Michael Craven

Reevangelizing the Church: What is the Gospel?

Monday, June 22, 2009

Editor's Note: To read previous related commentaries Reevangelizing the Church and Reevangelizing the Church: Where Did We Go Wrong, please click on the titles.

Now that we are standing at the “crossroads” (having returned to the point of our departure from the truth), we can now look to the ancient paths: the Scriptures. In doing so, we can find the right path and recover the broader meaning of the “good news” or gospel.

Matthew records the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and message with the following words, “… Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matt. 4:17). In Matthew 24:14 Jesus himself describes the gospel in relation to the kingdom when he says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world …” Matthew again describes Jesus’ ministry by saying: “And Jesus went about all Galilee … preaching the gospel of the kingdom …” (4:23). Matthew reiterates this theme again in chapter 9, verse 35 when he writes, “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages … preaching the gospel of the kingdom …” Our Lord told his disciples to “preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matt. 10:7). Mark writes, “after John [the Baptist] was put in prison, Jesus came … preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God (1:14). Philip “preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 8:12). (Except where otherwise noted, scripture version used is NKJV, and emphasis is mine.)

Paul and Barnabas encouraged new believers to “continue in the faith … saying ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God’” (Acts 14:22). Paul appeared in the synagogue in Ephesus “reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God” (Acts 19:8). Paul, writing about his own ministry said, “I have gone preaching the kingdom of God” (Acts 20:25). While under house arrest, Paul received many visitors to whom he “testified of the kingdom of God …” (Acts 28:23). Clearly, by Jesus’ own words and the testimony of the apostles, Jesus was preaching the good news that through him, God’s reign — the kingdom of God — has burst forth into the fallen world.

The gospel (or good news) is the fact that in Christ, the reign of God is at hand and is now breaking into the world. His redemptive kingdom, which has come, continues to come forth and will be fully consummated on the day of Christ’s return. This is the good news, which offers not only a future hope but also a present reality touching all of God’s creation. It is this kingdom reality that animates and directs the mission and purpose of the body.

Granted, this may raise more questions; most notably, “What, exactly, is the kingdom or reign of God?” A definitive answer to this question is not given in Scripture but we are given insight into the kingdom through the teachings of Jesus. First, Jesus makes clear that the kingdom has indeed come — when speaking to the Pharisees he said, “… the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28). The commission given to the apostles was to preach that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 10:7). This statement is taken to mean that the kingdom of the Messiah, who is the Lord, is now to be set up according to the Scriptures.

Throughout the parables, Jesus uses the preface, “The kingdom of heaven is like …” Through parabolic teaching, Jesus is describing the character and nature of God’s ruling reign that is overcoming the fallen world. The kingdom of God is a present reality, inaugurated at the cross when Jesus broke the power of Satan. The King of Kings has entered the enemy’s house; he has bound Satan and robbed him of his possessions, including those enslaved to sin (see Matt. 12:29). This is good news!

He has set the captives free and given them power and authority to oppose evil — to usher in the kingdom of God and apply the kingdom principles of righteousness, justice, love, mercy, and peace to this world. Because, as the resurrection demonstrates, this world matters! It is this world that Jesus is making new. This is good news!

The message of the kingdom includes the remission of sin, the gift of eternal life, and the restoration of fellowship with God; the wall between man and God has been breached. This is good news!

The message of the kingdom declares Jesus’ authority over everything in heaven and on earth and the promise that Jesus is near to his people until the end of time, when all things are finally and forever made new. This is good news!

In Jesus’ very first sermon, recorded by Luke, he enters the synagogue in Nazareth where he had been raised and, taking the book of Isaiah, he reads the following passage:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19, ESV)

When Jesus finishes speaking, he closes the book, he sits down, and when every eye is fixed on him he says: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus is describing the kingdom of God in which all that has resulted from sin and the Fall is being restored by him, the Anointed One, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords — this is the good news!

A pastor friend of mine described the in-breaking reign of God, or kingdom of God, quite well when he said the following:

There is a great conversation in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings where Samwise is talking to Gandalf and he asks Gandalf a great question: “Will everything sad come untrue?” The Kingdom message is Christ (because of his death and resurrection) setting things right again — making everything sad come untrue.

In essence, the church bears witness to the in-breaking reign of God and serves as the instrument by which God is making “everything sad come untrue”!

The call upon humanity in the wake of this pronouncement is to repent, turn from your self and sin, and enter the kingdom of God, receiving salvation. It is the reign of God (or this full gospel) that the church is sent into the world to bring forth as God’s instrument and to which it bears witness. Again, we do not invite Jesus into our lives; he invites us into his! Jesus’ mission is the missio Dei or redemptive mission of God in which he is making all things new. And, this is the mission of every follower of Christ.

Next week we will examine how, practically speaking, the gospel mission in light of this kingdom reality is to be expressed.

© 2009 by S. Michael Craven

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S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture and the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress, 2009). Michael's ministry is dedicated to equipping the church to engage the culture with the redemptive mission of Christ. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, the teaching ministry of S. Michael Craven, visit: www.battlefortruth.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.

Original publication date: June 22, 2009

Opiate of the Masses?

Monday, January 23, 2012

Ever since Karl Marx penned his denunciatory statement on religion in 1843 (that religion is the "opiate of the masses"), secularists, social progressives, and other opponents of religion have worked to convince us that religious faith is an outdated relic of the past whose inexplicable (in their view) existence remains only by means of a stubborn, unenlightened, and uneducated lower class.

Indeed, there appears to be an abundance of data supporting the claim that religious belief in America is—generally speaking—in a state of free fall. In 2009, ABC News, citing a recent study by the American Religious Identity Survey, reported, "In one of the most dramatic shifts, 15 percent of Americans now say they have no religion—a figure that's almost doubled in 18 years. Americans with no religious preference are now larger than all other major religious groups except Catholics and Baptists" (Dan Harris, "America Is Becoming Less Christian, Less Religious, " March 9, 2009, ABC News).

Greg Paul, writing in the Washington Post last year, argued, "As the survey results come in, as the irreligious best-sellers sell, and as the scientific analysis gets published, it is increasingly clear that Western atheism has evolved into a forward-looking movement that has the wind at its back, is behind the success of the best run societies yet seen in human history, and is challenging religion as the better basis of morality" (Greg Paul, "Atheism on the upswing in America," Washington Post, 9/20/2011). Despite the staggering display of historical and cultural ignorance represented by the latter part of that statement, Mr. Paul summarizes what I think many would like us to believe: "To be religious is to be stupid!"

As for atheism, somewhere between 2 and 9 percent of Americans describe themselves as atheists (this broad range is due to the difficulty some have in defining the term). Apparently many self-described atheists don't quite understand atheism. According to a 2008 Pew Research poll, 21 percent of atheists said they "believed in God." Regardless, the number of those who claim to be atheists remains relatively static.

In reality, religion in America is not so much in decline as it is in a state of transition and change. New Age spirituality—as nebulous as it is—may be growing but so is the Catholic church. Increasing numbers of younger Christians—those most often considered to be the target of the modern seeker-sensitive church—are migrating instead to more traditional ecclesiastic forms such as that found within Presbyterian, Anglican, and Orthodox churches. Anecdotally, I have observed an increasing desire among young Christians in particular for more intellectual and theologically rigorous faith expressions.

There is no doubt that Christianity, as it has come to be understood in America, has been in decline. That may not be a bad thing. Frankly, I think the potential demise of culturalized, politicized, and Americanized forms of Christianity represents a hopeful trend! While Marx suggested that religion serves to dull and subdue attention to real life, I would say that false forms of religion do worse by offering a spiritual placebo, which only provides surface satisfaction with the "divine" rather than true reconciliation and intimacy with the Creator.

In the wake of this cultural upheaval, the Christian community that seems to be emerging (I mean nothing by that term!) may be smaller than, say, fifty years ago but it is arguably becoming more theologically astute and biblically faithful. Perhaps a remnant?

As for the growing category of "no religious preference," the evidence seems to suggest that more and more Americans are simply wandering through life oblivious to the larger questions, pleased to be ignorant and satisfied with the superficial.

In contrast to the idea that religion persists due largely to ignorance, research conducted in 2011 by University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox found that since the 1970s, it is the least educated who dominate the rapidly growing category of those having "no religious preference." Whereas among the most educated, religious faith remains relatively stable at about 46 percent, reporting at least monthly church attendance. This is only down from 51 percent forty years ago, which, when taken alongside population growth, represents an increase in the number of churchgoers among the most educated.

Philip Schwadel, associate professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, also challenges the scholarly contention that increases in education necessarily leads to declines in religious participation, belief, and affiliation. His research confirms that more education does not decrease the odds that an American will believe in God or the afterlife. In fact, his research revealed that more education "positively affects" religious participation and the role of religion (including devotional activities) in daily life.

Barry A. Kosmin, who serves as director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture and as professor in the Public Policy and Law program at Trinity College, presented a paper at the 2010 annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion he called "Religion and the Intelligentsia: Post-graduate Educated Americans 1990-2008." Contrary to the notion that intellectual elites and atheism go hand in hand, he found "the elite today look more like their parents than their professors." His findings include:

• While 82 percent of all Americans said in 2008 that they believe in a personal God or a high power, so did 85 percent of elites.

• Elites share the majority's doubts about evolution although they are still more likely to support it, with 48 percent saying humans evolved from earlier species of animals, compared to 38 percent of the nation overall.

• Elites have high levels of household membership in a house of worship: 63 percent say they belong compared to 54 percent of overall.

Perhaps the growing indifference to religion in America is not so much the product of enlightenment as it is the result of ignorance that is so easily facilitated by vain pursuits, intellectual indifference and mindless amusement. Rather than Christianity, which engages heart, mind, soul and strength—the whole person—perhaps a hedonistic secularism, which encourages people to either ignore or sleepwalk through life's most important questions is the true "opiate of the masses!"

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S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture and the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress, 2009). Michael's ministry is dedicated to equipping the church to engage the culture with the redemptive mission of Christ. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture and the teaching ministry of S. Michael Craven, visit www.battlefortruth.org.

$pending This Christmas or Spending It Well

Monday, December 05, 2011

The Christmas season is once again upon us and with it overwhelming encouragement from Madison Avenue to spend what we have not earned to buy what we cannot afford. The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday (indicating the point at which retailers are in the black — or at least hope to be), signaled the start of the “holiday shopping season.” That phrase in and of itself reveals the commercialized emphasis that has unfortunately come to define Christmas for many Americans.

The thrust of this consumerist message is that the holiday is best enjoyed or most fully realized through the acquisition of “things.” Advertisements bombard us with images of bountiful Christmas scenes in which beautiful packages surround the tree, and “happiness” is realized upon the receipt of this or that consumer product. Credit card issuers alone (those most interested in seeing you spend what you don’t have) spend more than $150 million on holiday advertising and promotions. Evidence that these messages work is found in the fact that, according to financial advisor Dave Ramsey, “over 50 percent of Christmas shoppers will spend well over what they planned to and will go further into debt.”

As to the severity of this debt, Ramsey points out that “more than $70 billion, over half of what was charged last year, ended up as revolving debt and the interest on last year’s gifts are still being paid today.” On average, “two-thirds (65 percent) of shoppers overspent their budget by $100–$500 and 75 percent overspent by $50–$100.”

Of course this consumerist philosophy — rooted in the notion that making more money, which enables you to buy more things, will necessarily result in greater life satisfaction and happiness — is a pervasive message year-round in America. Recent studies show that most Americans believe they would be “perfectly happy” with just 20 percent more income. And according to Boston College sociologist Juliet Schor’s 1998 best seller The Overspent American, “one-quarter of Americans making $100,000 believe they don’t have enough cash.” (In 2010, the US median income was $49,445.)

However, renowned economist and USC professor, Richard Easterlin observed that “once a society’s basic needs — food, shelter, employment — are satisfied, the accumulation of greater and greater wealth does not generate greater collective or personal happiness over the long run” (USC Trojan Family Magazine). This has become known as the Easterlin Paradox.

In the early seventies “Easterlin sifted through numerous surveys asking Americans how happy they were. The explosion in wealth created by the postwar boom had not made a dent, he discovered. Although the average family was 60 percent richer in 1974, levels of contentment remained unchanged from 1945.” These findings “flew in the face of the assumption held by most economists and politicians that populations get happier as national wealth increases.” Also according to the article “today, no one disputes the truth of the Easterlin Paradox.”

Despite our present economic challenges, the United States is still far richer in 2011 than it was 1974 and yet our levels of life satisfaction and personal contentment haven’t improved one iota. In fact, every measurement of personal well being — psychological, emotional, and spiritual — demonstrates that despite our increased abundance we are less satisfied and more depressed than ever.

A joint study recently conducted by the World Health Organization and Harvard Medical School revealed that the US has the highest rate of depression among a survey group of fourteen countries. Conversely the poorest nations reported the lowest levels of depression. Researchers suggest that this may be due to differing expectations. Precisely! Americans — saturated with consumerism — have been conditioned to expect that happiness and satisfaction naturally flow from prosperity and the acquisition of things. That is the whole point of consumer advertising: to make you discontent with what you have by offering the expectation of an improved life through the purchase of the latest product — an expectation that very quickly evaporates after we have purchased said product.

Consciously we know this promise is ridiculous; however, subconsciously we frequently find ourselves seduced by the lords of consumerism into believing this silliest of propositions. As Easterlin has confirmed, as we acquire possessions, our aspirations rise in proportion to the gains, leaving us no happier than before. Indeed, the more we earn the more we want! This misguided (and idolatrous) expectation sets us up for perpetual disappointment because as the evidence demonstrates, prosperity always fails as a source of lasting contentment and life satisfaction.

The first remedy is to simply recognize the false and frankly illogical “gospel” offered by consumerism. This alone offers some degree of immunity from the insidious and seductive voice of consumerism. Secondly, from a purely financial perspective, Dave Ramsey offers some practical advice relative to Christmas:

Make a list of everyone you are buying a gift for and put a dollar amount by every name. Total it at the bottom. This is your Christmas budget. The people in the mall have a plan to get your money — get a game plan for your shopping so you can keep some money. There is no excuse for financing Christmas.
Pay cash. Put the total from your budget in an envelope and when the cash is gone, stop spending. This will help keep you on budget because if you overspend on Aunt Sue, Uncle Harry won’t get a gift.
69 percent of Americans bought a gift for themselves last year. Don’t buy yourself a gift! This is the season to give not to receive … from yourself.

If you find yourself swept up in the rush of consumerism, stop! Remember that Christmas is about God’s gracious and abundant gifts to humanity — the gifts of life, family and friends, good food, music, worship; the virtues of peace, charity and mercy; and the greatest of all: His Son, Jesus. Savor these things. Ponder the truth so beautifully expressed in the words of my favorite Christmas carol:

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Christmas reminds us that we who were without hope, weary and discontent, slaves to sin and sorrow, now have a real and present hope. We can be saved from this dreadful condition and finally discover satisfaction and contentment not because we received the latest gadget but because “God so loved the word that He sent His only begotten Son”! We can be reconciled with God! So this Christmas let us not be swept away by the illusory claims of consumerism; instead, let us revel in God’s gracious gifts, to drink deeply the wonder of relationships and life and every moment of this season — these will leave you truly satisfied and debt free!

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Thanksgiving: A National Tradition

Monday, November 23, 2009

As we, once again, approach this national day of thanksgiving, I thought it necessary to reflect upon our nation's long history of acknowledging and giving thanks to Almighty God.

On October 3, 1789, George Washington issued the nation's first presidential proclamation, in which he called the nation to set aside a day for giving thanks to that "great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be..."

President Washington gave under his official hand the following words:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor…

Furthermore, President Washington acknowledged that he was joined by the Congress in his appeal to the nation:

Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:" … that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

This presidential proclamation represented, in unequivocal terms, the government's call upon the people of this nation to acknowledge and give thanks to God for His many and abundant blessings. These were not benign religious platitudes, but absolute statements reflecting the consensus view of life and reality which acknowledged that there is one God; the God who has revealed Himself in Scripture, in nature and in the person of Jesus Christ. It is this God that the nation once acknowledged and it is this God, the one true God that the people of this nation have turned against and today refuse to acknowledge and serve.

President Washington concluded his proclamation with these words:

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Seventy-four years later, in the midst of the great Civil War, President Lincoln would issue a similar call to the nation acknowledging the nation's many blessings from the Lord, "… who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy." President Lincoln, like our first president, would once again call the nation to national thanksgiving and repentance with these words:

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience … and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

America, in its folly, has been in the process of severing its national identity and dependence from the God who has given it birth and blessed it for so long. Therefore, it seems to me that we might be well served to recall the proclamation of these great men set aside for this Thanksgiving holiday and once again give thanks to Almighty God for His longsuffering patience and mercy toward this nation and humbly repent of our national rebellion and wanton disregard for all that is holy and just.

This national repentance begins in the church, which has seemingly lost its way — abandoned (practically speaking) its first love and so often conformed to the world. May we on this Thanksgiving Day acknowledge the many and abundant blessings of Almighty God accompanied by a deep and sorrowful repentance for our individual, corporate and national sins. This, my dear brothers and sisters is our only hope and it is for this real hope and the promise of forgiveness that we can give thanks indeed!

May the Lord, in His great mercy, pour out His spirit upon you, your families, His church and this nation this Thanksgiving Day.

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About Michael Craven

S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture and the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress, 2009). Michael's ministry is dedicated to equipping the church to engage the culture with the redemptive mission of Christ. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture and the teaching ministry of S. Michael Craven, visit: www.battlefortruth.org

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