DOUBLETHINK

There are at least two books you ought to have read, and if you haven't, shame on you. But your oversight can be easily corrected by getting "Animal Farm" and "1984," both by George Orwell. "Animal Farm" is a fable that's stinging rebuke of socialism and contains the famous line, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." "1984" is a tale of a dictator state and how it controls its citizens. One way it does this is by what Orwell calls, "Doublethink."

Doublethink is the word in "1984" for the power to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accept both of them. Examples of doublethink in the book are the slogans, "War is peace." "Freedom is slavery." 

DOUBLETHINK IN D. C.

What's the official name of Obamacare, the name the powers that be want us to call the newly enacted national healthcare plan? That's easy, it's "The Affordable Health Care Act." But I would submit that's an example of doublethink. Historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson asks, 
 
"Does anyone remember that the Affordable Care Act was sold on the premise that it would            guarantee retention of existing health plans and doctors, create 4 million new jobs and save families $2,500 a year in premiums, all while extending expanded coverage to more people at a lower cost?
Only in Orwell's world of doublespeak [to say one thing while you mean another, a companion of doublethink] could raising taxes, while the costs of millions of health plans soars, be called 'affordable.' "

DOUBLETHINK IN THE CHURCH

Let's go to a typical Sunday morning service in many churches. We sit and listen as the pastor says, [from hereon, I'll be quoting directly from an actual sermon] "Let it be clear--salvation comes by the grace of God alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. No amount of gold, no amount of good works, no amount of anything can earn your way to heaven. We are justified by faith alone, and it is only by the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we gain access to the Father in heaven. . . . . God transferred our sins to the innocent Lamb of God and God crushed His own Son under His wrath. Jesus Christ atoned for our sin through His shed blood on the cross, and God showed the world He accepted this as payment in full by raising Him from the dead three days later. There is nothing more we can contribute. It is finished. He has already paid the price for you. It is free"

A round of applause, please, for such a clear and concise statement that salvation is apart from works. You're sitting there thinking, "At last, I've found a church with a consistent grace message. I think I'll join up."

But I invite you, as you sit in the pew of this church, to listen to the rest of this sermon. Don't let your mind wander because, the speaker, immediately after saying, "It is finished. He has already paid the price for you. It is free," says, "But it will cost you everything." (Wait. It's free, but it will cost you everything? How can something "free" to me have a "cost" for me? Does "free" no longer mean "free?")

He goes on to list what this free salvation will cost you:

"Only few are willing to forsake everything for Christ. Only few are willing to submit to the rightful rule of the Lord over their lives. Only few desire to pursue God, to be conformed to His image, to be transformed, to obey Him, and to become holy as He is holy. And Jesus knew how easy it was to just be a part of the crowd, so much so that He raised the bar by demanding total commitment. He did not manipulate decisions or induce the crowd. He did not sugar coat His message or soften the requirement.

"Only a few are willing to forsake everything for Christ. Only a few are willing to submit to the rightful rule of the Lord over their lives. Only a few desire to pursue God, to be conformed to His image, to be transformed, to obey Him, and to become holy as He is holy. And Jesus knew how easy it was to just be a part of the crowd, so much so that He raised the bar by demanding total commitment. He did not manipulate decisions or induce the crowd. He did not sugar coat His message or soften the requirement. He asked for nothing less than complete surrender.

"These terms of salvation are nonnegotiable, absolute, fixed and set, and unalterable, and they are the same for all of us. He calls for radical submission and surrender or we cannot be His disciple. Christ must be worth more to us than anything else. We must consider Him more valuable than everything else as we see in Matthew 13:44-45. We must surrender our will, and we will continue to surrender our will for the rest of our lives. He is asking for supreme devotion. We cannot serve Christ and ourselves. He calls for absolute allegiance to Himself, even though we will never hit that mark perfectly nor might we understand the full implications of this surrender on the day of salvation.
surrender."

In  this confusing use of doublethink, the speaker, pointing out that that what Jesus demands is total, radical, absolute, fixed, set, and unalterable, then he says, "We will never hit that mark perfectly." He's right, there's never been a day when I've "hit that mark perfectly." I can't even finish breakfast, and I've already not "hit that mark perfectly." All these demands for salvation, these things we must do, yet he says, "We will never hit that mark perfectly." He earlier said, "[We must] become holy as He is holy."

There are more payments for this free salvation: "It will cost you popularity and maybe even promotion. It will cost you an easy life and you will have to discipline yourself. You will have to say no to temptation, no to the world, and break from the crowd – even if no one else follows. You will have to be willing to suffer persecution, and it may even cost your life.

"You must transfer ownership of all that you are and all that you have to all that He is…your life is no longer your life, it is His life. Your time is no longer your time, it is now His time. Your possessions are no longer your possessions, they are His possessions. Your future is no longer your future, it is His future. Your treasure is no longer your treasure, it is His treasure. And you have transferred all that you are and all that you have to all that He is. That’s what it means to meet His terms of peace."

Did you pick up on that last sentence? This free salvation has "terms?" He's piling these payments one on top of the other. Can you imagine going out to witness to the unbeliever, telling him salvation is free, and then going into all these payments, terms, and conditions? Did Paul answer the jailer's question, "What must I do to be saved" with a list of all these payments and then say, "But I know you'll never hit the mark perfectly?" Does John enumerate these payments in John 3:16?

IT IS WHAT IT IS

Such will be the typical sermon in many conservative, Bible-believing churches this coming Sunday. If you find yourself sitting in one, vacate the premises immediately, stand in the parking lot, and shake the dust off your feet, get in your car, and break the speed limit going home.