The Truth War (21 page)

Their conduct. Second, these “ungodly men . . . turn[ed] the grace of our God into lewdness” (v. 4). That means they presumptuously regarded God's kindness to sinners as a license for immoral conduct. They talked a lot about “grace” and promised “liberty,” but they themselves were slaves of corruption (2 Peter 2:19). All their stress on freedom in Christ was actually a backhanded assault on God's grace. “Grace” to them was nothing more than a phony justification for lust-driven behavior.

Jude 18 echoes the same charge, again using the key word
ungodly
as a description of the false teachers' character: they “walk according to their own ungodly lusts.”

Get the picture here: these were seriously ungodly men, and they were in the church. They were teaching and influencing people with nice-sounding words about grace and freedom in Christ, while in reality they were driven by their own unbridled lust and evil desires. Nevertheless, they gained a following in the church.

We must not be naive. Evil apostates like that are still in the church today. Their ungodliness is not always instantly evident. Some try to hide it under religious robes, divert attention from it by affecting kindliness or congeniality, or mask it with some other superficial kind of piety. They work hard to keep up the spiritual facade, but their true character is ungodly, and they cannot ultimately suppress the inevitable fruit of that. “The works of the flesh are
evident,
which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like” (Galatians 5:19–21, emphasis added).

The ungodliness of an apostate system will occasionally become gross, widespread, and scandalous. A network of pedophile priests, for example—carefully camouflaged under a methodical cover-up that has been orchestrated by the church hierarchy—is a pretty clear sign of a system shot through with apostasy. No amount of clerical garb can mask the evil in that.

But the fruits of apostasy and ungodliness are not necessarily that obvious. Apostates are not unique to any single denomination or theological system. They are by no means limited to cults and fringe groups. On the contrary, they often deliberately conceal themselves within the heart of the evangelical mainstream. Some teach in evangelical seminaries and Bible colleges. Some pastor churches. They publish Christian-themed weblogs. They write books that are sold in evangelical bookstores.

How is their ungodly character manifest? In worldly lifestyles and unwholesome preoccupations. In private behavior that contradicts the carefully crafted public image. In sensual talk and carnal conduct. In the kind of hypocrisy that practices religion merely for the praise of men but cares not about pleasing God (Matthew 6:1–8).

Proof that ungodliness is rampant in evangelical circles is evident in megachurches that purposely cater to the preferences of the ungodly—furnishing entertainment and amusements in place of authentic worship and Bible teaching. More proof is found in a popular doctrinal system that deliberately removes the lordship of Christ from the gospel proclamation to give a theological justification for “carnal Christians”—people who profess to believe in Christ but live ungodly lives.

Still more proof is seen in the erosion of evangelicals' commitment to clear biblical moral standards. As the Emerging movement gains strength, more and more voices within are suggesting that evangelicals should back away from confronting Western culture over moral evils like abortion and homosexuality. Tony Campolo, for example, explained to a reporter why he wrote his book
Speaking My Mind: “
My purpose in writing the book was to communicate loud and clear that I felt that evangelical Christianity had been hijacked. When did it become anti-feminist? When did evangelical Christianity become anti-gay? When did it become supportive of capital punishment? Pro-war? When did it become so negative towards other religious groups?”
²

Brian McLaren says he is not sure “what we should think about homosexuality.” He called for a five-year moratorium on making any pronouncements about whether homosexuality is a sin or not. “In five years, if we have clarity, we'll speak” he said. “If not, we'll set another five years for ongoing reflection.”
³

The recent wave of popular books written by leading figures in the Emerging Church movement has unleashed an unprecedented flood of vulgarity and worldliness onto Christian booksellers' shelves. Obscenity is one of the main trademarks of the Emerging style. Most authors in the movement make extravagant use of filthy language, sexual innuendo, and uncritical references to the most lowbrow elements of postmodern culture, often indicating inappropriate approval for ungodly aspects of secular culture. In the popular book
Blue Like Jazz
, for example, Donald Miller writes of his experience in one of the best-known Emerging churches in the Pacific Northwest, referring to the pastor as “Mark, the Cussing Pastor”:

Even though Mark said cusswords, he was telling a lot of people about Jesus, and he was being socially active, and he seemed to love a lot of people the church was neglecting, like liberals and fruit nuts. About the time I was praying that God would help me find a church, I got a call from Mark the Cussing Pastor, and he said he had a close friend who was moving to Portland to start a church and that I should join him.

Rick and I got together over coffee, and I thought he was hilarious. He was big, a football player out of Chico State. At the time we both chewed tobacco, so we had that in common. He could do a great Tony Soprano voice, sort of a mafia thing. He would do this routine where he pretended to be a Mafia boss who was planting a church. He said a few cusswords but not as bad as Mark.
⁴

Asecular writer doing an article on the Emerging Church movement and postmodern Christianity summed up the character of the movement this way: “What makes a postmodern ministry so easy to embrace is that it doesn't demonize youth culture—Marilyn Manson, ‘South Park,' or gangsta rap, for example—like traditional fundamentalists. Postmodern congregants aren't challenged to reject the outside world.”
⁵

I've noticed the same thing. Whole churches have deliberately immersed themselves in “the culture”—by which they actually mean “whatever the world loves at the moment.” Thus we now have a new breed of trendy churches whose preachers can rattle off references to every popular icon, every trifling meme, every tasteless fashion, and every vapid trend that captures the fickle fancy of the postmodern, secular mind. Worldly preachers seem to go out of their way to put their carnal expertise on display—even in their sermons. In the name of “connecting with the culture” they boast of having see all the latest programs on MTV; memorized every episode of South Park; learned the lyrics to countless tracks of gangsta rap and heavy metal music; or watched who-knows-how-many R-rated movies. They seem to know every fad top to bottom, back to front, and inside out. They've adopted both the style and the language of the world—including lavish use of language that used to be deemed inappropriate in polite society, much less in the pulpit. The want to fit right in with the world, and they seem to be making themselves quite comfortable there.

Let's face it. Scripture speaks quite plainly against such a mentality (James 4:4). Many of the worlds' favorite fads are toxic, and the are becoming increasingly so as our society descends further into the death-spiral described in Romans 1. It's like a radioactive toxicity, so while those who immerse themselves in it might not notice its effects instantly, they nevertheless cannot escape the inevitable, soul-destroying contamination. And woe to those who become comfortable with sinful fads of secular society. The final verse of Romans 1 expressly condemns those “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

APOSTATES FACE AN
INTERESTING DILEMMA.
THEY FREQUENTLY BECOME
SO LOST TO HONOR, SO
LACKING IN DECENCY, SO
INDIFFERENT TO DISGRACE
THAT THEY OFTEN DON'T
CARE WHO SEES THEIR SIN,
ESPECIALLY IN THEIR OWN
INNER CIRCLE. THEY WEAR IT
ARROGANTLY LIKE A BADGE
OF HONOR. IN JUDE'S
WORDS, THEY BECOME
LIKE “RAGING WAVES OF
THE SEA, FOAMING UP
THEIR OWN SHAME.”

Disturbing evidence of this kind of ungodliness is becoming more prevalent across the spectrum of the visible church these days. In fact, it gets even worse. An Anglican committee commissioned to study the morality of extramarital sex suggested that the church should drop its opposition to cohabitation between unwed adults and regard the practice as “a new path from the single state to the married one.”
⁶

Apostates face an interesting dilemma. They frequently become so lost to honor, so lacking in decency, so indifferent to disgrace that they often don't care who sees their sin, especially in their own inner circle. They wear it arrogantly like a badge of honor. In Jude's words, they become like “raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame” (v. 13).

On the other hand, they have to do something to hide their ungodliness from the people they are tying to dupe. Their words might be more carefully guarded in public venues, and they often maintain a whole different public persona. As we have learned from far too many televangelist scandals, accomplished media figures tend to be very good at this sort of hypocrisy.

The other common approach for masking ungodliness is the one Jude hints at in verse 4: they proclaim a message that transforms the idea of grace into license for sin. Thus they try to give a spiritual-sounding justification for their ungodliness.

This brings up a third major characteristic of every ungodly apostate:

Their creed
. Apostates “deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jude is obviously not suggesting this is something they do with bold and straightforward candor, or else they could not be in the church “unnoticed.” Sadly, that is probably less true today than it was in the early church. Nowadays people literally do deny Christ in some denominations and even remain bishops.

But while the false teachers in Jude's day were perhaps a little more subtle about their apostasy, in some way or another, they denied Christ's lordship. They would not live obediently under the sovereign lordship of Christ. They refused His headship over His church.

This is true of all apostates. At the heart of their apostasy is rebellion against Christ's lordship. Even if they confess with their lips, they deny with their lives. They may call Jesus, “Lord, Lord,” but they do not do what He says (Luke 6:46). In the words of Paul to Titus, “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work” (Titus 1:16). Their apostasy eventually poisons all their doctrine. They twist and pervert and reinvent teachings of Christ. They adjust the gospel to suit their own tastes. When you get to the core of where they are, they simply want to be kings of their own domain.

That brings us full circle back to the issue of character. Apostate false teachers are not humble. They are not broken. They are not submissive. They are not meek. They are blatant, proud sovereigns of their own religious empires. And while they like to use Christ's name for their advantage, they do not really know, obey, or love the truth—written or Incarnate.

Nevertheless, God alone is truly sovereign. His eternal purposes are not the least bit threatened by the efforts of false teachers. His truth
will
triumph in the end. And tragic consequence for the false teachers and all who follow them is sure and certain condemnation. As Jude says, they already have a long-standing appointment to that end.

Of course, that doesn't alter or diminish our duty to oppose them and contend earnestly for the faith here and now. In the chapter to come, we'll examine some of the difficulties of that duty.

7

THE ASSAULT ON DIVINE AUTHORITY: CHRIST'S LORDSHIP DENIED

Certain men have crept in unnoticed, who . . .
deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

—Jude 4

C
ontending for the faith has never been easy work. But as we have been seeing, the postmodern shift has made the challenge more difficult than ever.

The mood that currently prevails in the evangelical movement doesn't help. Contemporary evangelicalism seems bent on shaping itself into the most stylish, trendy movement in the history of the church. Old certainties are often met with automatic suspicion just because they have been affirmed by generation after generation of evangelicals. These days it is fashionable to question everything. And most evangelicals frankly don't care all that much about their spiritual heritage in the first place. They don't have a very strong commitment to understanding Scripture precisely or defending its vital doctrines against the encroachment of subtle errors. They just want something new and fresh. Above all, they are desperate to stay in step with the world.