Emergent Response

This is a guest post, done by my wonderful husband.  It is his short response to the emergent church movement that we are facing today.

Our modern day culture is filled with murder, premarital sex, children being disobedient to parents, homosexuality, lying, backstabbing, and the list goes on.  I am aware that I need to be in the world and not of it; exactly right, I am not to be of the world.  Perhaps I shouldn't equate such shocking extreme issues with our modern culture, even though these issues are prevalent. What are the small things that make up our culture?  The way we dress, the music we listen to, the magazines we read, the media we consume and live by, the food we eat, the way we communicate, how we become successful, the cars we drive, the houses we live in, all of these small things are like Lego's being snapped together and build up into what we call American culture.  We may think these are small items but they can lead to big issues.  For instance, the way we dress; I attended a church and had to leave because many of the women wore short dresses, skin tight clothes, and extremely low cut shirts and pants.  You may say that I am a weak man and it is my problem and not these women.  Be that as it may, most men I know have this weakness.  Women dressing provocative leads to premarital sex, fornication,  and  adultery, because men are not strong, and women are not strong simply shown through the way they dress immodest.  This is a small thing in our culture that lead to big problems.  Do Christians need to merge themselves in this fashion?  I do not think so.  Dress is only one cultural component of many that seem small and insignificant but when partaken of grow into large problems.  Perhaps we should look to the early Christians as an appropriate example of  what is correct and godly conduct in an ungodly culture.  Nero was Caesar in the 60's and up to the 70's A.D.  He was the one who had the apostle Paul beheaded around A.D. 67-68.  Nero was aware of the new Christian religion that was growing fast in his Roman empire.  There were two issues Rome and Nero had with Christians, the first was Christians would not worship idols, as a matter of fact they wouldn't worship any idol or anyone accept Jesus Christ.  And the second issue stems from the first, because they wouldn't worship other idols they would not practice and do the things Romans did towards these idols.  Pantheism (many gods) was Roman culture.  The acts they did to and for idols, was Roman culture.  They where a hedonistic and violent people.  They had the goddess Diana (the goddess of fertility) in which they would perform improper sexual acts outside of marriage, they also had the god Bacchus (the god of wine) in which they would inebriate themselves as a form of worship.   The list is fairly large on the many gods and idols they had, all of them catering towards human sinful nature.  The Christians would not bow their knee to these gods, they would not worship them.  They refused to merge themselves with Roman culture.  Because of them not partaking of modern Roman culture the Christians where labeled as those "who turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6).  The Romans had made a law against religions that seemed to be a threat to Caesar and the Roman way of life; these religious sects were to be abolished.  Thousands of Christian were put to death in the first 300 years of the church, and these deaths were brutal and inhuman.  People still became Christians and would not conform to Roman culture even upon the pain of death.  Why would we want to merge ungodly culture with Jesus Christ?  If we want to be noticed by the outside world we must be like the early Christians and not conform to modern culture, perhaps the church can once again be the people "who turned the world upside down."
In the early years of the church Christians stood against Roman culture and philosophies.  Main stream Roman culture was into child abandonment, abortion, human sacrifice, violent Gladiatorial games, sexual immorality, and suicide.  Within the first 300 years of the church thousands of Christians were Martyred for their stand.  Their faith in Christ led them to a strong belief in the sanctity of human life, and the sanctity of the Marriage relationship.  Christians stood firm with these convictions and were killed by the Roman government.  The Romans understood the Christianity way of life to be a threat to Roman culture, and deemed it necessary to kill and abolish all Christians. It is an incredible miracle, 2000 years later the Roman Empire does not exist, yet Christianity does. By the mid 300's A.D. abortion was outlawed in the Roman Empire, later on child abandonment was outlawed, human sacrifice was outlawed, suicide was outlawed, and the Gladiatorial games were abolished.  Christians had had a profound effect on the Roman Empire, they literally turned the known world upside down.  It was not an easy task, but at that time in History Christianity changed culture which came through much death and trial.   Our early father's stood on the truth of the word of God.  They followed the teachings of Jesus and the apostles even to the point of death.  I wonder what scriptures they leaned on as they were being crucified on crosses, burned at the stake, dragged behind horses through Rome, beaten to death, shot with arrows, speared to death, and stoned.  John 15:18-19 comes to mind, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."  Maybe they were thinking of the sermon on the mount Math. 5:11-12, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."  Perhaps they considered the writings of John the beloved, 1 John 2:15-17, "Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever."  Also 1 John 4:4-6, "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.  They are of the world.  Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.  We are of God.  He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us.  By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."  Without a doubt the early Christians knew the heart of God.  They leaned on the Ten Commandments, in which they were instructed to not murder, and to not covet another man's wife or daughter.  These principles they applied to their life, which obviously went against Roman culture.

Our church father's were not into a seeker sensitive message, if they were they would not have been martyred.  They were not into merging culture with their religion.  They were into the Word of God, they were into keeping the commands Jesus had issued to them.  And because of the stand they took years ago, they changed society, and didn't allow society to change them.  Once again we are in a battle.  Lately  it appears we have been losing the battle.  The divorce rate is now higher in the evangelical church than it is in the secular world, well over 50%.  There are denominations that have homosexuals as pastors.  Many Christians think it is ok to have abortions.  Many of our teenagers in the church are practicing premarital sex, and usually have had more than one sexual partner before they are married.  We know there is moral decay in the world, that is not a secret to anyone, however to have moral decay in the church body is disheartening and wrong.  The emergent/emerging movement promotes the integration of culture into the church as an answer to evangelizing the world.  This is not going to work, it only causes more moral decay and loss of souls. We need to look to the example our early church fathers gave us.  We need to remember the little things turn into big things.   Our society says there is a way to dress that is in style, there is a way to do music that is in style, there is a way to talk that is in style, but our society is hedonistic, self serving, and ungodly.  The way our society dresses today is improper and accentuates sexuality, and music is done in such a fashion that it draws attention to the musicians.   We need to be like our forefathers and change society, not allow society to change us.  Let us dress proper and not be concerned with what the outside world thinks, let us worship the Lord with music that is not self serving but glorifies God.  Let us preach the gospel and not worry about pleasing man, but be concerned with pleasing God.  Let us preach sermons that glorify God's Word and are not ear tickling messages.  Let us commit to building strong marriages and families so that the statistic of divorce in the Evangelical church is down to "0".  Let us change society once again, by keeping God's Word.  Merge with the world, I say no, Merge with God, I say yes!