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Justin Bieber, The Cross, Evangelicalism, and God’s Grace
This morning I was sitting somewhere, not by my choice, that had a television with a Justin Bieber music video playing. I couldn’t understand the lyrics, but I could see some of the action of the video. I knew it was Justin Bieber. He stood in a gigantic shallow swimming pool, about two and a half feet deep. He was wearing white shorts, a dark t-shirt. Behind him were dozens of women, filling the entire pool, wearing tight, tiny shorts and form-fitting halter tops. They danced in sync with one another, very sexually.
Bieber drew my attention with a cross he wore. As he moved in his sensual manner, jerking and twisting in the swimming pool, the cross flung and hopped all around, hanging around his neck. Justin Bieber made the cross, the cross, a feature of his video. He associated the cross with all the other lurid features of his production. This typifies modern evangelicalism.
The two words together, “the cross,” appear eighteen times in the New Testament. Sometimes it speaks of the actual cross, such as Matthew 27:40, “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross,” which is the Gospel usage in Matthew through John. Other times, the Apostle Paul often uses it as a symbol, as in 1 Corinthians 1:17-18:
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
Paul wraps up his argument for Galatians by using “the cross” in Galatians 6:12 and then verse 14:
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
The Apostle Paul talks about the enemies of the cross of Christ in Philippians 3:18-21:
18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) 20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
What Is the Righteousness of the Pharisees That Ours Is Supposed to Exceed According to Jesus?
In what’s called the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says in Matthew 5:20:
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
I’ve heard this explained in a number of different ways, often, I’ve found, in convenient ones to make room for false doctrine or practice. One error I’ve heard says something like the following and maybe you’ve said it. I’m going to indent it, so that you’ll know it’s representing what other people say it means:
The Pharisees were super righteous people. They were fastidious at keeping the law, since they were experts and were so, so into the law. They were very righteous people, just not perfect, which is what it had to be in order to be saved.
Furthermore, there are versions of Pharisees today. They try to keep all the laws and are very strict. This strictness is Pharisaical, and it produces people who are self-righteous and are trying to impress people with their righteousness by being stricter than others.
This representation of the “righteousness of the Pharisees” doesn’t fit the context in the sermon of Jesus. Jesus wasn’t talking about how greatly righteous the Pharisees were, but how poor their righteousness was. That is seen in the preceding and the proceeding context of Jesus’ sermon. I contend that evangelicals use this false interpretation of the sermon to attack both keeping the law and strict keeping of the law.
A misrepresentation of Jesus, that He wishes to disabuse His audience, was that He, as a teacher, was trying to destroy the law. He says in verse 17:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
You could hear, “Just the opposite.” What Jesus came to preach didn’t result in people not being righteous. They couldn’t and wouldn’t be righteous the Pharisee way. The Pharisees were the ones diminishing the law, not Jesus, and Jesus illustrates that in the post context of verses 21 to 48. The standard remained God and not the Pharisees, as Jesus ends the chapter in verse 48.
As Jesus described His position on not destroying the law, He talked about the perpetuity of every jot and tittle (verse 18) and that the greatest in His kingdom kept the least of His commandments (verse 19). The salvation that Jesus taught would produce righteous people. They could and would keep the law — more than that.
Jesus first illustrates His position by giving several examples of the application of “Thou shalt not kill.” His audience had been taught that a particular law or standard of righteousness and if they were at the Pharisee level, they wouldn’t still be keeping the law like Jesus taught that it should be kept. Because of that, they weren’t being righteous.
If Jesus’ audience hated people in their heart, they were guilty of murder before God. If they said certain hateful things, they were committing murder. If they wouldn’t reconcile with someone, they were as much murderers likewise.
Pharisaical righteousness was designed around something less than law keeping. They didn’t really keep the Sabbath, didn’t really not murder, and didn’t really not commit adultery. They didn’t really love God or their neighbor.
The Pharisees concocted means of appearing to keep the law or just keeping their own minimization of the law, what we might call today a deconstruction of the law. With the Pharisees, you could keep the law without actually keeping it. Jesus pointed this out again and again.
You don’t have the righteousness of God when you have that of the Pharisees. You weren’t keeping the law, when you were a Pharisee.
There is an irony to the false interpretation. It is Pharisaical. It purposefully diminishes the law and therefore diminishes the righteousness of God. What I’m saying also fits into what the Apostle Paul said that they did in Romans 10:3:
For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
The righteousness of justification by faith produces a righteousness greater than what the Pharisees believed and lived. It would look like the righteousness of God, because it was a righteousness of the power of God. This was having your house built on the rock of Jesus Christ and not the sand of the Pharisees.
Defining Pharisaism By Fleshing Out Its Confrontation by the Lord Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount
Terms like Pharisaism and legalism are often blunt instruments used today against churches and individual believers. They can be much like the word, racism. People weaponize terms to protect a belief or lifestyle through castigation. At the worst, they want to eliminate the objects of their scorn. Maybe they’re right about the ones they want to cancel and what they believe and practice. Is it true though? Are their targets really Pharisees and legalists?The Lord Jesus confronted Pharisaism and legalism with His Sermon on the on Mount in Matthew 5-7. The sermon explains salvation, but in a unique way to cast down the corrupt view of the Pharisees, the religion of the day. Their teaching was so prevalent everywhere, what Jesus then preached was also dealing with the thinking of everyone in His audience. Even if He wasn’t preaching to Pharisees, He was preaching to Pharisaism and legalism.
What Is Worldly Worship?
At least twenty years ago, from scripture I came to the following as a definition of worship. It is my definition, but I believe it reflects what the Bible says. “Worship is acknowledging or recognizing God for Who He is according to His Word and giving Him what He says that He wants.” If I were going to add a secondary important aspect, “worship necessitates coming to the right God and in the right way.” You aren’t worshiping God if He isn’t actually God and then you’re not worshiping Him if you are doing it your way. God doesn’t accept just anything.
I googled the two terms “worldly worship” and it produced 12,300 results. Those were not all articles written by me, although I found I had used that terminology in some online writings. It is a known concept though, worship that is worldly that is not acceptable to God, which is of the nature of the world system and not the nature of God. I went ahead and googled “syncretistic worship” too, because I think it’s a related concept. That showed up 6,060 times.
Syncretize means: to “attempt to amalgamate or reconcile (differing things, especially religious beliefs, cultural elements, or schools of thought).” When referring to syncretism in worship, many have pointed to the practice in Israel of bringing aspects of the worship of paganism into the worship of God, mixing the two. Many examples of syncretism are seen in the nation Israel (Exodus 32:1-8; Leviticus 10:1-7; Deuteronomy 12:30-31; 1 Kings 3:5-10; etc.). The way Israel syncretized is not the only way to syncretize. Mixing something impure with purity makes it impure.
Speaking of worship, Paul commands, “be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2). Because God accepts only holy worship, not profane, then it can’t be conformed to this world system, the spirit of the age. Obviously, everything we do occurs in this world or on this planet, on earth. The world system clashes with God. It is represented by darkness and all the characteristics described in scripture as seen in many places, one of which as an example is James 3:15: “earthly, sensual, and devilish.” There are many more. One should assume that all of these can be understood and applied.
The world is attractive to sinful flesh. Satan shapes the world system to lure people away from God. Because the world is a lure, it also works when a church uses it. Satan designs it as a lure and if a church takes that lure and uses it, it’s still a lure. That’s the temptation of using anything worldly.
Varied aspects of this world are filled with meaning. Many of those meanings are not congruent with God. One should even expect that they are not. Whatever it is that will please God has already been around. One should question any new style or method, especially that has proceeded from worldly lust, which Titus 2:11-12 says that the grace of God teaches us to deny. I contend that rather than denying worldly lust, most churches today promote it. They might argue that this new way is neutral, neither good or bad. God’s people didn’t originate it, actually rejected it, and then after a period of time, accepted it, then used it, arguing now that God also wants it.
Someone may ask, what basis do I have that churches are using worldly music? I haven’t been in all these churches, so how do I know? Not only have I been all over the country, but I’ve looked at websites of churches all over. I know enough.
Every church and their leaders should want accountability as to whether they are using worldly worship. They should look for constructive criticism. People are deceived in many different ways as they relate to God. The broad road to destruction has many religious people on it. When I read the materials of the church growth movement used as a model for thousands of churches, they encourage worldly worship as means of church growth.
God doesn’t accept worldly worship, so why would churches still do it? Why would Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire to the Lord? I would contend that the strange fire of Nadab and Abihu is a lesser perversion of worship than most worldly worship, and God killed them for offering it. They were still offering incense. They just changed the recipe. They offered something God didn’t say that He didn’t like. They offered something different than what God said He wanted. It seems that Nadab and Abihu just didn’t take God seriously, what could be called, not fearing God. We know what they did was bad and wrong and sinful, but it was still not something that God had said was wrong.
Worldly worship we know God doesn’t want. There are two obvious motives for giving God something He doesn’t want, and they are seen in scripture. First, the one offering it likes it. This is the serving the creature of Romans 1. He’s not really even giving to God as much as he’s doing something for himself that he likes. I’ve seen this again and again in churches I’ve visited. It can happen anywhere. Second, other people will like it too, so it will make the church more popular. The people wanting that worship don’t like what God likes, but they either convince themselves or are just deceived into thinking that God will accept it. A third reason is deceit. The feeling the worldliness causes often is mistaken for a spiritual experience.
Worldly worship parallels with a worldly life. The world offers what the flesh desires. There were times in church history that a wide chasm existed between the worship of the Lord in the churches and the world. That gap has shrunk to where there isn’t much difference. It’s worse that that. The churches like the world and they expect God to like it too. It shows an amazing lack of understanding of God and what He wants.
As you have read this, reader, perhaps you wanted to know more specifics. “Give me a specific of worldly worship.” I could say, using the world’s music in worship. To get more specific, I could go further, using rock music in worship. There are many other specific examples. It’s better to start with the principles for discerning what is worldly and that God doesn’t want something worldly.
To accommodate worldliness, I have heard evangelicals give a very narrow understanding of worldliness as internal only, that nothing external is worldly. However, Paul wrote, “Be not conformed to this world.” There is internal worldliness, the love of the world in the heart, but conforming by definition must be external. God doesn’t want something we can see and hear is worldly. He rejects it.
Psalm 106: Becoming Your Worship
Reading Psalm 106 this week, a psalm accounting the history of Israel, I came to verses 19-20:
19 They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. 20 Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
Man was made in the image of God. Since he is made in God’s image, God is to be his glory. Let’s go through it.
First, they made a molten calf. Second, they worshiped it. Third, by doing those first two things, they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox. It wasn’t even an ox, something God made. It was an image that they made to look like an ox. Instead of being in the image of God, they took on the glory of the ox, which is significantly less. It eats grass. It doesn’t self-exist. It needs grass that God makes.
This activity lessens the man. It reminds me of the young man loitering around the “whorish woman” in Proverbs 6:26, who is “brought to a piece of bread.” The relationship of the young man to the woman is similar to the people of Israel related to their molten calf. The woman has power over him through her seduction, leading him, and his acquiescing to her diminishes him to something akin to a slice of bread. I often like to say that she turns him to carp bait.
Their glory, which is the summation or aggregation of their attributes, who they are, is changed by what they worship. I want to take it a step further. The God or god you imagine is what or who you become. When the true God is imagined in a lesser way, a way not according to his attributes, that is who you become.
You take on the image of who you worship. You are made in the image of God, but perversion is that the person becomes what he worships. This is seen in the use of the term, “holy” (qadosh קָדוֹשׁ) in the Old Testament. The masculine noun קדש (qadesh) denoted a male temple prostitute (Job 36:14, 1 Kings 14:24) and the feminine קדשה (qadesha) described a female religious prostitute (Deuteronomy 23:17). They became what they worshiped. They were separated unto the nature of their god, taking on their god’s image, its attributes.
These evangelical churches using the world’s music aren’t worshiping the true God. The lust with and by which they worship indicates they are becoming who they worship. It is sacred in the sense that it is separated unto the god of their imagination, which would be pleased by lust. The ecstatic worship of Babylonian mysticism carried with it sexual prostitution in Corinth and in Ephesus. True worship is not ecstatic. It worships God in truth, which is to worship God according to the revelation of scripture.
Your children very likely will become the worship of your church. When they turn into that worship, don’t be surprised. Even if it is true worship of the true God, that doesn’t mean that they will still turn out as the glory of God. They will still need to choose that for themselves. It is very tempting to change into the glory of the creature and not the Creator.
What or who someone worships designates his highest value. If the value is diminished, his values are too, and so he is. He is reduced. Worshiping the one and true God in the beauty of His holiness brings glory from the One he worships. The glory of God is the glory of man.
The Command to Worship the LORD in the Beauty of Holiness
Without doubt, scripture teaches that worship of God must be regulated by what God says. The point of this post comes from Psalm 29:2
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
I’ve seen this verse many times. Many. Yet, something occurred to me when I read it in my Bible reading this year that really struck me. Since true worship of God is regulated by scripture, then worship should be regulated especially by this verse. There are not many verses as stark as this one on worship of the LORD. The teaching is also repeated three times. It’s not a stand alone.
1 Chronicles 16:29, “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.”Psalm 96:9, “O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.”
Worship Is God’s Priority for Men: The Case of 2 Chronicles 25
The impression from an overview of scripture is that worship is God’s priority for men. Jesus said to the woman at the well, God is seeking for true worshipers (John 4:23). Jesus said this. David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). What was David’s priority? The worship of God. 1 Chronicles 25:14-16 provide another example:
14 Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them. 15 Wherefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand? 16 And it came to pass, as he talked with him, that the king said unto him, Art thou made of the king’s counsel? forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten? Then the prophet forbare, and said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel
Amaziah, king of Judah, conquered the Edomites based on a prophecy from God. God gave his mercenary army the victory over Edom, which had rebelled against his great-grandfather, Jehoram (verse 14). He obeyed God in slaughtering the Edomites. However, as you can read above, he brought Edom’s gods and bowed down to them and burned incense to them. How did God react to that?
God’s anger was kindled against Amaziah, because of the false worship. There’s more. God was the one who delivered the Edomites, and these new gods could not deliver them. So, God sent a prophet to confront Amaziah.
False worship doesn’t make any sense. God gives every good thing and yet people worship another god and in numbers of different ways. What is it? It doesn’t explain the insanity of this, but we know it still occurs. The true God is not worshiped in a true way. He’s ignored. He’s refused. What causes men to choose a different god or worship the true God in a way He would never accept? Why do they do it?
Maybe it doesn’t matter why. Maybe all that matters is that they do it. In the end, the judgment will come for what, but why still matters. It doesn’t say, but I think we know. We’re supposed to know. God gives everyone every good thing, but God expects something from His worshipers. False gods don’t have the same expectations as God. It’s like doctor shopping. You shop for the god of your choice and have him be your god, and then you get what you want.
Another avenue today is to keep the God of the Bible but conform Him so much to your own preferences and your own style, that He’s not even the same God. He’s god, not God. That’s all over “evangelicalism.” People are important to evangelicalism, and evangelicalism’s god conforms to people. That’s who he is.
The wrong worship and the wrong god merge into one another. They become indistinguishable at some point. Keeping the same “God” is just a masquerade. And then people are so self-deceived, they just don’t know anymore. God knows and He’s angry.
In many ways, people again in a self-deceived way are thinking they can fool God. He won’t know. Or He’ll understand and accept. 2 Peter describes apostasy and in the most rudimentary way, it is not wanting accountability or authority. This does challenge the goodness of God and redefines goodness. Goodness becomes the object of man’s lust, and man doesn’t want a God who doesn’t give him what he wants. Reader, God knows. You won’t get away with it. His worship is His priority.
God is angry with false worship as described in the previous four paragraphs. On the other hand, someone who prioritizes that worship, as flawed even as he may be personally, is a man after God’s own heart. He prioritizes the true worship of God. That doesn’t excuse His flaws, but it’s helpful to know God’s priority.
Amaziah’s worship story is an amazing one. Do you agree? But let’s move on.
God sends a prophet to warn about false worship. True prophets warn against false worship, preach true worship. Practical, successful living matters to God, but worship is the priority. Today that would be to worship the right God the right way, which is in His church, regulated by scripture. Church growth is not the priority, except for more true worshipers. If there isn’t true worship at all, God doesn’t want church growth. He wants church disappearance or elimination.
The message from God through the prophet is not to seek after other gods. Don’t seek them in whatever way anyone may seek them. On the other hand, seek the true God. People don’t know Him, because they don’t seek Him. He must be sought to be known. This relates to a lot about believing the Lord. He is available and can be known, but we must seek Him. Sure, we can’t seek Him without His seeking us, but we must seek Him. It’s crucial.
The first half of verse 16 accounts of the threat by Amaziah to the prophet. That sounds serious, threatening someone who impedes your false worship. I’ve stood at the door arguing about worship for hours. A lot of people would say, let it go. It’s not important, the gospel is important. Except for the gospel is about worship (see John 4:23 again).
When doing spiritual warfare with someone about worship, it is emotional. People don’t want their worship rejected. If it is, something isn’t wrong with them, the false worshipers, it’s you the prophet. It was so serious for Amaziah that he threatened the prophet in one of the most mafia like threats in scripture. There were two components. First, there was a veiled threat of his job as the king’s counsel, a job he would have lost anyway if, second, he was killed by Amaziah.
I want to emphasize that false worshipers want to defend their false worship. I contend that it’s not about their god. It’s about them. They want what they want, and their god is allowing it. God gave the victory. He deserved to be worshiped, but whatever the gods of Edom offered Amaziah, he preferred it.
Not allowing the false worship is like taking food from an animal. I’ve found this to be the reaction. The false worshiper attacks the prophet to keep the worship. I’ve experienced dozens of personal attacks in similar situations with people angry over the challenge of their worship. Cain is an early example in scripture, challenging God and killing his brother over this same issue.
The prophet addressed both threats in an economy of words and in reverse order. Getting straight to the point, God is going to destroy you, implying that you are not going to destroy me. Second, you didn’t listen to my counsel anyway, so you really can’t threaten me with my job. The prophet stood up to the false worshiper and his false worship. He did not back off. This is God’s will, to confront false worship.
Modern evangelicalism and fundamentalism attack those who confront false worship. If you are reading this and you’re one of them, you’re probably defending your attacks with bad arguments. They call it a tertiary issue. You will be canceled by them for confronting false worship. Love is love after all according to the leftish value list. Love would accommodate false worship. God will kill over it. The prophet actually was saving Amaziah’s life. That is actual love, not the toleration of the leftist values now foremost in evangelicalism and fundamentalism. I face those values every week and almost every day.
2 Chronicles 25 is another case for worship as God’s priority for men.
A False Kind of “Unity” Sought by a Typical Evangelical
In the area in which I am evangelizing and starting a church, there are several congregations from the Calvary Chapel movement, which started around here in 1977 in the Rogue Valley. The first and biggest of these has its own radio station, which I listen to very often when I get in the car to go somewhere or do something. Listening the past few weeks, based on what I’m hearing, there’s at least a concern for unity in the church, because it is a constant theme from the two main teachers, a father and his son.
The son was talking about unity in the church and the trouble seemed to focus on a political divide in the church between Democrats and Republicans. I imagine it. There are two factions in the church, the young and Woke and then the older and conservative, which right now would be clashing more than ever. There is a wide chasm between these two and probably some anger. This ravine is so wide that the two can’t come together. A question should arise: how are they in the same church in the first place with such diversity of belief and practice? But they are. Now there’s the attempt to procure this unity with teaching. What would that teaching be?
Unity in scripture is the same belief and practice. Unity isn’t putting up with differences in doctrine. Some evangelical churches today have redefined biblical diversity. Diversity is when you have different genders, ethnicities, gifts, abilities, and socio-economic levels. They work together, but the togetherness is the doctrine and practice based on the truth of scripture. The new and counterfeit diversity is a diversity in doctrine and practice, so the unity is something also different. Evangelicals often celebrate the diversity of doctrine in a church and conflate it to a welcome diversity taught in scripture. In fact it’s just disunity being tolerated.
The unity of the Bible is what Jesus prayed for in John 17, which is the same unity as Jesus had with God the Father. This is perfect unity based on the truth. They don’t agree to disagree. That’s also reflected in every single passage on unity in the Bible, which are many. None of those passages differ and none of them teach what evangelicals say unity is. They are disunified with the unity passages.
If I were to offer one verse that provides the biblical teaching, I would provide 1 Corinthians 1:10:
Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.
I’m not going to break it down. It’s self-explanatory. It’s almost redundant in its emphasis on what unity really is and in contradiction to how it is being perverted.
Why is unity defined so much in scripture? One, God wants it. Two, it’s going to be attacked and perverted. And it is.
So what is the perverted view that I heard on the radio, an attempt to conform two such divergent groups into one? He said that the one faction needed to see the other faction as its enemy. The Bible commands, love thy enemies. He said that when you treat an enemy with love, then the next thing you know, he won’t be an enemy any more. Then that person will be your neighbor. Then you just love your neighbor. He didn’t prove any of this assertion, but is it right? Or what’s wrong with it?
How does someone love his enemy? He doesn’t murder him, steal from him, and bear false witness against him. As much as possible he lives peaceably with him. He preaches the gospel to him.
Loving your enemies is not overlooking their false beliefs and practices. It is confronting them and rebuking them and finally separating from them. You can’t fellowship with false beliefs and practices. You can only reprove them (Ephesians 5:11). You don’t become friends or neighbors of an enemy by accepting his false belief and practice. You can’t keep enemies in a church. They have to become friends and that comes by alignment with the truth. If they are enemies because of doctrine and practice, which is what this evangelical leader is talking about, the false doctrine and belief must change.
What is being taught is that the false doctrine and practice must be tolerated. This is loving the enemy. “It’s okay fellow church member that you hold to false doctrine and practice.” This is disobedience to scripture, it isn’t unity, and it isn’t love. Toleration of sin isn’t unity. For much of evangelicalism, keeping together a coalition is more important than pleasing God.
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