Amen
Aug 24, 2005 Print This Post
//MOOD: I really need to work on my message but don’t want to (is that a mood?)
//ITUNES: “I Believe” – Tears for Fears
Thanks to A Cognizant Discourse for this awesome quote from John MacArthur:
I hear a lot of talk today about the church impacting culture… But frankly, folks, that’s not our goal. That is not our goal. It sounds like a noble goal and I’m sure there are people who can see certain noble aspects of it and there may be some. But our goal is not to impact our culture by changing their moral values. Our goal is not to impact our culture by creating traditional values, family values through legislation or judicial process. Our goal is not to make sure that the United States of America adheres to a national policy that equates to biblical morality. That is not our goal. We are not involved in altering social morality. We are not involved in upgrading cultural conduct. We are interested in people becoming saved. That is our only agenda. If we’re going to change our culture we’re going to change it from the inside out.
You see, the church has one mission, we are a nation of priests. And a priest had one simple function, to bring people to God, to usher them into His presence. It is the only thing we are in the world to do. Frankly, if people die in a communist government or a democracy, it really doesn’t matter if they end up in hell. If they die under a tyrant or a benevolent dictator, it doesn’t matter if they end up in hell. If they die believing that homosexuality is wrong or believing that homosexuality is right and end up in hell, it doesn’t matter. If they die as a policeman or a prostitute without Christ, they’re going to end up in the same place. Whether they die moral or immoral will make no difference in their eternity. Whether they stood on the side of the street with the pro-abortion rights group and screamed for legalizing and maintaining legal abortions, or on the other side of the street against abortion and screamed to stop the killing, if they didn’t know Christ they’re going to end up in the same place. Right? That isn’t the issue, the issue is salvation…the issue is salvation. And the sad reality is that when the church gets a moralizing, politicizing bent it usually has a negative impact on its evangelization mission because then it makes the people hostile to the current system and they become the enemies of the society rather than the compassionate friend.
-Dr. John MacArthur
August 24th, 2005 at 4:04 pm
You’ve had really thought-provoking quotes lately. Thanks for sharing them. :)
Also, that news story that Travis wrote about you showed up in the SNews for welcome week. :) The print version’s better and longer, but here’s the link, in case it’s useful to you — the version you posted is better, though. :)
August 25th, 2005 at 4:10 am
That is an awesome quote!
I’ve been thinking a lot about that type of stuff lately, and trying to get some close friends to see it too. I think Paul is really saying the same thing in 1 Corinth. 2:2 “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
I read that as Paul saying “I don’t want to talk about anything controversial except Jesus; not politics, not the environment, not gun-control, not music lyrics, just Jesus.”
August 25th, 2005 at 6:01 pm
:) I think I’m going to respectfully disagree with that last statement, Brett, at least in part. I agree that getting entangled in controversy for no good reason is a bad thing.
But the Bible makes it clear that God wants us to work against injustice and work for the best interests of the poor, imprisoned, orphaned, widowed, etc. When I think about why issues of politics and the environment piss me off, it’s often the injustice that gets to me — the lack of concern for the poor, the collective money that is given to the rich for no good reason, the poor people who live in highly polluted areas and experience the health effects and birth defects and so on so the rich can save some money.
I like to think that all of this disgusts me because it doesn’t recognize the inherent value that God has given people, the value he proved to us ultimately by Christ’s sacrifice. In my mind, being concerned for people’s wellbeing (and proving that concern to them) is part of bringing them to Christ. And part of showing that concern can come through political action, environmental activism, etc.
But maybe I’m misunderstanding or thinking way too hard about what you said. :) These are just things I’ve been thinking about, as I’m trying to figure out what I can do, from the position I now find myself in, on behalf of folks who don’t have much. I’m ashamed of how little I currently do.
August 28th, 2005 at 8:00 pm
You may not read this response since this blog is now several days old, but I absolutely understand what you mean, and perhaps I was not clear enough.
There is a time and a place for Christians to get involved in other issues than the Gospel, but in the case of the Corinthians Paul saw that those things could be a distraction from the most important thing, the Gospel. Similarly, the pharisees and saducees would come to Jesus with a trick question on a topic that Jesus knew was not as important as the Gospel, he would answer by changing the topic to the Gospel (their sinful state, their unbelief, etc).
What I’m trying to say is that often Christians get too “Republican” (just as one example) and alienate a whole branch of society (democrats). I have made this mistake before. There was a guy I used to work with who was very politically liberal, and I generally fall to the conservative end. We talked about politics a bit, and because we had strong differing views on some issues (ones which really weren’t Biblical or un-Biblical) I could tell he decided that I was an idiot and didn’t have anything good worth saying. When we got around to talking about religion and spiritual things I could tell that he really didn’t take seriously anything I said because he had already decided I was a fool based on my politics. My politics are infinitely less important than someone hearing the true Gospel message, and I believe that I should have done my best not to alienate him by any other issue than the Gospel or one that is clearly Biblical.
August 29th, 2005 at 7:54 am
Which is precisely the reason I won’t put political signs in my yard. Even last year when my friend was running for school board. I won’t go there because it has too much potential to backfire.