life-under-the-big-top-january-february-1995

Life Under the Big Top

When Evangelism Undermines the Evangel

Billy Sunday tu rn-of-th â‚Ź 1 entu ry evange1f'st

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Life Under The Big Top When Evangelism Undermines the Evangel Inside this Issue

Dr. CadF.H. Henry .. . .The Rev. Michael: Horton Dr. Robert Kolb · ' . Dr, Allen Mawhinney ' Dr: Joel Nederho.od Dr. Roger NiCole ,. . ..'

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Dr. David Wells

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The Legacy of Charles Finney Michael S. Horton

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Is It a Prelude or a Quaalude?

Leonard Payton

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Glossary of Church Growth and Contemporary Christian Music Terminology Leonard Payton

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Recovering God's Sovereign Grace: The Arminian Captivity of the Modern Evangelical Church Sung Wook Chung

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From the Shelf (page 30) The White Horse Inn (page 9) A Protestant and Roman Catholic Debate (page 16)

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In Th is Issue

"Unity wherever possible, Truth at all costs."

W

hen one scans the modern evangelical landscape, the temptation is very great (at least fOl this writer) to reduce everything to generalizations: both its past as well as its present. While that is always a dangerous tack to take, it is made almost irresistible by the sheer facts of the case.

With the backdrop of Gospel~ recovery, the term "evangelical" was chosen by Luther and his followers because it came from the Greek word that we translate as "Gospel. " Those first Protestants simply thought of themsel ves as restoring the Gospel to its apostolic brilliance and lustre. In view of the radical nature of sin and its judgment, only a radical Gospel would do, and that is what they found in Scripture.

The name stuck and became attached to other works of God, such as the Evangelical Awakening in England and the Great Awakening in America, in the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, as the movement broadened and experienced the influences of pietism, emphasizing experience, the heart, feeling, and careful piety in such a way as to avoid or underplay objective truth and the normative rule of Scripture, many Evangelical theologians during those revivals complained that the essence of that Gospel was being compromised by "enthusiasm." One is reminded of St. Paul's lamentation in Romans chapter 10 concerning his fellow~ Jews who had "zeal without knowledge," and just as the particular bit of knowledge that they had left behind was the doctrine of justification according to the apostle so this very same doctrine that had been recovered by the Reformers was increasingly ignored in the zealous flurry of spiritual activism and emotionalism.

John Wesley and George Whitefield, in fact, eventually broke fellowship over the former's Arminianism and ever since "evangelicalism" has maintained an awkward alliance of these two groups. On the European continent, this was not the case, as Arminianism was declared heretical by an international conference that met in The Netherlands in 1618-19.

The Reformed and Presbyterians were joined by the Lutherans in condemning the errors of this theology that weakened the biblical teaching concerning human sinfulness and taught that salvation was the result of human cooperation with divine grace, the very same errors that Rome had embraced in its condemnation of the Reformers at the Council of Trent in 1564.

Wesleyan perfectionism made its way into American 4 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

evangelicalism and enjoyed tremendous success, at least in part because ofthe democratic sentiments and optimism ofthe Enlightenment and the frontier. Revivalism shifted from what God had done for sinners in Christ ( the Great Awakening's emphasis) to what humans did for themselves, with God's help (the Second Great Awakening to the present). In the last century, revivalist Charles Finney jettisoned such unpopular ideas as total depravity, original sin, the substitutionary atonement, the supernatural character of the new birth, and justification by grace alone through faith alone and put in their place a moralistic perfectionism that gave rise to moral and political crusades for a "Christian America, " "new measures" in evangelism, "powerful excitements" in public meetings, and that made the ground fertile not only for the rise of a number of cults, but prepared the way for the therapeutic view of salvation.

In short, the effects of modernity on evangelicalism­ the moralism of Christian activism, the pragmatism and consumerism of the church growth movement, the "signs and wonders" movement, and the romantic view of the self in the triumph of the therapeutic movement, all come together in the ministry of Charles Finney and his Pelagian descendants.

Nobody in this spiritual genealogy declares, "I am a Pelagian," after the fourth~ century heresy that denied original sin and the need for supernatural grace, since (a) every branch of Christendom condemns it and (b) few in this lineage have the slightest idea ofwhat Pelagian ism is in the first place. Further, many of the contemporary descendants would offer the correct answers on a theological examination, but operate in their ministry as if those convictions had absolutely no consequence. Almost always, it comes in the supposedly pious form of preferring zeal to knowledge, soul~ winning to truth~ telling, evangelistic success to theological integrity. It ,doesn't have to be correct, it just has to work.

In this issue of modemREFORMATION, you will gain a better perspective on how we arrived at our present condition. If these observations are correct, it is time for us to reassess just how "evangelical" evangelicalism now is in reality, and they are offered in the hope that we will consider the truths proclaimed in Scripture, defended by Augustine, and recovered by the Reformers importan enough to stand up for in our own day, regardless of the consequences. With Luther, we must humbly but boldly assert, "Unity wherever possible, Truth at all costs. "

modern REFORMATION

Michael S.Horton

T HE LEGACY

OF

Charles Finney

erry Falwell calls him "one of my heroes and a hero to many evangelicals, including Billy Graham. "I recall wandering through the Billy Graham Center some years ago, observing the place of honor given to Finney in the evangelical tradition, reinforced by the first class in theology I had at a Christian college, where Finney's work was required reading. The New York revivalist was the oft~ quoted and celebrated champion of the Christian singer Keith Green and the Youth ~lith A Mission organization. Finney is particularly esteemed among the ,/ leaders of the Christian Right and the Christian Left, by - oth Jerry Falwell and Jim Wallis (Sojourners' magazine) , and his imprint can be seen in movements that appear to be diverse, but in reality are merely heirs to Finney's legacy.

From the Vineyard movement and the church growth movement to the political and social crusades, televangelism, and the Promise~ Keepers movement, as a fonner Wheaton College president rather glowingly cheered, "Finney lives on! " That is because Finney's moralistic impulse en visioned a church that was in large measure an agency of personal and social reform rather than the institution in which the means of grace, Word and Sacrament, are made available to believers who then take the Gospel to the world. In the nineteenth century) the evangelical movement became increasingly identified with political causes-from abolition of slavery and child labor legislation to women's rights and the prohibition ofalcohol. At the tum of the century, with an influx of Roman Catholic immigrants already making many American Protestants a bit uneasy, secularism began to pry the fingers of the Protestant establishment from the institutions (colleges, hospitals, charitable organizations) they had created and sustained. In a desparate effort at regaining this institutional power and the glory of "Christian America" ( a vision that is always powerful in the imagination, but, after the disintegration of Puritan New England, - ':lusive) , theturn~ of~ the~ century Protestant establishment - aunched moral campaigns to "Americanize" immigrants, enforce moral instruction and "character education. " Evangelists pitched their American gospel in terms of its practical usefulness to the individual and the nation.

That is why Finney is so popular. He is the tallest marker in the shift from Reformation orthodoxy, evident in the Great Awakening ( under Edwards and Whitefield) to Arminian (indeed, even Pelagian) revivalism, evident from the Second Great Awakening to the present. To demonstrate the debt of modem evangelicalism to Finney, we must first notice his theological departures. From these departures, Finney became the father ofthe antecedents to some of today' s greatest challenges within the evangelical churches themselves; namely, the church growth movement, penetecostalism and political revivalism.

Who's Finney?

Reacting against the pervasive Calvinism of the Great Awakening, the successors of that great movement of God) s Spirit turned from God to humans, from the preaching of objective content (namely, Christ and him crucified) to the emphasis on getting a person to "make a decision. " Charles Finney (1792-1875) ministered in the wake of the "Second Awakening," as it has been called. A Presbyterian lawyer, Finney one day experienced" a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost" which "like a wave of electricity going through and through me . .. seemed to come in waves ofliquid love. "The next morning, he informed his first client of the day, "I have a retainer from the Lord jesus Christ to plead his cause and I cannot plead yours. " Refusing to attend Princeton Seminary ( or any seminary, for that matter), Finney began conducting revivals in upstate New York. One of his most popular sermons was, "Sinners Bound to Change Their Own Hearts. " Finney's one question for any given teaching was, "Is it fit to convert sinners with?" One result of Finney's revivalism was the division of Presbyterians in Philadelphia and New York into Arminian and Calvinistic factions. His "New Measures" included the "anxious bench" (precursor to today' s altar call) , emotional tactics that led to fainting and weeping, and other "excitments, " as Finney and his followers called them. Finney became increasingly hostile toward Presbyterianism, referring in his introduction to his Systematic Theology to the Westminster Confession and its drafters rather critically, as if they had created a "paper pope, " and had "elevated their confession and catechism to the Papal throne and into the place of th~ Holy Ghost. " JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

5

Remarkably, Finney demonstrates how close Arminian revivalism, in its naturalistic sentiments, tends to be to a less refined theological liberalism, as both caved rrjto the Enlightenment and its enshrining of human reason and morality:

That the instrument framed by that assembly should in the nineteenth century be recognized as the standard of the church, or ofan intelligent branch ofit, is not only amazing, but I must say that it is highly ridiculous. It is as absurd in theology as it would be in any other branch of science. It is bette,r to have a living than a dead Pope.

What's So Wrong With Finney's Theology?

First, one need go no further than the table of contents of his Systematic Theology to learn that Finney's entire theology revolved around human morality. Chapters one through five are on moral government, obligation, and the unity of moral action; chapters six and seven are "Obedience Entire, "as chapters eight through fourteen discuss attributes of love, selfishness, and virtues and vice in general. Not until the twenty~ first chapter does one read anything that is especially Christian in its interest, on the atonement.

This is followed by a discussion of regeneration, repentance, and faith. There is one chapter on justification followed by six on sanctification. In other words, Finney did not really write a Systematic Theology, but a collection of essays on ethics.

But that is not to say that Finney's Systematic Theology does not contain some significant theological statements.

First, in answer to the question, "Does a Christian cease to be a Christian, whenever he commits a sin?", Finney answers:

Whenever he sins, he must, for the time ¡being, cease to be holy. This is self-evident. Whenever he sins, he must be condemned; he must incur the penalty ofthe law of God¡¡.If it be said that the precept is still binding upon him, but that with respect to the Christian, the penalty is forever set aside, or abrogated, I reply, that to abrogate the penalty is to repeal the precept; for a precept without penalty is no law. It is only counselor advice. The Christian, therefore, is justified no longer than he obeys, and must be condemned when he disobeys; or Antinomianism is true...In these respects, then, the sinning Christian and the unconverted sinner are upon precisely the same ground. (p.46) Finney believed that God demanded absolute perfection, but instead of that leading him to seek his perfect righteousness in Christ, he concluded that

6 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

.. .full present obedience is a condition ofjustification. But again, to the question, can man be justified while sin remains in him? Surely he cannot, either upon legal or gospel principles, unless the law be repealed... But can he be pardoned and accepted, and justified, in the gospe[ sense, while sin, any degree of sin, remains in him?

Certainly not (p. 57).

With the Westminster Confession in his sights, Finney declares of the Reformation's formula "simultaneously justified and sinful, ""This error has slain more souls, I fear, than all the universalism that ever cursed the world. " For, "Whenever a Christian sins he comes under condemnation, and must repent and do his first works, or be lost" (p. 60) .

We will return to Finney's doctrine of justification, but it must be noted that it rests upon a denial of the doctrine oforiginal sin. Held by both Roman Catholics and Protestants, this biblical teaching insists that we are all born into this world inheriting Adam's guilt and corruption. We are, therefore, in bondage to a sinful nature. As someone has said, "We sin because we're sinners": the condition of sin determines the acts of sin, rather than vice versa. But Finney followed Pelagius, the 5th~ century heretic, who was condemned bymore church councils than any other person in church history, in denying this doctrine. nstead,Finney believed that human beings were capable of choosing whether they would be corrupt by nature or redeemed, referring to original sin as an "anti~ scriptural and nonsensical dogma" (p. 179) . In clear terms, Finney denied the notion thathuman beings possess a sinful nature (ibid. ). Therefore, if Adam leads us into sin, nc by our inheriting his guilt and corruption, .but by following his poor example, this leads logically to the view ofChrist, the Second Adam, as saving by example. This is precisely where Finney takes it, in his explanation ofthe atonement.

The first thing we must note about the atonement, Finney says, is that Christ could not have died for anyone else's sins than his own. His obedience to the law and his perfect righteousness were sufficient to save him, but could not legally be accepted on behalf of others. That Finney's whole theology is driven by a passion for moral improvement is seen on this very point: "If he [Christ] had obeyed the Law as our substitute, then why should our own return to personal obedience be insisted upon as a sine qua non of our salvation?" (p. 206). In other words, why would God insist that we save ourselves by our own obedience if Christ's work was sufficient? The reader should recall the words of St. Paul in this regard, "I do not nullify the grace

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of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. "It would seem that Finney's reply is one of agreement. The diff~rence is, he has no difficulty believing both of those premises.

That is not entirely fair, ofcourse, because Finney did believe that Christ died for something-not for someone, but for something. In other words, he died for a purpose, but not for people. The purpose ofthat death was to reassert God's moral government and to lead us to eternal life by example, as Adam's example excited us to sin. Why did Christ die? God knew that "The atonement would present to creatures the highest possible moti ves to virtue. Example is the highest moral influence that can be exerted ... If the benevolence manifested in the atonement does not subdue the selfishness of sinners, their case is hopeless" (p. 209) .

Therefore, we are not helpless sinners who need to be / "edeemed, but wayward sinners who need a demonstration j selflessness so moving that we will be excited to leave off selfishness. Not only did Finney believe that the "moral influence" theory of the atonement was the chief way of understanding the cross; he explicitly denied the substitutionary atonement, which "... assumes that the atonement was a literal payment of a debt, which we have seen does not consist with the nature of the atonement ... It is true, that the atonement, of itself, does not secure the salvation of anyone" (p. 217).

T hen there is the matter of applying redemption.

I Throwing off the Calvinistic orthodoxy of the older Presbyterians and Congregationalists, Finney argued strenuously against the belief that the new birth is a divine gift, insisting that "regeneration consists in the sinner changing his ultimate choice, intention, preference; or in changing from selfishness to love or benevolence," as moved by the moral influence of Christ's moving example (p. 224). "Original or constitutional sinfulness, physical regeneration, and all their kindred and resulting dogmas, are alike subversive of the gospel, and repulsive to the human intelligence" (p. 236) .

Having nothing to do with original sin, a substitu tionary atonement, and the supernatural character of the new birth, Finney proceeds to attack "the article by which the church stands or falls"-justification by grace alone through , - r 1ith alone.

The Protestant Reformers insisted, on the basis of clear biblical texts, that justification (in the Greek, "to declare righteous, "rather than "to make righteous") was a forensic (i. e. , "legal") verdict. In other words, whereas

Rome maintained that justification was a process ofmaking a bad person better, the Reformers argued that it was a declaration or pronouncement that had someone else's righteousness (i. e. , Christ's) as its basis; Therefore, it was a perfect, once~ and~ for~ all verdict of right~ standing at the beginning of the Christian life, not in the middle or at the end.

The keywords in the evangelical doctrine are "forensic" (meaning "legal") and "imputation" (crediting one's account, as opposed to the idea of "infusion" of a righteousness within a person's soul). Knowing all of this, Finney declares,

But for sinners to be forensically pronounced just, is impossible and absurd... As we shall see, there are many conditions, while there is but one ground, ofthe justification of sinners...As has already been said, there can be rw justification in a legal or forensic sense, but upon the ground of universal, perfect, and uninterupted obedience to law.

This is of course denied by those who hold that gospel justification, or the justification ofpenitent sinners, is of the nature of a forensic or judicial justification. They hold to the legal maxim that what a man does by another he does by himself, and therefore the law regards Clirist's obedience as ours, on the ground that he obeyed for us.

To this, Finney replies: The doctrine of an imputed righteousness, or that Christ's

obedience to the law was accounted as our obedience, is founded on a most false and nonsensical assumption."

After all, Christ's righteousness "could do rw more than justify himself. It can never be imputed to us.. .It was naturally impossible, then, for him to obey in our behalf. " This "representing of the atonement as the ground of the sinner's justification has been a sad occasion of stumbling to many (pp.320-2). ' The view that faith is the sole condition ofjustification is "the antinomian view, " Finney asserts. "We shall see that perseverance in obedience to the end of life is also a condition of justification." Furthermore, "present sanctification, in the sense of present full consecration to God, is another condition... of justification. Some theologians have made justification a condition of sanctification, instead ofmaking sanctification a condition of justification. But this we shall see is an erroneous view of the subject" (pp. 326-7). Each act of sin requires "a fresh justification" (p. 331). Referring to "the framers of the Westminster Confession of faith, II and their view of an imputed righteousness, Finney wonders, "If this is not JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

7

antinomianism, I know not what is" (p. 332). This legal business is unreasonable to Finney, so he concludes, "I regard these dogmas as fabulous, and better befitting a romance than a system oftheology" (p. 333). Heconcludes in this section against the Westminster Assembly:

The relations of the old school view ofjustification to their view of depravity is obvious. They hold, as we have seen, that the constitution in every faculty and part is sinful. Of course, a return to personal, present hoUness, in the sense of entire conformity to the law, cannot with them be a condition of justification. They must have a justification while yet at least in some degree ofsin. This must be brought about by imputed righteousness. The intellect revolts at a justification in sin. So a scheme is devised to divert the eye of the law and of the lawgiver from the sinner to his substitute, who has perfectly obeyed the law (p. 339).

This he calls "another gospel. " Insisting that Paul's

I rather realistic account of the Christian life in Romans 7 actually refers to the apostle's life before he had experienced" entire sanctification, "Finney surpasses Wesley in arguing for the possibility ofcomplete holiness in this life.

John Wesley maintained that it is possible for a believer to attain full sanctification, but when he recognized that even the holiest Christians sin, he accomodated his theology to this simple empirical fact. He did this by saying that this experience of "Christian perfection" was a matter of the heart, not of actions. In other words, a Christian may be perfected in love, so that love is now the sole motivation for one's actions, while occasionally making mistakes.

Finney rejects this view and insists that justification is conditioned on complete and total perfection-that is, "conformity to the law of God entire, "and not only is the believer capable of this; when he or she transgresses at any point, a fresh justification is required.

As the Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield pointed out so eloquently, there are two religions throughout history: Heathenism-of which Pelagianism is a religious expression-and supernatural redemption. And with Warfield and those who so seriously warned their brothers and sisters ofthese errors among Finney and his successors, we too must come to terms with the wildly heterodox strain in American Protestantism. With roots in Finney's revivalism, perhaps evangelical and liberal Protestantism are not that far apart after all. His "New Measures, " like today's church growth movement, made human choices and emotions the center of the church's ministry, ridiculed 8 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

theology, and replaced the preaching of Christ with the preaching of conversion.

It is upon Finney's naturalistic moralism that the Christian political and social crusades build their faith in humanity and its resources in self, salvation. Sounding not a little like a deist, Finney declared, "There is nothing in religion beyond the ordinary powers of nature. It consists entirely in the right exercise of the powers of nature. It is just that, and nothing else. When mankind becomes truly religious, they are not enabled to put forth exertions which they were unable before to put forth. They only exert powers which they had before, in a diffex~a , and use them for the glory of God (emphasis in original) . hus, as the new birth is a natural phenomenon, so 00 a revival: "A revival is not a miracle, nor dependent on a miracle, in any sense. It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means-as much so as any other effe produced by the application of means. "The belief that th~ new birth and revival depend necessarily on divine activity is pernicious. "No doctrine, "he says, "is more dangerous than this to the prosperity of the Church, and nothing more absurd" (RevivalsofReUgion [Revell] , pp. 4-5). When the leaders ofthe church growth movement claim that theology gets in the way of growth and insist that it does not matter what a particular church believes: growth is a matter of following the proper principles, they are displaying their debt to Finney. When leaders of the Vineyard movement praise this sub, Christian enterprise and the barking, roaring, screaming, laughing, and other strange phenomena on the basis that "it works" and one must judge its tru th by its fruit, they are following Finney as well as the father of American pragmatism, WilliamJames, who declared that truth must be judged on the basis of "its cash, value in ¡experiential terms. " Thus, in Finney's theology, .God is not sovereign; man is not a sinner by nature; the atonement is not a true payment for sin; justification by imputation is insulting to reason and morality; the new birth is simply the effect of successful techniques, and revival is a natural result of clever campaigns. In his fresh introduction to the bicentennial edition of Finney' s Systematic Theology, Harry Conn commends Finney's pragmatism: "Many servants of our Lord should be diligently searching for a gospel th~/¡ , works,' and I am happy to state they can find it in this volume. " As Whitney R. Cross has carefully documented . in The Burned,Over District: The Social and Intellectual

modern REFORMATION

History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New Yark, 1800-1850 (ComellUniversityPress, 1950), the stretch of territory in which Finney's revivals were most frequent was also the cradle of the perfectionistic cults that ~ plagued that century. A gospel that "works" for zealous perfectionists one moment merely creates tomorrow's disillusioned and spent super, saints. eedless to say, Finney's message is radically different from the evangelical faith, as is the basic orientation of the movements we see around us today the bear his imprint: ,revivalism (or its modem label, "the church growth movement"), pentecostal perfectionism and emotionalism, political triumphalism based on the ideal of"Christian America, " and the anti, intellectual, anti, doctrinal tendencies of American evangelicalism and fundamentalism. It was through the "Higher Life Movement" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that Finney's perfectionism came to dominate the fledgling Dispensationalist movement through the auspices of Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder of Dallas Seminary and author of He That Is Spiritual, Finney, of course, is not solely responsible; he is more a product than a producer. Nevertheless, the influence he exercised and continues to exercise to this day is pervasive.

Not only did the revivalist abandon the material principle of the Reformation (justification), making him a renegade against evangelical Christianity; he repudiated doctrines, such as original sin and the substitutionary atonement, that have been embraced by Roman Catholics and Protestants alike. Therefore, ~' Finney is not merely an Arminian, but a Pelagian. He is not only an enemy of evangelical Protestantism, but of historic Christianity of the broadest sort.

I do not point these things out with relish, as if to cheerfully denounce the heroes of American evangelicals.

Nevertheless, it is always best, when one has lost something valuable, to retrace one's steps in order to determine when and where one last had it in his or her possession, That is the purpose of this exercise, to face with some honesty the serious departure from biblical Christianity that occurred through American revivalism.

For until we address this shift, we will perpetuate a distorted and dangerous course. Of one thing Finney was absolutely correct: The Gospel held by the Westminster divines whom he attacked directly, and indeed held by the whole company of evangelicals, is "another gospel" in distinction from the one proclaimed

by Charles Finney. The question of our moment is, With which gospel will we side? 0

N

Unless otherwise specified, all quotes are from Charles G, Finney, Finney's Systematic Theology (Bethany, 1976) , Michael S, Horton is the president of CHRISTIANS UNITED for Educated at Biola University and Westminster Theological Seminary, Michael is a Ph. D. candidate at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and the University of Coventry and is the author/ editor of eight books, including The Agony of Deceit, Made in America: The Shaping of American Evangelicalism, Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, and Beyond Culture Wars.

REFORMA TION.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

9

Leonard Payton

Is it a Pre l ud e

or a Quaalude?

S

hould Amy Grant sing cross; over songs? 1 ' After all, the distinction between full; time Christian service and secular employment is arbitrary.

One ofthe great Reformation truths is that all occupations done before the face ofGod, and in compliance with his revealed Word, are godly occupations.

On the face of it, the conclusion seems selr evident: It really makes no difference whether one is singing contemporary Christian music or secular contemporary music, just so long as the music is not immoral or performed poorly. And on these grounds, it seems petty to question Amy Grant's involvement in secular pop music. But despite our watertight reasoning, we still have queasy stomachs.

Four days before this past Memorial Day Sunday, I received a phone call from a young woman in my congregation. "Would you accompany me for special music this coming Sunday?" she asked, "I'm going to sing Amy Grant's 'I Will Remember. ' " Like most church musicians, I am sort of a hired gun having no prerogative to deny such a request. Still, I was distressed by the event. For the sake of illustration and completeness, the text is printed below: ' ~'-~'- , -- ,

I, " 'rwil.lbe :walkingJone,day doWn ,a stTeetfay away , ,c arid see Y0Yr'!aceilJd<rGwd artd smile.' , KnoWing'1ipw you m(J~e mewugh,; , , Hearing.s'weet echofFso{yOU,frorrNhe ,past. " "", rwiU 're:mei;n}JetYQ~· ' ' ' VERSE

, ' , , ' VEiZSE2' "

, Look hit my eyes ,while y.(1)u't~ n§cirv,; ",Tell me.wha(s,happening hire.,', ' $eetlmd .don't want ,to s(iygood"iJye.: , ' Qurloveis!rQzeninti:rhe ' " ., .nlb~ .'Yo¥rcham;pi6rl' and you will,be .~ine. , " r will remember) ,

, ,'

< rwill ' r~ber Ypu. ·

"

," " CHORI)S Later on when this fire is 'an ci;AberJ Later on wile?) dle night's' not so tender, Given time though it's hard to

,'.,:+emerrrb:er; qar~in' I will-be holding,

'. Tll stitlbe 11Oldittg'tb .y9U. " ' J. wilt remerrrb.¢fyau," , , " VERSE 3 ' , . :SorrUlny -,ye(JXS 'conte'and gone , .... ",:' And yet the merMry~ is strqng.' , ,'" ',; Orie 'w-Qrd ,we ne~er, could rearn '''Gciod~by€::'' ," , ,'" TrUelov~' is4roz~ in,time. ,n~7be ',ou:fch4irtfoiOn and ,ypu'will. be~ine'. " , ' ; " J {Ajiltrernemberyou ~ S6 pl~llSe, remem~et, I,will 'reniember you.. ",' ' I <wiltremetnq~r you. : " " ' rwiU,~in}emqeiY9u.~,\;: "',,-~~ ' ~_,"._ ._,_. - =

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1 0 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

We could be picayune and attack this music from many angles. To be sure, the poetry is poor and the music is devoid of compelling musical form. For the moment, however, I would like to set these problems aside in order to address a more pressing crisis.

Clearly, we are dealing with a love song, a love song directed towards a human (dare I infer husband/ wife?) relationship. But like most auditors, I began with the wrong assumption that God was the addressee. And yet, I do not think that Amy Grant and the other co; writers intended to evoke God. Nor do I think their intentions were consciously deceitful, designing a one, size, fits, all music, a romantic love song for unbelievers, and a praise chorus for Christians. How is it, then, that this text slithered into Christian worship uncontested? In order to fully answer this question, we need to understand the nature of this specific congregation as well as the nature of the music industry.

But first, what comes to mind when we use the words, "special music? "Further, what sort ofcongregation do we think of when we have a high school girl singing some bit of contemporary Christian music for "special music?" Would that be a Bible church, or perhaps Baptist, Evangelical Free, Nazarene, Abundant Life Fellowship, Meadowview Community Church, New Life Christian Center, or just, The Bluffs? We might speak of this collection of churches as "evangelical, " even though David Wells would rightfully protest that "the word evangelical. .. has become descriptively anemic. 11.1 Speci'al music, announcements, and the altar call seem to be the only contributions the low, "evangelical" church has brought to the liturgy. But while the altar call has been falling into disfavor in recent years (it's not very seeker sensitive) , special music is growing in strength with contemporary Christian music being its standard fare.

Contemporary Christian music is music for the evangelical, by the evangelical. Few Christian pop stars are members of All Souls Episcopal, Our Savior Lutheran, or Truly Reformed Presbyterian.

The young woman who chose to sing "I Will Remember" might be described as the church belle, a prominent member ofthe youth group, heavily in vol ved in ministry within the church, and going off to a Christian college this fall. / The congregation in which she sang would describe itselfas liberal, although I have come to find that there ar:e liberals and there are liberals. Some liberals are out to save

modern REFORMATION

the Mendocino striped slug and to androgenize God. My congregation, obligatory hat~ tipping to inclusive language notwithstanding, is liberal more in the sense of not getting hot and bothered over what is perceived to be fundamentalist issues. They are not openly hostile to truth. They just plain don't care about it. Yes, they are liberal. . o return to our original predicament, I do not think the real issue is whether Amy Grant should sing cross~ over songs. No, much more problematic is the means by which music enters the church in the first place.

R. L. Dabney, in 1876, lamented the D. L. Moody phenomenon ofpeople taking up a visible teaching ministry without being under the aegis of ecclesiastical authority.

He noted that this opened the possibility of any number of airborne theological diseases. Then, at the end of his essay entitled "Lay~ Preaching," he turned his attention to Moody's musical co~ laborer, Ira Sankey, in whose practices we have the groundwork for our own contemporary Christian music apparatus. Of those practice, Dabney said:

T

"In order that the church may retain the blessing of good singing, the privilege which Mr. Sankey and his imitawrs claim, of importing their own lyrics inw God's worship, must be closely watched... Ifthe same license is to be usurped by every selrappointed chorister, we shall in the end have a mass of corrupting religious poetry against which the church will have to wage a sore contest. Our children will then learn, w their cost, how legitimate and valuable was that restriction which we formerly saw in the lyrical liturgies ofthe old Protestant churches, expressed by the imprimatur oftheir supreme courts, "Appointed w be sung in churches. "4 Dabney continues:

The most that can be said of Mr. Sankey's developments in this direction is, that they do not appear W have introduced positive error as yet, and that they exhibit no worse traits than a marked inferiority of matter and style w the established hymnals of the leading churches. The most danger thus far apparent is that of habituating the taste of Christians to a very vapid species of pious doggerel, containing the most diluted possible traces of saving truth, in portions suitable w the mostinfantile faculties supplemented by a jingle of "vain repetitions."5 What is breath~ taking here is that Dabney's "jingle of 'vain repetitions'" refers to what most people today would call "good old hymns. " If the venerable Mr. Dabney could but view our practices now. Two facets of Dabney's discourse deserve further reflection. First, he noted that this type of entrepreneurial church music seemed to encourage the presence of "inferior matter and style" and that very presence could atrophy its hearers.

Abraham Kaplan said, "a taste for popular art is a device for remaining in the same old world and assuring ourselves that we like it. "6 That word "remaining" gives the false sense of stasis, and yet, Jesus spoke of everyone as proceeding down one of two paths: broad, or straight and narrow. To remain in "the same old world" is to be on the broad path. What shall we make of an art which encourages an appetite for the same old world?

Styles, especially those within popular cultures, become quickly encrusted with psychological

associations- "the same old world. "These are difficult to shake. Popular styles are conspicuously vulnerable because their forms are simple and immediately assimilated. Parasites attach themsel ves to popular styles with little effort. The advertising industry is just such a parasite. A commercial without music is like a day without sunshine. Therefore, when we bring popular styles into the church, we also bring in the association of Nissan Truck commercials, the elevator at ]. C. Penney's, Fred Flintstone, Raquel Welch, Disneyland, Marlborough cigarettes, and the list goes on. Colossians 3:1 tells us to set our minds on the things above. Why should we voluntarily submit ourselves to a mental obstacle course?

I am not insisting that popular styles should not exist.

Rather, as Harold Best said:

Because it is true that music quickly absorbs meaning from its immediate surroundings, this principle should work just as effectively when music, born first in the church, develops its primary associations there. Then if any perceptual dissonance takes place, it will take place in culture as aresult of what the church does, not the reverse. And why not?

Why not let the best and newest creativity happen first in the church, where the associations and associative meanings are first ofall holy, winsome, and ofgood report? Why not assume that the church is capable ofgetting the associative jump on culture? 7 We need to be inventing styles in the church which allow us to truly teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We need to be inventing styles which allow us to sing with gratitude in our hearts to the Lord in the same rich detail that we see in the biblical song texts. H ry as we might, it is futile to maintain that there is no correlation between musical style and the verbal content which it is trying to convey. I have heard pastors say (especially those in new, small churches who are under considerable musical duress), "I may not like reggae (as an arbitrary example of a popular style) , but by golly, if God gives us someone who is gifted in that style, then that's what we're gonna do. " Is reggae neutral? Does it come unencumbered of associations? If it brings associations with it, what are they, and are they appropriate to Christian worship? Furthermore, can reggae forms carry the texts which fulfill the teaching and admonishing demands which Colossians 3:16 places on worship music? Finally, how is it that the above questions rarely graze the horizon iron of most Christians' minds as they make musical decisions?

The second facet of Dabney's complaint concerns those "self~ appointed choristers. " Who are they? If their lines of accountability are not to ecclesiastical authorities, then where are they? Because we do know that everyone is a servant of someone.

Dabney worried about choristers going offhalf~ cockeu.

For all his anxiety about this development, I do not think Dabney could have foreseen the specter of John Wimber' s "Spirit Song, " which says: "Give him (Jesus) all your tears

T

Continued, page 14 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

11

Glossary of Church Growth &

Contemporary Christian Music Terminology

Prune City, California, is an unfortunate town devoid of character. It tripled in size between 1965 and 1985. At that tii.ne, a plague ofbuilding contractors descended upon Prune City and immediately there were five thousand identical houses, a KMart, three supermarkets, five strip shopping centers, countless metal and tilt~ up buildings, nine gas stations, eleven fast food restaurants, and five doughnut shops.

Naturally, the churches grew, erecting new sanctuaries in earth tones. They had the sharp angles of "modem" architecture, sanctuaries matching the neo~ orthodox, stick~ figure style of the "Good News To Modem Man Bible. " Both the buildings and the trendy Bible version were dated before they were completed.

Now the boom is over in Prune City. Church attendance is lackluster and graying. The only growing church is Rivers of Living Refreshment Christian Fellowship which is only five years old and already the largest congregation in town. As you can imagine, anxiety has been mounting in the established churches, precipitating the strange tail I am about to tell.

This past February, unbeknownst to one another, the governing bodies of several local congregations took action on their stagnating church attendance.

These congregations included Prune City Evangelical Free, First Baptist, Faith Lutheran, Westminster Presbyterian, Freeway Wesleyan, and, Prune City Covenant. The proceedings were better than any side show. But that's a story for another-time. What was so singular was that they illl changed their names to "Plum Ridge Community Church. " They also implemented identical changes during the second week of March. They painted the inside of their sanctuaries teal and covered the pews with thick, mauve padding. They placed a large overhead screen right up front where the cross had been. On either side of the screen were banners in warm tones with ACCOMPANIMENT TRACK-A means of momentarily transforming ordinary folks into Christian Artists.

AWESOME-An adjective encapsulating the attributes of God which are in bad form to mention.

BOOMERS-The mostimportantDemographicgroup; people born between 1945 and 1961.

BUSTERS-The next most important Demographic group; people born after 1961; anatomically human, but that is as far as it goes; Clinton's staff.

C.C.L."'-an organization in Portland, which, for an annual fee, takes care of copyright hassles so that we can sing all our favorite songs by all our favorite Christian Artists.

12 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

striking calligraphy, saying, "He is Risen!" They replaced their monolithic pulpits with stream, lined, clear plexi~ glass fixtures designed to make the pastor "transparent. " Beyond these cosmetic changes, the Prune City churches placed the worship music into the hands of younger people who bought praise choruses from the same three companies and ordered overhead slides from the same magazine advertisement. And, of course, they shoved the organ off into a comer to make room for the worship band. (I have to tell you that the drummer had no idea of what to do with "Wonderful, the matchless grace of] esus" sandwiched between "Majesty" and "As the Deer. ") They also had a skit about legalism and Christian liberty.

Well, as you can imagine, it was a jarring experience for Fred and Ethel when they showed up the second Sunday of March. The place smelled, looked, and felt different. Was it a dream or perhaps a nightmare? As the service proceeded, Ethel examined the pastor's face through her trifocals concluding that, yes, this was the same man. He even had the same voice but when he used words she thoug.ht she, knew, s~e , discovered that even the LI,' meanmgs, hke the bUlldmg, had changed.

-~ , The following glossary is intended as a reference work for hapless Freds and Ethels whose churches have gone through a sudden metamorphosis. It is also intended for people, who, when moving, find that the labels "Lutheran, " "Baptist, " or "Presbyterian, " are not a guarantee of anything.

The glossary is not exhaustive, nor does it have the clear, eyed distance of time. No doubt, future readers of church history will smile condescendingly as they read about the Plum Ridge phenomenon just as we chuckle about evangelists barking like dogs in the nineteenth century, or traveling ministers selling forgiveness of sins in the sixteenth century.

CElEBRATION-A Seeker Friendly service where everything is relevant and the music is joyous.

CHRISTIAN ARTIST-A person who sings and whose recordings sell in large quantities.

COMMUNITY CHURCH-A congregation which is part of a larger denomination or conference, but which is ashamed of that denomination's name.

CONFESSION-Not Seeker Friendly.

CONTEMPORARY-Anything since 1960, although music from 1970 on is more contemporary.

DEMOGRAPHICS-A management tool useful for paring down "the uttermost part of the earth" to attainable units.

modern REFORMATION

DRAMA SKETCH-A five minute soap opera or sitcom with Christian words.

DRUMS-A musical instrument useful for making the worship more joyous.

EXCELLENCE -The favorite style of music performed at the level of a Christian artist.

GOOD OLD HYMN-Any congregational song composed between 1850and 1950, in a style fitting for the circus, reminding us of our parents' and' grandparents' hokey churches. A verse of one of these songs should be sung periodically for wholesome sentimental value, similar to baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.

GREAT OLD HYMNS-"A Mighty Fortress," "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name," and "Crown Him With Many Crowns."

HE-With a large case "H" - God. HYMNAL-Cumbersome relic of a bygone age.

INTEGRITY-A brand name.

JOYOUS-Music at 120 quarter notes per minute with back beats on beats two and fourso thatthe congregation can clap (and if it is especially joyous, dance). Truly joyous music will not have more than four or five chords as thatwould distractfromthe joy. It is especially joyous if drums are present.

LAW OF GOD-Get a clue! Definitely not Seeker Friendly.

LIGHTS -That wh ich gives a Iuster of midday to objects up front. The congregation should not be well lit. That is not Seeker friendly. And since the Seeker is only accustomed to being with large groups of people at a theater, it would be stressful for him if his expressions could be seen by others.

L1TURGY-A suspicious word, definitely not Seeker Sensitive.

LORD-The only acceptable name for God aside from "You" and "He." MARANATHA-A brand name.

MEDLEY-A verse of a Good Old Hymn sandwiched between contemporary praise songs to improve the palatability of the Good Old Hymn.

MUSIC-The most strategic conveyance of Spirit­ Filledness.

NEEDS-The hot button of the Seeker.

ORGAN-An unfortunate musical instrument to be avoided because it evokes a sense of distance from God. Like the accordion (use an accordion, go to jail); use an organ, fail to reach Seekers.

OVERHEAD-An appropriate object of genuflection.

For maximum relevance, the overhead should be placed where the Cross was.

PROGRAM DIRECTOR-The resident liturgical manager.

RELEVANCE-That which is most likely to capture affectionate attention. â&#x20AC;˘ SEEKERa person, nota part of the church, whose tastes

are, nonetheless, the most important.

SEEKER FRIENDLY-Style decisions more closely keyed to the tastes of the Seeker than in a Seeker Sensitive service.

SEEKER SENSITIVE-Anything designed around the tastes of a Seeker but intended to remain acceptable to the non-Seeker.

SEQUENCER-A piece of computer hardware designed to compensate for deficient musicianship SIN-Not Seeker friendly.

SOUND ENGINEER-The most crucial participant in the worship service.

SPECIAL MUSIC-That portion of the service when an ordinary person, with the help ofan Accompaniment Track is momentarily transformed into a Christian artist.

SPIRIT -FILLED-Any style of music or speech which feels SPI Unplanned.

S are really only two styles; traditional and con mary.

SWEET-The most common adjective to describe Jesus.

SYNTHESIZER-A musical instrument suitable for use in a Worship Band with a Christian Artist.

THE WORSHIP-Congregational singing THEOLOGY-A necessary evil, somethinglikespinach or Pepto Bismol.

TRADITIONAL-All music composed before 1960.

VINEYARD-Where you enter into life in Jesus' name by giving him all your tears and sadness as well as all your years of pain.

VISION STATEMENT-A Seeker Friendly version of the bylaws.

VULNERABILITY-A worship leader's willingness to dip anecdotally into his own experiences, especially those which make him look like a buffoon. Other ways of displaying vulnerability are the closing of eyes, the raising of hands, and the production of tears.

WORD-A brand name.

WORSHIP BAND-Any collection of guitarists, drummers, synthesizer players, and persons holding microphones. All of them wish they were involved with a Christian artist. As a general principle, it is u nseem Iy for anyone over the age of forty-n i ne to hold a microphone. Other instruments may be used, although the accordion is categorically excluded.

WORSHIP LEADER-A person similar to a Christian Artist but who remains active in a local congregation rather than moving to Los Angeles, Nashville, Waco, _ or Mobile, in order to become a Christian artist.

WORSHIPFUL-Soft and slow. It is especially worshipful if the words are few and the eyes are closed. Drums should be avoided . Music with more than three chords will not be worshipful.

YOU-With a LARGE case "Y"-God. Leonard Payton JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

13

and sadness; give him all your years ofpain, and you' 11 enter into life in Jesus' name. "9 Astonishing! Since when do we enter' into life in Jesus name by giving him all our tears and sadness? "Here, God: Here's a list of the problem areas in my life: Patch them up and l' 11 be just fine. " This is "another gospel" in the sense of Galatians chapter one. This is the same way the ancient Greeks interacted with their gods.

Despite the heretical content, we are able to sing "Spirit Song" because it feels good. Indeed, I know of a congregation which is "Reformed" and which gives credence to the Westminster Standards for whom this is a much loved song. If you like the Carpenters, Barry Manilow, or Kenny G, you will probably like Wimber's "Spirit Song. " Musical appetite, not verbal content, is the a priori constraint in these choices. I saw a bumper sticker recently which read, "If it ain't Country, it ain't music. " Not that adherents of Country (n Western music are unique in their outlook, but we could replace "Country" with almost any style label. In short, my appetite says there is only one kind of music because I refuse to eat anything else. hristian Copyright Licensing International ( CCLl) relieves local congregations of the need to secure copying permission for much contemporary Christian music.

CCLl lists several thousand choruses most of which were published since 1970. James said, ((Not many ofyou should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. " (James 3:1) How is it that every Tom, Harry, and Mary is teaching now that hel she has a guitar and knows three chords? (As Chuck Barry said, "Three great chords, eighteen great albums. ") John Wimber may not be a heretic. Still, certain attitudes about music and about theology lead to heretical results. A poor composer is controlled by theform. A good poet controls the fonn. A poor poet is controlled by the form. Whenever bad musical form and poetry reside in the same person, theology suffers because the composer does not have the skills necessary to say what needs to be said.

Contemporary Christian music is a subset of the larger pop music world, and, as such, is also driven primarily by style appetite, not verbal content. This is a catastrophe for a faith predicated on, "In the beginning was the Word. " Those sensibilities necessary to enjoy pop music, both contemporary Christian and secular defy the accountability ofreason. There are numerous reasons for this. I would like to cite two.

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14 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

First, the forms of pop music are automatic and predictable. No thought is given to them because they demand no thought. T upperware from the factory could not be spewed forth more regularly. And while this is just fine for refrigerator containers, it is not for art. Thoughtless musical and poetic forms communicate the same message as tilt, up church buildings and Cool Aid in a styrofoam cup for the Lord's Supper.

Second, pop music fills . the entire human hearing range in a way unprecedented by any other music. There is such a thing as noise pollution, even though we have not defined it very well yet. In order to grasp the idea, there are roughly two parameters to be considered, spectrum and amplitude. The spectrum represents the human hearing range which, in the best of circumstances extends from 20 Hz at the low end to 20 kHz at the top. Amplitude represents the power of a frequency. Amplitude translater ~: very roughly into loudness as a percept.

When a music's chief trait is how it feels-as is the case with pop music-it operates much the same as recreational drugs. If you could watch different kinds of folk or western art music on an oscilloscope, you would notice different parts ofthe hearing range having low or high amplitude with much variation. Not so with pop. It looks more like a tidal wave On one end, the bass guitar shows high peaks of amplitude. At the other, the pink noise (a broad random frequency band) of the cymbals, modified guitar timbres, and androgenous voices, overload that portion of the human hearing where consonants reside. Of course, consonants are indispensable to verbal understanding.

Needless to say, digital synthesizers have only fueled the condition.

Like recreational drugs, there comes a point where the present diet is not enough, and the technology can increase the increments seemingly limitlessly. That is why we can sometimes hear a car's hi, fi system long before we hear its engine. It is why we can often hear the head seteven when it is not over our own ears!

Pop music's vacuity ofmusical and poetic form together with dense spectrum and amplitude bring us right to the shores of the Twilight Zone. On the one hand, the form demands no thought. On the other, our aural nerves are delivering a steady torrent of overwhelming stimuli to 0 brains In the same way that God did not design our bodieS'"'" ~ . to process excessive amounts of radiation or highly distilled liquor, we are truly unable to think about what we are

modern REFORMATION

hearing rationally; we can only experience it.

What about listening to pop music quietly? Let's be honest, pop music does not sound very good when it is not loud.

The "marked inferiority of matter and style" which Dabney observed has led to the introduction of heresy in our time without so much as a skirmish. No, matter and style are never separate. Decisions of style are decisions of substance.

CUI BONO? If the "license of self~ appointed choristers" were all there was to errant texts, the problem could be contained without too much difficulty. Unfortunately, there is more danger than meets the eye at first. The situation is ominous.

Jesus did not mince words when he told us that we would have to choose between masters, between God and mammon. When we gave up the church's imprimatur, "Appointed to be sung in churches," there was a vacuum of authority. Something had to fill it. I do not think R. L. Dabney could have fathomed the half~ billion dollar contemporary Christian music industry which we have before us today. When the Church gave up its responsibility to determine what music could be in the church right down to the last jot and tittle, then commerce willingly stepped it.

Early in 1992 a new bi~ monthly magazine was sent gratis to many pastors and church music directors across the country: its name, Worship Leader. It is not a publication about the Holy Spirit (who is the true and only worship leader). No, it is chiefly a lubricant of the contemporary Christian music industry, which should come as no surprise since Worship Leader is a product of CCM Communications, Inc. "First~ year subscriptions are free to all qualified Church personnel (staff and lay leaders, worship team members, etc.) · who complete and return subscription card (elsewhere in magazine) . "10 How kind of CCM Communications, Inc. !

While Worship Leader carries the obligatory handbell and carillon advertisements in black and white, the periodical's raison d' etre is to promote and sell contemporary Christian music within the church. The big four~ color ads are from Hosannaiintegrity Music, Word Music 11 , Maranatha Music, vineyard Music Group, and a host of other CCM peddlers, many of which are within the Manifest Destiny and Kingdom Now camp. Ironically, Crossway Books took out a full page advertisement for John MacArthur's Ashamed of the Gospel, a book which shoots

what Worship Leader stands for · right in the foot. No problem! As Allan Bloom noticed, people are moved by music, not books. 12 The editor of Worship Leader is Chuck Fromm, CEO of "The Corinthian Group" (which, quite coincidentally, owns Marnatha Music). Fromtn'sregularcolumn, "Fromm the Editor, " sets the pace for the periodical. It is a solid piece of cheerleading for contemporary Christian music.

Last summer he exulted over two events in Colorado, Promise Keepers and the Pope's visit. Of the latter, Fromm said, "Did you realize that the high percentage (70 percent) of the music heard was supplied by evangelical contemporary Christian artists? "13 Later, Fromm said:

My partner had a seat near the Pope at Cherry Creek State Park. He watched John Paul tremble with feeling and verve as he shouted the ancient yet contemporary invocation "Maranatha! Maranatha! Jesus is here. Jesus is coming. He is our Hope! Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life !"14 Isn't it a tragedy that "the ancient yet contemporary invocation" has a registered trademark after it, that we reduce God to a hood ornament? do not believe that Chuck Fromm is devious. He is doing what good business does, namely, make a profit. If his enterprise were under the close and vetoing scrutiny of ecclesiastical authorities, the product might be different (and would probably not tum such a handsome profit). Indeed, it is Marnatha Music which publishes the above mentioned John Wimber heresy. If it feels good, it sells well.

As long as ecclesiastic authorities remain so cowardly, the contemporary Christian music industry will continue to do unobstructed business inside the church. At present, the pastor, church musician, or worship committee member, is bombarded by a steady stream of whatever parishioners have heard on the radio or bought at the local Christian music and video store. The well~ meaning parishioner approaches, tape in hand, saying, "I heard this on KRAS Christian Radio and thought we could sing it in worship. " It's like receiving a "Greetings! " from the draft board. This is how I received a call to accompany Amy Grant's "I Will Remember. " Observe a bizarre spectacle here: The hypertrophy of the contemporary Christian music industry (born inside the evangelical church) has provided the liberal church with its music!

(Remember, it also provided 70 percent of the music for the Pope's visit to Colorado.) · Style has become an ecumenical force with power beyond the ardent ecumenist's

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

15

fondest dreams. Now, when church goers move from town to town, they are more likely to choose a new congregation on the basis of musical style than on doctrinal positions.

They can no longer differentiate between preludes and quaaludes.

If, however, the Baptist General Conference, the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church in America, etc. -if each of these various denominations came to the public official position that nothing would be sung in their congregation which was not first filtered with a dragnet and ~pproved by the annual denominational conference, church attendance might shrink for a few months for loss of consumers. Contemporary Christian music would lose its biggest host and go through some of the same upheaval which has beset other major industries in recent years. Still, we dare not be swayed by this potential cataclysm. God seeks those who worship in spirit and in truth. It is imperative that orthodoxy return to its place of authority over orthopopstyle. Perhaps this is a component, a fore, runner of the revival we so desperately need. 0 1 We could understand "crossover" songs in two senses; A) songs by "Christian" artists who are now singing "secular" lyrics; B) lyrics which can be received from both sacred and secular perspectives, which, however, have radically different meanings depending on the context, e. g. , a lyric which could be addressing God pietistically, or which could be addressing my girlfriend romantically.

2 Words and music by Amy Grant, Gary Chapman, and

16 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

Keith Thomas, Age to Age Music Inc. , Edward Grant Music, Inc. , (administered by Reunion Music Group, Inc.), 1991.

3 Wells, David, No Place For Truth. Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 1993, p. 134.

4 Discussions Evangelical and Theological, volume 2. Carlisle: Banner of Truth Trust. p. 94.

5 Ibid. , pp. 94,95.

6 "The Aesthetics ofthe Popular Arts, "Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Spring 1966, p. 356, as quoted in Kenneth A. Myers, All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes. Wheaton, Crossway, ¡ 1989 p. 81.

7 Music Through the Eyes of Faith. San Francisco: Harper, 1993. p. 215.

8 As an exercise along this line, while reading Psalm 66, try to imagine a musical style which could convey a text which Is this dense and wordy.

9 Copyright 1979, Marnatha! Music.

10 Worship Leader, volume 2, number 6, December/ January 1994, p. 3.

11 Word Music was owned by ABC/ Capitol until November of 1993. At that time, it was sold to another publicly held company, Thomas Nelson. Now, along with its proprietary products, the RSV, NKJV, and the writings of Benny Hinn, Nelson controls a large pie slice of the Christian music industry.

In publicly held companies, such as ABC and Thomas Nelson, the only accountability is to the shareholder 12 Bloom, Allan, The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987. p. 68.

13. Worship Leader, vol. 2, no. 5, October/November 1993, p. 4.

14. Ibid. , p. 4.

Dr. Leonard Payton, agraduate ofMaster's College and the University of California (San Diego), is the music director of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Yuba City, California.

modern REFORMATION

,I

,

Craig Parton

Luther Lite and

Reformation Schmooze

S. Lewis, we all know, came "kicking and screaming" into the kingdom. My family has recently .also come "kicking and screaming" into the Reformation. It has been a long and arduous journey which included an extended desert experience in evangelical pietism mixed with many years as missionaries with a high energy parachurch organization. These experiences left my wife and I in T. S. Eliot's "Wasteland"-a spiritual black hole which ultimately forced us to seek the fresh stream of the Reformation.

Now that I have come to the Reformation, questions abound. What is the commitment of the Reformation churches to their distincti ves? Why are many Reformation churches looking to evangelical Bible churches for the / critical "recipe" necessary to generate vibrancy and good "­ ~ attendance numbers? Evangelical churches apparently have the numbers! the exuberant youth groups with equally exuberant youth group leaders, high rates of conversion, and plenty ofmoney for the new gymnasium.

The question arises: Does a "successful" church really need to be presenting Law and Gospel every week? Is the Reformation emphasis on an informed confessionalism, as opposed to an emphasis on con version, really necessary?

Reformation churches could easily conclude that God is doing his real work elsewhere. After all, Reformation churches are not growing at exponential rates, many contain largely senior congregants, and may be struggling to attract the young people who have likely gone off to the evangelical churches that highlight a more entertaining "Saturday Night Live" format. As one evangelical pastor of a mega, church recently told me: "Give me a large auditorium and let me do a 'David Letterman' format, and l' 11 pack the place out. " No doubt he would. But is Hell yawning?

The careful preaching of the text of scripture, the presentation of the Cross as sufficient for the sins of Christians, the administration of the Lord's Supper, scriptural liturgy , theologically literate music-in short, a mature presentation of sin and grace apparently is no longer sufficient to light the fire of Mr. John Doe Christian. ~ Reformation churches are increasingly tempted to experiment with so' called evangelical "schmooze"-a frothy mug of "God Lite" incapable of being harmonized I

with a serious theology of the Cross as articulated by the Reformers. An emphasis on marketing the "Product" to outsiders, the use of weak musical media and equally vacuous "worship teams, " the devaluing of a detailed knowledge of the confessional guides, all appear with increasing frequency in historic Reformation churches.

Sunday school material is now reviewed for its "relevance" and ability to entertain the MTV generation. Some Reformation churches now debate whether confirmation classes are really "sellable" to junior high students anymore.

I wish to offer three warnings to Reformation pastors and their congregants who may be tempted to engage in the new art of "Reformation Schmooze": Schmooze seeks to entertain. Do not mimic the "Saturday Night live" Christianity of many of the leading Evangelical Temples. You will not do it as well and it is truly embarrassing hearing it in churches supposedly dedicated to the teachings of the Reformers.

During a discussion this past summer at the Institute for Jurisprudence and Human Rights inStrasbourg, France, one of the students in my class argued with great passion that the use of a guitar in a Reformation service is not, by definition, wrong. This is undoubtedly true.

However, I'm still searching for guitar music with weight to support a worship service with a serious emphasis on the Law and the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments.

As Jaroslav Pelikan points out in Bach Among the Theologians, the God of the Reformers motivated ~rtistic works of enonnous majesty, power and perfection. In the area of musical composition, this certainly culminated in the St. Matdlcw Passion of J. S. Bach with its clear reliarice on a majesty of the theology of the Cross. The Christian who cannot discern the superiority of Bach' s arrangement of"O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" from "I've Got Peace Life a River" is not only impoverished but enslaved. Life is too short to have to suffer through innumerable variations of "You Ask Me How I Know He Lives? He Lives Within My Heart" as a regular diet on Sunday morning while the varsity worship team avoids "And Can It Be That I Should Gain?", "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. " Simply put, mantra music to us by the purveyors ofschmooze fits with the worship style of another religion.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

17

If you seek to schmooze, the preaching of the Law and the use of theologically literate music will be among the first things to go. You will end up with either a Christian YFW group or a youth rally, but not with a Christian church that has the Gospel.

Schmooze seeks to be trendy. Instead, present the liturgy, preach the text of Scripture, and administer the Sacraments with excellence every single Sunday.

Evangelicals coming to the Reformation are nauseated over mQralistic sermons where Christ, portrayed as a second law~ giver, is presented only in the evangelism of unbelievers. They are nauseated over Arminian Sunday school curricula that instruct their children (as, of course, does Zen Buddhism) to look within themselves for that divine glow that yearns to cooperate with God in doing good deeds. They are nauseated over the Lord's Supper being presented as "crackers and juice" time.

They are nauseated over churches where a person' s level of involvement in a particular social cause appears to be a confessional requirement akin to affirming the two natures of Christ. Seeking evangelicals are looking for serious, intelligent, thoughtful worship that seizes the high ground. Sermons and Sunday school classes devoted to trendy People magazine~ type topics are not the strong point of the Reformation.

Refor~ation ~hurch should be. a place wh~re you fmd Chnst and the forglveness of sms every Sunday. A Reformation church should be a place where you find doctrinal sermons. A Reformation church should be a place where the catechetical instruction of the young (leading to confirmation and an informed partaking in the Lord's Supper) is placarded as one of the great strengths of the church. A Reformation church should be a place where people are unashamedly taught the creeds and confessions of that denomination that were worked out with exacting care and clarity.

Reformation churches likely will grow as they emphasize their distinctives. But if they do not grow, that is the Lord's concern, not ours. Evangelicals coming to the Reformation seek the strong drink of the Gospel which the Reformation has as its great treasure. To relegate this God~ given distinctive to the back of the church bus will ultimately confuse, discourage, and exasperate seeking evangelicals. Evangelicals will realize, with horror, that the worship team performing at the local evangelical temple is actually doing all the schmooze better than this Reformation church that is, apparently, embarrassed of its heritage.

Evangelicals going to the Reformation expect to drink the cup of theology and doctrine to the dregs. They will not be drawn to Reformation churches because you offer a "contemporary service. "For~heaven' s sake, they will come to the Reformation to get away from that! If! had only wanted a "little dab of Luther, " I would have stayed put. It certainly would not have been worth the discombobulation in vol ved in moving my family to the Reformation if the only result was that we got Arminian theology supported by a nice pipe organ.

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18 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

leave head-counting to the domain of schmooze.

Reformation churches see the excitement, the numbers, the budget, the prestige that evangelical churches and pastors have in the community. Young people appear to be flocking into these "user friendly" environments.

"God Lite" works, so it seems. Sermons emphasizing social involvement and Jesus As Therapist keep the attention of the Phil and Oprah generation that supposedly is disinterested in the mundane issues ofsin and salvation.

Numbers deceive. In fact, a biblical church could actually be losing numbers. I am convinced that many churches would actually be displaying a renewed obedience to the inerrant Word of God by engaging in a vibrant ministry of subtraction.

In any event, a church with ten people that is preaching the text of Scripture, presenting Christ each week as if the Cross is the answer for Christian failure too, and is properly administering the Sacraments, is doing it right. Reformation churches must do what they have been blessed by God in doing for over 450 years.

Rest assured, evangelicale me in will be supremely enthused to proselytize those outside the camp. After all, that is what we evangelicals do best.

If Reformation churches fail to placard their distinctives but instead create Reformation Schmooze, they may well grow in numbers. However, they will no longer be Reformation churches. More likely than not, though, such churches will fail to grow in numbers since their clergy and their services are not adept at promoting entertainment without a fundamental change in theology.

One thing is certain: such churches will repulse the legion of seriously seeking evangelicals who are turning to the Reformation at this historic moment.

Reformation churches have the great treasure of the Church-the Gospel in word, water, bread and wine.

The haunting question facing serious evangelicals who have wallowed through the theological pig~ pen to get back to their Father's house is now this: Will the light still be on? And if it is on, tell me it's not neon. 0 Craig Parton, a graduate of California Polytechnic University, Simon Greenleaf School of Law and Hastings College of Law, is a member of the law firm Price, Postal and Parna in Santa Barbara, California. He has written, lectured and debated on United States constitutional law.

modern REFORMATION

Sung Wook Chung

Recovering God's Sovereign Grace

The Arminian Captivity of the Modern Evangelical Church t is sad to hear that today many evangelical theologians and Christians despise the notions of "God' s sovereignity" and "the sovereign grace ofGod. " Although the Holy Scripture proclaims clearly the lordship of God ::: the Creator (Gn 1: 1), it is almost impossible for a Christian to listen to a sermon emphasizing God's free and gracious work inJesus Christ from today' s pulpits. About one hundred years ago, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one ofthe most prominent Baptist, Calvinistic preachers, was deploring almost the same situation that we are facing today. "If anything is hated bitterly, it is the out, and, out Gospel of the grace of God, especially if that hateful word 'sovereignty' is mentioned with it" (The Sword & Trowel, January 1887) .

Spurgeon concentrated his full energy on defending Calvinism against the Arminian doctrine of salvation.

However, it is important to appreciate that Spurgeon wanted to defend the Calvinistic doctrine of redemption because it espoused God's sovereign grace and utter mercy upon totally depraved sinners so precisely and succinctly.

He did not intend to worship the name 'Calvin' or the theological system' Calvinism. ' For it is not permissible for a Christian to exalt the Calvinistic system over the Bible­ even though some people had done this in the past.

Spurgeon wished torecover and re, emphasize the doctrine of God's sovereign grace, which the reformers including Luther and Calvin preached with the power of the Holy Spirit. "The doctrine which I preach to you is that of the Puritans: it is the doctrine of Calvin, the doctrine of Augustine, the doctrine of Paul, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. " It is more urgent for modem evangelical churches to recover the doctrine ofGod's sovereign grace than it was for the churches in the nineteenth century, as modem evangelical churches have many more despisers of the grace of the sovereign God than the churches of the nineteenth century. Many evangelical churches have been captivated by the extreme movement of Pentecostalism. A considerable number of evangelical churches have been made captive to either a Fundamentalist or Neo, Orthodox doctrine ·of salvation which emphasizes human 'decision. ' The so' called "Born, againism" has been affecting many different sectors of the church and society. It is conspicuous that these phenomena have been based on the same theological arguments, that is, Arminianism.

We know that the Arminian doctrine of salvation emerged in the seventeenth century as a bitter challenge to the Reformation's doctrine of God's sovereign grace.

James Arminius and his followers remonstrated against Calvinist theologians by presenting five theological arguments based on human autonomy and free will. First of all, they rejected the biblical teaching of the total depravity of human nature. Secondly, the doctrine of unconditional election, which both Luther and Calvin clearly espoused, was ruthlessly denounced. Next, the theory of human free will was approved and elevated to the status of biblical truth. They also rejected the limited application of the efficacy ofJesus Christ's all, sufficient redemption by asserting that the atonement merely made salvation possible. Finally, they argued that Christians could not possess any assurance of ultimate salvation'­ It is important to appreciate that Arminianism is not merely a doctrine of redemption, but rather a system or world view based on belief in human sovereignty and autonomy. It may be possible to say that Arminianism as a world view came into being immediately after Adam's fall. This Arminian world view became deeply embedded in the center of people's hearts since Adam's transgression against God's Law and it exalts the autonomous power and sovereign will of human beings by denying God's absolute sovereignty and his free will. Arminianism also regards man as the center of the uni verse and the purpose of all things. Thus, God is regarded as instrumental for human self, realization and self, glorification by the Arminian world view. In other words, people are lords, and God is a mere servant in the Arminian approach to religion.

It is also important to understand that Arminianism ' is a typical expression of the way that mankind, in its depravity, typically viewed its relationship with God. The Arminian world view completely reverses the relationship between God and man. As Luther sharply pointed out, "Man is by nature unable to want God to be God. Indeed he himself wants to be God, and does not 'w ant God to be God" (M~rtin Luther, "Disputation Against Scholastic Theology, "art. 17). God isdemoted to the status of a mere creature by Arminianism.

Arminianism is ultimately dependent on a delusion that man is the center, the glory, and the goal of all things­ including God! One of the striking peculiarities of the Arminian world view is that it emphasizes the value and worth of JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

19

human morality. The Arminian world view is the basis on which all the doctrines valuing human moral works rest. In this sense, Pelagianism can be regarded as an ancient representative of Arminianism. A difference between the two is that Pelagianism is more explicit than Arminianism in sanctioning the value of moral works for man's obtaining salvation. Pelagians contended that human beings are not depraved and sinful, and that man can complete his moral perfection by his own power.

Although Armininaism affirms the necessity of grace in some sense, it is like Pelagianism in regarding faith as a purely human decision to receive Jesus Christ, not as a merciful gift of God. The Pelagians believed that the voluntary determination to believe in Jesus Christ can be seen as a moral work, and justifying grace should be given according to its merit. s Augustine attacked the, Pelagian doctrine of salvation, Martin Luther encountered another representative of the moral doctrine of redemption, Erasmus. Luther wrote The Bondage of the Will as a reply to Erasmus' treatise, The Freedom of the Will in which Erasmus was critical of Luther. Luther felt that lurking behind Erasmus' arguments for freedom, merit, and good works was human pride. He stated that Erasmus' doctrine of the freedom of the will was the product of the pride of human self, centeredness. Such pride of self is the enemy of the Gospel ofGod's sovereign grace, which calls all to receive humbly and without conditions what God graciously offers in Christ. Luther argued that the apostle Paul's teaching of universal sinfulness nullifies human free choice and he also emphasized that since human beings are captive to original sin and total depravity, they need God's sovereign and eternal grace in Jesus Christ in order to be saved.

Calvin was another champion of the Reformation who sought to defend the concept of God's absolute sovereignty in redemption. We can see Calvin battling against Cardinal Sadoleto, who attacked the Reformation's doctrines of God's 'sovereign grace and justification through faith by grace alone: l'Assuredlywe do deny that for justifying a man works are worth a single straw. For Scripture everywhere cries aloud that all are lost; ... The same Scripture teaches that no hope is left but in the sheer goodness of God, by which sin is pardoned and righteousness imputed to us" (Reply to Sadoleto). In his Articles Concerning Predestination Calvin strongly defended God's absolute sovereignty in saving the elect.

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20 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

While the reprobate are the vessels of the just wrath of God, and the elect vessels of his compassion, the ground of the distinction is to be sought in the pure will of God alone, which is the supreme rule ofjustice ...While the will of God is the supreme and primary cause of all things, and God holds the devil and the godless subject to His will, nevertheless God cannot be called the cause of sin, nor the author of evil, nor subject of any guilt.

Both Luther and Calvin wanted to be faithful to the Word of God. Both of them also enjoyed the happiness and the blessings which the Gospel of God's sovereign and eternal grace brought to them and the followers of Luther and Calvin endeavored to reform the church along the line of the doctrine of God's sovereign grace.

We have inherited many precious statements and confessions as a result their efforts to articulate their faith in God's sovereign grace and to hand this heritage down to subsequent generations of Christians. However, despite the efforts of Luther, Calvin, and the other reformers to revive the Gospel of God's sovereign and everlasting grace, it seems that most modem Protestant churches have become captive to Arminianism and its world view since the second half of the eighteenth century.

Several factors have had an influence on the decline of the Reformation's doctrine of God's sovereign grace.

First of all, since the end of the religious wars, many European intellectuals cried out for tolerance between different theological groups. This fostered the atmosphere in which many unbiblical doctrines and teachings were defended, articulated, and spread. Secondly, the seventeenth century's scientific revolution, chiefly launched by orthodox Protestants; was used by Enlightenment architects to foster human pride and confidence in man's ability and power. With the help of this confidence, philosophers such as Rene Descartes and Spinoza began to place man rather than God in the center of universe and champion the power of human reason in discovering and pursuing the _truth. Some theologians who were intrigued by Ne~onian physics attempted to reinterpret Christianity with deistic tendencies. ~e biblical belief in a universe with God at the centv reating, ruling, preserving, saving, judging, was overthrown and in its place stood the belief in man's centrality: Man is basically good and the Age of Enlightenment will demonstrate the sufficiency ofhuman

modern REFORMATION

morality and reason. For examp~ English empiricist, David Hume, denied the exi~e of a transcendent and supernatural being and rejected relentlessly the possibility of miracles. French Enlightenment thinkers also denounced belief in a personal God and affirmed materialism by denying God's creation of the universe.

One of the foremost synthesizers of the Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant, tried to transform the Christianity of the Gospel of God's sovereign grace into a moralistic religion based on human autonomous power and free will. In many points Kant reiterated the previous arguments of Pelagianism, Erasmianism, and Arminianism n the meantime, Arminianism was exerting more and more influence on modem Protestant preaching, theology, ~nd Christian life. Although the Synod of Dort (1618-19) condemned Arminianism as heretical and affirmed the Gospel ofGod's sovereign grace, Arminian teachings did not lose their influence, but rather played an essential role in the development ofnew theological movements. For instance, German Pietism was heavily influenced by the Arminian tendency and although there were many Calvinistic Methodists in the movement at the beginning, the Arminian doctrine of salvation championed by John Wesley had a great influence on British and American Methodism. The nineteenth century German liberal theology emerged from the Arminian background of Pietism and the changes brought about in the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Most British churches, including the Church of England, were rnade captive to Arminian theology. Against this situation, J. C. Ryle (a Church of England bishop) and C. H. Spurgeon (a Baptist pastor) endeavored to defend and revive the Gospel of God's sovereign grace.

The Arminian captivity of modern Protestant churches was made complete in the nineteenth century with the rise and success of liberal theology.,..:-D,e.r~ liberal t~ians, such as Albrecht Ritschl~ and Ad~rnack (1851-1930) , not only based their theologies on Arminianism, but also transformed Christianity into a moralistic and outright Pelagian religion. In the United States, liberalism permeated theological education in the major universities, inclu d ing such renowned institutions as Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago. This made possible the Arminian

I

and "modernist" captivity of the theology of mainline denominations in America. Especially after the severe

controversy between Modernism and Fundamentalism in the 1920s, American Evangelicalism has increasingly become captive to Arminianism.

Modem Protestant and Evangelical churches are currently in a crisis. This is because the Gospel of God's sovereign and eternal grace is undergoing an inexorable decline in modem Evangelical churches. Although many Evangelical Christians are proud of the rapid growth of their churches, this growth has not been based on the recovery and revival of God's sovereign grace.

Ironically, today's rapid growth of Evangelicalism is playing a major role in destroying and annihilating the Gospel of God's sovereign and eternal grace.

It is imperative that modern Evangelical churches recover, revive, and reemphasize the glorious Gospel of God's sovereign grace in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:4; 1 Tim 1: 11). In this sense, we badly need a "modern Reformation" according to the biblical principles of the sixteenth century Reformation: Let God be God! If modem Evangelical churches do not recover the Gospel of God's sovereign and eternal grace, they will wander endlessly and miserably in a deep darkness of deception and delusion. As W. F. Bell trenchantly states, "Few preachers really thunder forth the deep truths of God. Few churches really take an uncompromising stand for Christ and His Gospel. " Where do you stand? "Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me" (Ex 32:26) .

Soli Deo Gloria! 0 SUGGESTED READING

Calvin, John, TheInstitutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 20, 21, The Library of Christian Classics, ed. by J. T. McNeil, trans. by F. L. Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster,

1960) .

Horton, Michael, Putting Amazing Back into Grace: An Introduction to the Reformed Theology (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991) .

Luther, Martin, The Bondage of the Will, trans. by J. 1.

Packer and O. R. Johnston (London: J. Clarke, 1957).

Pink, Arthur W. , The Sovereignty of God (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984).

Spurgeon, CharlesH. , The Swordandt/te Trowd (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1865).

Sung Wook Chung is a native Korean, and a graduate of both Keimyung University in Korea and Whitwoith College at Sl)okane, WA. He also studied at the University of Texas at Austin and is currently studying theology at Harvard Divinity School. He has written a book, Bible Theology and Reformed Theology, which wdl be published this May in Korea. .

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

21

John H. Armstrong

I

THE MAD RUSH TO

SEEKER SENSITIVE

WORSHIP

I

~!!!!~II:: he rush is on.

How contemporary can we really be? How in the world will we ever get the unchurched to come when virtually all they know comes through 30 second sound bytes? We all know they will not listen to sustained discourse for more than 15 minutes!

The contemporary plan is plain for all to see-create a worship service (none dare call it liturgy!) that is fast, paced, light on doctrine, and very heavy on music and drama. We are preoccupied, as a friend puts it, with being "treridier, than, thou. " One local paper advertises, "Church Like You've N ever Seen It Before! " This is followed by a briefdescription, all too typical of the trend:

Outstanding Music . .. No choirs or pipe organs here. Our music is crisp, contemporary, professional, and yes, even hot! World Class Drama . .. Each week our Drama Team, "Showcase", presents a dramatic performance specifically designed to enhance the message. Messages . .. Our pastor . .. teaches ageless truths tailored for people in the 190s.

The Dallas Morning News writes similarly: Shortly before the benediction at Fellowship of Las Counas last Sunday, the pastor made a gridiron move. Wearing Troy Aikman's jersey, some baggy pants and athletic shoes, the Rev. Edwin liEd" Barry Young deftly threw a football, not across a yard line but a row of seats. Michael Wood caught the flying pigskin. He and his wife, LaWanna, sporting football game duds, were honored for bringing six friends to church. And hours before the Dallas Cowboys whipped the New York Giants, they got their trophy; a football signed by Dallas' star quarterback.

Other attractive brochures tell me how to have a revival through a popular drama team, with twelve "full scaled revivals" held in the space of twelve months!

Conferences and seminars abound on how to market the Gospel through services geared to the felt needs and personal questions of "seekers, " a synonym for those who are not Christians but have become interested enough to listen to a "Christianity 101" presentation of the biblical message. Stated very simply, what we have seen over the past ten years is an almost complete abandonment of liturgy, form, creed and formal confessionalism in an ever, 22 JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 1995

increasing number of fast, growth churches. Evangelicals seem to be on a mad pursuit for the perfect contemporary service. More recently many historic churches, who have more directly grown out of the traditions of the Protestant Reformation, have adopted these same patterns.

How/Shall We Reach the Unchurched?

This embrace of contemporary public worship patterns is deliberately aimed at the unchurched. Everything done is determined by the question, "How will the unchurched respond to this if we do it?" The central issue in this is not contemporaneity per se. American Evangelicalism has no significant theological reason to maintain a serious interest in so' called "traditional" worship patterns, especially if by traditional they mean the sentimental and human centered services patterned nineteenth century revivalism. Long ago most Evangelicals turned their public worship services in the direction of focusing upon the needs of those who attend. Debate over style, therefore, is false for several reasons:

1. Much ofwhat is called "traditional" worship in Evangelical churches actually orginated in the revivalism of the 19th century and has simply drifted further and further from historic Christian worship patterns for well over a century and a half.

2. Many people are drawn to particular styles ofmusic and thus think the wholedebate about "seeker sensitive" worship is simply about style (choruses, etc.), oreven instrumentation; e.g. drums, guitars, etc. vs. organs, pianos, etc.

What I wish to examine is not style at all, thought this is not an unimportant matter, but the vast movement of thought and activity that exists behind these "seeker sensitive" approaches. This thought now permeates almost every denomination and seminary in North America and goes by a number of names, including "Seeker Sensitive Worship" or "Market Driven Minis try. " All of this is related to the development and use of what has been called "Church Growth" missiology.

An Explanation Of The Strategy Itself The Church Growth movement is traceable to a man and an institution- Donald MacGavran, and The School of World Missions at Fuller Theological Seminary,

modern REFORMATION

Pasadena, California. Church Growth has several characteristics. We will mention only two of them for our purposes: (1) It deliberately does not firul a common basis for mission

in doctrine or creed. As long as you believe people are lost without Christ arul you believe the church should reach them you affirm the creed! It really is that simple.

(2) The movement has an aggressively strong commitment to the use of the social sciences such as sociology, psychology and anthropology, holding the Bible with one harul arul the social sciences with the other, all the time affirming, "All truth is God's truth!" , The questions this movement would have us ask are: "What are the questions people are asking?" "Where are the natural bridges we can cross? " "How can we speak the language of the market place so that they genuinely hear us? " Church Growth thinking leads to a methodology that is "phenomenological" not "theological. " Writes C. Peter Wagner, "That approach (i. e. phenomenological) may appear altogether too subjective to many traditional theologians... As a starting point, church growth often looks to the' is' previous to the' ought. ' ... What Christians experience about God's work in the world and in their lives is not always preceded by careful theological rationalizations.

Many times the sequence is just the opposite: theology is shaped by Christian experience. "1

be seen, however, that understanding and relating to various subcultures is not, however, a new thing. William Carey did this in India two centuries ago, as did Hudson Taylor in China, and a host of unknown mission pioneers over many centuries.

Another positive contribution can be seen in the "seeker-sensitive" movement's causing many to take seriously the planting of new churches throughout the United States. Questions remain regarding the long term health of many of these newer churches, but the desire to plant churches is a generally healthy trend.

Some Negative Contributions

In spite of all the above positive references many negative concerns still trouble me in regard to this whole "seeker sensitive" preoccupation with attracting the unchurched through contemporary patterns of worship. First, I see a blatant capitulation to consumerism in much of this direction. Many experts in this movement do not hesitate to call their techniques "marketing methods," but this approach breeds an unhealthy individualistic consumerism, which is already pervasive throughout the culture, when Christian leaders treat church growth as the primary activity of the Lord's Day, and the congregational worship service as a virtual business undertaking aimed at getting consumers to "buy the product. " When this is done the implications are both obvious and serious:

An Evaluation With Special Concern For The Public Worship Of The Church

This whole movement has generated an entirely new approach to public worship. It has also forced us, in various ways, to state more definitively our need to think seriously and strategically about evangelistic outreach. The Willow Creek strategy forced me to ask the question, "What am I doing to reach the genuinely unchurched?" For me, as a pastor in the Chicago area for over twenty years, the answer developed into a major concern for my own ministry. To this day I have been inclined to develop small group settings where the unchurched can be reached in a more neutral environment, where the Gospel is presented in a more "non, threatening" environment.

Further, I must add, this strategy has caused me to think more carefully about the need for clearer communication with the unchurched. There is always a need to examine our preaching and vocabulary at some points. It is incumbent upon us to make the message as plain as possible. Illustrations abound in church history where this need has surfaced. One remembers that the English Awakenmg began outside of church buildings, a novelty in ¡that age, where George Whitefield began to preach in the "open air. "In an age like ours, when people are "spiritual, " but adrift without foundations morally or religiously, we must conscientiously work at genuinely making our message plain. Creativity in outreach is a healthy thing if our creativity is consistent with the principles of the scripture. Much of this has caused many to embrace a more meaningful North American contextualization process which asks: How is the Christian message received, appropriated, and interpreted in various contexts? It must

He adds, further: A generation ago one analyst writes, "Problems existed only

in mathematics or chess; solutions were saline or legal, arul need was mainly a verb. The expressions 'I have a problem' or 'I have a need' both sounded silly." Today, however, need-used as a noun-has become socially respectable, and even fashionable . "To be ignorant or unconvinced of one's own needs," says Ivan Illich, "has become the JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

23

unforgivable social act. "And unlike natural resources, such as land, needs have no natural limits. There is no end to the needs that can be manufactured and distributed.

"Need, " adds Os Guinness, "( is) subject to consumer fashion, (and) becomeshallow, plastic and manipulative. " Indeed, the drive to meet "felt needs" can mask the real need that the truth of the Gospel addresses-alienation from God! A Move Toward Theological Compromise .

At the end of the last century theological liberalism told us that we needed to make Christianity attractive, or acceptable, to its" cultured dispisers. "This type of concern was not new. The very tension of "being in the world" but "not of the world" has always been with the church. What was new was the way liberalism decided to advance the church before the world, namely by reinterpreting the message of the cross in the light of the world's understanding and belief system. The question still is: How close can we get to the world and keep a distinctive message and ministry?

One of the most blatant examples of the compromise which flows out of this can be seen in 1966 World Council of Churches dictum: "The world must set the agenda for the church. " I would suggest that this idea, formulated in the crucible of ecumenical dialogue between light and darkness, is not far from the "seeker sensitive h approach adopted through the Church Growth ideology of contemporary evangelicals.

My statement is strong for s~re. How can I make it?

Because of what can be seen in: .

24 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

Elmer Towns, a man who has made a career out of observing growing churches and what causes their numerical success, has written: '(Formerly, a doctrinal statement represented the reason for a denomination's existence.

Today, methodology is the glue that holds churches together. A statement of ministry defines them and their denominational existence. " As a result of this approach Acts 2:42 is no longer the pattern text for what the church should do in its gatherings: namely, teaching the apostles' doctrine, enjoying fellowship together in the Gospel of grace, breaking the bread of the Lord's Communion and earnest congregational prayer. Our "new" read on this text would be that we meet in order to attract unbelievers through meeting their "felt needs" and making them feel better about themselves and our message.

The old Acts 2:42 agenda seems lame beside this baby, boomer agenda of drama, music, entertainment and self,

modern REFORMATION

help, oriented counsel. (Can we really call what is spoken in such services "preaching"? Helpful talks maybe, but not preaching in the sense we see in the New Testament or recovered in the days of the Reformation. ) The sennons preached in these modem settings have }nteresting titles like: How Can I Have a Happier Marriage?

How Can I Handle My Money?

How Can I Uke My Job?

Am I Caught in an Adult Children ofAlcoholics (ACOA)

Pattern?

How Did We Get the Bible?

How Can I Be a Better Parent?"

How Can I Get More Time for Myself?

How Can I Feel Better About Myself?

What Would Jesus~ Say to Madonna?

One prominent seeker-sensiti ve preacher counsels, "Limit your preaching to roughly 20 minutes, because boomers don't have much time to spare. And don't forget to keep your messages light and informal, liberally sprinkling them with humor and personal anecdotes. " Marketing strategist George Barna states that Jesus and the apostles were market, sensitive and constantly sought to minister to felt needs. The illustrations used to demonstrate this are: Nicodemus and the woman at the well in John 4. Barna never states how these accounts parallel marketing, but simply asserts that they do. ow can one read Acts and the Gospels and equate what one sees there with today's market, driven messages? Sermons in the New Testament are culturally relevant and personally powerful, but that is not the point. What is the common denominator of New Testament preaching is its entire dependence upon Christ and the apostolic revelation. Douglas Webster is surely correct when he writes:

H

The reason was its ability to sweep aside superficial felt needs and penetrate to deep,seated spiritual needs. Biblical preaching was God,centered, sin,exposing, self,convicting and life,challenging-the direct opposite of today's light, informal sermons that Christianize se If, help and entertain better than they convict. 3 In thinking through this whole matter I was quite surprised to find the counsel ofa famous earlier American preacher which parallels this approach:

Preachers who pick out texts from the Bible and then proceed to give their historic settings, their logical meaning in the context, their place in the theology of the writer, with a few practical reflections appended, are grossly misusing the Bible.

Could any procedure be more surely predestined to dullness and futility? Who seriously supposes that, as a matter of fact, one in a hundred of the congregation cares, to start with, what Moses, Isaiah, Paul or John meant in those verses, or came to church deeply concerned about it? Nobody who talks to the public so assumes that the vital interests of the people are located in the meaning of words spoken two thousand years ago.

This same famous preacher ended with the following counsel:

All this is good sense and good psychology. ... Everybody else is using it from first, class teachers to first, class advertisers. Why should so many preachers continue in such belated fashion to neglect it? Let them not end but start with thinking of the auditors' vital needs, and then let the whole sermon be organized around their constructive endeavor to meet those needs." 4 Is this the counsel of a modem "seeker, sensitive" spokesperson? Or the defense ofmethodology often offered up in Christianity Today or Leadership? Not at all. This is the counsel of Harry Emerson Fosdick, the most important liberal preacher of the 1920s and 30s in America.

Fifty years ago a theological liberal counseled his generation in the same way modem evangelicals now use the same accepted theory. Fosdick advocated a complete dismantling of corporate worship and preaching as we had known both for centuries. Modem "seeker, sensitive" worship services do the same.

The Destruction of Congregational Worship

The whole "seeker sensitive" approach presumes that the Lord's Day church gathering is principally for recruiting the unchurched, or evangelizing the lost. This idea can be traced to the "revivalism" of 19th century American experience, where the focus during this era was then moved from the church gathering to worship God, to be edified, to receive the sacraments and to enjoy fellowship with Christ and one another, to "drawing the net, " or getting decisions from the lost. This new "seeker, sensitive" approach is just a sharper and more carefully defined (dare we say, "neatly packaged") version of the same approach.

It is clearly not Refonnational, but even more importantly it is clearly not Biblical.

While we try to entice the world to come to church to hear the Gospel, the New Testament proclaims a powerful church worshipping God going out into the world in order to reach lost (d. The Book of Acts). True revivals have historically proved again and again, if they prove anything at all, that a revived and healthy church reaches a dying and lost world through its own awakened people. The real problem is that we have a dying and sadly unhealthy church in the late 20th century and we are trying something, it seems at times almost anything, to bring back life. The new way to do this is to attack the "traditional" church and suggest that our problem is to be found in what we do on Sundays. It is argued, "Contemporaneity will bring back the crowds, thus the life of our church. "The real problem, however, is not what we do (i. e. in the so' called traditional service), but that we do what we do without power, without careful thought, and without integrity and passion.

But a very important question begs to be answered: What really is the biblical reason for the church to gather in public meetings on the Lord's Day? A simple reading of the Scriptures gives an unmistakably clear answer-God, centered, Scripture, directed worship.

The New Testament plainly teaches that our corporate worship is for God. Stated in the extreme, for the sake of dearer understanding, public worship will always follow one of two models: JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

25

(1) Anthropocentric (2) Theocentric A human focused worship service sounds oxymoronic ~ut it is, in reality, a valid description when you carefully

hsten to the descriptions given by the teachers of the "seeker- sensitive" model. Where does this model begin?

We are urged to focus on the target, i. e. the audience, or the human person. Remember the driving question behind all of this approach is: How can we design our service and shape our ministry in worship so it will be inviting to the person we desire to reach?

The distinctives of this approach to worship are:

in his presence. This approach to worship asks: ( 1) What does God require of us? It answers, with biblical warrant, that God wants us to worship him in the stupendous truth of who he is and what he has accomplished, not on the basis of what we feel or believe we need (cf. John 4:23,24) .

Have you ever noticed that Jesus does evangelism by issuing a call for radically God- centered worship!

Does this Word also tell us how we are to worship, and what we are to do? The answer ofmost is, No. This means , practically, that we are free to do whatever we please as long as we are sincere. The Protestant Reformer John Calvin feared this same kind of movement in his day. He observed that "given man's propensity to fashion and worship idols, " man will in variably worship such idols if worship is not regulated in some sense by God and his Word.

This historic approach asks: Where does worship begin? It answers, with no hesitation, "With God! " It asks, further, the profound question: How can we shape our public worship in order to glorify God, give Him praise, and trust and delight in him alone ? Yes, we must understand the times" (1 Chronicles 12:32) , but this does not mean we must start with the times, or surrender to the times, or adopt the trends of the times in the place of revealed truth.

Other theological problems abound with the "seeker­ sensitive" strategy but I will conclude with mention a few:

A theocentric worship must begin with God, quite obviously. It must begin with an awesome, holy, Creator, who is both transcendent and immanent. He is pure, altogether holy, and dwells in unapproachable light. Those who worship him must realize that he is an all consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29) and therefore, Christ's mediation must be central if we are not on the basis of to be destroyed 26 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

modern REFORMATION

Conclusion

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One might be inclined to reply. But what about, "I have become all things to all men... (1 Cor 9:22~ 23) and Paul is speaking here, not as a marketing pragmatist, but rather as one concerned about human relationships and their effect upon Gospel communication. The point of this text is this: This is how Paullived among unbelievers, in various kinds ofcontexts. To accomodate Christian teaching, worship, or witness. In 1 Corinthians 1: 17 Paul just as plainly says that there are methods he will not use." These, suggests Paul, have the effect of tampering with the message. After all, "It is God who causes the growth" (1 Cor 3:7). Do we have confidence in this truth? Can we, in faith, sow and water with prayer and tears, and then trust God's Spirit to prosper the seed of the Gospel message and to thereby bring about the harvest? If we are faithful, then we must ultimately leave the results of our preaching and evangelism with God. George Barna has written, "If a church studies its market , devises intelligent plans, and implements those plans faithfully, it should see an increase in the number of visitors, new members, and people who accept Christ as their Savior. " 5 A more modest claim comes from a writer who suggests that appealing to "felt needs" can be (in his words) I'a I tutor' to lead people to Christ. " Whatever happened to the tutor the Bible gave us, namely the Law? Have we lost confidence in the Law and the Gospel? I am afraid the answer of much evangelical religion today is affirmative.

If

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At the time of the Protestant Reformation the whole ministry of the church was freshly challenged by the Word of God. Such a challenge is needed in our time.

Protestantism is in desperate need of reformation and nowhere is the more apparent than in our public worship.

In the time of the Reformation John Calvin wrote a tract titled, "The Necessity of Reforming the Church, " and in it he writes that worship is of first importance, saying, "If it be inquired, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehended under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance ofChristianity , viz. ,a knowledge, first of the modes in which God is duly worshipped; and second, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained. " 6 For Calvin, worship was of first importance. But why? Are there not many other areas where the Reformation ought to begin to strive for advance?

Calvin defined his position out ofa conviction that it was precisely because human beings so easily worship according to their own wisdom, not God's revelation and ultimately saving truth itself collap~es when idolatry and self, made worship appear: I know how difficult it is to persuade the world that God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word. The opposite persuasion which cleaves to them, being seated, as it were, in their very bones and marrow, is, that whatever they do has in itself a sufficient sanction, provided it exhibits some kind of zeal for the honour of God. But since God not only regards as fruitless, but also plainly abominates, whatever we undertake from zeal to His worship, if at variance

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DLJSINESS PARTN6RS IN/II-! l.)

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27

with His command, what do we gain by a contrary course? The words of God are clear and distinct, 'Obedience is better than sacrifice.'7 He concludes that since God is "grievously offended with the presumption which invents such worship, and threatens it with severe punishment, it is clear that the reformation which we have introduced was demanded by a strong necessity" (p. 1520. I believe we must begin at precisely the same place. We need, like Calvin, to attack the "external show" (Calvin's words) of religious practice and recover the focus on God and his saving work in Christ, through a focus on Word and Sacrament. The antidote in Calvin's time, as Dr. Robert Godfrey has elsewhere noted, is" godly simplicity. "The modem church needs to give itself to such "godly. simplicity" in public worship, reclaiming its biblical heritage of liturgy through a thoughtful and scripturally, informed pattern. This pattern must seek to intentionally glorify God, focusing upon him alone as we gather each Lord's Day. If this is to be accomplished, a truly modem reformation will require us to carefully jettison a great deal of what we have accepted over the past ten years. May it please God to cause this to happen soon! Soli Deo Gloria! 0 28 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

John H. Armstrong is founder and director of Reformation and Revival Ministries in Carol Stream, IL. A Baptist minister, he pastored for twenty, one years before becoming a conference speaker and editor ofReformation and RevivalJoumal, a quarterly publication for church leadership. He was educated at the University of Alabama, Wheaton College and Wheaton Graduate School of Theology, and Luther Rice SeminalY¡ 1 MacArthur, John, Ashamed of the Gospel. (West Chester, IL: Crossway), p. 79.

2 Guiness, Os, Dining with Devil (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House) 3 Douglas Webster, Selling Jesus (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press) 4 John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, (West Chester, IL: Crossway), p. 81-82.

5 Christianity Today, June 24, 1994, p. 19.

6 Selected Works and Letters ofJohn Calvin, Tracts and Letters, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House), p.126.

7 Ibid., p. 128.

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modern REFORMATION

David Fields

REFORMING YOUTH MINISTRY

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or too long we have blamed the rebellion of ou~ young people on such things as our school system, broken homes and the influence of the media. As a pastor and youth worker I refuse to point the finger at society anymore. I am not saying the declining morality of our society the break down of our family structure has not affected our kids. It definitely has had a large impact, but part of the blame is a little closer to home than we like to admit. It is time we stop pointing the finger at our world and point it right back at the church.

J. 1. Packer wrote, "Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your souL" Without a proper understanding ofGod, our youth will "stumble and blunder" their way to helL What truths do we want to instill in our kids when they attend our church youth groups? Sex, drugs, peer pressure, dating and other such topics are OK, _ r kids' needs or are we just but are we really meet' applying a bandaid to gapmg wound? If our church youth ch our kids the attributes and group is not attemptin t actions of God our Father, then it is we who are at fault for the rebellious acts of our young people.

Paul reminds us, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together becoma worthless; there is t;lo one who does good, not even on (Rom3: lOb-12V Ifno one is seeking after God, why are we afraid to offend the non~ believer with our message? If no one is seeking after God, then the students in your youth group are there because God has drawn them On 6:44) .

Unless God changes their heart, there will never be a true outward change.

We must be faithful to preach it!

The Holy Spirit will help your students with even the most difficult passages On 14:26). We must be faithful to study and present the complex truths of God's Word and allow the Holy Spirit to use it and apply it to their life. We must be faithful to preach all of God's Word on their level!

It is time we teach our students the heart of God's Word. I am not talking about Christianity 101, buttheno~ holds~ barred approach to the truth. It is time our youth groups tackle issues such as: the holiness of God, the total depravity of man, divine sovereignity, justification and sanctification. Some people feel these issues are too lofty for

our young people, but I think it is the cure for which we have begun searching. Until we begin to tackle a proper study ofGod and the deep, rich truths of His Word, we are guilty of sentencing our kids to a life with no direction and no understanding.

I can already hearthe cry of hundreds ofyouth pastors, "My kids will never sit through that, l' lliose them. " It is very true that we will lose some, but how much stronger will those who stay be? Paul wrote to Timothy saying, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, aworkman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth" (2 Tim 2: 15). How can our young people learn to "correctly handle the Word ofTruth" unless we teach them the depths of God's Holy Word?

What good is it if we create a generation of "excited" young peoPle~'fW: , ntence them to a life of mediocrity and poor theolo.

In t -e salms we are reminded God's Word is sweeter than honey (Psalm 119: 103). If our kids are to enjoy the sweetness of God' s Word we must make sure we teach it.

Do not hold back the meat of God' sWord lestwestarveour kids. Allow me to suggest five goals we should all put forth in our groups: Don't be afraid to teach the doctrines of the faith.

Our students are capable of handling more than we give them credit for. They are at a point in their life where they want to "question" life. Let's give them biblical truths to deal with. Let them wrestle and search the scriptures for nswers to their questions. We must all be sure we are properly equipping those in our ministry. Our young believers crave the nourishment of God's Word so they may grow ( 1 Pt 2:2). Give it to them! Paul says "Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel! " ( 1 Cor 9: 16) Don't try to sell or package the Gospel.

We are dealing with kids whose minds are influenced by sitcoms, MTV and video games. Too often we try to compete with current culture to "impress" ourkids. I do not have enough money in my budget to compete with Green Acres let alone MTV. Even ifyou have the money, oureall is to be "separate", different than our world. The only thing we have that will grab our students' attention is the hope ofGod' s Word. God's Word says, "For the message of the eross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. " ( 1 Cor 1: 18) .

Don't "settle" when choosing youth leaders.

Too often the only requirement to serve in youth ministry is a "heart" for kids. What does that mean? Those ofus who JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

29

are youth directors are pastors, nothing less! If you are in . charge of your youth ministry you are in every sense their pastor and must fit all biblical qualifications of being a pastor. Those who are youth leaders and volunteers also must be a godly example in every area. Do not forget what James reminds us, "Not many ofyou should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3: 1) . Thosewho teach and volunteer in ouryouth groups should always be what we want our kids to be Leaders should always be exactly what you want your kids to be.

Don't "overdo" the activities.

Too often youth pastors become too much of an activity director. Games and events are excellent tools in youth ministry, but don't let them run your ministry. You have each student for a limited time each week. Use your time wisely! God has entrusted you with His children, do not waste their time with too many games. The Pharisees and teachers of the law involved themselves in many religious activities and did much traveling to win converts, but Jesus said to Him, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you Hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are" (Mt 23: 15) .

Instill godly habits in your students .

Begin a lifetime of godly habits ¡ in your young people by emphasizing a disciplined Christian life. Keep your kids accountable to regular quiet times, scripture memory , reading Christian literature and serving' Christ. With strong accountability and by the example of godly leaders your students will begin good habits that will last a lifetime (not to mention what it may do for your leaders) .

Each student that comes into our group is important and needy. The only thing we have to offer them is "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (I 'Cor 2:2). The moment we begin to try to entertain our kids or teach what is spiritually correct according to people pleasers, we damn them to a life with no direction and no hope. Paul tells Titus, "You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1).

We must run from the trendy distractions such as psychology, how~ to's, sloppy doctrine, sex education, twelve~ step programs, accepting homosexual immorality, and other ungodly acts. The ideas of this world are foolish, we can't waste our kids' time with it. "Where is the wise man?

Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world" ( 1 Cor 1 :20). If we do not teach them the fullness ofGod and His grace we become part ofthe problem and not the solution. 0 David Fields, a graduate of Grace Bible Institute in Long Beach, California, is a youth pastor in North Redondo Beach, California.

From the Shelf God In The Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Eerdmans, 1994)

by David F. Wells Those who were impressed with volume 1, No Place for Truth (Eerdmans, 1993), will probably appreciate this follow~ up even more. In other places and times, Christians found it difficult to believe and practice their faith because ofphysical persecution, but American Christianity is being undermined and weakened by its own accomodation to the structures, styles, convictions, world~ views, and attitudes of "modemity. "We have lost our sense of transcendence in a sea of consumerism and that is not just true for individual Christians, but for the church and its pastors, says Wells. Amply documented and argued with references and fresh studies of seminarians, this book is a "must read" for every serious Christian.

Studies In Perfectionism (Presbyterian and Reformed,1958)

by B. B. Warfield Originally published by Oxford University Press, this volume of the Old Princeton giant's works is the most thorough treatment of enthusiastic perfectionism written by a Protestant and is perhaps the Protestant equivalent of Ronald Knox's classic, Enthusiasm. Charting the course of perfectionism from Finney and German mysticism, he follows it through the Keswick movement in Britain and America, up to the time of Lewis Sperry Chafer. If you are ready for a serious work~ out, this will more than meet your demands.

Revival and Revivalism (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1994)

by Ian Murray

­

An authority on the Puritans and the revivals that followed them on into the nineteenth century, Murray has contributed a very useful volume to the discussion that has consumed this issue of modemREFORMATION. While many in the Reformed tradition have eschewed the very word "revival" as sectarian enthusiasm, others (especially in the Puritan line) have carefully defended revival from associations with "revivalism, " the latter part~ and~ parcel of Arminian evangelism and church life. Murray is of this Puritan stripe, defending revival from the revivalistic tradition and it is one of the most carefully~ researched works on the British and American awakenings and revivals in print.

30 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

modern REFORMATION

Michael S. Horton

THE HIGHER LIFE AT

THE O RLANDO P RAYER SUMMIT

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n December, Mr. Bill Bright, a former busi~ nessman" who founded Campus Crusade for Christ International, held a "prayer summit" that included Christian broadcasters Paul Crouch (a "prosperity evangelist"), Robert Schuller, Jack Hayford, and a total of75 evangelical leaders whose view of revival is, generally speaking, an inheritance from Finney rather than from Whitefield and Edwards. What is remarkable as one scans the list of participants is that the majority of the most identifiable names on the roster, from a variety of denomi~ nations, are held together by a common heritage in the theology and practice of Charles Finney. The purpose of this article is to focus on the theology of the man behind the Summit itself and its related 40~ day fast by Mr. Bright, but first we should understand the background in the work of Finney.

Finney'S Fads "Finney bristled with eccentricities. Fads were exaggerated into fanaticisms, foibles into gospels. " So charged B. B. Warfield in 1921, at the beginning of a massive study of perfectionism from Finney to 1920.

Much of Warfield's work describes and critiques the merging of Wesleyan and Finneyite perfectionism in the Keswick Movement that came to be identified by the terms "Deeper Life, " "Higher Life, " and "the Victorious Chris~ tian Life. " This movement, burgeoning in the second half of the last century, turned many classical Protestants into evangelical mystics over~ night. In classical Reformation Christianity, the categories are Law and Gospel, the

former demanding per ~ fect confonnity to God's righteous will and allow~ ing no shortcomings in holiness; the lattcrprom~ ising full remission of sins and imputation of Christ's "alien righteous~ ness" apart from human merit. Just as Luther had known the "ladders of ascent" through which a devoted Christian could seek God's face through illumination, confession, purgation, and even~ tually union-leading to the ecstatic experience of a direct encounter with God, so Protestants have proved them~ selves to be just as clever in the assembly of such ladders.

Like the mystics of old, these "victorious Christian life" proponents lowered the expectations of the Law. No longer did God require absolute perfection, but "absolute surrender. " It was not external works of obedience that God required, but "complete consecration" and "yieldedness. " With the advent and rapid growth of Dispensationalism, .leaders such as Dallas Seminary founder Lewis Sperry Chafer declared, "The grace teachings are not laws; they are suggestions. They are not demands; they are beseechings" ( emphasis in original). God's Law is replaced with "suggestions, "short~ circuiting the conviction ~f sin, while God's Gospel is basically merged together with this single category of "suggestions" and "beseechings. " It is neither Law nor Gospel, but a confusion of both. In the place of God's moral Law, Chafer substituted "three laws or principles, which characterize the teachings of grace concerning the manner of the daily life of the believer."

These "laws" are "the law of perfect liberty, " "the law of expediency" and "the law of love. " Their perfections are achieved not by rigorous human achievement, but by "full JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

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surrender" to the Christ who is at work within the believer. 1 "The code ofrules contained in the law has been superseded by the injul}ctions and beseechings of grace. "2 The Law removed and substituted with the ostensibly less rigorous "grace; laws" of love and surrender, the believer is actually encouraged to believe that he or she can attain the "victorious, Spirit; filled life" by being sufficiently "yielded" to the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the Gospel is not pure grace, free and undeserved. The good news is, "By following the principles or laws of grace, you can attain victory. " The Law is less difficult and the Gospel is less the announcement ofwhat God has done and given objectively, outside of the believer's experience and activity, because of Christ.

While Warfield exploded Chafer's teaching concerning the Christian life in a Princeton Theological Review piece reviewing the Bible teacher's He That Is Spiritual, these views gained prominence in countless Bible and prophecy conferences throughout this century. One contemporary proponent of these views is Bill Bright.

Bill Bright and The Medieval Monk As Wesley, Finney and the pentecostalism that bore their imprint had emphasized a "second blessing" or "second work of grace" in which second; class Christians at last attained the filling of the Spirit, Mr. Bright calls believers from the "carnal Christian" class into the "higher life. " Closely following the outline of Chafer' s He That Is Spiritual, Bright distinguishes between three types of people: the "natural man, "who is an unbeliever; the "spiritual man, " who is a "victorious, surrendered, Spirit; filled" believer, and the"carnal man, " who, although a believer, "never allows the Holy Spirit to mold him into the person that God created him to be. "Further, "Most Christians, whether or not they realize it, are in this carnal category. " In fact, Paul's description of the Christian in Romans 7 is a description of such a "carnal Christian," according to Bright. Like the monks Luther knew ( and at one time was himself), "victorious Christians" are God's elite band.

Bright tells the following story: "Another friend, one of the most dedicated men I have ever known, lived by a little black book. " Lest the reader jump to conclusions, this "little black book" was not the Bible:

"In this book he kept acareful record ofall ofhis activities­ past, present, and future. In it he recorded the time he was to get up every morning, how long he should have his 32 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

devotions, and to how many people he should witness. I was very impressed; I wanted to be like him."

However, even such spiritual devotion can be done "in the flesh" rather than "in the Spirit, " and the believer must not only be careful in such disciplines; it is only effective if he allows the Spirit to do this through him. 3 How then does one attain such "victory"? For the monk, the answer was easy enough: confession, purgation, and union. By confession, impure thoughts and desires were brought into the open. One then could move on to "purgation, " which required fasting, penance, and other acts of devotion intended to flush sinful, worldly preoccupations from the soul. At long last, the spiritually; yielded attained a direct vision of God. But this estate was difficult and often required abandoning secular pursuits and callings for "full; time Christian service. " Luther recalled ,

In a word, whoever looked at a monk drooled in devotion and had to be ashamed ofhis secular station in life...Yes, we wanted to scale God's heaven and to steal into His kingdom before He could be aware ofit. This was the sugar that lured us into monkery...Later, when we had gulped down the morsel, we found the poison, that Christ was lost and now was no longer a Savior or a Comforter, but an angry Judge, nay, an executioner and a devil in our heart.

The present writer has met too many former Crusade staff members who were "burned out" on Christianity for the very same reasons that Luther and Calvin had been in the sixteenth century. The medieval monk would perhaps occasionally entertain such obvious thoughts as those that disturbed the young Luther: What if my confession were incomplete or disingenuous? Would my short; comings go unnoticed by an all; seeing, all; knowing Judge? And then there was purgation-the second level, in which sins were driven out of the heart. How could one ever be certain that these steps had been followed sufficiently?

Bill Bright, rather similarly, proposes what he calls the principle of "spiritual breathing. " Again, this is not the moral Law of God, but neither is it the Gospel, as the Reformers understood those two categories. It is a confusion of "Law" (commandment) and "Gospel" (good news) , in that it both requires less and gives less. The first stage ofthis "spiritual breathing, " Bright tells us, is to "exhale and inhale. " "We exhale when we confess our sins, and we inhale when we appropriate the fulness of God's Spirit by faith. "4 Of course, in Scripture, we are told that the Spirit is given to every believer at the beginning of the Christian

modern R EFORMATION

life (Joel 2:28; Jn3:5; Rom8:9; Ephl:13-14). Nevertheless, in this system, the Spirit is viewed less as a person than as a quantity of divine substance, poured into the believer in varying degrees , depending on how closely one followed the rules for" appropriation. " This infusion~ centered rather than imputation~ centered doctrine of salvation exactly ' parallels the medieval system. Each sin, says Bright, "should be named specifically" and he actually claims that by confession the believer "appropriates" the Holy Spirit.

After this exercise, the believer is qualified to receive forgiveness and cleansing. ,( Is this the monk's equivalent of "purgation"? ) o his credit, Bright does insist that Christ is the basis for such forgiveness, but this too was affirmed by medieval mystics. Nevertheless, "Sin short~ circuits the power of God, " Bright contends, so the reader is directed to "list your sins ... on a sheet of paper. " As penance was required for genuine purgalion in medieval piety, Bright warns, "Restitution may be necessary ... This is vitally important because you cannot maintain a clear conscience before God if you still have a guilty conscience before your fellowman. " For some, there will only be "little sins" to confess and purge, but every sin must be listed. "It may be that there are no gross sins in your life, "5 Bright concedes, leading one to conclude with St. Anselm, "You have not yet considered how great your sin is. " Finally, if these steps are followed, "guilt is gone. " "Through the principle of spiritual breathing, " rather than by looking to the brass serpent in the wilderness (i. e. , Christ) , "you can get off the spiritual roller coaster and stay off for the rest of your life.. . , but [God] will not bless us and use us to bring others to Himself if there is unconfessed sin in our lives. "6 In order to receive the Holy Spirit, one must begin by "preparing your heart" and must "be willing to surrender your life to Christ, " must "confess each sin" and "make restitution. "7 Aside from the obvious difficulties that this presents for the Christian life and the doctrine of sanctification, the most important danger it presents is to the Gospel itself.

Now to the "prayer summit, " held in December in Orlando, Florida. Although our Lord warned against making one's fasting a matter of public record, Bright, like the medieval monks of old, is convinced that it is only by following his example that revival will come.

Therefore, in his communique to his Campus Crusade staff and supporters , called "The Bright Side" (October and November issues, 1994), Mr. Bright explained his 40~ day fast in depth. By fasting, we fulfill 2 Chronicles 7: 14, turning from our wicked ways so that God can heal our land. Although fasting does not appear in the passage, "The major key to meeting the conditions of 2 Chronicles 7: 14 is fasting. " While he insists that this does not create a spiritual elite, Bright nevertheless declares that, "There is no doubt in my mind that those who fast with pure motives will be drawn closer to the great heart of God and experience a quality of life in the Spirit that one does not generally know apart from fasting. " Through the fast, "I have been drawn closer to our Lord. If possible, I love Him even more. "Ifpossible?

T

Again Anselm's haunting warning echoes: "You have not yet considered how great your sin is. " The end result ofthe fast is that "more people will come into the Kingdom and be drawn to serve Him within this movement than if I had n~ver fasted. " Remarkably, Mr. Bright seems to believe that his own fast serves as some sort of a mediatorial sacrifice that, as surely as the law of gravity, is predictable in its results: If one does X, God must do Y. He credits his fast with the salvation of human beings , while Paul declared, "It is not the result of human decision or effort, but of God's mercy. " (Rom 9:16). God is never put in our debt by conditions we somehow fulfill: "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? " (Rom 11:35). But Mr. Bright has learned that "If only we love, trust, fast, and pray, revival will come . .. " Instead of pointing struggling believers to the fasting ofChrist in the 40 days of his temptation, which was as truly part of our salvation as the Cross, "victorious Christians" are directed to their own fasting (and especially to Mr. Bright's) as a technique for levering divine blessing, forgiveness, healing, a close relationship to God, and "a quality of life in the Spirit that one does not generally know apart from fasting. " Because he had been following his principles for so long, the fast itself did not require very much confession and purgation: "Since I learned how to breath [sic] spiritually many years ago, I frankly do not have that much to confess, " Bright declared. Anyone who does not think that he has much sin to confess is self~ deceived into believing that such spiritual technology really does have the sin~ spill under control: crews are on the scene and the clean~ up is going better than expected. Crusade staff have reported that Mr. Bright asks staff leaders whether they can stop sinning for one minute, extending it to one hour, one day, and so on, implying that if one can go without sinning, in principle, for a short time, there is nothing keeping a person from absolute sinlessness. The difficulty with this, of course, lies in its major premise: According to Scripture, even our best works are corrupted with sin, so that we have not really gor:e without sin for even the single minute that was considered a "given. " Again, Anselm urges, "You have not yet considered how great your sin is. " A Weak View of Sin AtThe Bottom of "Lazy Theology"

In his reply to Cardinal Sadoleto, John Calvin charged the Roman Catholic prelate with having a "lazy theology. " It was lazy in that Sadoleto had never really come face~ to~ face with the depth ofhis sinfulness and, therefore, did not see any great need for a Gospel of imputed, alien righteousness. To be sure, he would never have denied that he was born in original sin, nor would he have questioned the fact that even a cardinal struggles with indwelling sin in the form of wicked actions, but he failed to see that sin was first of all a condition that rendered it impossible for even the Christian-the most "victorious" Christian, to "appropriate" anything from God's hand.

The Law was not replaced with an "easier" set of "principles " for the Reformers, but was allowed to address the sinner (including the Christian) with the whole force of its threatening blows. This led a person thus condemned to JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1~95

33

c. J

only one of two options: either .to despair of ever finding favor with God, enjoying close fellowship with him, and receiving the Holy Spirit, or to claim Christ alone and his victorious life, death, and resurrection as having secured divine favor, the Holy Spirit, and everything else in the Christian life.

1e Refonners, then, the Law was not "good ~ Pn ws" and the worst thirig a person could do woul - 0 attempt to substitute the rigor of God's moral demands with a "kinder, gentler" set of "principles of grace. " The Law is not easy, as it requires perfect love of God and n~ighbor. Trespassing that Law cannot be covered by following any set of principles-even by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Trespasses can only be covered by perfect obedience, but the good news is as good as the bad news is bad: In Christ, we have every spiritual blessing freely given to us the moment we are united to Christ through faith alone (Eph. 1:3 ff.) All Christians stand justified, adopted, close to God, and all Christians are "spiritual" (i. e. , regenerated, as Paul uses the term in Romans 6 especially). There are no "first, class" Christians who by their "second blessing", surrender have appropriated the filling of the Spirit and closeness to God, while" carnal" Christians are left behind by the Holy Spirit. All Christians possess the Holy Spirit and are filled with his wonderful presence, so that sin's guilt and sin's tyranny are both destroyed by the decisive victory of the Cross once, and, for, all (Col. 2: 1 ff. ). The Keswick theology risks separating not only justification from the new birth, but the Son from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not and will not give anyone any spiritual blessing except as it is purchased, earned, merited, and secured by Christ. He does not operate an "under, the, table" business with Christians directly, but only distributes that which has been mediated and purchased for every believer by Christ and in Christ.

But just as the good news is equally true for every believer, the ongoing reality of sin is true as well. All Christians are "simultaneously justified and sinful, " righteous before God because of his imputed righteousness, but sinful in themselves. Sin is dethroned by Christ in the beginning of the Christian life, but never eradicated in this life. No believer is victorious over sin, known or unknown, in this life and the process of sanctification is incomplete until we arrive in God's presence glorified. The truth about every Christian is found in Romans 1-3 (dead in sins, condemned by the Law, and helpless to find God) , 4-5 (justified by an alien righteousness) ,6 (made alive in Christ so that sin is not the ruling principle) , 7 (and yet continually at war with ongoing sinfulness) , and 8 (living in the victory of Christ' s cross and the hope of final redemption from sin in the future, with no place for confidence in one's own victory) .

~

Confession, Purgation...At Last, The Beatific Vision Ifone were to ask Mr. Bright about his theological system, no doubt he would say that he does not follow such systems, but only the Bible. And yet, his debt to the Keswick mysticism that has pervaded American and British evangelicalism is obvious. We have seen how his theology parallels the medieval monk's "ladder of ascent" in terms of 34 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995

confession and purgation, but where is the third stage: union or the experience of an unmediated encounter with God, what Aquinas and others called the "Beatific Vision"?

It comes in the same letter in "The Bright Side. " Bright claims that through his fasting, just such an unmediated ­ encounter took place. After a great deal of crying, Mr. Bright says he was awakened early the next morning by the Lord: "There will be an awakening in America; He will enable us to be a part of completing the fulfillment of the great commission; our World Center will be erected; we will see the International Christian Leadership University established; we will see a radio and television program developed, where Vonnette and I will take the basic truths and messages of Campus Crusade to thousands. Now I'm not given to prophesy, I'm a Presbyterian. We don't do things like that.

But I am telling you what God told me and I'm willing to stake my life on it. "

There is a good reason why Presbyterians-as well as other Christians from the Reformation tradition, "don'tdo things like that." It is because we do not believe in unmediated encounters with "the naked God, " as Luther expressed it. We do not believe in climbing ladders of confession, purgation, and union. Instead, we look to the Word, through which the Spirit con viets us ofsin-not so we will eradicate the guilt and power of our sins by our own activity, but so we will "fix our eyes on Christ, the author and finisher of faith" (Heb. 12:1), the believer's only "righteousness, holiness, and redemption" ( 1Cor. 1:30) .

In Romans 10, Paul warned about a zeal without knowledge.

His Jewish kinsmen and women were ignorant of the righteousness that is "alien" and imputed and instead sought to establish their own, he says. Therefore, they sought to climb the heights or plumb the depths to bring Christ to them, instead of realizing, "'The Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, , that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming" (v. 8) .

We cannot climb up to God to receive any of his blessings, but he has come down to us. Through "baby, talk, "he reveals his saving Gospel. Word and Sacrament alone are ordained by God precisely because they are not the ascending activities of creatures, but the descending activity of God-divinely, given means of receiving the divinely, given promise. Through these two ordained means of grace, Godgiveswhathepromises, incontrasttohumanly, crafted sacraments and ladders to "Higher Life. " It is not by "laws" or "principles" for attaining spiritual perfection, but by embracing the perfeCt law, keeping of the Second Adam that we are united, through faith alone, to the "full surrender" of the only victorious Christian who has ever lived. 0 1. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Grace:The Glorious Theme (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1950 reprint from 1922 edition) 2. Ibid. , p. 351.

3. Bill Bright, Handbook of Concepts for Living (San Bernardino, CA: Campus Crusade for Christ International, 1981) 4. Ibid. , p. 68.

5. Ibid. , pp. 73-4.

6. Ibid. , pp. 66-75.

7. Ibid. , p. 102.

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