P. 2 Another “way, truth, and life”
P. 3 Theology or Technology?
P. 4 Modern false teachers: educated ignoramuses
P. 5 “Spiritual erotic” and other consequences
P. 6 Conclusions
Mass culture is production which
includes imitation of art, philosophy, science, and pseudo Christianity. And it
is pseudo Christianity that finally draws human souls away from the truth into
perdition. Modern world stream of blasphemies and mockery on the good is directly related to pseudo Christian
teachings, since they have one consumer – numerically prevailing mass man.
The mass culture phenomenon
since long ago dictates its will to Western civilization and, since we live in
the informed world and this process has global character, we clearly feel its
presence in our country.
Tactics: moderate drive
Postmodern enticement so finely dresses itself in such starry-eyed forms that majority of believers from
traditional evangelical churches don’t see and don’t realize the danger. And everything
happens in a very banal way, as in a well-known experiment with a frog which, not
seeing the danger, swims in gradually warmed water before it is too late to
jump out.
Even for the in-churched members,
deviation takes place very imperceptibly. The sound volume is gradually increased,
new technical special effects enhancing drive are added bit by bit, etc. This
is Christianized hedonism.
Young people that consider themselves
“advanced Christians that can afford themselves a little bit of sensuality” should
bear in mind that they play with enticement and, being voluntarily enticed, give
leading space to sinful flesh, insignificantly becoming devil’s allies and the
weapon of the forces of evil! In absolute majority of cases, such “truth heralds”
voluntarily or involuntarily carry its interpretation of spirituality.
Christianity presented in sensual,
play form, loses spiritual basis, whether we speak of service, evangelism or
personal spiritual growth.
Another “way and truth and life”
How does the substitution
take place? By way of natural Calvinism brought from the West in combination with
seeing man as God. At this, it is explained that the death of Jesus Christ gives
us an example of mutual love and compassion. It is enough to realize the degree
of His sufferings and God’s love will open before us. This should spur us to
change our life and love our neighbors. Postmodern teaches that Christ’s sufferings
are God’s way of manifestation of love and example of high morality, by shading
the main – atoning sacrifice of God’s Son. But the elimination of Christ’s sacrifice,
the main pillar of Christian teaching, leaves this teaching without evangelical
power and in essence brings it to paganism.
Such “Christ” didn’t redeem
our sins and doesn’t impute His righteousness to us. This is why it is becoming
very common in communication становится, universal: not to trouble anyone’s conscience
by reminding about man’s sinful nature, about the necessity of cleansing by His
blood and salvation from eternal punishment in Him. Сама Его
миссия – the Savior of the
world – is becoming not truth but allegory. The very notion of sin is changing –
it is no more a lawful consequence of man’s sinful nature but merely some wrong
acts which can be corrected. Suffering for Christ’s sake is no more than upholding
of moral values, and the values are “a matter of taste,” everyone can have
those of his own.
Is characteristic that when someone deepens into modern strategies, not enough attention
is paid to issues of godliness and personal
holiness, absolute values and notions are promptly emasculated, while the more
acting means of evangelism is personal example and personal testimony. And can
many of us say to a sinner, as Peter said to the lame man: “Look at us!” (Acts 3:4)? We dry away the source of the living water in ourselves,
thanks to which (and only this!) people came and come to God.
Lately, people themselves have
changed a lot, their views, value system, life priorities, worldview. Some Christians
say that it is more difficult to find seekers of God’s truth not only among
young believers, but also among those who believed long ago. This is why another
peculiarity of the present is migration from one church (denomination) into
another.
Theology or Technology?
The most convenient ground
for new Christian movements is charismatic churches, for instance, “Hillsong.”
This is a new charismatic movement founded in
One shouldn’t strain himself
studying biblical texts and go through hardships of personal spiritual growth. It
is enough to receive a simple teaching, learn certain words and key phrases. The
rest will be miraculously done by the Holy Spirit. As a result of such teaching,
non-repentant people become church members, who soon go into the world being
disappointed and often become opponents of Christianity. Even if they stay in church,
they mix carnal Christianity with practical occult. As an outcome, there is a poisonous
mixture which is able to poison even outwardly healthy evangelical believers, out
of curiosity attending such churches. (This is why we believe that the main
problem of our Christianity is not in new churches and traditions but in
people, in personally every church member.)
No doubt, this church also has
much of what promotes the quantitative growth of the community. It is quite possible
that the brink has not yet been crossed behind which deviation begins, but, in
any case, here it is approached very closely. The paradox is that, with
diminishing of godly, supernatural church status at the beginning, as a rule, there
takes place multiplication of church comers. Soon they understand that, if the
church is also dominated by this culture, it is better to just have a good
sleep on Sunday morning. As a result, there takes place massive harmful rotation:
people come to such church as non-believers (spiritually “cold”, i.е. with high potential energy), and
leave it as disappointed people of little faith (“lukewarm,” inert).
At services,
heartfelt songs on the love for Christ are sung. They contain few words, music,
but too many feelings are forced for the sake of feelings.
Factually, it is an entertainment. Christ clearly said: “If any of you want to come with me," he told them, "you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me” (Мr 8:34); and in another place: “… Those who do not take up their cross and follow in my steps are not fit to be my disciples” (Мt 10:38). But the news on the Cross and co-crucifixion with Christ (Rom. 6:6) strongly contradicts the carnal gospel of prosperity. Here it is not God who reigns, but the carnal flesh that doesn’t want to follow Christ to the cross. Thereby an ideal opportunity is created for comfortable time-spending, but, due to the absence of influence of the Word and the Holy Spirit, church members have no radical essential changes. The will of God is replaced by positive thinking clothed in religious dress.
To keep up to date, some
evangelical churches began imitating the charismatic style of services. There resounds
loud and dynamic instrumental music, there are used various special effects, psycho
techniques, and the message uses video clips like “Laugh balls,” etc. This is all liked by the youth and
not much by the people of elder generation – it is obvious that leaders of such
churches have no true reference points and
distinction of good and bad, they have no criteria of genuineness.
Trying to understand the forming
theological direction of such churches, I attended different new evangelical
churches of
-
Why does such light “Christianity” attract the youth from traditional churches? Young people serenely tune into sensual “worship” and then receive “spiritual baptism” and other kinds of “anointing.”
-
Why, among the enticed, are there people with theological education got from Baptist seminaries?
-
Isn’t the stumbling over Baptists taking place only because of the restraint in the expression of agitated feelings? And wider: isn’t the essence of Christianity reduced only to the freedom of the expression of excitement, driving in worship? Who do we please, choosing forms and methods of worship: people or God? Isn’t the worship “in spirit and truth” means sensual ecstasy? What is the will of God for Christians? Did He call us to evangelism, holiness – or to search of new forms of worship (Мt 28:19,20; 1Thes. 4:3)?
Modern false teachers: educated ignoramuses
For man’s orientation for quick
and often artificial attainment of spirituality without preliminary setting his
inner man free from chains of sin and carnal nature leads to spiritual diseases.
As a result, a new modern type
of Christianity is formed, which is based on displaced concepts about
spirituality and character of a Christian. Biblical principles of spirituality,
with dominating of the freedom of the spirit and restriction of flesh, are
gradually substituted by secular way of life with freedom of flesh and
restriction (quenching and grieving) of the Spirit. By pleasing the requirements
of the time, liberalism and Christian humanism have washed away spiritual
criteria, and this is one of the main reasons of turning to false teachings in
Church.
The sermon in such church
is not Christ-centered but man-centered. The lightness of such sermon is obvious. Skits, performances, movie shows replace the
expositional preaching of the Scripture. To my mind, pastors are cheated because
they lost their faith and the power of the Holy Spirit acting through the
proclamation of the Scripture. By imitating mass culture, some churches want to
confirm their success by the growing number of church comers using different
methods of rapid growth for this. As a result, there takes place the
replacement of God’s methods by human counterfeits and, with the help of PR technologies, the Scripture is
transformed into a consuming product.
One cannot be a successful Christian
without knowing the Bible and using it in daily life under the leadership of
the Holy Spirit. In His Word, God gave enough light for us not to walk in
darkness.
The main characteristic of the
false teaching is elimination of necessity of carrying the cross when following
Christ. Generally, the cross of Christ is a corner stone for luring spirits and
it defined any thoroughly disguised system of enticement. All who take away the
cross of Christ violate the spirit of the Gospel directly or indirectly and are
victims of enticement.
Only the message on the cross
of Jesus Christ is able to help the needy and the burdened. The gospel, like a mirror,
shows the man his real essence. It is tart and seasoned with bitter herbs. But the unbroken, un-co-crucified with Christ carnal
flesh imitates Christianity and strives to know the answer to the Satan’s
question: has God truly said?
In general, the process of
secularization of Christian church today is happening by way of its
“humanization.” This leads many local churches to gradual contamination with
pragmatism of time and lack of spirituality. (Мt 24:38; Lk 17:27) and calls the grief and striving after wind with those
Christians who practically witnessed
real strength and power of the Holy Spirit.
If mass culture, by technically
raising a foolish consumer, decreases its level of perception and motivation его to please the manufacturers
of often unneeded production, then why should Christianity follow suit? It constantly
repeats to young people: “relax,” “don’t strain yourselves,” and we, professors
of a Christian university, state the constantly falling intellect of high
school graduates.
“Spiritual erotic” and other consequences
As a result of spiritual fall,
differences are imperceptibly erased between the Christian spirit and “the
spirit of this world,” which leads to emergence in Christian sphere of various
kinds of enticements. Some young believers smoke, take alcohol. Because of connivances of a flesh, there is no transformation
and renewal of mind and imitation of Christ, there is no awe before the
greatness of God and His holiness. Spiritual emptiness is filled with occult fakes
like “encounter,” fellowship with non-physical “spirit of Christ” and other false
ideas.
Conclusions
The purpose of the evil one’s
efforts is spiritual coolness of Christians, to stiffen the voice of Church and
that no one withhold and rebuke evil. This is why it is very important to
actively propagandize Christian culture and its values in the world. Best artists,
musicians, writers, poets of all times found in the Holy Scripture sources of inspiration,
philosophic wisdom, while as ethic norms and rules written in the Bible, more
just and pure of which the man failed to create, exist for centuries.
Educational activity is
needed also in Christian surrounding. When, instead of striving for
spirituality, people restrict themselves by morality, there is confusion of
concepts. Then, from God’s establishment, the church is turned into an interest
club or a youth party.
By truthful display of different
socially significant events, informing society of life and social ministry of
the church, directly participating in formation of public opinion, we will be
able to more effectively perform the Great Commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ
(Мt 28:19-20).
We know that, by the efforts of the
prince of darkness, humankind is subconsciously preparing for voluntarily
acceptance of occult and politized religion of “the man of sin,” or Antichrist,
“the wicked one will ome with the power of
Satan and perform all kinds of false miracles and wonders” (2 Thes. 2:9).
This is why we need to be alert and spiritually
sober, not to give room to the enemy in the church or in one’s heart, so that
we could say, like Jesus Christ: “…The ruler of the world is coming, and he
has nothing in Me” (Jn
Published on 18.07.2008
Translated by Anna Sedova
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