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Gamaliel's Desk
Friday, August 30, 2002
 
Defection to the World
There is no excuse for the widespread defection of Christians to the world that is becoming so prevalent these days. Christians of every sort are abandoning traditional enclaves and bastions of spirituality in a vain attempt to allegedly engage the culture and impact it for the cause of Christ. Consider the following:

These are simply the most prominent examples of a more widespread epidemic that has taken Christians by storm. I am talking about the supposed need to “engage” the culture. I have even heard the average Christian in the pew voice a desire to “impact the wider culture with the transforming message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” These well meaning but misguided people are casting pearls before swine and giving that which is holy to dogs. To be perfectly honest, I question the genuineness of their faith and their true motivations.

It is not the business of Pharisees to “impact the wider culture” but to safeguard the doctrinal purity and maintain the exceptionally high standards of personal holiness found in the sanctified Christian life. Our job is not to engage the world in a dialogue about the merits of the gospel but to condemn the world. Our method is to convict the lost of their sinful ways by our separated lifestyle and godly conversation; not coddle them with a softhearted gospel of forgiveness and hope.

The good news of the gospel is that we are privileged to belong to an enlightened elite of spiritually stratified saints, not the spokesmen for a popular message that appeals to the lowliest sinner wallowing in the degradation of their own wickedness. We are called to be separate from the world, not to impact it and certainly not to transform it.

Gamaliel/RJP

He told them still another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.
Matthew 13:33 (NIV)

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