New Year, Old Lie

Melissa and I had the opportunity the spend New Year's Eve with some friends that we met at her work. They visited our church for our special Christmas service, and they both claim to be born-again Christians.



We had a great time with them and their friends, and discussed everything from politics to sports to different cultures. Their friends were not Christians, and I was praying that the Lord would give me an open door to bring Christ into the conversation, but everytime tried they would divert the subject to something mundane. Finally at about 1 o'clock, Klaus (a Swiss professor) began to speak of his religious views. He claimed to be a Catholic Christian, but was tired of people claiming that their way was the only true path. He was obviously disillusioned with established religion (a good place to start!), and he rejected and mocked the idea that the Bible is the infallible Word of God.



He went on to praise people like Ghandi, Buddha, and Mother Theresa. He went as far as to say that their lives were just as important as that of Jesus Christ's, He was merely a good human being.



As he continued his lecture on the evils of my version of faith, I could not help but notice how he was exactly the same in his message as the vast majority of people that I talk to about the Lord. Interestingly, they all seem to have the idea that their belief system is a new and enlightened way, that previous generations were unable to grasp, but societal evolution has now brought them to a place of wisdom and understanding. There is more than a little haughtiness as they pity their primitive forbears and those pitiful weak minded contemporaries who cannot relinquish their deathgrip on the archaic and intellectually untenable religious anachronisms.



It never ceases to boggle my mind that this message that has been regurgitated and revived for 6,000 years can still be made to seem fresh and innovative. Forget Coca-Cola, the real father of advertising is the Devil!



This humanistic message is the same lie told in the Garden of Eden. The packaging changes periodically, but the lie always contains the same elements:



1) Deny God's Word

"Hath God said...?" The Bible may be granted the status of a good book, a good basic moral compass (in the passages they like, at least), but the holy Word of God? A perfect standard of faith and practice? A living Book that changes and reveals the very nature of the Creator God? Never. This is always the first step on the slippery slope to humanism, and even many Christians struggle with this. They are ashamed to talk about the Bible or treat it with the reverence that it is due, because they are afraid that it really cannot be what it claims it is.

When you throw out the Bible as divinely inspired and the flawless standard, you are left with 2 choices: either God has another standard (ie other sacred writings, philosophies, etc.), or there is no such thing as absolute truth. Either choice suits Satan's purposes very well, because either way it involves man doing what is right in his own eyes.



2) Deny the penalty

"You shall not surely die.." There is no such thing as actual sin, because sin can only be paid for by death. The language of the lie is that it is merely wrong or a mistake if it hurts someone else, and that is why reincarnation is such a popular doctrine: you can pay for your own mistakes! There are no eternal consequences for disobeying a holy God. There is no accounting, no authority to whom one must bow before and acknowledge as sovereign. It is no more than an appeal to men's pride,which leads to the third ever-present principle:

3) Exalt Man to Divinity

"...You shall be as gods.." Interesting that Satan's first victim of this deception was himself, and for 6000 years he has convinced men to believe the same lie. It is easier to accept a concept of God that says that everything is God and God is everything than to accept that He alone is God and Creator of all else. Why? Because if everything is God, then we are God! Man is God! Much easier to accept than believing that you are a sinner who owes his very breath to the one who created you for His pleasure!

What is so frustrating is that Christianity's response to the lie is often to try to make it more palatable and pleasing to people, when the gospel has always been offensive. He is the Rock of offence, the stone rejected by the builders. When we deny the offence of the gospel we deny its power! It only has God's power as long as it remains God's message.

As I kept listening to Klaus's arguments and tirades againstthe Bible, my first impulse was my natural one: open my big mouth and argue with him. But then I remembered what my pastor always says: "You don't defend a sword, you just stab with it!" So I listened, smiled, and then said, "Well, you know that the Bible says this about it." For all his protestations and blustering about how he didn't care what the Bible said, he grew more upset and obviously shaken with every verse I quoted. I kept speaking calmly, but by the end of the night he was literally yelling at me, and I could see fear in his eyes; not fear of me or my words, but that he was wrong and would face a Holy God one day with nothing but his pitiful morality.

Klaus left still rejecting the gospel, but it was an amazing reminder to me of the power of God's Word, and the weakness of the lie. It was also very convicting, and made me realize just how desperately I need to be saturated with His Word.

What a lie, but what a Book!