church. The past few weeks we have had a gentleman holding the seminar, "Walk Through The Bible" and he is going through the Old Testament. I knew what was coming even as I approached the door to the sanctuary. I'm usually not the type that likes to get too active during church services or even draw any attention to myself whatsoever. I usually try to find out where the spotlight is and then run the other way. However, my fiancée loves doing that stuff and really wanted to go to the service. Being the ever-loving and supportive companion that I am, I swallowed my natural instinct and sweatiness, and joined her in the service. For those of you who have never been through one of these seminars, they basically take you through the Old Testament and help you remember everything by getting you to do hand motions, etc. However, even though I didn't really enjoy it myself that much, God spoke to me as we went back over those rich stories found in the Hebrew scriptures.
The very last verse in the book of Judges reads, "...everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25) As the speaker went over that verse, it hit me that not much has changed in the thousands of years since those words were penned. I don't think I need to explain this point in any great length for the average Christian (and maybe some non-Christians) to realize and agree that that is exactly where we find ourselves today. Everyone in our society thinks they can do whatever they want and it is no one else's business. Even more so, you certainly can't say that anything is right or wrong because that might be....(now brace yourself).....judging!!! (no pun intended with the aforementioned verse! Also, I won't delve into the self-defeating nature of these statements either at this time). However, everything is boiled down to preferences. The individual is the only person who determines what is right or wrong. It basically comes down to whether something "works" or not.
The bad part is that this cultural obsession has infiltrated the church. Isn't it interesting that when people want to do what they want, believe what they want, and say what they want, they remove the "standard" by which to determine whether it is right or wrong? It is this outside moral standard that played a major role in C.S. Lewis coming to Christ. He complained that there couldn't be a God since there was so much evil in the world. (A common objective, even today, by many atheists, naturalists, etc). However, Lewis realized that he couldn't know that anything was evil unless he knew what was good. The only way to determine either was to appeal to an outside, objective standard. In secular society, the "standard" that has been removed is God. Take God out of the equation and no one can tell you that something is wrong..it is just a matter of their personal taste. In the Christian world, God would never be removed (for obvious logical purposes), but the Word of God is pushed aside or minimalized or said to be a "human product" in order to develop and push new ideas, pseudo-theologies, etc. Once you remove the standard (truth), then you can make any claim you want. This problem is exactly what is occurring in many emerging churches. I won't dig deep into this area right now because there is much to be said. Yet, I just find it interesting how ineffective the Church has become in modern society. It reminds me of a song by Ross King where he says, "Washing water down the Gospel until its nice and clean." We have tried in various ways to water down the Gospel in order to make it more palatable for non-Christians, whether we make it seeker-friendly, promise them wealth and health, build cool youth buildings to lure them in, or the latest version of transforming the gospel into what we like and totally something different in order to reach a postmodern audience. Yet when they see that new version of Christianity, they notice very little difference between that and what they are doing now. It is just easier to remain where they are because they can continue to do what they want and not have the guilty baggage to go with it.
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