Pushing the Envelope...
Why Revival Must Tarry!
It has become a trademark of recent conferences in the Philadelphia
vicinity that those who organize them brag on how broad a range of
theological thought is represented by their speakers and topics. It is
more than generosity or an olive branch being extended to those who are
at or beyond the frontiers of fundamentalism. It is a form of dangerous
brinkmanship with the sole purpose of seeing how far they can reach
beyond fundamentalism to the Neoevangelicals and Ecumenicals and still
consider themselves within the fundamentalist camp. History will
demonstrate that the so-called pushing the
envelope” has always gravitated towards compromise and the
selling out of sacred Biblical principles. There has never been,
indeed, there never will be found among them, a press towards the marks
of holiness and piety, except in a passing admiration of quaint Puritan
figures and writings from long ago. It has ever been the lost soul of
compromise to hunger for the good effects without honoring the true
cause. As such, there is no foundation within such conferences and
their attending personalities from which any Revival can spring,
because there is far more arrogance and pride found amongst those who
test the norms and limits than the necessary brokenness of heart and
humility before God from where genuine revival fires can be kindled.
Some of the Push can be seen in the contemporary
worship movement, with all of its theatrical trappings and technology.
According to an industry report for 2006, some 900 churches reported
spending more than 500 million for projection equipment alone. In fact,
similar reports show an expenditure of more than 4.6 billion for all
kinds of audio and sound equipment over the past year. Even allowing
for those who broadcast church services or have a significant
ministries employing such equipment, there is still a considerable
making merchandise of local church ministries that has driven them
towards dazzling entertainment and amusing goats more than preaching
and feeding sheep the whole counsel of God’s Word. Indeed,
the sheep have been soundly fleeced by a whole new market now opened in
the religious community that barely existed 30 years ago. It behooves
us to follow the money trail to investigate where agencies, schools and
local churches have redirected the sincere gifts of many for the
advancement of the Gospel to raise monuments to the handiwork of men.
Furthermore, these things beg the question whether such huge resources
could be better invested for the spread of the Gospel?
The “Push” can also be seen in the adoption of a
social agenda above a Gospel outreach. Witness the recent controversy
within the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) whose vice
president for government affairs, Richard Cizik, has bought into the
Global Warming pseudo-crisis as the paramount issue facing evangelicals
today. The only noteworthy protest to his actions has been from within
the Association, from Dr. James Dobson, whose only real concern is that
there are many other social issues besides Global Warming that the NAE
must address. The battles fought against the Social Gospel back in the
20th century have never really ended. The labels and names may have
changed over the course of history, but the agenda has been
consistently the same. It is the words of men above the Word of God. It
is concern for the here and now above the concerns for the eternal
destiny of men. It is a denial, therefore, of the cardinal doctrines of
the Bible that must be defused by redefinition, cultural relevance, or
limited to figurative speech, to escape their demands for total
conformity and absolute obedience.
More recently, the Push has also revealed
evidence that the Ecumenical cause has been neither asleep nor
derailed. For example, at the Evangelical Theological
Society’s regional conference this March, outside
Philadelphia, major presentations were made on behalf of the Emerging
Church movement. A main speaker, Dr. Allen Roxburgh, who is
vice-president of Allelon (www.allelon.org) spoke of the progress his
organization has made over the past year to gather together 24
Seminaries to discuss their mutual interests and desires to be part of
the Emerging Church movement
(www.allelon.org/projects/schools_participants.cfm). The organization
has deep pockets, an attraction to any college or seminary, but the
eager interest from the schools in this movement marks their readiness
to take the next logical steps in their evolution through
Neoevangelicalism and Evangelicalism to Ecumenicism. It is the only
reasonable expectation of what happens when you perpetually
“push the envelope” of theological tolerance and
unprincipled reasonableness.
Besides the schools listed on Allelon's website, Westminster
Theological Seminary asked to be included in the meetings held last
year and was welcomed with open arms. Biblical Seminary of Hatfield PA
was the host for this ETS conference and has reportedly written off its
“old guard” professors, founders and alumni in
anticipation of attracting a broader clientele among its students and
more widespread financial support. You can read President
Dunbar’s “vision” for the missional
church on their website (www.biblical.edu/index.asp). Biblical is one
of the schools listed by Allelon as interested in the Emerging Church
movement . The list is broad, including Lutheran, Nazarene, schools as
well as Grand Rapids Seminary. Overall, the list also reveals that the
Emerging Church movement has already made significant inroads into the
Presbyterian Churches of America (PCA). No one should really be
surprised, if you had followed it through its successive steps of
compromise (i.e. “pushing the envelope”) over the
past 20 years.
Which brings us to Chuck Swindoll, who has pushed the envelope by
employing street language so much in his radio ministry, Insight for
Living, that at least one radio station has dropped his program because
the crude language and references became more offensive than could be
tolerated. Lest you think it was an honest mistake, or that it was an
isolated incident, consider his wife’s defense, excerpted
from a letter Cynthia Swindoll wrote July 11, 2002:
..Chuck feels that we must be real, in order to meet real people in
their real world. In other words, if people won't come to the sanctuary
because ‘it's not relevant to my life these days,' then we
must make it relevant by delivering a message with which they can
identify. Whether they live in the mansion on the hill or the inner
city, the message must be capable of reaching BOTH or it misses the
very souls who have the greatest needs...
To those who still feel the need to press the limits of toleration and
appeasement, may we state clearly that the Clintonesque bad boy
personality has no place in the work of the Lord. It may play well in
politics, but it needs to be kept out of the churches and schools at
all costs. Unless, of course, you consider politics and the pursuit of
wealth and power as a legitimate pushing of the envelope in the Church.
There is no spirit of revival in the worldly church, neither can there
be revival where God's Holiness has been recast in the mold
and image more like Hollywood than Jesus Christ. There is no excuse for
pushing the envelope unless you measure success by the Biblical
principles trampled under foot, while leaving a glittering but empty
heritage to the following generation. As Baptists, ours is a rich
heritage worthy of being passed on to succeeding generations, but we
dare not hand them less than that which we have received and hand them
a serpent for a fish or a stone for a loaf of bread. Some of our
younger brethren seem ill equipped to tell the difference, and churches
always pay the price for the lack of discernment amongst church
leadership. In time, the monuments of an envelope pushing generation
will only mark the failures of men who have tried to immortalize
themselves by gaining the world, but losing the souls of men. In the
end, pushing the envelope will leave us with little more than a very
nice looking bag full of holes.
Dr. Charles L. Dear