In our last article we established the need for a Christian to discern through the Scriptures the unique, peculiar generation in which he lives. In light of overcoming this untoward generation, we presented four main characteristics that must mark the fabric of preaching for this generation. In contrast, we must now consider the unique characteristics that will mark the generation just before the coming of the Lord. One must come to know these and to candidly confront them in order to protect his soul, his family, his church, his Christian school, and his ministry from being sucked into the vortex of these increasing and permeating corruptions of Truth.
To See My Generation
There are five critical ingredients that must control one’s life in order to discern his generation. First, one must truly be born again. The reason so many professing Christians do not see the dangers of their unique generation is that they are not biblically born again. According to John 3:3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” In order to see spiritual things, I must be spiritually born again. For the natural man cannot discern the things of God (I Corinthians 2:14).
Secondly, in order to discern one must believe in the supreme authority of the Scriptures. If one goes by feelings or anything erupting subjectively and existentially (including so-called voices, visions, dreams), his beliefs will change with the winds of emotions, and his foundation will be the sand of his own nature. Not even pragmatism can be the motivating force of our existence in this generation. Everything I believe, see, and hear must be filtered and analyzed through the only infallible revelation of truth on this planet—the Bible alone. If this is not the litmus test of my perspective of this unique, peculiar generation, then I will not see what I need to see.
Third, one must believe in Biblical Separation. I cannot be of the world, having a life controlled by the flesh. If I do not know this separation, my being part of the problem will not allow me to see what I need to see.
Fourth, one must have a daily relationship with the Holy Spirit. The reason for this is that only He is the illuminator of Truth (II Corinthians 2:10-13). I will not see or discern my generation without His illuminating insight as I observe this generation.
And fifth, one must gain victory over pride. How often people refuse to see the corruption and evil of a generation because they refuse to admit they are wrong or that something is not good for them or for their church. We tend to repel when confronted by an exhortation or condemnation about something we are doing or participating in. We must first pray earnestly for God the Holy Spirit to open our hearts as well as our eyes and ears to the corrupting issues that are plaguing our personal lives and Fundamentalism; then we must humbly and honestly acknowledge them. Let us swallow our pride and say, “Yes, according to the word of God, this is not right for us to be following or bringing into our ministry.” Pride often has caused individuals to continue on in their false beliefs and practices for fear of being discredited if they acknowledge failure in their lives and ministries.
The False Jesus of Our Generation
A marked characteristic of this generation is its embrace of the false Christ that has become the public Christ in Western Civilization. The public view of the Gospel has been so greatly corrupted, polluted, and mongrelized that it has birthed a false Christ in the contemporary church-going mind. If we are living in a Laodicean Church age, we are living in a Christless Church age. Therefore, if Christ is outside the institutional church of this generation, the church must create its own unique, graven image of a Christ to take the place of the discarded genuine one. From the perspective of Scripture, the Christ that is being presented by Neo-Christianity is not the Christ of Scripture.
We are witnessing two types of Jesuses in our time. The first is presented in Galatians 1:6-9 where Paul declares it as “another Gospel.” The word for another in the Greek is heteros, “another of another kind,” a totally foreign Jesus with no similarity to the One presented in the true Gospel. This “another” Jesus is typified in Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ, Superstar, Dan Brown’s The DeVinci Code, and a host of other fabricated Jesuses of secularistic society. The world has so rejected the Jesus of Scripture that they are willing to accept any other concept of Jesus just as long as He is not God and they are not accountable to Him in some form of judgment.
In contrast, there is also the other Jesus of Second Corinthians 11:4: “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel . . .” The word for another here is allos, meaning “another of the same kind.” Unlike the heteros Jesus of Galatians 1:6-9, the allos Jesus of Second Corinthians 11:4 is very similar to the biblical Jesus. The Jesus of Billy Graham is close in kind; the Jesus of the Neo-Evangelicals is close in kind. However, their Jesus is not the Jesus of Scripture; he is “another of the same kind.” This another Jesus of the Neo-Evangelicals is given divinity and associated with the fundamentals of Scripture. Yet, he also is identified with rock and contemporary Christian music; he is ecumenical with heretics and cults; he is soft on sin and permissive of carnality and worldliness. This ecumenical Jesus is one that has become compatible more and more with the world’s desires.
As a Christian I must see that these heteros and allos Jesuses are the Jesus of my unique, peculiar generation. This is a Jesus never known before in human history. This generation speaks of being Christian without the Christ of the Bible. My generation is becoming less tolerable of this biblical Christ and longs for a Christ that will be more accommodating to other religions. We are witnessing a greater dialogue in this generation with Muslims and Liberals and Modernists. The Eastern Religions are even to be a part of this Jesus. The Roman Catholic Jesus is commonly viewed the same as the Protestant’s Jesus. As we have seen in Northern Ireland’s First Deputy Minister in league with Romanists for the sake of the government, will the same happen in America with Christianity and Islam in the coming presidential election?
The walls of separation between religions are coming down, and the gates of acceptance are becoming broader and broader. In this so-called free world, Pluralism is now the assumed and imposed belief. As a result, we are witnessing the redefining of theological terms such as the New Birth, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, salvation, and Christian. Mormonism is now defined as a sect of Christianity rather than a cult. Romanism’s rising popularity gives it an important part of the leadership in the coming amalgamation of all world religions. Such leadership will be imperative to prelude the coming and acceptance of Antichrist. All religions will have to modify their beliefs and public face to accommodate the coming global religion of Universalism. Those who fight such changes (the fundamentalists found in any religion) will be overrun.
The New Age View of God
The nomenclature of theological perspectives has drastically changed in our generation. The study of God in Western Civilization today has left little if any semblance to the God of Scripture. It is now believed, even by many professing Christians, that the God of the Jews, of the Muslims, of the cults (such as Mormonism) is the same God of the Christians. Such a belief naively assumes the gods of all monotheistic religions to be the same god. Simultaneously, polytheism and pantheism are growing through the various mutations of the New Age movement.
A prominent aspect of the New Age view of God is their growing faddish denial of the personality of God, drawing humanity to an acceptance of an impersonal god. Even the concept of Satan is reduced to an impersonal force of evil influence. This denial of the personality of both God and Satan leaves man to be his own divinity, furthering the appeal of the New Age movement to our generation. America is no longer being viewed as a “Christian nation” (if it ever was). This elevation of a false view of God has destroyed within America any potential to know a nationwide revival. The gurus of the different religions have flooded our nation and its culture with their confusing theological dialogues destroying the very basic tenets of God in our nation’s religious thinking.
The New Guru of the New Age Belief
Oprah Winfrey has become the latest guru of the gospel of the New Age view of God. According to popular magazine articles and her own O Magazine, she has had the highest rated talk show in television history for the past 22 consecutive seasons. It is estimated that well over 46 million viewers are tuned in to her theological and philosophical pipings on any given day in over 134 countries. Her website has over 70 million page views each month. Known as the queen of self-improvement, she has become the most influential voice among women in American history. She has her own book club, satellite radio channel, and TV network. She has created a number of celebrities over the years including Dr. Phil and Rachel Ray. As of 2007, she had an estimated worth of over $2.5 billion.
Oprah’s name is a respelling of the Bible name Orpah (Ruth 1:4).1 Although she came from a Baptist background, in more recent years Oprah has occasionally attended Trinity United Church of Christ, the same church (until recently) of Senator Obama whom she publicly supports for President. Her informational programs are more often becoming the channel for her theological mutterings. On one of her programs she stated, “I was raised a Baptist, and we were too hung up on traditional ways. I was sitting in church and heard that God is a jealous God. I asked ‘Why?’ Come on; let’s get over it.”2
She has attacked the Christ of Scripture, His cross in history, and has presented in its place a totally new view of God and His Son. She claims her life changed when reading the book by Unity minister Eric Butterworth entitled Discover the Power Within You:
This book changed my perspective on life and religion. Eric teaches that God isn’t up there; he exists in every one of us. It’s up to us to seek the divine within (emphasis added).3
Other books she has strongly promoted through her book club are A New Earth and The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, Losing It by Valerie Bertinelli, and Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. With monumental influence, she truly is spreading the New Age gospel of pantheism and panentheism. As a most powerful motivating force of womanhood in America, she is now influencing other countries to rally around the theology of the New Age.
Other Changes Will Mark Our Generation
Our unique generation is the culminating force of the preliminary acceptance of Antichrist; a multitude of changes that will prepare his arrival are beginning. Some of these changes must be noted with care. (I Corinthians 10:11-12).
First, as the world prepares for Antichrist, we will witness the lawlessness of sin abounding more and more in all of the countries of the world, specifically in America. Violence of biblical proportion similar to the days of Noah (Genesis 6) and Lot (Genesis 19) will be imminent before the coming of Christ.
Another change that marks our generation concerns the carnality and passivity to spirituality that are becoming the norm of local churches and ministries. Servants are being prepared to work excessively in the vineyard as a substitute for any pursuit of spirituality in their lives. What kind of local church is the final product of such an approach? A worldly church is one in which most of its people live worldly; a carnal church is one in which most of its people live carnal and fleshly; and a spiritual church is one in which most of its people truly seek a private spiritual walk with God. It is rare now to find a church of the latter category. Holiness is progressively being hated because it is the doctrine that attacks the way people live. As Cain hated Abel for his righteous ways, we will see a serge of growing hostility of the carnal and the worldly within the local churches against the true godly and righteous saints.
Another change that has already taken full seizure of Neo-Evangelical ministries is the infiltration of human psychology in the ministry. As it has ruled the world secularly, psychology now is viewed as the savior of the evangelical psychotic and neurotic masses. It causes one to ask what did the church do before psychology came along. Well, there was the Bible and the Holy Spirit! More and more Fundamental students, even those entering the ministry, are pursuing degrees in counseling and psychology. It is as if the Bible has become impotent for this generation and needs the greater human power of psychology. It is a bold and saddening declaration to say that pastors need secularism to help them now because today’s problems are of a greater complexity than before. To them, the power for present day Christianity is to be viewed by this relatively new hypothetical science based on atheism.
The champions for hope and help in the churches now are no longer the praying Hydes, Andrew Murrays, Hudson Taylors, and George Whitefields of the past. Today there is this clarion call for psychotherapy and psycho-determinism. We are leaning towards the atheistic theories of Sigmund Freud and his sex-drive theory; towards Alfred Adler and his power-drive theory; and Carl Jung and his theory of collective unconsciousness. The belief is that the psycho problems are in the biological forces. These are the men who were the founding fathers and pillars of modern clinical psychology. On the heels of these men came the client-centered psychotherapy of Carl Rogers and the radical behaviorism of B. F. Skinner. Contemporary pastors are even using the terminology of modern psychology and its some five hundred theories and terms to diagnose the spiritual and mental problems of professing Christians. We are witnessing heathen concepts pouring into every portion of epistemology of modern man.
Nevertheless, the greatest need is the cross: this is the cure for our lives! Our generation, claiming to be the greatest evolved generation, is going back to heathen ways where man was the measure of all things. Heathen gods are becoming our gods. The prophet Jeremiah cried out, “Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of the heaven. For the heathen are dismayed at them” (Jeremiah 10:2). Yes, this is my generation, and I must be ready to face it with the Word of God and condemn its humanistic and atheistic ways!
Another sad characteristic of our unique, peculiar generation is the promotion of slob culture. It has taken over our Western Civilization primarily because of the influence of John Lennon and the Rap groups. Such influence is found in the clothing of our present generation, and it has been so since the mid-1960s. Such influence affects how people dress in coming to church. The casual look and the wanting to be comfortable are the in-crowd way. This manner has taken over Fundamentalism and its church services, prayer meetings, school dinners, and pastor conferences. Yes, it is sad to see it happening, but it is part of the end-time look of the Last Days. It affects our manners, our living conditions, our education, and even our worship. As Fundamentalists, we have truly left Christian dignity. We want that laidback look, its living, and its accompanying worship. God is just “one of the boys,” “a fishing buddy,” and “one of the guys on the golf course.” We stole this look from the secularist’s dress-down society; we did not get this from the Lord. You will even see “the look” on the CD covers of Fundamentalists quartets and groups; the Neo-Evangelicals started it years ago, and now we believe we need “the look” to be accepted. At Foundations Bible College we encourage our students, even away from campus, to dress well; set the standard; don’t let the world and even the evangelical and fundamental world set the standards for us. Especially if God has called us to be a preacher, we need to present ourselves well at all times.
Another characteristic of our unique generation is the rapid acceptance of moral perversions. This generation has not yet seen the power of the Sodomites who soon will be pounding at the doors of our Christian schools, churches, and even our very homes (Genesis 19:4-6). It will also be in our generation that polygamy will be considered just as much a viable lifestyle as sodomy has become. Such legalized sodomy and polygamy remind us of Christ’s warning concerning the return of the days of Noah. All of this is part of our unique, peculiar generation.
We are also witnessing the pressure to be accepted by the world. This is evidenced more and more in Christian schools that unashamedly catapult their students into secular contests, debates, and achievements. What are we trying to prove? With whom are we trying to compete? The same pressure is evident in the push for one school after another to become accredited. We boast that we are not pursuing secular accreditation; rather, however, we embrace a Charismatic, Neo-Evangelical accreditation that is far more destructive philosophically and theologically than secularism. At least we are on guard for the latter. It was announced in the 1980s that to pursue accreditation was motivated by two things: to receive the Pell grants and to be accepted “by the world.” Dear reader, we will never be accepted by the world, unless we compromise our principles and standards of holiness and living and ultimately conform to their standards. Yes, this is our unique, peculiar generation whose powers are ever pressing hard to conform us to its desire.
Conclusion
As our generation deepens itself in the mire and mud of depraved secularism, the fall of historical Fundamentalism is the greatest woe of all. Historical Fundamentalism from its public perspective is gone; this present, young Fundamentalist generation knows nothing of its past. It is willing to drop its legacy and become identified as a Neo-Fundamentalist, merely a softer name for a Neo-Evangelicalist. The old warhorse of the KJV against Romanism and Ecumenicity over the centuries is not only being discarded but also looked upon with disdain. If schools that formally revered the NASV have now accepted other versions, what final new version will they embrace? Such vacillation declares to the young heart that the Word of God is ever changing in each generation and that we need a new version for this new generation. Although the “new” is always in vogue, we must ever plead, “do not get caught up in the new of our times! Keep with the old path; for it is the path of Truth! The new is the fabric of the Neo-Christianity.”
As human theological systems of the past are now failing, as false views of eternal security are propping up the changes that are taking place, thank God for true eternal security for the true Christian. God will keep secure His own. Such security is not for the professing Christian but for the one who is a believer. “My sheep hear my voice [present tense], and I know them [present tense], and they follow me [present tense]; and I will give unto them eternal life” (John 10:27-28). Verse 28 only secures those of verse 27. He knows them! (cf. Matthew 25:12, “I know you not.”) Yes, in this unique, peculiar, religiously corrupted generation, there is a true security for God’s true saints.
May God keep our hearts from failing because of fear. May He keep us from fatalism, from hopelessness, from the carnality of contemporary music. Our generation has filled itself with a false God, a false Christ, and a false redemption; its byproduct has been an empty and vain religion. It is within this unique, peculiar generation that we must do the will of God, His wish and desire. In this generation we must serve it by the will and counsel of our immutable God. May God help us to do so!
End Notes
1 http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/win0int-1, accessed May 30, 2008.2 http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/oprah-gospel.htm, accessed May 30, 2008.
3 http://www.oprah.com/books/favorite/slide/slide_books_favorite_05.jhtml, accessed May 30, 2008.