Jay Dharan is the theological editor at ROE, and also the founding contributor at Beacon of Truth, an Evangelical ministry aimed at promoting the supremacy and sufficiency of the gospel.
Theology is considered to be a dry word, as it seeks to be rational and systematic in its study of religion and its influences. Now I know most people detest dead dry theology. Hence instead of going into theological squabbles, let me start with something practical. I seek to show the application of bad theology and thus prove the effect of bad theology without ever boring you with theological concepts. This is no way because I am not convinced of the need of studying theology, but keeping in mind the church men of our day and age – who is characterized by an anti-theological and anti-doctrinal stance. Hence I am venturing into this indirect method.
These days, we do hear many who say that if we make our churches more seeker friendly and our gospel presentations more attractive with all kinds of entertainment, then all men will hear us, ‘accept’ Christ and thus the whole of humanity will be saved. With this aim, they invent ways to make the gospel and their evangelism relevant and culture friendly with the inclusion of good entertainment, psychological techniques and a good stock of multimedia. They think the world is still unsaved because men are merely uninformed of the good news and so if the world is just informed of the gospel, men all around the world will get saved.
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Tags: Jay Dharan, Jay M Nair
First, have always in view, the end for which the Scriptures were written, even to show us the way of salvation, by Jesus Christ. “Search the scriptures,” says our blessed Lord, “for they are they that testify of Me.” Look, therefore, always for Christ in the Scripture. He is the treasure hid in the field, both of the Old and New Testament.
Have Christ, then always in view when you are reading the Word of God, and this, like the star in the east, will guide you to the Messiah, will serve as a key to everything that is obscure, and unlock to you the wisdom and riches of all the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
Secondly, search the Scriptures with an humble childlike disposition. For whosoever does not read them with this temper, shall in no wise enter into the knowledge of the things contained in them. For God hides the sense of them, from those that are wise and prudent in their own eyes, and reveals them only to babes in Christ: who think they know nothing yet as they ought to know; who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and humbly desire to be fed with the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow thereby.
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This article is a part of a collection of essays written recently by Dr. Horton after his interview on 60 Minutes, which aired on October 14, 2007.
“Name it, claim it”; the “health-and-wealth” or “prosperity gospel” : these are nicknames for a heresy that in many respects is only an extreme version of perhaps the most typical focus of American Christianity today more generally. Basically, God is there for you and your happiness. He has some rules and principles for getting what you want out of life and if you follow them, you can have what you want. Just “declare it” and prosperity will come to you. (1) God as Personal Shopper.
Although explicit proponents of the so-called “prosperity gospel” may be fewer than their influence suggests, its big names and best-selling authors (T. D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, and Joyce Meyer) are purveyors of a pagan worldview with a peculiarly American flavor. It’s basically what the sixteenth century German monk turned church reformer Martin Luther called the “theology of glory”: How can I climb the ladder and attain the glory here and now that God has actually promised for us after a life of suffering? The contrast is the “theology of the cross”: the story of God’s merciful descent to us, at great personal cost, a message that the Apostle Paul acknowledged was offensive and “foolish to Greeks.”
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I have not much patience with a certain class of Christians nowadays who will hear anybody preach so long as they can say, “He is very clever, a fine preacher, a man of genius, a born orator.” Is cleverness to make false doctrine palatable? Why, sirs, to me the ability of a man who preaches error is my sorrow rather than my admiration.
I cannot endure false doctrine, however neatly it may be put before me. Would you have me eat poisoned meat because the dish is of the choicest ware? It makes me indignant when I hear another gospel put before the people with enticing words, by men who would fain make merchandise of souls; and I marvel at those who have soft words for such deceivers.
“That is your bigotry,” says one. Call it so if you like, but it is the bigotry of the loving John who wrote—”If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”
I would to God we had all more of such decision, for the lack of it is depriving our religious life of its backbone and substituting for honest manliness a mass of the tremulous jelly of mutual flattery.
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Lord, help me to glorify you;
I am poor, help me to glorify you by contentment;
I am sick, help me to give you honor by patience;
I have talents, help me to extol you by spending them for you;
I have time, Lord, help me to redeem it, that I may serve you;
I have a heart to feel, Lord,
let that heart feel no love but yours,
and glow with no flame but affection for you;
I have a head to think,
Lord, help me to think of you and for you;
You have put me in this world for something, Lord,
show me what that is,
and help me to work out my life-purpose:
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Godliness teaches us this mystery: Not to be satisfied with all the world for our portion, and yet to be content with the meanest condition in which we are.
When Luther was sent great gifts by Dukes and Princes, he refused them, and he says, “I did vehemently protest that God should not put me off so; ’tis not that which will content me.” A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage.
Mark, here lies the mystery of it: A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage, but all the world, and ten thousand times more, will not content a Christian for his portion. A carnal heart will be content with these things of the world for his portion; and that is the difference between a carnal heart and a gracious heart. But a gracious heart says, “Lord, do with me what You will for my passage through this world; I will be content with that, but I cannot be content with all the world for my portion.” So there is the mystery of true contentment. A contented man, though he is most contented with the least things in the world, yet he is the most dissatisfied man that lives in the world.
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“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.” Hebrews 12:2
The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to be experimentally nothing, and to make Jesus our “all in all,” thereby teaching us to live by faith upon Him.
Oh, may you, by the Spirit’s power, so lift up your eyes from all but Jesus, that you will be conformed to His image (2 Cor. 3:18). But do not expect to receive any better account of yourself—rather a worse one; for, as you get nearer the light, you will see more of your own sinfulness. I do hope, however, to hear you speak well of Him, and that, as you feelingly cry out, “Behold, I am vile!” He will melt your heart by responding, “You are absolutely beautiful, my darling, with no imperfection in you!”
Oh, this wondrous Savior! He opens the secret of our wanderings and transgressions—only to declare how entirely He has put them all away by the sacrifice of Himself! Oh, what mercy that He did not say, “Let them alone, they have loved idols, after idols let them go!” What mercy that by His light, He has manifested our darkness. You shall see greater things than these.
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First, have always in view, the end for which the Scriptures were written, even to show us the way of salvation, by Jesus Christ. “Search the scriptures,” says our blessed Lord, “for they are they that testify of Me.” Look, therefore, always for Christ in the Scripture. He is the treasure hid in the field, both of the Old and New Testament.
