Straight, No Chaser
The discussion that grew from the previous post was one that cut to the heart of Christianity. As I've mentioned before, it is essential to define our terms lest they become void of any real meaning. Christianity is a term that necessitates solid definition. Machen realized this and composed Christianity and Liberalism for this very purpose. We may not agree with everything he says, but we cannot deny its importance. To this end, and jumping off the previous post, I'd like to analyze, briefly, the person of Jesus and why it is important to solidify the essentials.
It doesn't take a scholar to notice the increase in attention that is being focused on religion in general in recent months and Christianity specifically. First it was The Da Vinci Code and the numerous television specials probing its claims. Next we had the election and the supposedly grand victory of "moral values", whatever that means. Also with the recent passing of the Pope, the mainstream media has brought religion to the forefront more than any time in recent memory. Machen saw a similar trend in his own time in response to the tumultuous time of war during the early 20th century. He had this to say: "such considerations [that previous solutions have not worked] have led to a renewed public interest in the subject of religion; religion is discovered after all to be a useful thing. But the trouble is that in being utilized religion is also being degraded and destroyed. Religion is being regarded more and more as a mere means to a higher end." (150) This is the crux of the problem. The more we look to religion as a means to an end the more we lose the importance of the message. We tend to water down Christianity in an attempt to derive from it what we want. Recently I read an article about a church in Arizona that has become a "Mega church" (the article has been taken off the site unless you want to pay for it, however if you'd like to read a copy let me know and I'll email you the text). The church was built to avoid looking like a traditional church at all costs. There is no iconography, however there are X-boxes and plasma TV's. Let me preface my next point with an old adage from Seinfeld: "not that there's anything wrong with that". I am not one to doubt that God can work through anything and if this church is bringing people in to hear the real message of Christ then more power to them, I certainly will not scream about the speck in my brother's eye lest I forget the plank in my own. However, there was one part of the article that disturbed me: "Almost half of each service is given over to live Christian rock with simple, repetitive lyrics in which Jesus is treated like a high-school crush: 'Jesus, you are my best friend, and you will always be. Nothing will ever change that.' Committing your life to Christ is as easy as checking a box on the communication cards that can be found on the back of every chair. (Last year, 1,055 people did so.)" Again, I will not deny that God can work through pop music and communication cards, but the message the church is putting across is one of a watered down Christ. Yes, Christ loves us, and yes nothing will ever change that, but to compare him to a high school crush not only demeans our Lord, but it demeans us for worshiping such a Lord. Machen says it this way...it is a long quote, but important:
"Yet such a God has at least one advantage over the comforting God of modern preaching--He is alive, He is sovereign, He is not bound by His creation or by His creatures, He can perform wonders. Could He even save us if He would? He has saved us--in that message the gospel consists. [...] It all seems so very local, so very particular, so very unphilosophical, so very unlike what might have been expected. Are not our own methods of salvation, men say, better than that? [...] Yet what if it were true? [...] God's own Son delivered up for us all, freedom from the world, sought by philosophers of all the ages, offered now freely to every simple soul, things hidden from the wise and prudent revealed unto babes, the long striving over, the impossible accomplished, sin conquered by mysterious grace, communion at length with the holy God, our Father which art in heaven! Surely this and this alone is joy." (134-135).
Okay, you say, so the love expressed in pop songs is not of this magnitude, but it is still love. True, I would respond, however you are also forgetting something else. Machen continues:
"But it is a joy that is akin to fear. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Were we not safer with a God of our own devising--love and only love, a Father and nothing else, one before whom we could stand in our own merit without fear? He who will may be satisfied with such a God. But we, God help us--sinful as we are, we would see Jehovah. Despairing, hoping, trembling, half-doubting and half-believing, trusting all to Jesus, we venture into the presence of the very God. And in His presence we live." (135).
When we water down Christianity we destroy its beauty, its truth, the very thing that makes it worth devoting a life to. We take God and make him manageable and make Him a thing not worth our worship. This is why Machen's book is important and why a constant reiteration, with discussion, with prayer, with thought, of Christianity is important. You may choose to believe or not to believe, this is not an argument to convince unbelievers, but if you choose to believe...believe. Do not make God manageable, let God manage you. If you choose to worship something make sure it is worth your worship.
