Sunday, September 30, 2007

The Opportunity Before Christians in this Postmodern Generation

John MacArthur explains in his book “The Truth War”, that we do have a “wonderful window of opportunity” before us in this postmodern climate to proclaim the truth of the Christian faith. Following the failure of the rationalism of the modern age, the people of the world are disillusioned and confused being overwhelmed with uncertainty, wondering how they can ever arrive at the truth. Sadly, the Emerging Church is following the worst possible strategy for ministering to those in this generation. By merely exacerbating the situation through encouraging disbelief, the Emerging Church is sending multitudes further down the path of despair, with little hope for experiencing true comfort and assurance. MacArthur explains on pages 24-25 of “The Truth War”:

“ The absolute worst strategy for ministering the gospel in a climate like this is for Christians to imitate the uncertainty or echo the cynicism of the postmodern perspective – and in effect drag the Bible and the gospel into it. Instead, we need to affirm against the spirit of this age that God has spoken with the utmost clarity, authority, and finality through His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). And we have the infallible record of that message in Scripture (2 Peter 1:19-21).

Postmodernism is simply the latest expression of worldly unbelief. Its core value – a dubious ambivalence toward truth – is merely skepticism distilled to its pure essence. There is nothing virtuous or genuinely humble about it. It is proud rebellion against divine revelation.

In fact, postmodernism’s hesitancy about truth is antithetical to the bold confidence Scripture says is the birthright of every believer (Ephesians 3:12). Such assurance is wrought by the Spirit of God Himself in those who believe (1 Thessalonians 1:5). We need to make the most of that assurance and not fear to confront the world with it."

(John MacArthur, “The Truth War”, Pg. 24-25)

We need to be vigilant in proclaiming the truth without compromise. We need to remember that it is God speaking to people through the truth of His Word that will provide hope for a lost world. We need to also remember that salvation is a sovereign work of God, and is not brought about through man's clever strategies. Our duty before God is to proclaim the message of the gospel with boldness. This is how the gospel was proclaimed by the apostles despite open opposition to the message by the people (Acts 13:45-47). We need to pray, just as Paul requested, that we would also have the courage to speak the truth with boldness (Ephesians 6:19-20).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amen to that! Jesus said He would be a stumbling block and for many He is. He nor His words are necessarily easy for all to ingest. Nevertheless, still we are to preach them, without compromise and without making appeasements to a world that is lost without Him to begin with.