Preserving the Gospel

Part of my sermon this past Sunday (August 13, 2023) included a conversation about what it means to be made a “kingdom of priests” by God (Exodus 19:6). Biblically, the priesthood is responsible for basically two things: teaching the Law of God to the people and facilitating and protecting worship. Within the nation of Israel, a single tribe was called to be priests for their nation – the Levites – but in this passage God is calling the entire nation of people to be priests to the rest of the world. It is a stunning move by God before the Law is even given.

It makes God’s people missionaries. They are God’s chosen people who will benefit from a special relationship with Him, but that includes the expectation to carry God’s Law to the nations and teach them the good news of God. This call does not stop with the end of the Old Testament. The Church is designed to be a scattered family of spiritual brothers and sisters who are a “holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). The Church consists of the called and saved people of God who enjoy a special relationship with their Savior through the presence of the Holy Spirit, but who are also expected to take the gospel to the nations, making disciples, and teaching them to do everything Christ told us to do (Matthew 28:19-20).

In this context I made the comment that the church is intended to “preserve and proclaim the Gospel.” We cannot allow it to be watered down or altered by the pressures of culture around us. If we no longer believe in or proclaim the gospel handed to us by Scripture, we have nothing to offer the rest of the world but our capitulation and flaccid approval.

After the service, I had a conversation with a man who took some notes and was intrigued by the idea, “preserving the Gospel.” We had a good conversation, but his fundamental question (in a good way) was, “What do you mean by ‘preserving’? How do we do that?”

After giving that some more thought, here are some ways I believe the church and faithful Christians can preserve the truths handed down once and for all for the saints (Jude 1:3). I would love to hear what else you find important.

Pulpits and Parents

I am convinced that the depressing numbers on the biblical illiteracy among Christians in America can be traced in large part back to the illiteracy of American pulpits. Where our Puritan predecessors rigorously exposited Scripture, used lectionaries, and expected the people in the pews to live according to the laws of God, we now find ourselves in a place where sermons and their expectations have changed radically. How many modern Christian books can be moved to the “Self Help” section? When congregants are not systematically taken through a book of the Bible or shown in a sermon how the Gospels connect with the themes of the Old Testament prophets, say, they will eventually know next to nothing about Scripture. And eventually, they won’t believe it.

Parents are another critical guardian of the truths of Scripture. Alongside school (if a child is not homeschooled) and the media, parents have the most facetime and influence with their kids. Training children to value Scripture, prayer, and to love Christ, are among the most important things a household can do. The family is the first form of government instituted by God, and nothing has changed that (Genesis 2:24). The home is of tremendous value to God and can be a powerful place of maturity and transformation into the image of Christ. Though the culture currently works hard against the health of the family and the authoritative roles of parents, Christian homes can buck the trend and raise holy and healthy kids.

[One resource I was privileged to contribute to.]

Apologetics: Truth and Falsehood

The work of apologetics is fruitful for at least four ends: learning what is true and why, learning what is false and why, critical thinking skills, and learning to love truth. Apologetics is not just for the academically inclined, or for bookworms. It is best applied among average Christians. It is, after all, the average Christian who is forced to attend their company’s DEI training, or who receive memos from HR about how to address certain people, and what kinds of public displays of religious items are not tolerated. It is the average Christian who hears a plethora of conflicting ideas on cable news about what is important and why. It is the average Christian parent who must answer their teen’s questions about their friend’s sexuality.

Christians know what their company and their kid’s school thinks about the big ideas in our culture right now. Do they know what the Bible has to say? Do they know what their pastor thinks? If not, they have no way to counter dangerous falsehoods, and can easily slip into the narrative that says, “Christians are supposed to love everyone just as they are.”

What is true about God’s design of human beings? What is false about the ways our culture has promoted what Carl R. Trueman called, “expressive individualism”? The church can, even through the systematic preaching of God’s Word, instill guardrails and critical thinking skills in the hearts and minds of people who want to love Jesus more.

Courage

I believe the critical virtue for the Christian right now is courage. We need to know that the world’s arguments in favor of their ideas are really bad. Their positions not only hinge on immoral ideas and a tsunami of emotions, they fail as ideas. In fact, it is often noted how little cultural leftism even argues anymore. The minute an objection is raised against cultural Marxism, transgenderism, abortion or pedophilia, the reaction is not argument but emotion. One professor of mine used to call that, “truth by volume.”

Courage is important in an atmosphere of emotionalism because the moment a Christian stands for the faith in the public square they should not expect to be met with respectful disagreement. Tomato throwing will be more the case. Personal attacks will become the norm. And now it is not outside the realm of possibility that a courageous Christian will find themselves doxed, credibly threatened, even arrested for being a Christian in public spaces.

Scott Yenor, is his piece for First Things, “The Anatomy of a Cancellation,” finishes his thoughts with:

Churches have a duty to cultivate in their flocks a spirit of martyrdom, a willingness to pay the price for Christian witness. A church of “cultural engagement,” emphasizing niceness at the expense of doctrine, inculcates the innocence of doves without the wisdom of serpents. Supporting controversial witness is a necessity in an orthodox Christian church. The gospel is a sword; so is the law. While my cancellation was afoot, I received many handwritten notes of encouragement from my fellow parishioners. Other parishioners were solicitous for my family and my mental state when I encountered them at worship. Just as my fellow board members at Ambrose stood firm in our mission, so did my church. I am grateful.

Though churches should not teach their parishioners to run full-steam into machine-gun nests, the beauty of the martyrs is a story as old as Christendom. St. Ambrose’s courage to refuse Communion to Theodosius over the Massacre of Thessalonica was possible only because he feared God more than he feared man. As did St. Stephen in the face of stoning; as did Justin Martyr, beheaded for witnessing to Christ among the Romans; as did so many others. Such examples of faithfulness are crucial. Cancellation is not martyrdom, of course, but it is in the odor of it. And churches that recognize its nobility are much more likely to be rallying points for all that is central to Christian faith.

Is it possible we have reached a point where the deliberate preservation of the faith in our churches and families requires us to look at the future as not just Christian soldiers, but also as possible martyrs? I think so.