The Truth War

by John MacArthur

  But the fruits of apostasy and ungodliness are not necessarily that obvious. Apostates are not unique to any single denomination or theological system. They are by no means limited to cults and fringe groups. On the contrary, they often deliberately conceal themselves within the heart of the evangelical mainstream. Some teach in evangelical seminaries and Bible colleges. Some pastor churches. They publish Christian-themed weblogs. They write books that are sold in evangelical bookstores.

  How is their ungodly character manifest? In worldly lifestyles and unwholesome preoccupations. In private behavior that contradicts the carefully crafted public image. In sensual talk and carnal conduct. In the kind of hypocrisy that practices religion merely for the praise of men but cares not about pleasing God (Matthew 6:1–8).

  Proof that ungodliness is rampant in evangelical circles is evident in megachurches that purposely cater to the preferences of the ungodly—furnishing entertainment and amusements in place of authentic worship and Bible teaching. More proof is found in a popular doctrinal system that deliberately removes the lordship of Christ from the gospel proclamation to give a theological justification for “carnal Christians”—people who profess to believe in Christ but live ungodly lives.

  Still more proof is seen in the erosion of evangelicals’ commitment to clear biblical moral standards. As the Emerging movement gains strength, more and more voices within are suggesting that evangelicals should back away from confronting Western culture over moral evils like abortion and homosexuality. Tony Campolo, for example, explained to a reporter why he wrote his book Speaking My Mind: “My purpose in writing the book was to communicate loud and clear that I felt that evangelical Christianity had been hijacked. When did it become anti-feminist? When did evangelical Christianity become anti-gay? When did it become supportive of capital punishment? Pro-war? When did it become so negative towards other religious groups?”2

  Brian McLaren says he is not sure “what we should think about homosexuality.” He called for a five-year moratorium on making any pronouncements about whether homosexuality is a sin or not. “In five years, if we have clarity, we’ll speak” he said. “If not, we’ll set another five years for ongoing reflection.”3

  The recent wave of popular books written by leading figures in the Emerging Church movement has unleashed an unprecedented flood of vulgarity and worldliness onto Christian booksellers’ shelves. Obscenity is one of the main trademarks of the Emerging style. Most authors in the movement make extravagant use of filthy language, sexual innuendo, and uncritical references to the most lowbrow elements of postmodern culture, often indicating inappropriate approval for ungodly aspects of secular culture. In the popular book Blue Like Jazz, for example, Donald Miller writes of his experience in one of the best-known Emerging churches in the Pacific Northwest, referring to the pastor as “Mark, the Cussing Pastor”:

  Even though Mark said cusswords, he was telling a lot of people about Jesus, and he was being socially active, and he seemed to love a lot of people the church was neglecting, like liberals and fruit nuts. About the time I was praying that God would help me find a church, I got a call from Mark the Cussing Pastor, and he said he had a close friend who was moving to Portland to start a church and that I should join him.

  Rick and I got together over coffee, and I thought he was hilarious. He was big, a football player out of Chico State. At the time we both chewed tobacco, so we had that in common. He could do a great Tony Soprano voice, sort of a mafia thing. He would do this routine where he pretended to be a Mafia boss who was planting a church. He said a few cusswords but not as bad as Mark.4

  Asecular writer doing an article on the Emerging Church movement and postmodern Christianity summed up the character of the movement this way: “What makes a postmodern ministry so easy to embrace is that it doesn’t demonize youth culture—Marilyn Manson, ‘South Park,’ or gangsta rap, for example—like traditional fundamentalists. Postmodern congregants aren’t challenged to reject the outside world.”5

  I’ve noticed the same thing. Whole churches have deliberately immersed themselves in “the culture”—by which they actually mean “whatever the world loves at the moment.” Thus we now have a new breed of trendy churches whose preachers can rattle off references to every popular icon, every trifling meme, every tasteless fashion, and every vapid trend that captures the fickle fancy of the postmodern, secular mind. Worldly preachers seem to go out of their way to put their carnal expertise on display—even in their sermons. In the name of “connecting with the culture” they boast of having see all the latest programs on MTV; memorized every episode of South Park; learned the lyrics to countless tracks of gangsta rap and heavy metal music; or watched who-knows-how-many R-rated movies. They seem to know every fad top to bottom, back to front, and inside out. They’ve adopted both the style and the language of the world—including lavish use of language that used to be deemed inappropriate in polite society, much less in the pulpit. The want to fit right in with the world, and they seem to be making themselves quite comfortable there.

  Let’s face it. Scripture speaks quite plainly against such a mentality (James 4:4). Many of the worlds’ favorite fads are toxic, and the are becoming increasingly so as our society descends further into the death-spiral described in Romans 1. It’s like a radioactive toxicity, so while those who immerse themselves in it might not notice its effects instantly, they nevertheless cannot escape the inevitable, soul-destroying contamination. And woe to those who become comfortable with sinful fads of secular society. The final verse of Romans 1 expressly condemns those “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

  APOSTATES FACE AN

  INTERESTING DILEMMA.

  THEY FREQUENTLY BECOME

  SO LOST TO HONOR, SO

  LACKING IN DECENCY, SO

  INDIFFERENT TO DISGRACE

  THAT THEY OFTEN DON’T

  CARE WHO SEES THEIR SIN,

  ESPECIALLY IN THEIR OWN

  INNER CIRCLE. THEY WEAR IT

  ARROGANTLY LIKE A BADGE

  OF HONOR. IN JUDE’S

  WORDS, THEY BECOME

  LIKE “RAGING WAVES OF

  THE SEA, FOAMING UP

  THEIR OWN SHAME.”

  Disturbing evidence of this kind of ungodliness is becoming more prevalent across the spectrum of the visible church these days. In fact, it gets even worse. An Anglican committee commissioned to study the morality of extramarital sex suggested that the church should drop its opposition to cohabitation between unwed adults and regard the practice as “a new path from the single state to the married one.”6

  Apostates face an interesting dilemma. They frequently become so lost to honor, so lacking in decency, so indifferent to disgrace that they often don’t care who sees their sin, especially in their own inner circle. They wear it arrogantly like a badge of honor. In Jude’s words, they become like “raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame” (v. 13).

  On the other hand, they have to do something to hide their ungodliness from the people they are tying to dupe. Their words might be more carefully guarded in public venues, and they often maintain a whole different public persona. As we have learned from far too many televangelist scandals, accomplished media figures tend to be very good at this sort of hypocrisy.

  The other common approach for masking ungodliness is the one Jude hints at in verse 4: they proclaim a message that transforms the idea of grace into license for sin. Thus they try to give a spiritual-sounding justification for their ungodliness.

  This brings up a third major characteristic of every ungodly apostate:

  Their creed. Apostates “deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude is obviously not suggesting this is something they do with bold and straightforward candor, or else they could not be in the church “unnoticed.” Sadly, that is probably less true today than it was in the early church.
Nowadays people literally do deny Christ in some denominations and even remain bishops.

  But while the false teachers in Jude’s day were perhaps a little more subtle about their apostasy, in some way or another, they denied Christ’s lordship. They would not live obediently under the sovereign lordship of Christ. They refused His headship over His church.

  This is true of all apostates. At the heart of their apostasy is rebellion against Christ’s lordship. Even if they confess with their lips, they deny with their lives. They may call Jesus, “Lord, Lord,” but they do not do what He says (Luke 6:46). In the words of Paul to Titus, “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work” (Titus 1:16). Their apostasy eventually poisons all their doctrine. They twist and pervert and reinvent teachings of Christ. They adjust the gospel to suit their own tastes. When you get to the core of where they are, they simply want to be kings of their own domain.

  That brings us full circle back to the issue of character. Apostate false teachers are not humble. They are not broken. They are not submissive. They are not meek. They are blatant, proud sovereigns of their own religious empires. And while they like to use Christ’s name for their advantage, they do not really know, obey, or love the truth—written or Incarnate.

  Nevertheless, God alone is truly sovereign. His eternal purposes are not the least bit threatened by the efforts of false teachers. His truth will triumph in the end. And tragic consequence for the false teachers and all who follow them is sure and certain condemnation. As Jude says, they already have a long-standing appointment to that end.

  Of course, that doesn’t alter or diminish our duty to oppose them and contend earnestly for the faith here and now. In the chapter to come, we’ll examine some of the difficulties of that duty.

  7

  THE ASSAULT ON DIVINE AUTHORITY: CHRIST’S LORDSHIP DENIED

  Certain men have crept in unnoticed, who . . .

  deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

  —Jude 4

  Contending for the faith has never been easy work. But as we have been seeing, the postmodern shift has made the challenge more difficult than ever.

  The mood that currently prevails in the evangelical movement doesn’t help. Contemporary evangelicalism seems bent on shaping itself into the most stylish, trendy movement in the history of the church. Old certainties are often met with automatic suspicion just because they have been affirmed by generation after generation of evangelicals. These days it is fashionable to question everything. And most evangelicals frankly don’t care all that much about their spiritual heritage in the first place. They don’t have a very strong commitment to understanding Scripture precisely or defending its vital doctrines against the encroachment of subtle errors. They just want something new and fresh. Above all, they are desperate to stay in step with the world.

  Multitudes of “enlightened” evangelicals have therefore wholeheartedly embraced those cardinal postmodern virtues—broad-mindedness and diversity—while deliberately setting aside critical biblical values, such as discernment and fidelity to the truth.

  How many well-known evangelical leaders do we see squander wonderful opportunities to make the truth clear and plain when they are handed a microphone by the secular media? They often balk or simply give the wrong answer when put on the spot by questions about whether Christ is really the only way to heaven. Apparently, some evangelicals are prepared to let the dogmas of political correctness trump any article of faith. It seems many have already imbibed the full array of postmodern values without even realizing it.

  That attitude is especially dominant in the elite echelons of the evangelical academic world, and it filters down from there. Long-held biblical and evangelical convictions are easily discounted, but trendy scholars can’t wait to endorse the latest new perspective. Novel ideas about doctrine are never supposed to be repudiated with any degree of force; that is considered seriously uncouth. Read the reviews in almost any theological journal, and you will notice this. Anyone who comments on the latest opinions sweeping the evangelical world is expected to spend a significant amount of time and energy pointing out strengths and saying positive things. Perhaps no one is more generous or more reckless than contemporary evangelicals when it comes to handing out indiscriminate affirmation.

  It is hard to imagine anything more at odds with the biblical command to contend earnestly for the faith. Evangelicals need to stop and think very seriously about how our movement got where it is today and where it is headed from here.

  HOW DID EVANGELICALISM

  MORPH INTO SUCH A MESS?

  For the past two decades or more, the evangelical movement has been pounded with an unrelenting barrage of outlandish ideas, philosophies, and programs. Never in the history of the church has so much innovation met with so little critical thinking.

  Giving a thoughtful biblical response becomes harder and harder all the time. Merely sorting through all the evangelical trends and recognizing which of these novelties really represent dangerous threats to the health and harmony of the church is challenging enough. Effectively answering the huge smorgasbord of accompanying errors poses an even greater dilemma. New errors sometimes seem to multiply faster than the previous ones can be answered.

  To be an effective warrior in the battle for truth today, several old-fashioned, Christlike virtues are absolutely essential: biblical discernment, wisdom, fortitude, determination, endurance, skill in handling Scripture, strong convictions, the ability to speak candidly without waffling, and a willingness to enter into conflict.

  Let’s be honest: those are not qualities the contemporary evangelical movement has cultivated. In fact, the exact opposite is true. Consider the values and motives that prompt postmodern evangelicals to do the things they do. The larger evangelical movement today is obsessed with opinion polls, brand identity, market research, merchandizing schemes, innovative strategies, and numerical growth. Evangelicals are also preoccupied with matters such as their image before the general public and before the academic world, their clout in the political arena, their portrayal by the media, and similar shallow, self-centered matters.

  Maintaining a positive image has become a priority over guarding the truth.

  The PR–driven church. Somewhere along the line, evangelicals bought the lie that the Great Commission is a marketing mandate. The leading strategists for church growth today are therefore all pollsters and public relations managers. In the words of Rick Warren, “If you want to advertise your church to the unchurched, you must learn to think and speak like they do.”1 An endless parade of self-styled church-growth specialists has been repeating that same mantra for several decades, and multitudes of Christians and church leaders now accept the idea uncritically. Both their message to the world and the means by which they communicate that message have been carefully tailored by consumer relations experts to appeal to worldly minds.

  MANY CHURCH

  LEADERS HAVE

  RADICALLY CHANGED

  THE WAY THEY LOOK

  AT THE GOSPEL

  RATHER THAN SEEING

  IT AS A MESSAGE

  FROM GOD THAT

  CHRISTIANS ARE CALLED

  TO PROCLAIM AS

  CHRIST’S AMBASSADORS

  (WITHOUT TAMPERING

  WITH IT OR CHANGING

  IT IN ANY WAY),

  THEY NOW TREAT IT

  LIKE A COMMODITY

  TO BE SOLD

  AT MARKET.

  Many church leaders have radically changed the way they look at the gospel. Rather than seeing it as a message from God that Christians are called to proclaim as Christ’s ambassadors (without tampering with it or changing it in any way), they now treat it like a commodity to be sold at market. Rather than plainly preaching God’s Word in a way that unleashes the power and truth of it, they try desperately to package the message to make it subtler and more appealing to the world.

  Runawa
y pragmatism and trivial pursuit. The most compelling question in the minds and on the lips of many pastors today is not “What’s true?” but rather “What works?” Evangelicals these days care less about theology than they do about methodology. Truth has taken a backseat to more pragmatic concerns. When a person is trying hard to customize one’s message to meet the “felt needs” of one’s audience, earnestly contending for the faith is out of the question.

  That is precisely why for many years now, evangelical leaders have systematically embraced and fostered almost every worldly, shallow, and frivolous idea that comes into the church. A pathological devotion to superficiality has practically become the chief hallmark of the movement. Evangelicals are obsessed with pop culture, and they ape it fanatically. Contemporary church leaders are so busy trying to stay current with the latest fads that they rarely give much sober thought to weightier scriptural matters.

  In the typical evangelical church, even Sunday services are often devoted to the trivial pursuit of worldly things. After all, churches are competing for attention in a media-driven world. So the church vainly tries to put on a bigger, flashier spectacle than the world.

  Evangelical fad surfing. Contemporary evangelicals have therefore become very much like “children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). They follow whatever is the latest popular trend. They buy whatever is the current best seller. They line up to see any celebrity who speaks spiritual-sounding language. They watch eagerly for the next Hollywood movie with any “spiritual” theme or religious imagery that they can latch on to. And they discuss these fads and fashions endlessly, as if every cultural icon that captures evangelicals’ attention had profound and serious spiritual significance.

  Evangelical churchgoers desperately want their churches to stay on the leading edge of whatever is currently in vogue in the evangelical community. For a while, any church that wanted to be in fashion had to sponsor seminars on how to pray the prayer of Jabez. But woe to the church that was still doing Jabez when The Purpose-Driven Life took center stage. By then, any church that wanted to retain its standing and credibility in the evangelical movement had better be doing “Forty Days of Purpose.” And if your church didn’t get through the “Forty Days” in time to host group studies or preach a series of sermons about The Da Vinci Code before the Hollywood movie version came out, then your church was considered badly out of touch with what really matters.