ChristianObserver.org » T.M. Moore – Daily Devotionals

Trusting in the Lie – Our Lawless Age (9)

thousandhills — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:01:03 +0000

Trusting in the Lie

Our Lawless Age (9)

Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12

Early in his history of the 20th century, Modern Times, Paul Johnson, anticipating the folly, destruction, and terror which he is about to relate, asks the question why men should be so foolish as to put their trust in such false ideas as Freudianism, Darwinism, and Marxism. He has no doubt as to the answer: Men must believe something, must have something larger than themselves to make sense of and guide their lives. If they will not trust in God and submit to His Truth, they will be prey for whatever worldview can allure and capture them.

In the 20th century, Freudianism–with its sensual license–and Darwinism–with its liberation from transcendent realities–and Marxism–with its promise of a workers’ utopia–captured the imaginations of men and women who rejected God. The result was the bloodiest, most violent and degraded chapter the human story has ever witnessed.

Most of those who held, or continue to hold, to the tenets of these diabolical worldviews did so unconsciously. They learned from school, the media, pop culture, and their peers that it was good to embrace the lifestyle suggested by this troika of lies without worrying about whether or not it was true. Thus, Freud’s views taught people to throw off all restraint in sexual matters. Darwin allowed people to make sense out of life without God or His Law. And Marx encouraged the belief that government is the solution to every human ill.

People continue to live, love, vote, and work in an environment fouled by the lingering stench of these malevolent harbingers of death. When people will not believe in God, it’s not that they will believe anything; rather, it’s that they will believe everything. This is the great Lie which holds our unbelieving contemporaries in its thrall: I am the captain of my fate; I am the master of my soul; I can believe and embrace everything I want, as long as it makes me happy.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Need for Faithfulness – Our Lawless Age (8)

thousandhills — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:01:15 +0000

The Need for Faithfulness
Our Lawless Age (8)

…and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:10

We live in an age of increasing lawlessness, in which “truth” is regarded as relative and personal, morality is mostly a matter of preference, and law is a standard to flex and flux as need be. In this lawless age truth and the Law of God languish (Hab. 1:4), and evil is an idea reserved for only the most heinous of acts.

In such an age, even the Church has come to believe that the Law of God, while very much a part of Scripture, is not all that relevant to the life of faith.

But if men will not acknowledge truth, then nothing can be a prescription for wholeness to meet the need of every human being. This, of course, is what the Gospel claims; but in an age when truth is merely personal and relative, the Gospel is likewise regarded as personally or relatively true. And, since the Gospel, as Jesus taught it, entails unbending moral obligations, most people either choose not to embrace the Gospel or to take it on their own terms. They may profess faith in the Gospel, but their ethics and morality they will imbibe from the spirit of the age, from the pop culture, secular media, and the postmodern academy, so that they regard themselves as the masters of their fates and the captains of their souls.

The mystery of lawlessness is already at work among us, as Paul explained. And it entails the denial of evil and truth as absolute realities, leaving people to fend for themselves in the quest for meaning, purpose, and happiness. The Gospel is just one of many options in a lawless age like ours, and not one that many people will find all that appealing.

Unless, of course, those who embrace the Gospel are somehow able to demonstrate, by their lives and words, that here is truth which conforms to the way the world works, heals the deepest injuries to the human soul, engenders lasting peace and abiding hope, and points the way to a world of true beauty and goodness.

This is the great challenge facing Christians today. Paul was careful to warn the Thessalonians not to stray from the Word of Truth he had taught them (vv. 14, 15), for he knew that a lawless age, an age in flight from God, would ultimately discover its blunder and begin looking for something more substantial to ground its hopes. Only the Christian faith provides such a beacon of goodness and Truth, but it requires faithfulness on our parts if it is to have its full transforming effect.

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Turning from the Truth – Our Lawless Age (7)

thousandhills — Sun, 20 May 2012 04:01:15 +0000

Turning from the Truth

Our Lawless Age (7)

…and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:10

Powerful forces of deception are at work in our secular age, espousing worldviews which deny the Truth of God and encourage men to make up their own approaches to such matters as right and wrong, good and evil, truth and lies.

These have found their way even into the temple of God, the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his book, The Death of Satan, Andrew Delbanco traces the history of the concept of evil in America and shows how it has all but disappeared in our day. He writes, “In this world emptied of metaphysical meaning… our insurance policies may still include clauses covering (or more likely, exempting) ‘acts of God’ as well as storm, fire, flood, and the like; but the fact is that such events are regarded by most people as inscrutable misfortunes.” He continues, “There seems to be growing agreement that there was once such a concept as sin—broad and capacious but still meaningful—and that it has faded.”

Mr. Delbanco concludes his study with these words: “My driving motive in writing… has been the conviction that if evil, with all the insidious complexity which Augustine attributed to it, escapes the reach of our imagination, it will have established dominion over us all.”

It’s true that the sense of “evil” has made something of a comeback since 9/11, but only in its more spectacular versions. Evil is something done to us, not something we do to others. Like the concept of evil, the idea of truth, as an objective and unchanging reality, has also faded. Truth these days is only what one person finds agreeable or workable in his or her particular situation. “True for me” would be a better way of talking about whatever idea of truth survives in our lawless age. The idea that the Bible is truth, God’s Law is truth, or that God is able to reveal truth to us in any kind of absolute way is largely rejected, even by many people who claim to have faith in Jesus Christ.

So it’s no wonder that, even in the Church, people have become persuaded that the Law of God, while it may once have been “true,” if only for some people, is no longer something to which we must pay heed.

But where truth is denied and evil is downplayed, the shape of things will be determined not by that Kingdom not of this world, but by the priorities, pursuits, and pleasures of our secular and lawless age.

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A Course of Delusion – Our Lawless Age (6)

thousandhills — Sat, 19 May 2012 04:01:11 +0000

A Course of Delusion

Our Lawless Age (6)

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10

In Romans 1:18-32 Paul wrote that people, knowing God through the things He has made, will nonetheless turn from Him to embrace created things as their source of hope, delight, and satisfaction. They make “gods” out of all kinds of cultural artifacts, sensual experiences, and vain aspirations, and they pursue these with a fervor and devotion usually associated with those who are earnestly religious.

Which, in fact, is what they are—zealous in pursuit of their chosen deity, deceived and determined to have their own way in life, and altogether indifferent or even hostile to the teachings of God and Christ. Why believe in Jesus, and be bound by the moral requirements of God’s Law, when they can choose their own deity and determine their own standards for how they ought to live, standards more agreeable to their preferred moral behavior?

Thus, deceived by the “signs and wonders” of our secular age and the impressive array of choices before them, they refuse the Gospel, reject the salvation of God, and set themselves a course of delusion, disappointment, and death.

We should weep for those thus deceived, and make it our business so to live the truth of God and the Christian worldview, that those around us can have no doubt but that the hope that is within us is far richer and more compelling than whatever false hope they cling to in their daily lives.

As they see us thus living out this hope, we must not be surprised when they ask us a reason for the righteousness, peace, and joy which characterize us day by day (1 Pet. 3:15; Rom. 14:17, 18). Instead, we must be ready to give a reason for our hope and to call those deluded by the gods of this secular and lawless age to turn in repentance and faith to the living God of Scripture.

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Signs and Wonders – Our Lawless Age (5)

thousandhills — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:01:25 +0000

Signs and Wonders

Our Lawless Age (5)

Our lawless age is characterized by many influences such as the Apostle Paul describes in these verses—people and institutions capable of impressive, amazing, even spectacular achievements, things so dramatic that they captivate the minds and win the hearts of the very people Christians are seeking to persuade to saving faith.

We make a mistake in this passage if we focus on the “signs and wonders” part rather than the result described in verse 10. The “signs and wonders” Paul had in mind were works inspired by the devil, works of such influence that they deceived people into thinking they were the form of truth.

It is important that we remember that such “signs and wonders” need not be of the miraculous sort so often depicted in popular end-times scenarios. Jesus told Peter that he was in the grip of Satan because he thought he could improve on Christ’s redemptive work (Matt. 16:23), which he presumed to do at the end of a sword (Matt. 26:51). Paul condemned Elymas as a “son of the devil” because he tried to persuade the proconsul not to believe in Christ (Acts 13:8-10). The work of the devil is unto deception, to keep people from turning to Jesus Christ. His methods and means are always appropriate to the time and place in which he chooses to work, and he sticks with what works for as long as it does.

Thus, in our day, when pop culture, technology, the secular media and academy, the worlds of entertainment and marketing, and large sections of the scientific community have proven to be so impressive and so adept at sowing doubt and deception into the population, why should Satan resort to more “supernatural” devices? In our lawless age, there is no shortage of distractions, diversions, and other secular “signs and wonders” which keep people from considering the claims of Jesus Christ as of any real importance.

Couple these with church leaders who allow people merely to believe and then to indulge all the worldly diversions they choose, and you have a script that Satan, having written, will be content to follow for as long as it holds firm.

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Lawlessness in the Church – Our Lawless Age (4)

thousandhills — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:01:04 +0000

Lawlessness in the Church

Our Lawless Age (4)

For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4

What does Paul intend by saying this “man of lawlessness” will be taking “his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God”?

Is it possible that he means to warn the Thessalonians against those who lead in the Body of Christ according to a mindset more attune to worldly principles than the Law of God? Is he saying that church leaders will arise who, like wolves in sheep’s clothing, will lead congregations away from the truth of God, even as they use the terms of truth and the Gospel to ingratiate themselves on the followers of Christ (Acts 20:29-31)?

Certainly this was the case on Crete, where Paul charged Titus with suppressing false and worldly teachers who had appeared within the churches of that island and who were turning the Truth of God into word games designed only to attract a following.

It was also the case in Philippi, where false men had found their way into the worship of God, but whose only “god” was their belly (Phil. 3:19). Since these churches, and others, had been invaded by men calling themselves Christians but espousing worldly doctrines, why should the Thessalonians not expect the same?

In our lawless age teachers and preachers have taken seats of authority in the churches of the Lord, but what they are teaching has more affinity with a secular and postmodern worldview than with the Word of Truth. Men who deny the validity of God’s Law, who rail against sound doctrine, who invite people to make God their servant for the sake of whatever they hope to get from Him, who refuse to practice church discipline, who change the worship of God into a theatre of “feel-good” religion and therapeutic faith, and who run their churches more like CEOs than shepherds of God’s flock—all such pastors and teachers infest the churches with the ways of the world, denying the wisdom of God, and are content to have made something of a name for themselves.

These are hard words, and if they do not fit you or your church, then give thanks to God. But if they do, perhaps it is time to face up to the reality that our lawless age may have found a spawning ground within your own church through the hand of leaders who believe they know better than the Lord how to build His Church.

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Lawlessness in the Temple of God – Our Lawless Age (3)

thousandhills — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:01:29 +0000

Lawlessness in the Temple of God

Our Lawless Age (3)

One of the characteristic elements of much “end-times” writing and preaching is a kind of Biblical literalism that cannot easily be justified. This is particularly the case when end-times prophets treat of the Book of Revelation, but it shows up as well in their interpretations of a good many passages of Scripture.

Now I’m all for a literal interpretation of the Scripture, wherever justified. But when it comes to interpreting any text of the Bible, the rules of hermeneutics require that we understand texts in the larger context in which they appear. For example, if you want to understand a word used by, say, the Apostle Paul, the best way to arrive at a sound interpretation is to study all the other uses of that word in their various Pauline contexts.

Take, for example, the word, “temple,” which appears in our text. It’s clear that, on at least four occasions, Paul chose that word to refer to the physical temple of the Jews in Jerusalem. All these uses are in the Book of Acts and have reference to Paul’s arrest within the temple precincts (Acts 22:17; 24:12, 18; 26:21).

Outside the Book of Acts, however, Paul uses this word to refer to the Church, the Body of Christ. Thus, the believers in Corinth were to consider that they were the temple of the Lord, both individually and as a congregation (1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 6:16, 19). He taught the Ephesians that they were part of a larger, world-spanning temple of God which the Holy Spirit is building (Eph. 2:20-22).

In our text, therefore, it is not improbable that Paul, in mentioning the temple of the Lord, intended by that word the Church, particularly since he was addressing people who lived far from Jerusalem and for whom the temple there was probably of little interest or relevance.

When Paul says that the “man of lawlessness” would be taking “his seat in the temple of God,” he seems to be referring to the Church. The age of lawlessness would find its way into the Church through a “man of lawlessness” who embodies its rebellious and secular ways.

But what can he mean by this?

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An Age of Secularity – Our Lawless Age (2)

thousandhills — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:01:46 +0000

An Age of Secularity

Our Lawless Age (2)

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. 2 Thessalonians 2:7

We live in a lawless age, an age in flight from God. Since the days of the Apostle Paul the world has been infused with the “mystery of lawlessness,” which is increasingly evident throughout our culture and society. We need to understand these days if we are going to be effective as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What are the characteristics of this age? And how should we as Christians respond to it?

The most outstanding feature of our age of lawlessness is its increasing secularity. In his masterful work, A Secular Age, Charles Taylor describes ours as a day in which “God’s presence receded” from the stage of history and events. In His place, “something other than God” has determined the standards and meanings by which everyday life must be lived. Secular men “oppose and exalt” themselves against all forms of belief, especially those, like the Christian faith, which include strong moral convictions, such as are encoded in the Ten Commandments.

Instead of God to show us how we ought to live, secular man proposes his own best ideas of how the world should work. Rejecting the Law of God, men become a law unto themselves; denying God as the object of their adoration and service, they recognize only their own minds and desires.

As we shall see, the Church is not immune from this lawless frame of mind.

Ours is an age of lawlessness, defined in the first instance by a commitment to secular, pragmatic, and relativistic values. We don’t need to wait for some speculative end-times scenario to begin to unfold; the mystery of lawlessness, dear friends, is already at work, and the evidence of it can be seen in the many ways that God and faith are pushed to the margins, set aside, and supplanted by “reason” and “science.”

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The Mystery of Lawlessness – Our Lawless Age (1)

thousandhills — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:01:34 +0000

The Mystery of Lawlessness

Our Lawless Age (1)

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. 2 Thessalonians 2:7

This passage in 2 Thessalonians, in which Paul mentions the “man of lawlessness” and “the mystery of lawlessness,” has been a source of much speculation and erroneous thinking about the so-called “end times.”

A typical interpretation of this text will have us looking for a powerful individual—the “Anti-Christ”—who appears just before the return of our Lord, and prior to the “rapture” of the Church. This individual accumulates vast political power which he uses to make a mess of things on earth and, in particular, to harass and persecute the Church. Notions respecting one world government, universal false religion, ominous signs and strange numerical badges, and the return of ancient Judaistic practices to a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem are usually part of the furnishings of such end-times scenarios.

Whatever truth there may be to such speculations, they get into much more detail, and are asserted with much more confidence, than it would seem Scripture allows. Asked about the events heralding His imminent return, Jesus told His disciples, “It is not for you to know” (Acts 1:7). That should be enough for us; however, it hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of end-times hucksters who have found in such noisy prophesying a way to generate adoring followers and ready cash.

Calvin offered sound advice concerning all such speculations when he wrote, “But we must be ignorant of the secret events of things, as touching the time to come…. Christ forbids us to apply those things unto ourselves, which God challenges as proper to Himself alone. Of this sort is the foreknowledge of those things which God has taken to Himself to govern and direct, according to His own pleasure, far contrary to our opinion, and otherwise than we could invent.”

But this doesn’t mean that we can’t know anything about the last days—the days, by the way, which Peter declared to have begun on the first Christian Pentecost, and in which we have been living ever since (Acts 2:16, 17). In our text Paul says flatly that “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.” Similarly, the Apostle John wrote that, in his day, “many antichrists” had already appeared. Thus, the spirit animating the age of rebellion against Christ, so often considered to be an “end times” phenomenon, has been with us since the days of the apostles and continues with us today.

Ours is an age of lawlessness, of rebellion against God, flight from Him and His holy and righteous and good Law, and outright denial of His saving mercy in Jesus Christ. It behooves us to understand well this lawless age and to consider the implications for our discipleship.

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Free from Judgment (2) – The Law of Liberty (14)

thousandhills — Sun, 13 May 2012 04:01:42 +0000

Free from Judgment (2)

The Law of Liberty (14)

So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. James 2:12

The fact that Jesus will get us through the Day of Judgment must not make us complacent in the here and now.

Paul says we must all strive to bring holiness to completion in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1). This we do, as we have seen, by learning and obeying God’s Law, looking to Jesus and depending on His Spirit to make us willing and able to do what pleases the Father (Phil. 2:13). If we refuse to do this, if we will not take up the Law of God, God doesn’t simply shrug from on high and say, “Oh, well.” He is our Father. He knows what we need. He has given us the rules of the house. And if we will not obey, He will discipline us, and discipline is not pleasant.

But the purpose of God’s discipline is to yield the fruit of righteousness in our lives—that is, to get us back on track with obeying and teaching the Law of God (Heb. 12:7-11). Because that’s when we’re following Jesus, that’s when we’re filled with the Spirit, that’s when we’re being transformed, that’s when we’re learning to love and to serve, and that’s when we’re moving toward the Kingdom greatness our Father in heaven desires for us.

God is very serious about this. He tells us that those who neglect His Law are out of sync with His plan for them. Even their prayers are an abomination if they will not study and obey His Law (Prov. 28:9). God is judging the sinful world even now because of its refusal to acknowledge and worship Him (Rom. 1:18-32). This is the second sense of divine judgment. We may certainly expect that we are not exempt from His judgment—His discipline—when we neglect the Law He has written on our hearts, and which He gave His Spirit to teach us.

Daily reading and meditation in God’s Law is the way of the righteous person (Ps. 1). Hiding the Law in our hearts will help us to walk more fully and joyously in His way (Ps. 119:9-11).

Far from being a chain to confine us, the Law of God is the law of liberty, so that we can really live in Jesus Christ.

The psalmist says that the righteous person meditates day and night in God’s Law (Ps. 1). Would you like to get started in this discipline? Order a copy of The Ground for Christian Ethics and The Law of God. The first will explain the importance of God’s Law and will guide you in taking up the practice of daily reading and meditation. The second provides all the statutes, precepts, and rules of God’s Law organized under their proper number of the Ten Commandments.

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