Good day all!!
It seems, once again, the major players in American Christianity are obsessed with sex. Mark Driscoll has kicked off his release his new book (co-authored with his wife) Real Marriage. this comes on the heels of Ed Young Jr. announcing that as a part of his ongoing "Sexperiment", he and his wife will be web-casting themselves from the roof of their "church" while in bed.
I've stared at my screen for the past 15 minutes because, honestly, I don't know what to say about this any more. I could very easily fall into a diatribe about how dumb this is and rail against how this is a reason, and an indicator, of the fall of American Christianity. Likely, what I'm about to say will have elements of this.
Yet, what I really want to express to you is how all of this is simply sad. It is sad in the sense that it is deplorable. Here we have two high profile men not only professing to be Christians, but also leading others in the faith and representing themselves to those outside of the faith. Instead they spend their precious little time on this earth tell those in faith about having better sex. Not about the mortification of sin. Not about the deceit of the human heart. Not of the glorious congruity and sufficiency of God's Word. Not even that Jesus loves them. No, rather they the faithful are told about having a more enjoyable sex life. Church then has become not a place of where we sit under teachers to learn more about our wonderful Lord, but rather a social club that is the equivalent to Cosmo.
Think about that for a moment. Here is the one place that is supposed to preach the one Book that exalts the one Lord that was, is, and always will be the ONLY hope for man. A rare and valuable place indeed. This place is led by men that are charged by the Book they are supposed to preach that they are held to a higher standard and they are responsible for those under their care. Those same men have in their very grasp the ability to give the people under their care the keys to grasping eternal life in the presence of a Heavenly Father. By no means is this something to be taken lightly.
Yet having all of those riches in their hand, they neglect them and clamor for dirt! They choose to talk about having better sex instead of pressing on toward the upward calling (Phl 3:14). How putrid! How paltry!
How pathetic. (see definition 4)
It's also sad that it causes me to feel somber as to why this type of thing is popular to begin with. Look at the majority of churches in our Western World. A vast majority of churches in the western world are:
- Purpose Driven
- Seeker Sensitive
- Denominationly Challenged
- Outright Heretical
Nonetheless, it's becoming harder and harder to deny that this is a trend among modern western Christianity and I believe that is explicitly connected to fact that they've abandoned their first love (Rev 2:4-5) and embraced worldliness to begin with. It began by not doing things in church, and in life, in the manner God commands. Instead, they thought that man had a better way. They embraced the wisdom of psychology and pop-culture, believing the traditions of the church and the wisdom of Scripture were tired, old, out of date. Not relevant.
Yet, it's more than that. They've not just replaced traditions (sometimes that's not a bad idea anyway). They've not just abandoned the wisdom of Scripture. They've actually abandoned the God who has given them clear commands. God is clear: they don't exist as a church for the benefit of those who aren't believers, or for those who call Jesus Savior but not Lord. The church exists to edify, teach, and to hold accountable a group of believers who bow their knee fully to Christ; using their spiritual gifts to edify and solidify one another, having fellowship with one another, and worshiping the Lord forever!
It's not about Mark Driscoll or Ed Young Jr. It's not about my pastor. It's not about me. It's not about you.
It's about the Lord our God. The God who gave His life as a ransom. The God who deserves all of our praise and worship.
This trend in Christianity is somber because they taken that wonderful thing and turned it into this:
They've taken the wonderful tradition of exalting God through song and made it into this monstrosity:
You get the despicable picture.
Christians, I implore you to not chase this awful fad. I'm begging you to take Eph 5:3 to Eph 5:12 seriously. This is unbecoming of those who represent our Lord and those who are involved need to repent. Immediately.
