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Chasing The Culture vs. Leading It

By Phillip Ross

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Published: 25Apr2009
Word count: 924
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Many very smart Christians get caught up in trying to impress the world with their learning, abilities and/or stylishness -- scientists, scholars, theologians, musicians and artists. They are not trying to be unfaithful. Rather, they are trying to keep Christianity on the cutting edge, to keep it relevant in the face of astounding scientific discoveries, with advances in academic research, and with cutting edge anthropology, with new styles in music and art. We don't want to sell them short. They are trying to do what they think is right. Most of them are a lot smarter than we are. Nonetheless, the point to be made is that such Christians are chasing the culture, not leading it. They are following the world, not the Lord.

That is the point that Paul makes in the latter half of this first chapter of First Corinthians. Paul said that the gospel of Jesus Christ is opposed to the wisdom (sohia) of the world. It is not opposed to intelligence per se, but wisdom that is based on the values and presuppositions of the world, apart from God. Paul did not say that Christians are not intelligent. Many are, and all should be growing in this regard. Paul said that the gospel needs to be preached "not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power" (1 Corinthians 1:18). The power of the gospel is lost through eloquence and worldly wisdom (sophia). We can extrapolate and say that the gospel does not need to be couched in cutting edge musical forms or with the latest dramatic formulas, it does not need to fit into the latest anthropological theories about the origins of humanity, or in accord with the latest astronomical discoveries, in as much as those things are driven by godlessness. It does not need to be relevant to worldly godlessness. That is not what will attract the not-yet-saved.

But this is not what most people in the churches today believe. This perspective goes against modern evangelism techniques (techniques, I should add, which are not really working very well. The church in America has not grown in raw numbers for decades). Christians today want their preachers to be persuasive and powerful in their preaching. That's what it means to be eloquent. Aristotle defined the art of public speaking in the West. He called it rhetoric, and taught the skills of public speaking and argumentation (or persuasion). We might think of it as the art of story telling, both written and verbal.

Public speakers are taught to tell the audience what you are going to tell them, then tell them, and then tell them what you told them. Keep your messages simple and repetitive. It's a standard technique to make three points in any speech, and to repeat each point three times in different ways. You are probably familiar with this wisdom. But is it biblical? Did Paul do this? How about Jesus? No, the Bible doesn't engage this kind of worldly wisdom. There are many rhetorical devises -- alliteration, allusion, analogy, hyperbole, metaphor, simile, and a host of others. These are the tools of the public speaker and the story teller. Are they biblical? The Bible is in fact filled with such things. The Bible uses them liberally. The Bible intends to persuade through story telling, the telling of His-story. So, is Paul saying that preaching should not use the tools of rhetoric? The issue for Paul is not rhetoric per se, but godlessness. It is the godlessness of the world that accounts for its academic folly. It is the effort of the godless "who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth" (Romans 1:18) that is the problem.

The unrighteous suppress the truth. The church, in contrast, needs to proclaim the truth boldly, without equivocation or eloquence, to speak the truth plainly, directly, and without embellishment. And by presenting the gospel as Scripture presents it -- simply, plainly, clearly, without dressing it up in the latest worldly fashions, it becomes clear that it works by the power of God and not by the power of dynamic communication skills, rhetoric or marketing techniques.

Paul identifies two categories of people in verse 18: those who are perishing and those who are being saved. For the one, the "word of the cross (Scripture) is folly." For the other, it is "the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). These are two very different perspectives. Paul doesn't say that those who don't understand Scripture are lost, rather he says that those who are lost don't understand Scripture. Nor does he say that those who understand it do so because they are saved. Rather, he says that those who are saved are able to understand it. The difference is critical. It is the difference between works-righteousness and salvation by grace. It is the difference between allowing the power of God to direct the not-yet-saved into salvation and directing the unsavable to go through the motions of religious affiliation for the appearance of success in evangelism and church growth.

Paul makes an astonishing statement, "in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom" (1 Corinthians 1:21). This essentially means that people cannot know God through their own efforts. God cannot be learned through study. God cannot be discerned through science. We cannot build a bridge to God. And that's exactly the way that God wants it! The only way that God can be known is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). If God doesn't provide it of His own free will, it can't get got!

Phillip A. Ross has been a pastor for over 25 years and is the author of many Christian books. In 1998 he founded http://www.Pilgrim-Platform.org , which is loaded with information about historic Christianity. His exposition of First Corinthians in 2008 demonstrates the Apostle Paul's fierce opposition to worldly Christianity. Arsy Varsy -- Reclaiming the Gospel in First Corinthians, Ross's book, shows how Paul turned the world upside down.

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