Is This Really the Gospel?

Like many of you, I have been intrigued by the seven day sex challenge offered by pastor Ed Young of the Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX. More than that, I have been intrigued by the pragmatic preaching of many celebrity preachers designed to reach the religious consumer market in the United States.

I would venture a guess: The Thesis behind such preaching is that God's sole purpose is to make us happy and successful. God wants us to be great leaders (Jesus modeled servanthood), have great sex lives (taking care of one's spouse seems to be the norm in scripture), be successful (all Jesus' healing and teaching ministry got him was a cross), and have a hunky-doory life (suffering is the norm in this world for Christians).

First, regarding sex, one clear issue driving Jewish worship regulations was God's desire to separate sex from worship. If some of these ministers had any education worth speaking about, it would be clear that the polytheistic religions of the day used sex in worship. They worshipped fertility deities. Our word Easter comes from the goddess Ishtar, the fertility goddess of the Arabic world (that's why rabbits and eggs are symbols of Easter, and why I prefer to call it Resurrection Sunday.) Many religious cults of the ancient world incorporated sex into the service. Priests had intercourse with cult prostitutes on the altars to these gods and goddesses. Furthermore, it is interesting that polytheistic religions expressed their deities with male and female characteristics, as well as having the male deities have sex with human women, creating heroes such as Hercules, Perseus and Gilgamesh (Genesis 6:1-4 takes a jab at these).

In the book of Leviticus, worshippers could not worship (they were unclean, or common, rather than holy) if they had intercourse within 24 hours of worship, if the woman was in her monthly period, if a man had a nocturnal emision. Yes, you will remind me that we are free from the law. You are correct to do so. However, the purpose behind such regulations was to separate sex from the worship scene. I hear the "there is something spiritual about sex" in the preaching of these ministers. However, I think that it is worth pointing out that the ancient world was aware of this, and God was separating sex from worship.

Second, when I hear of such sermon emphases, I ask: "What about the teens in the audience, the single adults, the divorcees, and the widows. What about those who struggle with sexual issues?" Furthermore, what about the story that Scripture tells? I believe that there needs to be an arena to talk about sex in church. However, is the morning worship service the appropriate arena. What about a couples class? What about youth groups in which parents are aware of that content? Is this appropriate material for worship? (By the way, worship is celebrating the story of salvation in such a way that we really believe that what the Bible says is real. It is not a program.)

Finally, it is interesting that the New Testament says very little about sex. Paul encourages periods of abstinence in marriage for prayer. Fasting from sex. What a revolutionary idea? Jesus reminds men to be faithful to their spouses. In Genesis, we are reminded that sex is God's means of procreation. How quickly we forget that.

The concern for Christians is preparing for God to complete his work in the future and being about his mission in the present. While I understand that contemporary churches, post-modern emphases in churches, the emergent church are reacting to the mistakes and misunderstanding of the gospel found in many traditional churches, the implication that God's gospel is but another self-help guide book to make our lives more enjoyable is just as much missing the point as a traditional church's passion to preach the gospel without meeting the physical needs of the poor. I believe that we need help for our couples in our churches to learn how to relate to one another in healthy ways. But consider this...

Is the consumer mentality in religion just the result of the fact that we are bored? We are staring into the sky, like the disciples who watched Jesus disappear behind the veil that separates Heaven and earth. Rather, we should be about the gospel. Teach the lordship of Christ. Realize that we are blessed to be a blessing, not to enjoy being blessed. And, we are called to bear a cross. Life will not always be perfect. But perfection is participating in the narrow journey and completing that journey, rather than getting every step right along the way and enjoying that. Why are we self-centered? Because our life-application religion is teaching us to be.

I remember an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond when Robert and Amy had just been married and had Debra and Ray over for dinner, along with Frank and Marie, and Amy had just read a book on how to have a better relationship in marriage. She shared it with Debra and they began talking about all the theories that the book presented. Marie, whose personality gives me the heeby-jeebies, gave the greatest advice ever. Marriage is not always perfect. People are not perfect. You are going to have your fights, your ups and downs, and your struggles. That is life. However, in the end, there is something greater than sex, romance or affection. There is love.

But maybe I am just a fuddy duddy.

From Pearl Harbor to Calvary, The Story of Mitsuo Fuchida

33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals-- one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:33-34, NIV)





Being that today is the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, I thought that the story of Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese leader of the raid, might be interesting to see how radical God's forgiveness and salvation really is. Here is the link. What do you think?





www.biblebelievers.com/fuchida1.html

Grace and peace,

Tim