained in the sacred secular dichotomy and actively or passively promote it in their approach to the Christian life from the pulpit and the way church life is arranged.

Then there is eschatology. So many have been infected by the modern dispensationalist mania that began in England and became popularised in the US in the 1800s. It is a theology of defeat. Despite all authority in heaven and earth being given to Christ (Matthew 28:17-20), we are apparently to expect that the Great Commission will be a first rate failure, with a few brands being snatched from the fire, but the whole earth becoming the realm of the devil and Christ being forced to rapture his children out of the rout. Christ’s will shall not be done on earth as it is in heaven no matter how much we pray it will (Matthew 6:10). This negative eschatology while not endorsed by all evangelical pastors seems to have pervaded the Christian culture and led to widespread abandonment of Christian presence and involvement in the world on the unbiblical assumption that the earth is not the Lord’s and will not be won to Christ.

Then there is an abandonment of the theology of dominion that flows from this faulty eschatology. Should a Christian man start attempting to demonstrate masculinity and dominion in an area of the world to which God has called him, he will soon attract the attention of ‘more spiritually minded’ Christian brothers. He will be rebuked. He will be told he is using ‘carnal’ methods and that our battle is a spiritual battle which seems to mean that it has no earthly consequences. We are to pray, but action is highly suspect and will bring charges of engaging in a war against flesh and blood when we should be engaging in a war against the spiritual forces. This again highlights the dualism of our age. Yes, it is true that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, but that is not the same thing as saying it is not in this world. It is true that our battle is against spiritual powers, and we ought to fight with spiritual weapons as we highlighted in part 2 of The Resistance series. However, the spiritual forces we fight against are embodied. In the Old Testament we see that there were spiritual powers that stood behind different pagan nations, but these pagan nations manifested in the physical realm the evil of those spiritual powers. So today we see spiritual powers at work through individuals and earthly systems. That is why refuting false doctrine involves refuting people who are promoting heresy. If the heresy were not embodied in our historical moment, we would not need to fight it. Consequently, fighting spiritual battles will always be marked by doing and saying things in the physical realm. The spiritual battle has earthly objectives that must be won or defended.

The Response of The Resistance

So what do we need to do? We need to practise a ‘further up and further in’ sort of faith. It is not enough to have a personal salvation because we have prayed the sinner’s prayer. That is wonderful. However it is not all about you and Jesus. It’s all about his kingdom and lordship over everything. Thus we need to move from personal salvation to seek to see Christ’s lordship in every sphere of life. What does Christ’s lordship look like when you apply it to your household? What does it look like when you apply it to your vocation? What does it mean for the wife with a 6 month old who wants to get back into her career? How does it alter your politics? What does it do to your use of money?

Now how do we answer these questions? We must study God’s Word and have a much greater love for all that Christ commanded. In the Great Commission, our Lord commands us make disciples of all nations and teach them to obey all that he taught. What did he teach? The Word of God was His textbook. Despite the Scriptures containing many sentences like this one, “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever,” (Psalm 119:160), modern Christians have an unhealthy disrespect for God’s law. In our zeal for salvation by grace alone through faith (a zeal which we ought to have), we have ignored that the man who walks according to God’s law is blessed (Psalm 119:1), that God’s law makes us wiser than our enemies (Psalm 119:98) and that sin is lawlessness (I John 3:4). Don’t forget that one of the core features of the New Covenant was that God’s law was not abrogated, but rather it was written on the heart. Christians do not cast off God’s law, but the motivation for obedience to God’s law now comes from within by His Spirit. Not caring enough to determine what Christ our Lord requires in all areas of life is not taking the Great Commission seriously enough. This is simply not good enough for the Christian. We should seek to do all things for the glory of God.

Finally, I would challenge us all to encourage our leaders to think about and teach Christ’s lordship in all things. It is not enough for weekly simplistic ‘believe in Jesus sermons’ that do nothing to express his lordship over all things. He is the king. Challenge your pastor to equip themselves with a thoroughly Christian worldview on all things. Pass on book recommendations. Follow up and ask whether he has read them! Sermons ought not to be individualistic ‘come to Jesus sermons’ or trite messages suggesting you determine whether you are being too influenced by Netflix or whether you ought to arrive earlier at church to help set up the sound system. We need leaders who understand the times and are equipped for cultural exegesis. In these times, that means that uncomfortable truths will be aimed at local and state leaders and their idolatrous Christian worshipers. It means culturally sacred cows may need to be slaughtered. But this is the job of our pastors. Greg Bahnsen in By this Standard wrote in this vein:

“Consequently true Christian obedience to the law of God will take us beyond a concern for ourselves to a concern for the obedience of those around us. Churches which preach (either intentionally or by default) “moral individualism” are failing to proclaim the whole counsel of God. The sins of our society cannot be ignored or swept under the church carpet.”

This will no doubt make some parishioners squirm because many are complicit in the sins of our society. So be it. Christ must reign and his will must be done in earth as it is in heaven.