Category Archives: Christian Living

Christian Living, In the News

Nominal Christianity and the Christian Bookstore

5 Comments

 

You may have heard the news recently that Family Christian Bookstores are closing their doors and liquidating their merchandise.  By the time I’ve gotten around to publishing this post, the liquidation sale is nearly over.

It’s fascinating to me that a “Christian” bookstore would be venturesome enough to locate in malls and shopping plazas across America.  After 85 years in business, to date they operated 240 stores in 36 states and employed more than 3000 people, self-billed as “the world’s largest retailer of Christian-themed merchandise”.

Several reasons for closing may be obvious, like a lot of major brick and mortar retailers, they are simply suffering at the hand of online shopping, unable to compete with the selection and pricing of major online book companies such as Amazon and even Christianbook.com.  This I grant is a very real possibility.

But there may in fact be another reason for the sharp decline in the demand for “Christian-themed” merchandise, one that can be directly correlated with the changing landscape of American Christianity, i.e. Western Christendom.

If you’ve ever set foot in a Family Christian Bookstore, you know that their target audience is not the theologically astute or discerning mind.  I know I may be stepping on toes here, but their store markets everything from Christian jewelry to wall art to all things Christian if it has a cross or an Ichthus.  Their book of 2017 is Jesus Always by the cautionary Sarah Young and you’re far more likely to find the works of T.D. Jakes on their shelves than John Owen.

I get it.  Largely believers want to read or buy things for encouragement and don’t really know where to turn, so stores and merchandise like this have their appeal.  I’ve been there, done that.  This isn’t to entirely denigrate their store or to kick them while they are down.  They’re in the merchandising/marketing business so obviously they’re going to cater to what people are interested in purchasing.  Which brings us back to a speculative reason why they are closing.

It’s no secret that the religious landscape in America is quickly changing.  What used to be dominated by Christian nominalism, i.e. Christians in name only, is quickly becoming dominated by the Religious Nones, i.e. those who claim no religious identity or affiliation.  They can’t necessarily be described as agnostic, as there is a certain level of syncretism with other religions and secularism in their beliefs.

In the 1980’s – 2000’s Christian nominalism lived in an incubator.  The Religious Right was asserting political and cultural power, televangelists dominated T.V. programming, and Christian bookstores were flooding the market on the backs of the downtown and suburban mall phenomenon.  It’s speculative, but perhaps reasonable to conclude that the seeds of Christian nominalism may have been sown decades prior in the fundamentalist vs. liberalism debate of the early 1900’s.  Nevertheless it became very popular, fashionable, and dare I say financially lucrative to associate with Christianity, largely identified as Evangelicalism or for the sake of historic continuity, that which falls under the umbrella of Christendom.

Fast forward to 2017 and the Christian nominalist has given birth (literally in most cases) to the Religious Nones, those who saw no real power in the faux faith of their nominalist parents; were never really exposed to the Gospel; have not properly understood the majesty of Christ nor the sinfulness of their sin; and have largely been inoculated to the Gospel because of the disingenuous form of it to which they were exposed.

This is the landscape in which Family Christian Bookstores now finds themselves.  Peddling nominally Christian books to a nominally Christian audience that no longer exists.  This is most probably the reason for their demise.

But their closing isn’t merely about the loss of a giant Christian merchandise seller, as though the Kingdom of Christ has now given up ground to the enemy.  There is more to be gleaned here.  What can we conclude, generally speaking, from this observation of the relationship between the Christian retail market and the changing religious landscape of the United States?  Primarily, I think we may observe that there is a sifting underway, particularly in this country.  It is a sifting of all things Evangelical.  All things Christian in name only.  And this will ultimately further the collapse of Evangelicalism.

This was something I mentioned on this blog in March 2009 in the posts: The Coming Evangelical Collapse and Survey shows a Falling Way.  As I’ve revisited those posts and the articles linked in them, it’s remarkable how it is all unfolding before our eyes.  In the coming weeks, I’m hoping to interact some with those posts, particularly the predictions made by the late Michael Spencer in his own post “The Coming Evangelical Collapse” which I linked to 8 years ago this month.

 

 

Christian Living, Devotions, Puritan

Advice for Reading

Leave a comment

 

One thing that took me awhile to learn was reading for profitability, not reading for the sake of reading.  There are far too many good, worthwhile books that cause your soul to stir and affections to swell for God than to waste your time (and eyes) reading bad books that produce little fruit.  Here is some advice from Thomas Brooks in his previously mentioned The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod for reading for profit

For, as many fish and catch nothing, Luke 5:5, so many read good books and get nothing, because they read them over cursorily, slightly, superficially; but he who would read to profit, must then,

First, Read and look up for a blessing—’Paul may plant, and Apollos may water,’ but all will be to no purpose, except ‘the Lord gives the increase,’ 1 Cor. 3:6, 7. God must do the deed, when all is done, or else all that is done will do you no good. If you would have this work successful and effectual, you must look off from man—and look up to God, who alone can make it a blessing to you. As without a blessing from heaven, your clothes cannot warm you, nor your food nourish you, nor medicine cure you, nor friends comfort you, Micah 6:14; so without a blessing from heaven, without the precious breathings and influences of the Spirit, what here is written will do you no good, it will not turn to your account in the day of Christ; therefore cast an eye heavenwards, Haggai 1:6.

It is Seneca’s observation, that the husbandmen in Egypt never look up to heaven for rain in the time of drought—but look after the overflowing of the banks of Nile, as the only cause of their plenty. Ah, how many are there in these days, who, when they go to read a book, never look up, never look after the rain of God’s blessing—but only look to the river Nile; they only look to the wit, the learning, the arts, the parts, the eloquence, etc., of the author, they never look so high as heaven; and hence it comes to pass, that though these read much, yet they profit little.

Secondly, He who would read to profit must read and meditate. Meditation is the food of your souls, it is the very stomach and natural heat whereby spiritual truths are digested. A man shall as soon live without his heart, as he shall be able to get good by what he reads, without meditation. Prayer, says Bernard, without meditation, is dry and formal; and reading without meditation is useless and unprofitable. He who would be a wise, a prudent, and an able experienced statesman, must not hastily ramble and run over many cities, countries, customs, laws, and manners of people, without serious musing and pondering upon such things as may make him an expert statesman; so he who would get good by reading, that would complete his knowledge, and perfect his experience in spiritual things, must not slightly and hastily ramble and run over this book or that—but ponder upon what he reads, as Mary pondered the saying of the angel in her heart.

Lord! says Augustine, the more I meditate on you, the sweeter you are to me; so the more you shall meditate on the following matter, the sweeter it will be to you. They usually thrive best who meditate most. Meditation is a soul-fattening duty; it is a grace-strengthening duty, it is a duty-crowning duty. Meditation is the nurse of prayer. Jerome calls it his paradise; Basil calls it the treasury where all the graces are locked up; Theophylact calls it the very gate and portal by which we enter into glory; and Aristotle, though a heathen, places felicity in the contemplation of the mind. You may read much and hear much—yet without meditation you will never be excellent, you still never be eminent Christians.

Thirdly, Read, and test what you read; take nothing upon trust—but all upon trial, as those ‘noble Bereans’ did, Acts 17:to, 11. You will try and count and weigh gold, though it be handed to you by your fathers; and so should you all those heavenly truths that are handed to you by your spiritual fathers. I hope upon trial you will find nothing—but what will hold weight in the balance of the sanctuary; and though all be not gold that glitters, yet I judge that you will find nothing here to blister, that will not be found upon trial to be true gold.

Fourthly, Read and do, read and practice what you read, or else all your reading will do you no good. He who has a good book in his hand—but not a lesson of it in his heart or life, is like that donkey that carries burdens, and feeds upon thistles. In divine account, a man knows no more than be does. Profession without practice will but make a man twice told a child of darkness. To speak well is to sound like a cymbal—but to do well is to act like an angel [Isidore]. He who practices what he reads and understands, God will help him to understand what he understands not. There is no fear of knowing too much, though there is much fear in practicing too little; the most doing man, shall be the most knowing man; the mightiest man in practice, will in the end prove the mightiest man in Scripture, John 7:16, 17, Psalm 119:98-100. Theory is the guide of practice, and practice is the life of theory.

Salvian relates how the heathen did reproach some Christians, who by their lewd lives made the gospel of Christ to be a reproach. ‘Where,’ said they, ‘is that good law which they believe? Where are those rules of godliness which they learn? They read the holy gospel, and yet are unclean; they read the apostles’ writings, and yet live in drunkenness; they follow Christ, and yet disobey Christ; they profess a holy law, and yet lead impure lives.’ Ah! how may many preachers take up sad complaints against many readers in these days! They read our works, and yet in their lives they deny our works; they praise our works, and yet in their lives they reproach our works; they cry up our labors in their discourses, and yet they cry them down in their practices—yet I hope better things of you into whose hands this treatise shall fall. The Samaritan woman did not fill her pitcher with water, that she might talk of it—but that she might use it, John 4:7; and Rachel did not desire the mandrakes to hold in her hand—but that she might thereby be the more apt to bring forth, Gen. xxx. 15. The application is easy. But,

Fifthly, Read and apply. Reading is but the drawing of the bow, application is the hitting of the bulls-eye. The choicest truths will no further profit you than they are applied by you. It would be as good not to read, as not to apply what you read. No man attains to health by reading books on health—but by the practical application of their remedies. All the reading in the world will never make for the health of your souls—except you apply what you read. The true reason why many read so much and profit so little—is because they do not apply and bring home what they read to their own souls. But,

Sixthly, and lastly, Read and pray. He who makes not conscience of praying over what he reads, will find little sweetness or profit in his reading. No man makes such earnings of his reading, as he who prays over what he reads. Luther professes that he profited more in the knowledge of the Scriptures by prayer, in a short space, than by study in a longer. As John by weeping got the sealed book open, so certainly men would gain much more than they do by reading good men’s works, if they would but pray more over what they read! Ah, Christians! pray before you read, and pray after you read, that all may be blessed and sanctified to you; when you have done reading, usually close up thus—So let me live, so let me die, that I may live eternally.

And when you are in the mount for yourselves, bear him upon your hearts, who is willing to ‘spend and be spend’ for your sakes, for your souls, 2 Cor. 12:15. Oh! pray for me, that I may more and more be under the rich influences and glorious pourings out of the Spirit; that I may ‘be an able minister of the New Testament—not of the letter—but of the Spirit,’ 2 Cor. 3:6; that I may always find an everlasting spring and an overflowing fountain within me, which may always make me faithful, constant, and abundant in the work of the Lord; and that I may live daily under those inward teachings of the Spirit, which may enable me to speak from the heart to the heart, from the conscience to the conscience, and from experience to experience; that I may be a ‘burning and a shining light,’ that everlasting arms may be still under me; that while I live, I may be serviceable to his glory and his people’s good; that no discouragements may discourage one in my work; and that when my work is done, I may give up my account with joy and not with grief. I shall follow these poor labors with my weak prayers, that they may contribute much to your internal and eternal welfare.”

Image Credit: http://acheronic.deviantart.com/art/Tolle-Lege-70881656

Bible Study, Christian Living, Gleanings from Bible Reading Plan, Hebrews

The Tragedy of Moses

3 Comments

 

Without question, Moses is the central (human) figure of the Old Testament.  Yes Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the fathers of Israel are significant, and yes David is surely a key figure as well, particularly in his typological function as king, yet it is Moses, particularly in his role as the great redeemer, the law giver, prophet, priest, and the trailblazer through the wilderness to the Promised Land, who stands  head and shoulders above the rest.

We can see his significance in how the Jews of the New Testament held him in high regard, likewise, in his appearance with our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration and most significantly in the book of Hebrews, which offers the comparison from the lesser, Moses/Old Covenant/Sacrifices/Temple, etc. with the greater, i.e. Christ and the New Covenant.

Moses appears on the scene of redemptive history at the introduction of book of Exodus.  His appeals to Pharaoh on behalf of Yahweh for the release of the Israelites is familiar to most people.  After securing their deliverance through the providential working of God, he leads them to Sinai, where they received the law, and continues leading them along their 40-year wilderness wandering, the consequence of their sin on the way to the Promised Land.  Throughout this arduous journey, we find Moses frequently appealing to God on behalf of the rebellious, murmuring people, yet there was one event in the wilderness that would forever haunt Moses and cost him greatly; an event which stands as a stark warning to those of us who live on this side of the cross of Christ.

We read of this tragic event in Numbers 20:2-9

“2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” 6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, 7 and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.“

Once again we find the wilderness congregation in want, this time of water, and once again we find them directing their complaint to Moses.  What a burden this man must have carried, not only have to lead a rebellious, murmuring people out of their bondage to Egypt, but to journey through the wilderness for 40 years because of THEIR sin.

In the passage above, despite being the object of the peoples scorn, Moses (and Aaron) petition the Lord for mercy on the people.  God’s instructions to Moses seem simple enough: take the staff, assemble the congregation, you and Aaron speak to the rock and tell it to yield water.  Then an interesting, glossed over note in Num. 20:9, “And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.”

In the next section from Numbers 20, we read of this event unfolding

“10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.”

Instead of speaking to the rock, Moses struck the rock, twice.  Let the heartbreak begin.  What seems like an innocuous oversight, or a slip of emotion, costs Moses greatly.  The Lord outlines his sin as: 1) Lack of faith 2) Failure to uphold the holiness of God in the sight of others.  Surely to even record this event and provide it in the book of Numbers for future generations must have been painful to Moses.

Here was a man called by God, a man who was a murderer no less, who had been faithful to do all that God had commanded for nearly 80 years no matter how difficult or insurmountable the odds may have appeared to the human eye, yet in this one event, he slips and falls.  One sin is all that it took to keep Moses out of the Promised Land.  Let that sink in for a minute. (We may also add that Aaron failed to enter the Promised Land as well)

This discipline is further recounted in Numbers 27 as God passes the mantle of Israelite leadership from Moses to Joshua

“12 The Lord said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. 13 When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, 14 because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) 15 Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, 16 ‘Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation 17 who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.'”

Hear we see that Moses’ sin was “rebellion” against the word of the Lord and a failure to publically uphold Him as holy.  Additionally, we get Moses’ first response to his discipline as he pleads, not his own case, but the case of the people that they might continue to have a leader after he dies.  Even in the legislation of his own discipline, Moses still implores God to extend mercy to the people.  This gives way to the command of commissioning Joshua in the remainder of Numbers 27.

Furthermore, as Deuteronomy, i.e. the “Second Law” is introduced, this episode is again brought to our attention in Deuteronomy 3:23-29.  As Moses recounts the history of Israel, he is forced to readdress his own discipline and prevention from entering the Promised Land.  In this passage we get more insight into the emotions of Moses at the word of his prohibition from the Promised Land

“23 “And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, 24 ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? 25 Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.’ 26 But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan. 28 But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land that you shall see.’ 29 So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.“

This tragedy takes on another layer with the Lord’s reply, “But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me.  And the Lord said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again.”

In some sense, this incident of discipline frames the book of Deuteronomy as it shows up again in Deut. 32 and again in 34.

“48 That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, 49 ‘Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. 50 And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51 because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. 52 For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.'” Deut. 32:48-52

“4 And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” 5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. 8 And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.

9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. 10 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, 11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.” Deut. 34:4-12

This last mention, includes Moses’ death and the epithet that the Lord leaves on “his grave” – “And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt….”

One final passage for perusal on this incident may be found in Psalm 106:32-33

“They angered him at the waters of Meribah,
    and it went ill with Moses on their account,
33 for they made his spirit bitter,
    and he spoke rashly with his lips.”

Here we find that perhaps Moses displayed an element of rash speaking with his lips.  This may indicate that he said something harsh towards the people without stopping to consider it, but perhaps most strikingly is that God had commanded Moses to speak to the rock, but instead he used his lips to speak rashly.

Thankfully this event captured in the noteworthy passages above was not the end of Moses.  In Matthew 17:1-3 we see him standing alongside another protagonist of tragedy, Elijah, as they witness the transfiguration of Christ and converse with Him in His glory.

As we read of this tragedy of Moses, and by tragedy I mean the radical effects and implications that sin, even one, may have on an individual and it’s subsequent ripple effects, I’m reminded of another tragedy where one sin cost the price of the Promised Land, that of Adam and Eve, which had profound generational effects.  Both of these accounts anticipate the arrival of a Last Adam and a Greater Joshua, namely Jesus Christ.

Applying this to our own lives, we quickly see the significance of sin, the seriousness in which God responds to sin, and the consequences, even physically/materially that sin brings.  I believe Adam was made righteous and I believe Moses was justified as well, nevertheless we cannot be so quick to dismiss the discipline that our sin deserves and often brings.  It sometimes can bring suffering, sometimes can cause blessing to be withheld, and yes even sometimes can bring death (physical).  We needn’t travel far from the beginning of humanity to see that the sin of Adam in the Garden brought death to ALL mankind.

The Old Testament saints provide for us an example (see 1 Corinthians 10:11) so that we might not stumble and fall as they did.  Surely as we live on this side of the cross, we are perhaps more aware of the grace that comes through Jesus Christ, but let us not be so quick to live as “free gracers” and sin such that grace may abound.

Let us be reminded that sin has consequences and that God deals with it justly, though the punitive justice has been meted in Jesus Christ.  Because of Christ we may be assured that our sin will not incur God’s wrath and we needn’t be fearful that because of one sin God might “zap” us.  However, we must also be assured that God has always desired for His people live holy lives as He Himself is holy.  This has not changed.  There is a tension here that must be maintained.

May we desire more grace from God to live a holy life.  And may tragedies like Moses’ generate in us a healthy, holy fear of Almighty God and a hatred for sin in our own lives, even one.

Soli Deo Gloria