peace
May 6th, 2003, 08:59 PM
The Vanishing Conscience.- By Dr. John MacArthur.
We live in a culture that has elevated pride to the status of a virtue. Self-esteem, positive feelings and personal dignity are what our society encourages people to seek. At the same time, moral responsibility is being replaced by victimisation, which teaches people to blame someone else for their personal failures and iniquities. Frankly, the biblical teachings about human depravity, sin, guilt, repentance, and humility are not compatible with any of those ideas.
The church has been far too willing to embrace the fads of worldly opinion- particularly in the area of psychology and self-esteem. Christians often merely echo worldly thinking on the psychology of guilt and the importance of feeling good about oneself. The adverse effect on the life of the church can hardly be underestimated.
Nowhere has the damage registered more than in the way professing Christians deal with their own sin. In speaking to Christians around the country, I have seen a disheartening trend developing for at least two decades. The church as a whole is growing less concerned with sin, and more obsessed with self-exoneration and self-esteem. Christians are rapidly losing sight of sin as the root of all human woes. And many Christians are explicitly denying that their own sin can be the cause of their personal anguish. More are more are attempting to explain the human dilemma in wholly unbiblical terms: temperament, addiction, dysfunctional families the child within, co-dependency and a host of other irresponsible escape mechanisms promoted by secular psychology.
The potential impact of such a drift is frightening. Remove the reality of sin, and you take away the possibility of repentance. Abolish the doctrine of human depravity and you void the divine plan of salvation. Erase the notion of personal guilt and you eliminate the need for a Saviour. Obliterate the human conscience and you will raise an amoral and unredeemable generation. The church cannot join hands with the world in such a grossly satanic enterprise. To do so is overthrow the very Gospel we are called to proclaim.
This book is not merely a lament about society’s deplorable moral state or the damage we see caused by sin all around us. Nor is it an attempt to stir Christians up to tackle the impossible task of reconstructing society. …. Awakening the church to the awful reality of sin is my only point of concern. That alone would have a positive effect on the world.
……….The weakness of the church is not that we’re too uninvolved in the politics or administration of our society, but that we too easily absorb the false values of an unbelieving world. The problem is not too little activism, but too much assimilation. As I noted in a recent book, the church is fast becoming like the world in several respects. Those most active in the social and political realms are often the first to absorb the world’s values. Social and political activism cannot have any worthwhile impact on society if their own conscience are not clear and strong.
‘Reclaiming’ the culture is a pointless, futile exercise. I am convinced we are living in a post-Christian society- a civilisation that exists under God’s judgment. ….abundant evidence suggests that God has abandoned this culture to its own depravity. Certainly He is not interested in superficial moral reform for an unregenerate society. God’s purpose in this world – and the church’s only legitimate commission – is the proclamation of the message of sin and salvation to individuals, whom God sovereignly redeems and calls out of the world. God’s purpose is to save those who will repent of their sins and believe the Gospel – not to work for external corrections in a morally bankrupt culture.
If that sounds the least bit pessimistic or cynical to you, it isn’t. Scripture predicted time exactly like these:
In the last days difficult times will come.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of
Money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, dis-
Obedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving,
Irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without
self-control, brutal hates of good, treacherous,
reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures
rather than lovers of Good; holding to a form
of godliness, although they have
denied its power…… [And] evil men and
impostors will proceed from bad to worse
deceiving and being deceived (2 Tim. 3:1-5, 13).
God’s purpose are being fulfilled, no matter how vainly people strive against Him. Titus 2:11 assures us that God’s grace appears, bringing salvation in the midst of the lowest human depravity, teaching us to live ‘sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age.’ (v.12).
There is great hope, even in the midst of wicked and perverse generation, for those who love God. Remember, He will build His church and ‘gates of Hell shall not overpower it’ (Matt. 16:18). He also is able to make all things work together for the good of His elect (Rom. 8:28). Christ Himself intercedes for His chosen ones, people who are not of this world, even as He is not of this world (John 17:14). What is His prayer? ‘I do not ask Thee to take them out of this world, but to keep them from the evil one…… Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth’ (vv. 15,17).
As a believer, then, our duty with regard to sin is not to try to purge all society’s ills, but to apply ourselves diligently to the work of our own sanctification. The sin we need to be most concerned with is the sin in our own lives. Only as a church becomes holy can it begin to have a true, powerful effect on the outside world – and it won’t be an external effect, but a changing hearts. This is the message for believers- Christians who are aliens and strangers in a hostile world (1 Pet. 2:11). It is an appeal that we commit ourselves to biblical thinking, that we see ourselves as God sees us, and that we deal honestly with our sins.
….The church desperately needs to recover some of our ancestors’ holy dread of sin – or we will enter the twenty-first century severely crippled.
My prayer is that this book will prompt evangelicals to turn again with new appreciation to the biblical doctrines of human depravity, sin, and the role of the conscience, leading to personal holiness. My prayer also is that it will help stem the tide of spiritual apathy, carelessness, shamelessness and self-centredness that world thinking has begun to breed among Bible-believing Christians. My most earnest prayer is that individual Christians who read it will be encouraged to reject such world values, and instead nurture ‘love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith’ (1 Tim 1:5).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpts from the book “The Vanishing Conscience” pages 11-15 (Preface) Printed in 1994.
By Dr. John MacArthur.
Can be ordered from www.gty.org.
We live in a culture that has elevated pride to the status of a virtue. Self-esteem, positive feelings and personal dignity are what our society encourages people to seek. At the same time, moral responsibility is being replaced by victimisation, which teaches people to blame someone else for their personal failures and iniquities. Frankly, the biblical teachings about human depravity, sin, guilt, repentance, and humility are not compatible with any of those ideas.
The church has been far too willing to embrace the fads of worldly opinion- particularly in the area of psychology and self-esteem. Christians often merely echo worldly thinking on the psychology of guilt and the importance of feeling good about oneself. The adverse effect on the life of the church can hardly be underestimated.
Nowhere has the damage registered more than in the way professing Christians deal with their own sin. In speaking to Christians around the country, I have seen a disheartening trend developing for at least two decades. The church as a whole is growing less concerned with sin, and more obsessed with self-exoneration and self-esteem. Christians are rapidly losing sight of sin as the root of all human woes. And many Christians are explicitly denying that their own sin can be the cause of their personal anguish. More are more are attempting to explain the human dilemma in wholly unbiblical terms: temperament, addiction, dysfunctional families the child within, co-dependency and a host of other irresponsible escape mechanisms promoted by secular psychology.
The potential impact of such a drift is frightening. Remove the reality of sin, and you take away the possibility of repentance. Abolish the doctrine of human depravity and you void the divine plan of salvation. Erase the notion of personal guilt and you eliminate the need for a Saviour. Obliterate the human conscience and you will raise an amoral and unredeemable generation. The church cannot join hands with the world in such a grossly satanic enterprise. To do so is overthrow the very Gospel we are called to proclaim.
This book is not merely a lament about society’s deplorable moral state or the damage we see caused by sin all around us. Nor is it an attempt to stir Christians up to tackle the impossible task of reconstructing society. …. Awakening the church to the awful reality of sin is my only point of concern. That alone would have a positive effect on the world.
……….The weakness of the church is not that we’re too uninvolved in the politics or administration of our society, but that we too easily absorb the false values of an unbelieving world. The problem is not too little activism, but too much assimilation. As I noted in a recent book, the church is fast becoming like the world in several respects. Those most active in the social and political realms are often the first to absorb the world’s values. Social and political activism cannot have any worthwhile impact on society if their own conscience are not clear and strong.
‘Reclaiming’ the culture is a pointless, futile exercise. I am convinced we are living in a post-Christian society- a civilisation that exists under God’s judgment. ….abundant evidence suggests that God has abandoned this culture to its own depravity. Certainly He is not interested in superficial moral reform for an unregenerate society. God’s purpose in this world – and the church’s only legitimate commission – is the proclamation of the message of sin and salvation to individuals, whom God sovereignly redeems and calls out of the world. God’s purpose is to save those who will repent of their sins and believe the Gospel – not to work for external corrections in a morally bankrupt culture.
If that sounds the least bit pessimistic or cynical to you, it isn’t. Scripture predicted time exactly like these:
In the last days difficult times will come.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of
Money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, dis-
Obedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving,
Irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without
self-control, brutal hates of good, treacherous,
reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures
rather than lovers of Good; holding to a form
of godliness, although they have
denied its power…… [And] evil men and
impostors will proceed from bad to worse
deceiving and being deceived (2 Tim. 3:1-5, 13).
God’s purpose are being fulfilled, no matter how vainly people strive against Him. Titus 2:11 assures us that God’s grace appears, bringing salvation in the midst of the lowest human depravity, teaching us to live ‘sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age.’ (v.12).
There is great hope, even in the midst of wicked and perverse generation, for those who love God. Remember, He will build His church and ‘gates of Hell shall not overpower it’ (Matt. 16:18). He also is able to make all things work together for the good of His elect (Rom. 8:28). Christ Himself intercedes for His chosen ones, people who are not of this world, even as He is not of this world (John 17:14). What is His prayer? ‘I do not ask Thee to take them out of this world, but to keep them from the evil one…… Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth’ (vv. 15,17).
As a believer, then, our duty with regard to sin is not to try to purge all society’s ills, but to apply ourselves diligently to the work of our own sanctification. The sin we need to be most concerned with is the sin in our own lives. Only as a church becomes holy can it begin to have a true, powerful effect on the outside world – and it won’t be an external effect, but a changing hearts. This is the message for believers- Christians who are aliens and strangers in a hostile world (1 Pet. 2:11). It is an appeal that we commit ourselves to biblical thinking, that we see ourselves as God sees us, and that we deal honestly with our sins.
….The church desperately needs to recover some of our ancestors’ holy dread of sin – or we will enter the twenty-first century severely crippled.
My prayer is that this book will prompt evangelicals to turn again with new appreciation to the biblical doctrines of human depravity, sin, and the role of the conscience, leading to personal holiness. My prayer also is that it will help stem the tide of spiritual apathy, carelessness, shamelessness and self-centredness that world thinking has begun to breed among Bible-believing Christians. My most earnest prayer is that individual Christians who read it will be encouraged to reject such world values, and instead nurture ‘love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith’ (1 Tim 1:5).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpts from the book “The Vanishing Conscience” pages 11-15 (Preface) Printed in 1994.
By Dr. John MacArthur.
Can be ordered from www.gty.org.