I Think I’m Gonna Puke

“Flowers…? No, most certainly not. That would be a bit odd.

Chocolates…? Eh, too cliché.

Clothes…? Uh-Uh… there is absolutely no way I’m going to the mall to shop for a teenage girl.

So, what in the world does one buy a 13 year-old girl for her birthday?”

I’m thinking to myself, standing in the Hallmark section of CVS, “Ya know, John, you’re really not very good at this sort of thing, but there’s got to be something here that she’ll both enjoy and actually get something beneficial out of… Hrm. This looks interesting. I wonder how Biblical this is…” heh, heh.

I pick up a conveniently-located book entitled, God Thinks You’re Wonderful, and begin flipping through the pages with a slight grin on my face musing: “Oh brother, I think I know what doctrinal cliff this is about to fall off of…”

At first, it’s not so bad. Max Lucado uses Biblical concepts of God’s love towards us – although there is no indication as to whether or not these apply only towards a specific people (i.e. His Children), or towards the human race as a whole (though, I’m willing to side with the latter being the case for Lucado…) – with thoughts like:

“Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen.” – attached is a cute little picture of a telephone with a cord running to heaven and God saying “I’m always listening.” Ahhh… that’s sweet.

“If we give gifts to show our love, how much more would he?” Eh, ok.

“You were knit together. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned here on this earth…” I agree, although I wonder how much further Lucado would speak about His sovereignty – especially in regards to salvation… ;)

“He has sent his angels to care for you, his Holy spirit to dwell in you, his church to encourage you, and his word to guide you.” All scriptural points here, but there is no mention of the church and God’s word being primary ways by which He admonishes and rebukes us. Uh-oh, I’m beginning to feel a bit unbalanced…

That’s not so bad. But then – suddenly and without much warning – I stumbled upon utterly heretical and entirely unbiblical messages that sent holy and reverent fear throughout my soul. I nearly hurled when I read:

"Vagabonds and ragamuffins all, he saw us before we were born. And he loves what he sees." What?!?!? God loves what he sees in us? God loves our sin?!?!? Oh brother.

"You have captured the heart of God. He cannot bear to live without you. God’s dream is to make you right with him." Nice to know that God is like my girlfriend… NOT! (Oh, wait. Never mind, I don’t have a girlfriend, HA! – oh, but I guess that’s totally irrelevant to this post – ok: back on topic John…). God cannot stand to live without me…? Oh boy, I suppose that Lucado hasn’t spent much time in Psalm 50, or Job 41:11, or Ezekiel 36, or, umm… say, the book of Romans… He dreams of making me right with him? But wait, I don’t get it, I thought he loved me? What’s wrong with me that he has to make right? Something isn’t lining up here…

If there’s a tree in heaven, he’s carved your name in the bark. If God had a wallet, he’d keep your picture in it. If God had a car, he would put your sticker on his bumper...” Wha…how…guh…I don…. Hm.

~*~

BLEEEAGHHOCK!!!

*Ah-hem.* Excuse me. Sorry, I think I just lost the contents of my stomach…

There are many more, but I'll spare you the rest. It’s ok to take your hand off over your mouth now. ;)

So why did I even bother to take you through that vomit-inducing treatment of God’s Word (if I would even dare to give it that much credit)? Well, we’ll get to that in a second, but first let’s take a look at what the rest of scripture has to say about who God is and what He thinks of us. Take note, Lucado:

“A jealous and avenging God is the Lord;
The Lord is avenging and wrathful.
The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries,
And he reserves wrath for His enemies
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
In whirlwind and storm is His way,
And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
He dries up all the rivers.
Bashan and Carmel wither;
The blossoms of Lebanon wither.
Mountains quake because of Him
And the hills dissolve;
Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence,
The world and all the inhabitants in it.
Who can stand before His indignation?
Who can endure the burning of His anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire
And the rocks are broken up by Him.” (Nahum 1:1-6)

Sounds like a much different God than the one that Lucado described. Now, for the sake of clarification, I must state that God IS a God of love. But that is not the totality of His character. His is loving, but because He is holy, He loves righteousness and perfection. And, therefore, He hates sin and must punish it wherever it is found. God’s love is not a pampering love (like the one Lucado described), but a perfecting love. It’s the difference between seeing the Lord of all Creation as a jolly-fat-old grandpa who just showers and showers gifts and hugs and chocolates and rainbows and flowers with no expectation of anything in return, in comparison to seeing God as He reveals Himself in the Holy Scriptures: namely, that He is the Holy Father who loves His children (not the children of wrath [Eph. 2:3]) so much that He will justify, sanctify, and glorify them and command lives of obedience and submission in return.

Do you understand the seriousness of this issue? Do you realize that Lucado has not just made a god according to his own liking, but he has also distorted the gospel message so much that it can no longer bring about the knowledge of sin, and therefore the need to repent and believe?

This is a false god. This is a false gospel. This is a big deal.

There is no mention of sin, hell, justice, disobedience, the Law of God, judgment, wrath, repentance, the cost of discipleship, God’s passion for His glory, or the life of obedience that God requires from those who claim to have a personal relationship with Him, and therefore no reason for me to believe that anyone who responds to a message like this has been soundly saved.

In The God Who Justifies (a book that is quickly escalating into my list of all-time favorites), author James White addresses this dire situation of the “modern gospel.” Please read these quotes – they’re extremely revealing to the unbiblical nature of the work of Lucado and many others around the world (including a great number of churches in our own area. I know that they’re a bit lengthy, but every sentence is worth reading:

Those blessed to experience the crushing recognition of God’s holiness and their own sinful state may be tempted to feel more than just a little alone in a modern Western culture where Valium is a likely a refuge for the feeling as is prayerful repentance and the heartfelt seeking of the Savior. Society’s constant emphasis upon self-worth coupled with its fervent proclamation of moral relativism (“Sinner? Are you kidding? You’re the best you could be!”) has resulted in a cultural inoculation against the conviction of sin. (pg. 25)

What happens when Christians who have been deeply influenced by the world attempt to proclaim the gospel in a society bent upon denying God His place as Sovereign, Creator, and Judge? In many instances the specter of pragmatism arises: “Let’s find something that works and not worry about the details.” And so a truncated gospel replaces the biblical one. This new gospel fits with the culture: it does not speak of sin, since that implies a law against which man has sinned, and that leads inevitably to a lawgiver. It does not speak of repentance for the same reasons. Instead, it seeks out the felt needs of the culture and seeks to tailor a message that adapts. Wrath and anger do not blend, so they are jettisoned. Love becomes preeminent, but not the love of the Bible, which involves holiness, obedience, self-sacrifice, and the like. No, the mantra is that God loves everyone just as they are, no strings attached. Unlike a good parent whose love will seek the best for the child, God’s love is reduced to that of a grandparent who rarely even has contact with his grandchild but only showers him with gifts without any thought of his true and lasting welfare. Therefore it can hardly be surprising that justification, a doctrine that speaks of God as Judge and explains sin, wrath, propitiation, faith, forgiveness, and pardon, would become a theological novelty in such a context (pgs. 30-31, emphasis his).

~*~

Perhaps you still think that I’m being little harsh. But consider this: if someone hears a gospel presentation akin to the one that Lucado presents – a gospel which does not have the power to save – then they have been given a false assurance, thinking that they obeyed the gospel and are good-to-go with God. Paul warned in his second letter to the Thessalonians that:

“…the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His might angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power…” (verses 7-9)

If someone has put their faith and trust into a false gospel, then they do not know God and therefore they still stand guilty before God – covered only in their own unrighteousness – and God must give them the due penalty of their sin: eternal destruction in hell forever. And there are men like Lucado who are making tens of thousands of dollars by giving many a false god, a false gospel, and therefore a false assurance of salvation.

But my point here is not to discourage, but rather to put courage into you by echoing Paul’s reminder to Timothy that:

"In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following." (I Tim. 4:6)

And last his command before being beheaded in Rome:

"I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, the will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." (II Tim. 4:1-5)

Standing on the firmest foundation,

Jonathan David


Oh yeah, and just in case you were wondering, I ended up getting that 13 year-old a Starbucks gift card. ;)

The Silence Before the Storm

The following is a quote taken from Ravi Zacharias as he was speaking on the topic of ethics and the need for both truth and standards for morals in our society. His message was entitled “Unplugging Truth in a Morally Suicidal Culture.” And his thoughts here are simply profound and prove to show how consistent and all-encompassing the Christian worldview really is.

~*~

“We are often accused as Christians by bringing ideas, bringing doctrines, bringing dogmas. But you go back across the centuries and you see how this was handled by believers. In fact, I take you back to the Biblical writers themselves. Listen, because this is profound here:

The pursuit of the Hebrews was idealized and symbolized by light:

‘The Lord is my light and my salvation’

‘The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light. This is the light that lighteth every man that comes into the world.’

The pursuit of the Greeks was symbolized by knowledge. That’s why the Biblical writers say:

‘These things are written so that you might know that you have eternal life.’

So Hebrew ideal was light, the Greek ideal was knowledge. For the Hebrews it was light, for the Greeks it was knowledge, but for the Romans it was glory.

‘The glory of the city of Rome.’

‘The glory of the city that wasn’t built in a day’

And here we have it, the Apostle Paul – a Hebrew by birth, a citizen of Rome, living in a Greek city – had to give to [the Corinthian believers] the ideal of his ethic. And he says this:

‘For God, who said, “The Light shall shine out of darkness,” has caused His light to shine in our hearts to give to us the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in face of Christ Jesus our Lord.’

For the Apostle Paul, the ultimate ethic was not an abstraction, not symbolized merely by light, not merely by knowledge, not merely by glory; but in the very face of our Lord.”

~*~

Wow.

How beautiful is the face of the God we serve! And how moving and liberating it is to know that we are His image-bearers. Therefore, let us seek to live lives that adequately represent the One who shines in the light, who possesses all knowledge, and deserves all of the glory.

A Difficult Conversation

"...so John..." the cheerful, and (normally) giddy girl paused briefly as if acknowledging the intense weight of the question she was a about to ask - and though terrified of the consequence, her love for the truth drove out all other fears, "...so what's going to happen to my dad after he dies?..."

I leaned back in my chair at Starbucks, breathing in deeply and offering the quickest, yet most sincere prayer that never left my lips.

"...I mean, I just don't get it... he's a good guy and all... but he's never gotten into religion or followed the Bible or anything like that..." She paused again. But this time she was biting her lip and doing her best to hold back a flood of tears that had been building up over the years.

"...John, I... I don't want my Dad to go to Hell..."

Her watery eyes met mine. And - for a short eternity - there was silence.