BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER?

When a bottle or a space are said to be hermetically sealed, that means no air can leave them, no air can enter them. Seemingly all of sudden, American education is becoming, or perhaps already is, hermetically sealed against absolute truth, objectivity, obedience to constituted authority, and morality. Let's take a look.

ABSOLUTE TRUTH

The militant atheist, Richard Dawkins, was asked, "What should we do about all the religious people?" His answer took a turn toward the taciturn. In the style of "Silent Cal," President Calvin Coolidge, he said, "Mock them." (Try that in Saudi Arabia.)

On college campuses, students find the concept of absolute right and absolute wrong mocked with extreme prejudice. From day one, their expensive schools have dedicated themselves to mocking and by that means, destroying the very concept that some things are absolutely right and some things are absolutely wrong regardless of time, place, and culture. This leads the students into a trap. In one class, there were many students who couldn't bring themselves admit that the Holocaust was evil. Oh, they knew it happened, but their relativism wouldn't allow them to say, "That was an evil, evil thing."

BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER?

There's a saying: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." However, my son's pastor shocked the assembled when he wisely said, "Whenever you hear anyone say that, run the other way as fast as you can and never make him your friend."

Although such fleeing might sound harsh to the tolerant ear, that pastor was right. He went on to explain, "God has pronounced some things beautiful" (the Garden of Eden, the creation of Genesis 1-2 before the Fall in Genesis 3, the future New Heavens and the New Earth, the New Jerusalem, the feet of those who bring good news, Solomon's Temple, and the fruit of the Spirit, et al.).

On the other hand, God has pronounced some things ugly (sin, Satan, the factions of the Corinthian church, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, legalism, the church at Laodicea, and the domineering Diotrephes). The pastor's point was that one who believes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is sailing on a sea of subjectivity and that belief will bleed over into other areas.

HEY, RAY!

It's the same sentiment expressed in the 1970 hit song, "Everything is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens. The lyrics of the song need to be analyzed, especially those in italics:

Everything is beautiful
In its' own way
Like a starry summer night
Or a snow covered winter's day
Everybody's beautiful
In their own way
Under God's heaven
The world's gonna find a way

Midway through, the song changes from "Everything is beautiful" to:

Everybody's beautiful
In their own way

Therefore, we see that categories vanish, drowned in the Sea of Relativism. Malcolm Muggeridge wrote, "Human depravity is the most empirically verifiable fact," yet the monolithic American educational system teaches the impressionable, "There's no such thing as human depravity." Talk about a denial of reality!

IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES

The hermetically sealed university system won't advise the students of the consequences of the sealing out of absolute truth:

"If there is no absolute truth, no standard of right and wrong that we are all accountable to, then we can never be sure of anything. People would be free to do whatever they want—murder, rape, steal, lie, cheat, etc., and no one could say those things would be wrong. There could be no government, no laws, and no justice, because one could not even say that the majority of the people have the right to make and enforce standards upon the minority. A world without absolutes would be the most horrible world imaginable." (author unknown)

Look at the ever-developing consequences of a hermetically sealed campus, The University of Southern California, when a Jewish author arrived on campus to speak. He said:

"It used to be a pleasure for me to speak on a college campus like USC.  I can remember the days when I could stroll onto the USC campus and walk over to the statue of Tommy Trojan . . . Now, however, I can’t set foot on this campus – or any campus – without being accompanied by a personal bodyguard and a battalion of armed campus security police to protect me and my student hosts." (David Horowitz, Nov. 4, 2009)

Another Jewish speaker/author, Ben Shapiro, needed police protection and many of his supporters were physically assaulted for attending his speech. Two universities, DePaul and UCLA canceled his speech because the administrations of said schools said that they couldn't (or wouldn't?) provide adequate protection for his appearance. In the speech that wasn't canceled, a mob formed outside and pulled the fire alarm to stop the meeting.

Recently, a group at an Ivy League university holding up hostile placards greeted Christian apologist, author, philosopher, and international speaker, Ravi Zacharias, who was to speak on campus. That same day, he received a note from a friend overseas who promised to pray for his safety because he said, "I know you're entering the hostile territory of an American university."

ABC "World News Tonight" on April 5, 2017, reported that the stealing of college newspapers in which someone finds something objectionable has increased nearly 600 percent over the past decade.

The ABC news program also reported that many schools have rules that ban words that result in another person's loss of self-esteem. One might wonder what would happen if someone paid for an ad in a college newspaper in which the gospel was given and the reader was given a number to call if he had questions. (Romans 3:23 and 6:23 aren't self-esteem building texts.) 

In March 2009, Wright State University banned a Christian group from meeting on campus because of its requirement that voting members be Christian and because of its refusal to accept “nondiscrimination” language that would eliminate faith-based standards for its voting members. After seeking legal help, the Campus Bible Fellowship got the ban lifted.

Amazing isn't it? American universities, sealing off absolute truth and even the consideration of it are becoming violent places of antisemitism and hostile to Christianity.

(TO BE CONTINUED)


 

UP CLOSE

A man is going to Rome and seeing Michelangelo's statue of David. He says that he had heard about it, seen pictures of it, but to see David up close is overwhelming. Michelangelo hewed David from an unwanted block of marble and when he finished, there David was, standing larger than life, 17 feet tall, weighing more than 6 tons! Wow! That's an impressive hunk of rock! The word, "masterpiece," falls short.

THE CHURCH

The church: Hollywood makes fun of it; intellectuals sneer at it; the rank and file are indifferent to it, others are dismissive of it. After all, those in it are "not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble . . ." (I Corinthians 1:26). So wrote Paul.

But, as always, the divine viewpoint is different: the church is God's masterpiece: the church is Jews and gentiles who have come to faith alone in Christ alone united into one body, baptized by the Holy Spirit at the moment of their conversion, enjoying 34 things in their position in Christ and meeting together in a special way. 

The question is, what is that special way in which they meet? 

THAT SPECIAL WAY

That special way contains 5 elements, impossible for the world to duplicate, no matter how hard it tries:

1. Whenever God's masterpiece meets, it builds up its people in the faith. The reason it does this is because it pleases the Lord. No one in this life will ever reach the point where he does not need the edification that being intimately involved in God's masterpiece brings. Paul writes about the assembled masterpiece: "Let all things be done for edification." (I Cor. 14:26) In context, his subject is the masterpiece's use of their spiritual gifts, all the gifts are to be used to edify.

2. Whenever God's masterpiece meets, all are to learn. (I Cor. 14:31) This learning comes from those in the masterpiece who bring God's revelation (His completed Word) to each meeting. Whenever the masterpiece meets, there is learning.

3. Whenever God's masterpiece meets, all are exhorted by the Word of God. (I Cor. 14:31) No member of God's masterpiece is above hearing the Word of God applied to his life. All learn, all are exhorted. Exhortation is "to urge," "beseech," and "to make an appeal" from the Scriptures, that’s something that we all need.

4. Whenever God's masterpiece meets, there is peace. ( I Cor. 14:33) This peace is the opposite of confusion, that is, things being done in a disorderly manner. There is decorum within God's masterpiece.

5. Whenever God's masterpiece meets, there is the active pursuit of love. (I Cor. 14:1) By love, the Bible means that when the masterpiece meets, each one desires the highest good for the other.

UNIQUE

God's masterpiece is unique in the world and impossible to be copied by the world. The church is God's only ordained institution for this dispensation. God values this masterpiece so highly that He calls it "the bride of Christ" and "the body of Christ." Paul is eloquent on the subject when he writes, "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” (II Cor. 11:2)

THE RESULT

Speaking of those five elements of the church, what is their impact on the unbeliever who visits and views God's masterpiece? Paul writes about the impact of masterpiece--as the visitor watches, he comes to a conclusion, "God is certainly among you!" And he worships. (I Cor. 14:25)

THINK ABOUT IT

God has taken "not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble," those like a a discarded piece of marble, and fashioned something beautiful, the church. As an attender of the Hangar Bible Fellowship wrote: " I am so thankful to be a part of a church  body who obviously care deeply about each other,  who desire fellowship with each other, and who desire to have a deeper fellowship with Christ. Words are insufficient to express  just how thankful I am."

WHAT ARNOLD SAW

Arnold and Barbara Rowland want to experience something they've never done before--they want to see a president of the United States, not on TV, but up close and personal. This is their day to do it, so at 12:15, they choose a spot where they'll get that up close and personal view of the President as he passes by in a parade of cars.

As Arnold stands there waiting for the President's car (the car is two miles away), he glances up and looks across the street where a man catches his eye. The man is standing in an upper floor window of a building. He's holding a rifle with a scope across his chest, the position the military calls at port arms. Arnold knows that there are special agents who will be guarding the President's route and he wants his wife to see one.

Rowland, excited about what he's seen, says to Barbara, "Hey, you wanna see a Secret Service man?"

But there's a problem: she's got her eye on a disturbance across the street where two police officers are trying to assist a young man who's having an epileptic fit. Distracted, and still watching the medical problem develop, Barbara asks, "Where?"

By the time she looks across the street, the Secret Service agent has stepped back into the shadows, away from the window. Barbara asks, "What did he look like?" Rowland describes how he was holding a weapon, a big, high-powered, heavy rifle, no .22 caliber.

Barbara sighs and says, "I wish I could have seen him. He's probably in another part of the building now, watching people."

She returns to looking across the street where an ambulance has arrived to carry the epileptic to the hospital.

But Arnold isn't satisfied; he keeps scanning the upper floors of the building to catch another glimpse of the slender Secret Service agent, one he guesses is in his early thirties, so Barbara can see him too. But he never sees him in the window again; he doesn't mention it to a policeman standing nearby.

TOO BAD

Too bad Arnold didn't say something to the policeman. Arnold wasn't looking at a Secret Service agent; he was looking at Lee Harvey Oswald who would kill the President 14 minutes and 45 seconds later.

If Arnold had said something to the policeman, he might have changed the course of world history. But the problem was, Arnold Rowland didn't understand what he was looking at.

FLASHBACK

On Friday, April 3, 34 AD, there were those who didn't know what they were looking at as they saw Jesus during His trials and while He was hanging on a cross: Roman soldiers mocked Him as "King of the Jews;" those passing by got sarcastic; the two criminals dying on either side of Him insulted  Him. The religious scholars thought they were looking at a law-breaker who deserved all He was getting and more, so to add to the humiliation, they taunted Him.

All the predictions of the Messiah's death were meeting at the cross and the scholars of the Book couldn't or wouldn't see them. In particular, Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 were wrapping themselves around the cross. All the miracles their ancient Book had predicted that the Messiah would do, Jesus had done, yet when they saw the miracles right before their eyes, they couldn't or wouldn't "see" them.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

What do you see when you look at the cross? Do you see it as the material of myth and legend? A bit of fake news invented by His students, but who really had nothing to gain by doing so?

Or do you see the cross for what it is: the wood on which the Son of God paid the complete penalty for your sins?

It's the season we celebrate the death and resurrection of the Son of God, but are you distracted as Barbara was on November 22, 1963, so distracted that you don't see it? Or are you like Arnold and see the cross, but refuse to see it for what it really is?

How you see the cross will change your history forever.



 

THE BATHHOUSE RUN

 There is a video out and about. It’s called, “40 Days of Purpose” and contains an invitation to the viewer.

At the conclusion of the teaching video for "40 Days of Purpose," viewers hear the pastor say:

• “Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ? If you aren’t sure of this, I’d like the privilege of leading you in a prayer to settle the issue. Let’s bow our heads. I’m going to pray a prayer and you can follow it silently in your mind:

• ‘Dear God, I want to know Your purpose for my life. I don’t want to waste the rest of my life on the wrong things. Today I want to take the first step in preparing for eternity by getting to know You. Jesus Christ, I don’t understand it all, but as much as I know how, I want to open my life to You. I ask you to come into my life and make yourself real to me. Use this series to help me know what You made me for. Thank you. Amen.’

• “If you just prayed that prayer for the very first time, I congratulate you. You’ve just become a part of the family of God.” 

SAY WHAT?

Let’s think through this invitation. The way to start is by asking yourself, "In all of the gospel of John, a book written to propel the reader to faith in Christ, do we find anything even remotely close to this invitation?" In the book of Acts, a book containing some the evangelistic invitations of Peter and Paul, do we find this invitation?

The answer is, no, we don’t. Ninety-nine times, the gospel of John conditions salvation on faith alone in Christ alone, not on knowing God's purpose for one's life, not on trying to avoid basing the rest of one's life on wrong things, not by taking a first step to prepare for eternity, not on opening one's life to God, and not by asking Christ to make Himself real.

Let’s advance in our thinking by going to I Corinthians 15: “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received . . .that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried [the proof that He died], and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . .”

Comparing the content of the invitation on the video with I Corinthians 15, what do we see and what do we not see?

First of all, no scriptural invitation makes reference to knowing God’s purpose for our lives. No invitation in the Bible refers to opening one’s life to Jesus Christ, nor does any text in the Bible ask Christ “to make Himself real.”  In addition, asking that God use "this video series in my life to help me know what you made me for" does not constitute the gospel.

What is it that we don’t hear in the video? We don’t hear about Christ’s death for our sins; we don’t hear anything about His resurrection; we don’t hear anything about His deity; we don’t hear anything about trusting Him alone,  four sine qua nons of the gospel. 

The pastor failed to mention the essential content of the gospel. Then there’s the essential of an individual’s personal trust in Christ alone which goes unmentioned. 

Therefore, we would conclude that the gospel presented in the video has never saved anyone and that by praying that prayer, the pray-er not become a part of the family of God. The emphasis in the video is on the viewer—his purpose and his discovery of that purpose. Christ is mentioned once, whereas “I,” “my life,” "my purpose,"and “me” dominate. The gospel is Christ-centered, finely focused on who He is and what He has done.

 A QUESTION

The author of the invitation is Rick Warren who holds many degrees from various institutions: a Bachelor of Arts degree from California Baptist University; a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Theological Seminary; a Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. Yet, with all that education and all the work he put into getting those degrees, he makes up a gospel completely devoid of I Corinthians 15, the chapter in which Paul states the gospel. How does that happen? How can a person so trained at three different Christian institutions miss, mishandle, and make up his own gospel?

ANOTHER QUESTION

There's another question that begs to be asked: How do the 20,000 people who weekly attend his church keep from getting up and walking out, or at least questioning the presentation on the video?

We have an example of just such a thing--there's a story from church history about the Apostle John recorded in the 2nd century book Against Heresies by Irenaeus. Irenaeus had been a disciple of  Polycarp, who had been a disciple of John. It’s from this direct line to John that Irenaeus got the following information.

At the end of the 1st century, there was a heretic named Cerinthus. Among other things, he denied the Virgin Birth, denied that Jesus was the Christ His whole life, and taught that Christians were required to follow the Mosaic Law.

One day, John went inside a public bathhouse, but quickly spotted Cerinthus inside. John immediately ran out of the building, shouting to those with him, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within!”

How do the viewers of the video keep themselves from saying, "This video is like the story of The Emperor's New Clothes; it's naked. We need to discuss this matter now."

How do pastors around the world, after hearing that invitation on the video, not shut it down and present I Cor. 15 to the group? Why are not people able to do this?

A REASON

One reason seems to be that the vast majority have either never had or they've lost the ability to search the Scriptures to see if the video presentation is square with I Cor. 15. (That's easy; that's all they have to do.) Let's call their attitude what it is: indifference to heresy. They have become like Pilate, living with an I-don't-care-attitude." They would not have joined John when he fled the bathhouse.