Ray Ciervo Ministries

Longevity is one of those words we don’t use very much. It is actually a good word. Unfortunately, we don’t understand it. With the “age of nano,” “living in the now,” “instant gratification” and of course the “micro wave generation” longevity isn’t something we dwell upon. Our culture seems to promote the procession of experiences that stimulate instant gratification. We hear small children bemoan the fact they’re “bored” because their senses are not being titillated at every moment.

This “nano age” is contrary to living a life focused on finishing well. Reflected in themes like impulse buying, bungee jumping, extreme sports, we’re steered away at looking at the end of life. Perhaps it runs concurrently with our obsession with “youth.” We do everything we can to avoid aging. Of course, the majority of what we do is superficial. We reconstruct the outer thinking, “if we look good, we’ll feel good.” There may be a smidgen of truth in that.

The Scripture calls us to a life focused on finishing well. From the words of Jesus that imply we’re heading for a meeting where we ought to hear, “Well done, good and and faithful servant” we get the idea there’s a final moment of recognition. (I’m consciously avoiding the word judgment here as I know my postmodern readers will cringe at it.)

Shaking off culture’s trappings of “now” living, we need to turn to the one thing that remains the same - the Scripture. Even apart from grueling attempts to change the message, the Scripture remains the same - it is what it is. No matter how much emphasis is put on “minor aspects” of the Scripture the message remains the same. The message of the good news is that Jesus came to save sinners. That is the truth he came to testify of. God is a merciful God who wishes no man perish. However, men choose to live in the darkness rather than the light. Jesus tells us they do so because they love the darkness.

2 Timothy makes this case strongly. It is most likely Paul’s last writing we have on record. It’s message is simple: Guard the gospel. Guard sound doctrine. Guard the truth. There are forces that want to destroy this message and lead many astray, so you must guard the gospel. The enemy of the gospel is always working to destroy the message of salvation. We’re pretty ignorant if we don’t get this.

William Hendriksen, a well-known Reformed theologian outlined the book simply: Hold on to it; Teach it; Abide in it; and Preach it. It couldn’t have been said simpler. His commentary on the epistle gives a clear theme: “Timothy, do not be ashamed, but by God’s grace exert yourself to the utmost, being willing to endure your share of hardship in preserving and promoting sound doctrine.” This is a timely message where so many are attempting to accommodate cultural ideas into the message of Christ.

Ashamed of the Gospel

Many today, I believe, are imbibing a popular view of postmodern philosophy because they are ashamed of the gospel. They’re ashamed of the gospel’s exclusivism. They’re ashamed of the gospel’s authority, it’s absoluteness. They’re ashamed of the truth. Rejecting shame is one of Paul’s themes from Romans and his exhortation to Timothy. We need to hear this today.

People who are sometimes associated with the “emergent” movement are the ones I mention here. However, not all emergents are the same. There is a movement among orthodox reformed people who are emergent in the sense of reapplying the reformed principles to the church today. Then there are hundreds, if not thousands of churches that want to reach the postmodern generation. They do so without changing the message once believed by all the saints. Finally, there’s those who actually have resurrected much of liberal theology and the social gospel with an indulgence for postmodern philosophy. They’re politely insisting that the gospel has been misinterpreted for the last two thousand years. Brian McLaren’s book, “The Secret Message of Jesus” says this. He believes he’s discovered, or rediscovered what the early church only knew. He subscribes to a Da Vinci Code conspiracy which torpedoed true Christianity. After reading Brian McLaren’s works, I’m not sure what he believes, only it’s not the historic view of Christianity.

This side of the emergent church declares a different message. It is in fact, a different gospel. The gospel is not preached. Again, McLaren’s book on the kingdom did not once discuss the cross of Christ, not once the atonement or any other central theme of the gospel. It did present several behavioral social responses to the world of injustice. This is fine as an outworking of the gospel message but not why Jesus came to die.

I’ve had long discussions with postmodern emergent Christians who cannot say that abortion is murder because it offends someone. They do not believe in war for any reason, even for protection of the innocent. These liberal views are political not spiritual and they have eclipsed biblical doctrine. In fact, there’s a whole new set of doctrines. However, postmodern emergents wouldn’t say they have doctrines, but conversations.

Those who want to present a new kind of Christianity do so because they believe the gospel we call orthodox has not worked. At least, in their estimation. It isn’t working now in America. Here’s an illustration: If a driver continues to crash his car, you don’t change cars you change drivers. Or teach the driver to drive correctly. If the gospel has crashed it’s because those who were driving weren’t doing well with it. You don’t change the gospel, you change the approach.

Let me state this a little more clearly. I don’t believe that as Christians we have always exhibited the grace, love and mercy that ought to accompany the message. We have been carnal at times, wrongly motivated, and used God’s message for personal gain, whether material or psychological. God help us. This, however, doesn’t nullify the message, nor does it warrant a “reinterpretation” of the message.

Deconstruction is a term used in postmodernism. It’s actually a little complex. The term comes from postmodern philosophers who interpret reality as a social construct. More precisely they believe words create reality, and just by the way . . . We create words. So, society or culture creates its own reality in the terms it uses. There is no objective referent that words are joined to. I did say it would was complexed.

What pomo’s are after is a “re-construction preceded by a deconstruction.” Because society creates or constructs its own reality through the words it assigns (constructs) it must first deconstruct the terms with their common meaning and then reconstruct them.
To the postmodern emergent the gospel must be deconstructed as does “church” “ministry” or any other term they deem as important to their cause.

Where the church has misapplied the gospel it must repent. Where we have assumed an arrogant posture we must humble ourselves. Any place we have failed to communicate the Spirit of Jesus Christ we must ask forgiveness first from God, then from those whom we’ve offended. This is important. However, we mustn’t change the message to meet current cultural pressures. There hasn’t been a time when the church has been free of culture. The church’s success (in God’s eyes) has always been when it remains faithful to the call of Christ in communicating the message of Jesus Christ. Relevance is important but I find it is not a major theme of the gospel message.

Some will immediately point to Paul’s reference to becoming all things to all men. His reference there is to the ethnic identity of the person, not their sinfulness. He wasn’t saying, “to the head-hunter, I became a headhunter,” or “to the murdering radical I became a murdering radical.” He said, “to the Jew, I became a Jew, and to the Gentile I became Gentile.” His purpose, we may add, was to win them to Christ. Paul’s emphasis to Timothy in the second epistle by that name was to “hold on to sound doctrine.” As mentioned earlier, the outline of the book by chapter can be seen as: Hold on to it; teach it; abide in it; and preach it. The “it” is always the sound doctrine of the gospel message.

Holding on to orthodoxy is the one sure way of finishing well. Teaching orthodox Christian doctrine, living it and preaching it is a prescription for success.