Sellout

According to Wikipedia, "'Selling out' refers to the compromising of one's integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, 'success' or personal gain."

I was completely sold out. Not for Jesus, but for music. Not because I actually made money or had much actual success in the biz, but because indie rock seemed to have this ominous "saving ability."

The culture. The cred. The freedom of playing music on my own terms. All of these things I wrongly believed would save me from living a meaningless life, working in a depressing career field, or having to do anything that wasn’t fun.

The sad truth is that though God had truly saved me at 18, I continued to pursue my salvation through music, and lived a life devoted to that belief for years afterward.

Jamming for the Lamb (on the side)

The first Sunday I came to Mars Hill I walked up, handed Pastor Mark my band’s CD, and began playing in one of the church’s bands shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, my secular band began to get some recognition. We were on a local label, opening for their most prominent artist on a tour across North America. It seemed like things were on their way up: we were recording our first full-length album and getting a great response from the people at the shows. The false gospel of music was bearing fruit.

Cutting the Chord

Then at some point—maybe it was when we were stranded on the side of the road in central Idaho with no water and 115º heat—my belief in the gospel of music began to wane. I thank God that he used many situations like this to show me that no lasting hope or sustenance could ever be found in something other than him.

Everything I had built my life on was worthless in light of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus (Phil 3:8), but the question in my mind was, “what does it look like for music to be redeemed?” After several years, I began to see that the problem of sin wasn’t in the guitar or on the stage—it was in my heart.

Not My Terms, His

Once the light switch had gone on, I had a newfound desire to lead God’s people and understand the connection between him, music, and us. What a powerful tool if used for his purposes and glory, not mine!

Here's a line from my song ‘Led to the Slaughter’:
“May we not seek false saviors in worthless things / collapse our knees beneath us, you are our King!”

I worshiped music. Now I worship God.

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Know Your Heretics series: Click | View Series

Historical Background

Arius (256-336 A.D.) is the most famous heretic of Christian theology. He was born in Libya and died in Constantinople. Arius held a prominent position as a priest in the Church of Alexandria when he started a theological controversy in 318. Arius denied the eternal deity of Christ and his equality with the Father. He argued that Christ was created by the Father.

Since the age of the Apostles, Jesus had always been considered divine by his followers, but his precise relation to the Godhead had not yet been defined. Thanks to Arius, the Trinitarian controversy regarding the status of Jesus Christ erupted.

Arius’ View of Jesus

Arius did not believe that the Father and the Son were of the same substance. Instead, he believed in the eternal functional and ontological subordination of the Son to the Father—that the Son was a lower being than the Father.

According to Arius, the Son was created before time. In other words, he was not co-eternal with the Father. As he put it, “Before he was begotten or created or appointed or established, he did not exist; for he was not unbegotten” (Letter to Eusebius). Furthermore, the Son was not of one divine substance with the Father. He was rather of a similar substance with the Father (homoiousios). On this view, the divine qualities of the Son are given to him by the Father.

Arius claimed that when the Scriptures speak of Jesus as the “Son” of God, it is merely a title of honor—a title given to Jesus as the one on whom the Father had lavished a special grace. Thus, Arius says, “He is not God truly, but by participation in grace…He too is called God in name only” (Early Christian Doctrines).

Orthodox Response

The theology of Arius became so controversial that Constantine intervened in 325, calling the Council of Nicaea. Athanasius, the leading defender of Nicene orthodoxy and the most prolific writer of orthodox Trinitarian doctrine in the fourth century, saw a major flaw in the writings of Arius and called his heresy the “forerunner of the Antichrist” (Athanasius, Or. Ar. 1:1).

According to Athanasius, the Son was eternally begotten from the Father such that he can be said to be of the same essence (homoousios) with the Father: “The Son is other in kind and nature than the creatures, or rather belongs to the Father’s substance and is of the same nature as He.” (Athanasius, Contra Arianos, III).

Why Does All This Matter?

There are some today who repeat Arius’ views. However, Jesus claimed to be God and the Christian tradition has held that there is an intimate connection between salvation and the deity of Christ.

We are saved from God by God. Only a divine Savior can bear the weight of God’s wrath in atonement. Only Jesus as the God-man can satisfy the enormous debt and penalty caused by human sin against God. No mere human could bridge that gap. Only a divine Savior can pay the costly price of redeeming us from our bondage to sin and death. Only the God-man can conquer all his people’s enemies. Our salvation rests on the infinite capacities of our savior, Jesus Christ.

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Prosperity Theology/Idolatry: Click | View Series

Theologically, prosperity theology is just plain wrong. When the Bible speaks of wealth, it does so in four categories. In the stewardship chapter of our new book Doctrine, Dr. Gerry Breshears and I explain it this way:

Everything we have—including our finances, jobs, houses, products of our land, real estate, investments, credit, equity, cash, businesses, automobiles, and personal items—is given to us by God and is part of our treasure, or wealth. Good stewards make every effort to manage their treasure as an act of worship.

Sadly, much of the teaching about stewarding one’s treasure is prone to either poverty or prosperity theology. Poverty theology considers those who are poor to be more righteous than those who are rich; it honors those who choose to live in poverty as particularly devoted to God. Conversely, prosperity theology considers those who are rich to be more righteous than those who are poor; it honors those who are affluent as being rewarded by God because of their faith. In fact, both poverty and prosperity theology are half-truths because the Bible speaks of four ways in which treasure can be stewarded. (Doctrine, pg. 388-389)

4 Ways Treasure Can Be Stewarded

1. Righteous rich stewards – Biblical examples of righteous rich stewards include Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job (both before and after his life tragedy and season of poverty), Joseph of Arimathea (who gave Jesus his personal tomb), Lydia (who funded much of Paul’s ministry), and Dorcas (who often helped the poor).
2. Righteous poor stewards – Biblical examples of righteous poor stewards include Ruth and Naomi, Jesus Christ, the widow who gave her mite, the Macedonian church, and Paul, who often knew want and hunger.
3. Unrighteous rich stewards – Biblical examples of unrighteous rich stewards include Laban, Esau, Nabal, Haman, the rich young ruler, and Judas Iscariot.
4. Unrighteous poor stewards – Biblical examples of unrighteous poor stewards include the sluggard and the fool, who are repeatedly renounced throughout the book of Proverbs.

Proof-Texting Prosperity

Those who promote prosperity theology/idolatry are prone to proof text 3 John 1:2 from the New King James Version, which says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” This verse is simply not a promise, but a wish. Like every good friend, John is saying that he wishes and hopes that his friend Gaius would be in good health and would be able to meet his needs. This is a far cry from a promise, especially a guaranteed promise for all. Rather, it is a goodwill prayer for a friend.

A great brother and enjoyable friend of mine, Dr. Daniel Akin, writes about this verse in the New American Commentary:

After an initial greeting, John moves to express his good wishes for Gaius in the form of a brief prayer. He begins by again expressing his love and affection through the second use of agapete (“dear friend”). In Greek concerning “all things” is put first in the sentence for emphasis: “Concerning all things [John] prays that [Gaius] may prosper and be in health just as his soul prospers” (my translation). The word “prosper” (translated “all may go well with you” in the NIV) can mean “to have a good journey.” Here it is used metaphorically. John asks God for the best in every way for Gaius. Further, he specifically prays for “good health.” (New American Commentary: 1,2,3 John, pg. 240)

We should be free to pray for the total well being (spiritual, physical, and financial) of our friends as John did. But to take a prayer of goodwill and twist it into a promise of guaranteed health and wealth is to completely distort the faith we have in the homeless and poor Jesus Christ, who was so distressed that he sweated blood before suffering excruciating physical pain in order to liberate us from the idolatrous worship of created things, such as health and wealth, in place of the Creator God.

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Prosperity Theology/Idolatry: Click | View Series

Prosperity Theology/Idolatry

While in Africa recently, I was often asked about prosperity theology/idolatry. This erroneous teaching states that the truly holy and faithful will be blessed with financial prosperity. The epicenter of this error is American greed, materialism, and consumerism, and the proclivity of some to present Jesus as the one who gives us our idol of Mammon/Money. To make matters worse, this theological error is promoted around the world on “Christian” television and radio. The effects in the US are damaging, and that damage continues around the world, particularly plaguing poorer nations where uneducated pastors sit on gold thrones wearing white suits and promise a hundredfold return on investment to their impoverished flock because it is what they learned from American preachers.

In Africa when I repeatedly answered the question about prosperity theology/idolatry, I explained it both practically and theologically. In this blog post I will deal with the practical and in the follow-up post I will deal with the theological.

A Marketing Scam

Practically, prosperity theology/idolatry is a marketing scam. My undergrad degree is in communications from the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at Washington State University, which is one of the top programs in the country. In my advertising, journalism, speech, marketing, and public relations classes, we were repeatedly taught that advertisers pay for media (e.g., air time on television and radio) and that unless a host or program is able to attract and retain a valuable audience for advertisers, they simply cannot remain in business.

The Dirty Little Secret

However, one of the first things I learned many years ago while co-hosting a small national Christian radio show was that there was one exception—namely, Christian programming. You see—and here’s the dirty little secret—most programming on Christian radio and television is nothing more than infomercials. Many of the shows are not kept on the air because they attract an audience that advertisers will pay for. Instead, the air time is purchased by the “ministry,” who can then use that time to say whatever foolish thing they want without needing to satisfy advertisers’ requirements for quality programming.

How to Make Jesus an Idol-Giver

The question is, how can you pay for the expensive airtime when advertisers won’t pay for the typical slots around the “Christian” programming? The answer is prosperity theology/idolatry. To pay for the airtime for infomercials, “ministry” leaders need to find a way for people to send in generous tax-deductible donations. The problem is that most people don’t give generously unless they really get the fact of the gospel—that our God is so generous that he gave us his own life—or they are given a theology in which Jesus is an idol-giver. So, prosperity theology was born for, in large part, the express purpose of paying for poor quality “Christian” programming and generating massive amounts of revenue to keep programming on the air that would not otherwise merit a time slot. Simply stated, it’s a business racket where you have to promise people God will bless them, or guilt grandmas into writing big checks by promising that Jesus is a pagan god who can be made to live for our glory if we manipulate him through faith and giving.

Of course, there are exceptions. Some fine Bible-based, Jesus-loving, gospel-centered ministries do exist on television and radio that do not promote prosperity theology/idolatry and actually teach against it by being faithful to the Bible. Just a few examples that come to mind are Greg Laurie, Hank Hanegraff, R. C. Sproul, and Kay Arthur. Nonetheless, now you know the dirty little secret about prosperity theology/idolatry.

In the next blog I will examine the theology of rich and poor biblically.

To be continued.

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Disobedience to the Gospel: Click | View Series

Romans 10:16—"But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?'"

Man is the same disobedient creature under all dispensations. We bemoan his rejection of the gospel, and so did Isaiah, who spoke in the name of the whole company of the prophets.

It is one of the greatest proofs of the depravity of man's heart that he will no more obey the gospel than the law, but disobeys his God, whether he speaks to him in love or in law.

When any receive the gospel it is a work of grace: "the arm of the Lord is revealed." But when they refuse it, it is their own sin: "they have not obeyed the gospel."

THE GOSPEL IS A COMMAND

It is not optional to men to accept or refuse it at pleasure. "Now God commands all people everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). He also commands them to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).

To refuse to believe is to incur great sin (John 16:8).

There is a death penalty attached to disobedience (Mark 16:16).

It is so put:

1. To secure the honor of God. It is not the offer of an equal to an equal, but of the great God to a condemned sinner.
2. To embolden the proclaimer of it. The minister now speaks boldly with his Master's authority.
3. To remind man of his obligations. Repentance and faith are natural duties from which the gospel does not exonerate a man, although it blesses him by bestowing them upon him.
4. To encourage the humble seeker. He must be at full liberty to believe in Jesus, since he is commanded to do so and threatened if he does not do so.
5. To suggest to men the urgent duty of seeing to their soul's welfare. Suicide, whether of the body or of the soul, is always a great crime. To neglect the great salvation is a grave offense.

The gospel is set forth as a feast, to which men are bound to come under penalty of the King's displeasure (Matt. 22:1-7).

The prodigal was right in returning to his father; and if he was right in doing so, so would each one of us be in doing the same.

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon's sermon notes.

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