Charlatans and the Gospel

The other night, as I finished my homework, my two roommates were flipping through the TV channels. Sadly, the paid programming of late night TV often has more humor, albeit unintentional, than most comedy sitcoms during prime time. My roommates found their way to the Inspiration Network, which was hosting one of those televangelist programs that more resemble a PBS money drive than the preaching of the Gospel. The pastor, who I will not name, was preaching on the story of Elisha and the widow and the account of the Shumannite woman and her son. After thirty minutes of inchoate shouting and dramatics, characterized with what was at best a questionable hermeneutic, I gleaned that the essential message of his “sermon” (though performance would probably be a more apt term) was that we should pledge $500 and he would pray to God for us and He will solve all of our problems; financial, relational, psychological. His message would probably have made the infamous indulgence salesmen John Tetzel blush. I was regaled with sweeping claims that faith in Jesus (and, more specifically, my giving of $500) would cancel my debt, improve my health, bless me materially, and (I think) even raise loved ones from the dead. It was the health and wealth gospel at its finest. By the way, I like to think that few human beings had more faith in Jesus than St. Paul and he was imprisoned, beaten to near death, lashed, stoned, shipwrecked three times, left adrift at sea, despised by his own people, exposed to the elements, suffered from hunger, and finally was martyred in Rome by Nero.

After his message the pastor ascended to a set of Jesus’ tomb, which was perched in a high corner of the auditorium (for reasons I still don’t understand). For the next half-hour the pastor basically kept shouting the same things over and over again until he was short of breath: you should send me your money so that I can pray for God to bless you. I really wanted to call in and ask him the same question Luther proposed to the pope; if you could pray for people to be blessed, why not do it out of love rather than for money? It seemed that a good proportion of the $500 dollars from each of the 5,000 people who pledged money ($2.5 million total, if his claim was actually correct) must have gone to pay for his silk suit, the vast auditorium that his mega-church met in (10-18,000 members strong!), the Starbucks in his mega-church, and the extravagant set that had been constructed there in the likeness of first century Jerusalem. I am only assuming because he never really told us where all the money for his “ministry” was being spent or what the purpose of his “ministry” really was. After the time for pledging closed, the stone in front of the tomb was rolled away, unleashing a cloud smoke and flashes of light. The pastor had told the audience that true believers would see angels. I’m not sure he was entirely serious. In any case I did not see any angels, but then again I suppose that I am not among the true believers.

The program was simultaneously hilarious and revolting. I could not help feeling that the pastor deserved to be situated nearby one of Dante’s popes in the afterlife. Perhaps my extreme reaction is due to the fact that pastor’s performance comprises all of what I find despicable in contemporary American Christianity. Its style of worship is nothing short of pagan; it demands sacrifices (money) to appease God so he can bless you and give you health, wealth, happiness. God in contemporary American Christianity is little different from a Greek god, albeit more grandfatherly and tame, who can be commanded and manipulated according to certain rituals or actions. Moreover, God does not exist to be worshipped for the mere sake that He is God and or even to bring us salvation. God in the mega-church, like the Greek or Roman pantheon, exists to bless us with health, wealth, and happiness provided that we please him. Essentially he exists to please us. True, many Christians in all ages have turned to God for His strength in hope that He would provide some sort of security for them. And I do not mean to deny that many of the first Christians converted because they saw the power of God displayed before them. The glorious thing about the Christian faith is that it is based on God’s grace with no respect to our individual merit and even our most earthly desires can be used to point us to the greater truths about God. However, I do not believe that the position of a third century Bedouin or a tribal Bushman, who accepted Christ only because of the miracles of a saint or missionary, is someone to be exemplified. Christ tells us that to whom much has been given, much is expected. I believe that in the end we will be judged according to the means to which we have been blessed. But contemporary Americans have been blessed with much; with ample opportunities of education and contemplation (this pastor claimed to be a “doctor,” in what he never tells) and so what churches like this do is inexcusable. Moreover, it may be excusable for recent converts to still be in some degree of darkness but for the Church, who is obligated to spread the truth of the Gospel, to preach base and false doctrines is not.

Christians are commanded to be a light in the darkness. Unfortunately, now, as has often be the case, we do not. We fail and we fail to a miserable degree. We decree that the empire is now the Kingdom of God made manifest, we launched crusades, we burn heretics, we go on holy wars, and we commit fraud. However, we cannot focus on the Church’s earthly existence. St. Paul knew this as well as anyone. He was painfully aware of the failings of the Corinthians, fully admitting that they did what was unheard of, even among pagans. But St. Paul had one comfort, one reason to boast; Jesus Christ. The Gospel, testified to us by the Holy Spirit, is out ideal and the Church is obligated to point all men to this ideal and hold fast to it. Contemporary Christianity has a theology of mediocrity. I like to call it “therapeutic theism.” It involves the belief that God is a grandfather in heaven who exists to bless us and make our lives pleasant and to perhaps, on occasion, rain judgment down on those who disagree with us. It causes contemporary Christians to focus in the things of this earth and to stop there and become complacent. God may indeed bless us materially, but this is not His end. His end is to make us Sons of God and this is a very painful and unpleasant process indeed. The theology of the contemporary American Church ignores Paul’s admonition not to focus on the things of the flesh but to yearn for the things of the Spirit. We do not run the good race, looking toward the finish and the crown of victory, but lay down soon after the start. Christians far too often do not follow the example of Paul but of that of the Hare who was beaten by the Tortoise because he fell asleep during the race. American Christians lust for drama, entertainment, good programs, and nice social gatherings instead of working out our salvation in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, contemplating the glory of God, engaging Him in prayer, marveling at His creation, and proclaiming the good news to the poor.

In short, we Christians do not seek things divine but seek base and trivial things. Part of sin is elevating those things that are part of creation, including ourselves, to the place where God ought to be. We cheat God out of the worship and reverence He deserves when we do this. In this we are terrible fools. I can think of no better example of this than sex. We live an age that glorifies sex, often making it the chief end of man. Christians respond in a very interesting way to this idolatry; they idolize it further. They speak of modern man “debasing” sex, when what he has really done is put it on a pedestal. When I was in high school I went to a youth retreat that dealt with sexual purity, but did so by speaking of sex with a reverence that is akin to communion or baptism! The problem with sex outside of marriage is not that it debases sex, but that sex becomes banal substitute for our true purpose; to be sons of God. We become so enthralled by the pleasures of sex that we turn away from our calling for something higher; true love. Love is a reflection of the most holy Trinity in which for all eternity the three Persons surrender to each other in love becoming one Being. For this is what Scripture says; “the two shall become one flesh.” As Christians, we need do what the hymn says and turn our eyes upon Jesus. As best as we can, we must endeavor to run the good race with our eyes constantly on the prize of becoming true sons of God, living not according to the flesh but of the Spirit. I leave you with this passage of St. Paul to reflect on these things:

¹If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-3)

Faith

In the last post I talked about faith and reason without really defining either. I do not know that the definition of either is really understood by most people in a clear or correct way. When most think of reason they probably think of rational intuition; perceiving whether things make sense. Others might think of reason as the formal rules of logic, say modus ponens and syllogisms. Yet it is also proper, I think, to add perception and the senses to this definition, hence including the sciences as well as mathematics and philosophy. Suffice it to say, reasoning is something that men do; it is how men figure things out about the world. Many contemporary Christians are in the habit of rejecting reason to a certain extent, believing that it is wholly corrupted by sin. In a sense they are right, sin affects our whole being, including our reasoning capabilities. Men seek not the truth. Yet I know of nowhere in Scripture where the Word preaches skepticism. It was Athens and not Jerusalem that produced the school of the Cynics. What I believe Scripture does teach is that while the world can produce knowledge it is not the knowledge of the City of God but of the City of the World; it can produce truth, and truth that can be incorporated by Christians, but truth that is aimed not at knowing God but at pleasing man. And that is where faith comes in. Faith is that which corrects our noetic structure. What, then, is faith? I believe that the Heidelberg Catechism explains it better than I could:

Question 21. What is true faith?

Answer: True faith is not only a certain knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in his word, (a) but also an assured confidence, (b) which the Holy Ghost (c) works by the gospel in my heart; (d) that not only to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation, (e) are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits. (f)

Question 22. What is then necessary for a Christian to believe?

Answer: All things promised us in the gospel, (a) which the articles of our catholic undoubted Christian faith briefly teach us.

Question 23. What are these articles?

Answer: 1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: 2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord: 3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell: 5. The third day he rose again from the dead: 6. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: 7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead: 8. I believe in the Holy Ghost: 9. I believe a holy catholic church: the communion of saints: 10. The forgiveness of sins: 11. The resurrection of the body: 12. And the life everlasting.