faith for faith

Muslim Extremists Murder Christian Family in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – On September 28, Muslim extremists charged into the home of Christian lawyer and evangelist Edwin Paul and brutally murdered him, his wife, and his five children who were of the ages 6-17. His crime? For taking the legal case of Robin Mehboob, a Christian taxi driver, who received a hike in interest rate of a small loan (the equivalent of $1,725) from the original terms of 400% to 500% from a lender backed by Muslim extremists. The exorbitant interest rates, whether from the original terms or after, were based solely on the fact that Mehboob was a Christian.

Upon filing the claim, representatives of the lender went to Paul’s home, railing against him, “How dare you Christians go to the police; don’t you know we own the law here?” Upon that, Mehboob testifies, “They assaulted us, beating us with fists and clubs, and warned that if we try to seek any assistance, they will kill us.” Mehboob fled to his brother’s home, and Paul stayed at his home, pursuing the case of his Christian brother. Shortly thereafter, the same men returned and killed Paul, his wife, and his five children.

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When I had begun writing this post the day prior, I began by poking at it jeeringingly as I am often sinfully predisposed to do. Many of us must admit that we have joked around the matter of the Most Holy Building Fund and its ubiquity in American churches (especially in Baptist churches), but if we were to step back take the rein of our humor, we would realize that this present matter is not one to be joked about. For, the insistence of leaders in the church to build bigger and bigger barns is not some benign pimple on forehead of the American church, but it is a branch of the deadly cancer that has wrapped itself around the throat of the church from its overexposure to prosperity and Capitalism. The church has become thoroughly American and Western in her practices, and her leaders have whole-heartedly embraced the methods and ideologies that brought this country to its present wealthy state. And while men can debate till they are blue in the face over political and economic theories for the state, this is not a matter for debate in Christ’s church. For the cry of Christ through two millennia has ever been, “I will build my church” (Mt. 16:18), and it is not for men to think up new strategies and to test new models of church growth.

And if we were to step back and survey how we in the church have strayed so far from the biblical teachings concerning Christ’s church and its practices and growth, we would surely have a daunting task before us. We could certainly step back to the Medieval church and see the remnants of its thoughts and practices in our own thoughts and practices, and we could follow it through the Reformation and through the Enlightenment and cap it with the business models of the twentieth century, yet in doing thus we would see nothing but from where we have come. In order to understand where we need to be we must become like the Wise Man who holds the seams of the Scriptures together who meditates on God’s Word day and night so that he might not be conformed to the world but transformed by the renewal of his mind (cf. Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1; Rm. 12:2). We need to come back to the Source of our faith, and we must not wander from it, for in it lies what the Lord our God deems as prosperous.

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As for [the seed that] was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful (Mt. 13:22).

In the parable of the sower, Christ intimates that there are four responses to the hearing of the Word of the Kingdom, three negative and one positive. Three of the responses to the Word are responses that are rooted in the heart of man and therefore bear no fruit, and one response in rooted in the work of God and therefore bears much fruit. In each of the negative responses there is the proclamation of the Word (i.e. the sowing of the seed), and in each there is a different enemy that destroys the effectiveness of the Word.

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Upon leaving Christian Philosophy class somewhat perturbed and despairing after having listened to the teachings of Scripture trampled by the philosophies of men again, I came to a sad realization, namely that we as Modern American and Evangelical Christians have absolutely lost the great doctrine of Justification by Faith. I am sure that there are many who are standing by quick to object to such a charge, but I am fully convinced that the justification by faith that we preach today is not the same Justification by Faith that was heralded by the great reformer Martin Luther neither does it resemble anything taught by Christ or the apostles. Additionally, since this great doctrine is by necessity one of the great pillars of the Christian religion, its loss has had profound effects on subservient doctrines, so much so that our tainted minds cannot even begin to fathom the depths of their distortion. I am not quite sure of the goal of my writing this, for I am nearly convinced that we are so blinded by our presuppositions on the matter so as to beyond retrieval. I pray that God might grant grace to me as I write and to you, the reader, as you think upon this most weighty of doctrines.

Justification by Acceptance rather than Justification by Faith
As those who claim to be Evangelical Christians–those who bear the very word Gospel (euangelion) in our self-made title, one would think that we would be quite sure about the Gospel to which we claim such allegiance. Yet in spite of our nominal allegiance, we find in modern Evangelical Christianity in place of the Gospel call given exclusively in Scripture by Christ and the apostles, namely, “Believe and repent!”, there is now almost exclusively the call: “Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and ask him into your heart.”

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Contrary to what you may think, Calvinism is not the most explosive issue in the American church. Neither is it the drinking of alcohol, the acceptance of homosexual clergy, the Emergent church, or building funds. All of these issues pale in comparison to what I believe is the most explosive and controversial issue in the American church, namely the use of American wealth. For of all the issues that face the American church, the improper use of American wealth is the most ubiquitous, for it is an issue that transcends all doctrinal lines, plagues every denomination, and will anger the soul of ninety-nine percent of those to whom you address it.

And as such, it is the least addressed of all the issues that plague the American church. For few are convicted of the improper use of American wealth (since we have been about explaining it away in our religion for decades), and even fewer are willing to suffer the lashes that come with its address. Yet, now is time, as the apostle Paul writes, to “awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:14b,15).

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The life of a Christian must be to the world an odd existence. For the Christian life, when lived properly, is a life that is lived backwards rather than forwards. For while the rest of the world attempts to live life to its fullest at the present time (or as the old Latin phrase puts it, carpe diem), the Christian lives his life in the light of his future Hope, namely that Day when his faith shall become sight and when he receives his glorified body and lives forever in the splendor and the joy of the glory of his God. It is what Mark Driscoll labeled it, reverse engineering, for our lives here on this earth are to be “engineered” in such a fashion that our blessed Hope is demonstrated and fulfilled by our lives.

The apostle Paul puts it this way: “In this hope [viz. the redemption of our bodies] we were saved” (Rm. 8:24). For the salvation of our Gospel is laid in store for us in Eternity, when we who bear the curse of Adam shall be ridden of our dead bodies and rise as Christ rose by the glory of the Father (cf. Rm. 6:4). This is the glorious Promise and Hope that our God has granted to us, and it is a Promise and Hope that transforms our lives here upon this planet.

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“Actions speak louder than words.” It is an old axiom that rings true no matter what culture or religion one finds himself in. And when a particular group trumpets a mantra over and over again for decades, people do actually look to see if that group’s actions line up with that which it trumpets.

For Southern Baptists, the final words of Christ and its implications have been the words that the denomination has trumpeted for decades: “Go and make disciples”; “Go and preach to a lost world”; “Bring the Word of salvation to the Nations.” All of which are true and good words, but do the lives of those who preach those words line up with what they claim is their heart’s desire?

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The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him (Rm. 8:16, 17).

K. P. Yohannan made a simple yet profound statement regarding suffering in the life of the Christian. He said that we as Christians are to seek actively our cross and carry it, for no one is going to throw it upon us; we ourselves must pick up the cross of suffering, deny ourselves, and follow Christ. And we must do it, for the cross we are to pick up is not icing on the cake of Christianity or a merit badge for the holier among us, but it is essential and salvific, for we, as the apostle declares in his letter to the Romans, will not be glorified with Christ apart from suffering with him.

For all who have been baptized into Christ share completely in his identity. For they who were baptized into him were baptized into his death in order that they might also share in his resurrection. And as Christ’s life and death did not come apart from suffering, so our lives and deaths (if we are indeed followers of Christ) shall not come apart from suffering with him.

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There is little that can be said about how far we fall short as made clear by these videos:

Many times (if not most times) when I speak to someone who is shopping around for a church, when I ask him his opinion of a particular church, his first impressions revolve around the type of music of the church. Seldom do I hear about the Christ-centeredness of the service or the disposition of the members or their desire to reach their community and the Nations with the Gospel. And if that person shows any inclination to visiting a church a second time, it is oftentimes contingent on whether or not he was entertained by that church the first time around.

While it is of little surprise that American Christians are more concerned about worshipping themselves than God by the churches they attend, it is saddening nonetheless. For it is clear that we have been deceived into thinking that true joy rests in self-satisfaction, and we rob ourselves of our Joy by seeking it in entertainment rather than in Christ and him glorified.

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