In this series of blog posts, I am attempting to convict and admonish my fellow brothers in respect to our blindness toward the idols of our culture and their unfortunate presence in the household of God. These false idols are destructive aspects of  culture which must be purged from within God’s people. My goal in writing is to stir up a bit of introspection, self-evaluation, and repentance. I struggle with these idols as much as anyone, and I want my brothers to hold me accountable. Here is my second post.

 …God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
-1 Peter 5:5 ESV

Pride is perhaps the most pervasive and starkly unbiblical element of our modern American culture. I cannot think of any other biblical teaching so clear, yet twisted to produce a the exact opposite moral value in our society. Somehow, pride has become a good thing; in America, we find it acceptable and proper to worship ourselves. Perhaps “self-esteem” is a more gentle term for our foolishness, but it produces the same results: narcissism, selfishness, and insolence. Sure, telling our children that they’re special and puffing them up with endless compliments seems harmless, but it’s created a culture so “me”-centered that anyone who doesn’t think the world of himself is thought to have some sort of disorder. Oh no, the low self-esteem plague may be creeping into our home. I sure hope someone brings candy. 

Naturally, we’d say there’s a difference between self-respect and arrogance; after all, you don’t need to be a jerk to feel good about yourself. This is very true. And this is also why the idolatry of pride goes unnoticed in our culture; people think high self-regard is okay as long as you’re not too much of a bragger, a showboat, or a whiner. But the gospel tells us something else; we are helpless sinners, evil people in need of mercy. Yes, the gospel should shatter our pride; if you have low self-esteem, it’s still too much.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people misconstrue Jesus’ words, “love your neighbor as yourself,” to say that such a command implies that one must love himself before he can love his neighbor. This is a blatant example of allowing our culture—along with its idolatry—to determine our biblical interpretations. Biblical love is clearly sacrificial in nature (cf. 1 John 3:16). In essence, love always seeks the interest and well-being of its direct object. By loving other people, we put their well-being above our own, even to the point of death. Love of self, then, is the antithesis of loving others; it is completely incompatible with the commandment of Christ. Self-esteem and pride are as about as unbiblical as you can get.

Of course, televangelists and so-called “health and wealth” preachers promote self-esteem because it brings in the crowds (thus boosting their own self-esteem, as well as their pocketbooks). However, the doctrine preached by such men as Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland and the like is downright heresy. These men are sugarcoated fools, effeminate cowards and shameless liars, seeking their own glory and well-being, thereby rejecting the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We cannot allow the pride of our culture to run rampant in our churches, because it necessarily constitutes a refusal of biblical salvation. We are not good. We are wicked and broken. We cannot earn salvation. We  desperately need someone to save us from our destructive ways. Jesus Christ did just that. In this gospel, there is no room for self-esteem (cf. Ephesians 2:1-10). Only humility and repentance will do. 

It’s important to note, however, that just because we are sincerely grieving over our sin does not mean we should be led to utter despair. God’s salvation should bring us great joy. Those who remain despondent often lack a trust in God’s ability to save. In this way, their despair is actually prideful, as they still think it’s up to them to save themselves (as if they have the ability). True humility stemming from the gospel should put man in his place as unworthy and incapable of true good, apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In this grace we rejoice, for despite our depravity, Christ died for us, and God’s love abounds. Our confidence lies not in ourselves, but in Jesus. If this is not the case, we, quite frankly, are not Christians. 

Paul warns that throughout the church age,  ”there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV).

There is no denying that this description fits our self-esteem society quite well. And what’s more is that many of these people “have the appearance of godliness”—they seem to have their crap together and don’t offend others—yet deny the power of the gospel. It will difficult for us to rid ourselves of this idolatry; the church is full of it. Yet the doctrine of high self-esteem must be taken as a lie if we are to believe Scripture. Pride is not a virtue; it is a sin which God hates. It is hard-heartedness toward the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must examine ourselves, repent, and seek God diligently, that He might change our hearts. 

 Love the LORD, all you his saints!
   The LORD preserves the faithful
   but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
-Psalm 31:23 ESV

In this series of blog posts, I am attempting to convict and admonish my fellow brothers in respect to our blindness toward the idols of our culture and their unfortunate presence in the household of God. These false idols are destructive aspects of  culture which must be purged from within God’s people. My goal in writing is to stir up a bit of introspection, self-evaluation, and repentance. I struggle with these idols as much as anyone, and I want my brothers to hold me accountable. Here is my first post.

You make known to me the path of life;
   in your presence there is fullness of joy;
   at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
-Psalm 16:11 ESV

Working at a hospital, I am often around people with no hope. Many despair because their life—or the life of a loved one—is coming to an end. It is at times difficult to be around people who are in such pain; most of the time you don’t know what to say, how to say it, or whether or not it really even matters. But one thing we try very hard to do for those who are dying is to make their remaining time on earth as comfortable as possible. We give them more comfortable mattresses and special quilts, offer them music, and provide coffee and cookies to the grieving family members. It’s called comfort care, and it’s appropriate for those who are dying.

It is no wonder, then, that a society devoid of hope also seeks after comfort. Postmodernity has brought an increasing despair among Americans (and will continue to do so), as our hope in the false gospel of reason and progress collapses into no hope at all. Our motivation for living is fading, life appears devoid of meaning, and there comes a point where all there is left for us to do is consume. We seek to find joy in material wealth and fanciful experiences, and just as the drunkard or the glutton seek escape from their depression, this consumerism, coming fast on the heels of postmodernism, is our pursuit of comfort care.

I am not surprised that society is full of self-seeking consumers who want, more than anything, to be comfortable. After all, you would expect a dying person to want to live in comfort care. However, I am shamefully disappointed that we, as Christians, far too often live in the same manner as those who are perishing. We seek to escape work because it hinders us from being comfortable. We avoid or delay having children because they are too much of an inconvenience. We spend the vast majority of our free time on entertainment—video games, television, the internet and the like. We hastily devour unhealthy meals, simply for the pleasure they bring our taste buds. We seek self-satisfaction in nearly all that we do. We, like the rest of our society, are addicted to comfort.

What then shall the rest of the world say? We claim to possess eternal life, yet they see us lying motionless in bed with a feeding tube and a warm blanket. We speak as though we will live forever yet surround ourselves with comfort care. What a tragedy this is, that the very people of God live as those who are dying! Society should look at us and see something different; they should see hope. They should wonder what it is we’ve got and how they can get it too.

So, the question must be asked, what must we do? What is the underlying problem? Why are we living in comfort care?

 The problem is a lack of hope in Christ; this is our terminal illness. We do not trust him at his word. We do not put our faith in his redemptive work on the cross, which brings us into salvation. We do not believe that God is all-satisfying, and we seek to supplement his goodness with our foolish consumerism. We refuse to take comfort in the Holy Spirit and whore after false gods. We distrust the Father’s purpose for our lives and reject his authority over all we do; we refuse to bow down before God as we instead worship our idol of comfort.

What we must do, brothers, is repent. We are idol worshipers; we should recognize this, confess it before God, ask him to change our rebellious hearts, and seek to worship God with all of our lives. Sure, this is a complicated process, and we’ll have to do it over again and again. But I believe God’s Word when it tells me that it is in God’s presence—and, might I add, God’s presence alone—that we may experience fullness of joy. Holy Spirit, sanctify us. Let us cast down our idols of comfort and pleasure and seek to receive God’s blessings with joyful hearts. 

It has been on my heart lately, I think, to post something about the consumeristic, selfish madness that is so evident in contemporary Western Christianity. However, I came across this post by David Powlison, which is far more detailed and pragmatic than anything I could possibly come up with on this topic. So, in the hope that God would be glorified, I’m sharing with you Powlison’s post on “The Therapeutic Gospel.” It’s a pretty long post, but it’s worth the time and effort.

The Therapeutic Gospel

What may be the most famous chapter in all of western literature portrays the appeal of a “therapeutic gospel.”

In his chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor,” Fyodor Dostoevsky imagines Jesus returning to sixteenth century Spain (The Brothers Karamazov, II:5:v). But Jesus is not welcomed by church authorities. The cardinal of Seville, head of the Inquisition, arrests and imprisons Jesus, condemning him to die. Why? The church has shifted course. It has decided to meet instinctual human cravings, rather than calling men to repentance. It has decided to bend its message to felt needs, rather than calling forth the high, holy, and difficult freedom of faith working through love. Jesus’ biblical example and message are deemed too hard for weak souls, and the church has decided to make it easy.

The Grand Inquisitor, representing the voice of this misguided church, interrogates Jesus in his prison cell. He sides with the tempter and the three questions the tempter put to Jesus in the wilderness centuries before. He says that the church will give earthly bread instead of the bread of heaven. It will offer religious magic and miracles instead of faith in the Word of God. It will exert temporal power and authority instead of serving the call to freedom. “We have corrected Your work,” the inquisitor says to Jesus.

The inquisitor’s gospel is a therapeutic gospel. It’s structured to give people what they want, not to change what they want. It centers exclusively around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. It discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy. This therapeutic gospel accepts and covers for human weaknesses, seeking to ameliorate the most obvious symptoms of distress. It makes people feel better. It takes human nature as a given, because human nature is too hard to change. It does not want the King of Heaven to come down. It does not attempt to change people into lovers of God, given the truth of who Jesus is, what he is like, what he does.

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