If the church (the body of Christ) desires to restore New Testament Christianity, it must first understand what the term encompasses and requires. Where better to find that understanding than the New Testament itself. The history of Christianity begins with the life of Jesus and His ministry as recorded in the four gospels. The history of the church begins with Christ’s ascension and the beginning of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Luke, the beloved physician, gave an account of the former in the Gospel of Luke and the latter in the Acts of the Apostles. What better account than that of a close friend and traveling companion of Paul. With precision, clarity, and thoroughness befitting an educated man of medicine, Luke’s inspired account spans the broad panoply of the beginnings of Christianity and the early church, both Jewish and gentile, and whether in Jerusalem or in the far reaches of most of the known world. From Luke’s writings we gain a comprehensive understanding of New Testament Christianity that appears at odds with the teachings and practices of many evangelical churches of today. Although we must not neglect nor subordinate the other books of the New Testament, many Christians consider Luke’s two long books (approximately 28% of the New Testament) are the most comprehensive and understandable presentation of New Testament Christianity.
Luke’s writings in the Acts of the Apostles present two major themes. First, Luke reveals that the gospel had spread far beyond its origins in a tiny outpost of the Roman Empire and its Jewish religion and had done so in spite of severe opposition and persecution of its messengers. Second, even a cursory reading of the Acts of the Apostles reveals the centrality and importance of the Holy Spirit and His empowerment of the early church.[1] These two themes were evident at the close of Luke’s gospel.
And [Jesus] said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to Suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. [Luke 24: 46-49. KJV]
The words later written in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles echo those written at the end of Luke’s gospel. Those dual themes ripple not only throughout the Acts of the Apostles but the remainder of the New Testament.
But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. [Acts 1:8. KJV]
The essence of the entire book of Acts (and New Testament Christianity) is found in this single verse. The theological message was that His disciples were to continue to do and teach all that Jesus did while on the earth, but their witness could only be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through them. The geographical location of their witnessing was to be the entire world.[2] Jesus instructed His followers to wait and not begin their ministry until they had received the promise of the Father. This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The assignment that Jesus had given to these mortal men and women could not be accomplished in the natural realm. But with the arrival of the promised supernatural power from on high they would accomplish all that Jesus commanded.
As these themes guided those first century Christians whose lives and works were recorded by the inspired writers of the New Testament, we gain a comprehensive and integrated understanding of New Testament Christianity. In light of this understanding, we can determine the critical departures from New Testament Christianity by many in modern evangelicalism.
Hallmarks of New Testament Christianity
There are several norms or hallmarks that give shape, definition, and context to New Testament Christianity. All of its distinguishing elements that were found in the early church (except for the writing of the New Testament Scripture) are available to the twenty-first century church. But they are only attainable when the church moves and operates in the full power of the Holy Spirit.[3]
Several of these hallmarks are no longer found in many evangelical churches. The following is a summary of the more significant observations and findings with regard to the modern evangelical church in America. These are not meant to be an all-inclusive list and are certainly not a comprehensive assessment of the condition of the evangelical church. But correction must be preceded by recognition of those missing elements which have led to a most wintry season in evangelicalism at a time when American culture is in desperate need of a clear, authoritative, truthful, and Holy Spirit-directed response from the church.
• Ignoring the presence and work of the Holy Spirit (Chapter 26)
The Holy Spirit will not allow Himself to be merely an item on a church’s agenda. He is either the center, or He will have no part of the program. Christ instructed His disciples to first “tarry” and then after they had been endued with power from the Holy Spirit they would be ready to do the work of the church. Many modern churches have dispensed with the irreplaceable power and presence of the Holy Spirit in all aspects of church life which accounts for their powerlessness, spiritual poverty, and shallowness.
As a result there are millions of Christians in America that long for the deeper spiritual life found in the pages of the New Testament. To address this hunger, many in the body of Christ and well-intentioned church leaders assemble various ingredients, measure, and then mix them in the prescribed quantities, much as one would do in baking a cake, in an effort to replicate the deeper life found in New Testament Christianity. Because many in the body of Christ and its leaders are more interested in doing church than being the church, they fail to wait upon the Holy Spirit and His enduement of power. His absence is the missing ingredient that leaves the church’s efforts a dry and tasteless imitation of the real thing.
• The message of the new cross (Chapter 29)
The cross upon which the Son of God was crucified stands at the crossroads of history and the story of mankind. Its stark and demanding message is an irritant in the soul of sinful man. For many its message is too confrontational, an agitant, inconvenient, an offense, something to be mocked or shunned. In modern times the way in which the cross is perceived by many who profess allegiance to Christ has also changed. The message of the cross has been muted if not altogether silenced to minimize its offensiveness in churches filled with people trying to decide if Christianity is right for them. Others have rewritten its message to smooth its abrasiveness and soften its demands by making it a thing of comfort and beauty instead of an instrument of death to self and hope of life eternal. The old message, having been modernized and adapted, seamlessly blends with the world’s fascination with humanistic concepts of self-esteem instead of the reality of the fallen nature of man. The new cross at its core rests on ego and selfishness and is the great enemy of the old cross of Christ.
The message of the cross found in Matthew’s gospel has reverberated across two thousand years of Christianity and still means today what those words meant when first written. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” [Matthew 16:24. KJV] Beginning at Pentecost, a small group of Jesus’ followers believed this message, preached the cross, and turned the world upside down.
• The doctrine of divided Christ (Chapter 28)
New Testament Christianity’s concepts of sin and salvation have been replaced in many modern churches by the discredited doctrine of a divided Christ—Christ the Savior and Christ the Lord. According to this doctrine, a sinner may accept Jesus Christ as Savior without surrendering to Him as Lord.[4] But even without acceptance of Christ as Lord, this freewill acceptance of Christ as Savior often degenerates to a man-centered “making a decision for or commitment to Christ” as though man chooses the time, place, and manner of his salvation.
To highlight the fallacy of a divided Christ, the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer bear repeating.
Anyone who turns from his sinful way at the word of proclamation and repents, receives forgiveness. Anyone who perseveres in his sin receives judgment… The Gospel is protected by the preaching of repentance which calls sin sin and declares the sinner guilty…The preaching of grace can only be protected by the preaching of repentance.[5]
The sinner who accepts Christ as Savior and walks away without accepting Christ as Lord perseveres in his sin. Many evangelical preachers may rightly deny their adherence to the doctrine of a divided Christ, but the practices of some say otherwise in their words or actions. They emphasize the acceptance of Christ as Savior and de-emphasize acceptance of Him as Lord. For many, the “Lord” part of one’s commitment to Christ comes later but before church membership because it is a process that takes time. In other words, the “saved” Christian must at some point also decide to make Jesus Christ the Lord of his life. But Tozer states that, “It is altogether doubtful whether any man can be saved who comes to Christ for His help but with no intention to obey Him.”[6]
Some will counter that the newly saved often don’t know enough about the Bible and the Christian life to make an informed decision as to His Lordship. But it is through this doctrine of the divided Christ that the church is filling its pews with half-covenant Christians. Paul said, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved…” [Romans 10:9. KJV] [emphasis added] He must always be both Lord and Savior. Therefore, Christians must not lead a sinner to believe that he is saved by committing to Christ as Savior and then allow him to subsequently consider the matter of Christ’s Lordship over his life when he is more informed or it is more convenient or he has had time to calculate the cost.
• Nonjudgmental love without repentance (Chapters 28 and 32)
The fallacious doctrine of a divided Christ is aggravated if not promoted by many in the church because of a misunderstanding or misapplication of Christ’s nonjudgmental love. This occurs because the world’s definitions of love and tolerance have invaded the church and compromised the gospel message. As a result the message of many churches is that God’s nonjudgmental love is so vast that He will overlook sin for a season if not altogether ignore it if one will only acknowledge Him. The new definitions of love and tolerance require unconditional acceptance of the sinner and is presumed superior to the biblical approach that requires repentance and turning from sin.[7] But the world’s definitions of love and tolerance are contrary to the very nature of God because He cannot tolerate sin. God is both loving and just, and if His love is conformed to the world’s definition of nonjudgmental love and tolerance, then He is cannot be both loving and just.
Cheap grace is the end product of preaching the world’s definition of nonjudgmental love. But cheap grace does not transform by washing away one’s sin but merely provides a transparent, temporal, and defective covering for man’s sin which stands in sharp contrast to the words of an old hymn: “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”[8] Cheap grace attempts to hide sin or redefine it as a disease, but it does not eradicate it. Rather, it makes a mockery of Christ’s death on the cross to purchase forgiveness for mankind’s sin. Cheap grace makes the shedding of His blood at Calvary irrelevant for man’s redemption.
A person who willfully continues in his sin cannot be excused for their heart remains unconverted and they are not open to growing in virtue. If the church does not make this distinction clear, it is guilty of misleading people as to their eternal destination.
• Doctrinal heresies (Chapters 27 and 32)
Paul warned of a time when many in the church would not endure sound doctrine but seek teachers of fables instead of truth (See 2 Timothy 4:3-4). As a result doctrinal heresy occurs because the truth of the Scriptures and its meaning have been diminished or abandoned by many in the church. Over the centuries, attempts to corrupt the Bible have occurred in three ways: adding to, taking away, and the corruption of meaning. The liberal church is guilty of all three.
For the last several decades many in American evangelical churches have tampered with the meaning of scripture. One source of this doctrinal corruption is the pervasive and careless use of unfaithful translations and even less reliable paraphrases. Also, the corruption of the meaning of scriptures is worsened by stringing together various Scripture verses found in several translations and paraphrases.
With the demise of serious expository preaching, doctrinal mischief is encouraged by an over-reliance on topical messages that tend to cherry-pick verses which are inappropriately divorced from the larger meaning and context of the biblical passages in which they are found in order to “prove” a point or prop up man’s opinion.
Also, many evangelical churches ignore serious preaching of major themes of the Bible (e.g., prophecy and end time events) that are seen as not being culture-friendly and therefore a hindrance in growing the church. As a result large portions of the Bible are not included in their preaching and teaching—a form of taking away.
The belief that the Bible is infallible and inerrant arises from our understanding that the scriptures are God-breathed, that is, written by human hands but under the inspiration of God. Without this unalterable foundation, New Testament Christianity is a myth.
• Accommodating the spirit of the world (Chapters 25 and 32)
At the close of the Last Supper with His disciples, Jesus prayed for them.
I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. As thou didst send me into the world, so have I also sent them into the world. [John 17:14-18. RSV]
This is the dynamic tension in which the individual Christian and the church must live—being in the world but not of it. We cannot avoid this tension for it is an inherent part of every Christian’s walk and every church’s ministry. To attempt to lessen the tension is to fall into the ditch of worldliness or to disobey Christ’s command to share His message by separating ourselves from the world. In spite of the best of motives, many in the modern evangelical church appear to have fallen into the ditch of worldliness because they have accommodated the spirit of the world within the church. When the world’s value system invades the church, the church becomes worldly.
There is an old adage that the church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for the hurting. This sentiment has an element of truth but is often abused. In its effort to reach out to the sinner, the modern church too often has replaced both the museum and hospital and made it a cruise ship for the saint and sinner alike. The sinner is made comfortable and enjoys the perks of Christianity in congenial fellowship with a good and solicitous people. His hosts are never so rude as to ask him to check his worldly baggage at the door and change his ways. With enough time the sinner will see the value of making a decision for Christ. Unfortunately, this analogy fits a great many evangelical churches in America.
Never hearing a truthful presentation of sin and their eternal damnation, a large number of sinners inhabit the church and over time bring corruption to that which they inhabit. As a result, differences between the lives of those who profess to be Christians and those that are unrepentant sinners become indistinguishable because the church was left unprotected from the spirit of the world. This was the great sin of the church at Thyatira. It contained many wicked people who caused many of God’s people to be drawn into sin (see Revelation 2:18-29).
The great tragedy is not only that a great many sinners are left in their sin, the church itself is left unprotected. This occurs because many churches have incorporated questionable methods in their scramble to survive in a rapidly changing and increasingly hostile culture. By doing so they have also gradually and subtly changed and softened the Bible’s message as well. Over time the adulterated message of these churches becomes unrecognizable when compared with sound doctrine and teachings of the Bible.
• Failure to adequately and effectively proclaim the gospel (Chapter 26)
“It is the chief function of the sermon to unleash the word of the Lord in the midst of his people. It is the chief means by which the Lord directs, rebukes, sustains and invigorates his people.”[9] [emphasis added] As discussed in Chapter 26, the foolishness of preaching is the fundamental means by which the Word of God is declared to a gathering of His people. Through those gatherings Christians encounter Jesus and fellowship with Him through His word.
If the chief function of preaching is to unleash the word, then we should be concerned with how that word is to be unleashed. The most important means is the prayerful expounding of the word itself (expository preaching). Topical preaching, polemical (disputation) preaching, historical preaching, and other forms of preaching have their rightful places. But these (especially topical preaching) have replaced expounding the Word of God to a substantial degree in many of today’s evangelical churches and has greatly contributed to a rapidly growing biblical illiteracy within the church. The message of the Bible has been dumbed down and therefore is made a husk without the life sustaining core from which the Christian finds spiritual nourishment. But such is foolish preaching and also inhibits the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the sinner. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, both the minister and the sinner are utterly powerless to change the sinner’s condition from death to life.
• Yoked with the world (Chapters 25 and 32)
Under duress from a culture heavily saturated with humanistic concepts of relativism, tolerance, and inclusion, many evangelical leaders and Christian organizations have embraced an ecumenicalism that reaches beyond the boundaries of the Christian faith. In their efforts to be ecumenical and culturally relevant, they have attempted to find common ground with organizations and false religions that stand in opposition to God’s word.
In 2 Corinthians 6:14-16a, the Apostle Paul cautions that Christians should not be mismatched with unbelievers. In his commentary, Matthew Henry expounds on Paul’s admonition.
It is wrong for good people to join in affinity [kinship or relationship] with the wicked and profane…We should not yoke ourselves in friendship with wicked men and unbelievers…Much less should we join in religious communion with them. It is a very great absurdity. Believers are made light in the Lord, but unbelievers are in darkness; and what comfortable communion can these have together?[10]
When ministers, ministries, and churches mix the light with darkness, they effectively have disobeyed God’s word and bring reproach on their ministry and the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, individual Christians and the church should reach out to individual non-believers with love and kindness in the hope of sharing the truth of the message of Jesus Christ.[11]
Paul’s charge to not be mismatched with unbelievers does not prevent a Christian from speaking to groups and organizations which are non-Christian when presenting the message of Christ. Here we follow the examples of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who spoke publicly against Nazism and Paul himself when he spoke to the Greeks at Mars Hill. This type of encounter is essential to engage the culture as discussed in Chapter 35, and it is not the same as being in communion with unbelievers and false religions.
The evangelical church and the end of the age
Because the term “evangelical” has such a broad usage and has become so inclusive, it has been rendered meaningless as an identifier of truth and has produced an evangelical winter. As a result there is occurring in American evangelicalism a fundamental realignment among evangelicals as the various players coalesce around either a mainstream secularism or return to evangelicalism’s roots found in New Testament Christianity. This realignment will divide the evangelical church whose two branches are symbolized by the ancient churches at Laodicea and Philadelphia.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians with regard to this division in which a great number of the once faithful will renounce, desert, or become traitors to their faith (see 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3). The rebellion of many in the church is called the Great Apostasy. But Paul told us that this must come. Those that remain true to the faith should not be shaken in mind, distraught, or troubled. Even as the Great Apostasy spreads and engulfs many of the once faithful, there is also a corresponding general cultural decline caused by the abandonment of the biblical foundations upon which the nation was built, the ascendance of humanistic and secularized influence over the institutions of American life, and the general decline of morality within Western culture. But the inevitability of the trials facing the church and the culture within which it resides does not release the church from Christ’s mandate to share the gospel until the end the age when He shall return.
Many Christians are praying for a national spiritual awakening similar to the one God conditionally promised Solomon. “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [2 Chronicles 7:14. RSV] Notice that God required His people to turn from their wicked ways, not the culture at large. This promise was to Israel, not to America. But it is a biblical principle that, when adhered to, has been proven to dramatically change the course of cultures and mankind’s history for the better. It was proven in America with the birth of evangelicalism in the First Great Awakening during the early and mid-1700s as well as in two subsequent Great Awakenings. Whether or not America will receive a healing of its land we cannot say.
No person can predict the end of the age and Christ’s return, but the signs of the times speak loudly of His soon coming. For some decades America has been incessantly drawn toward the center of the spiraling vortex of world-wide wickedness during the last days as described by the Apostle Paul. Given the rapid ascendance of secularism and growing hostility to Christianity, America may already be at the brink of plunging into that vortex. As this occurs, the branch of the American evangelical church that embraces New Testament Christianity will become part of the suffering church which has been the symbol of a faithful Christian witness for two thousand years. But the suffering church’s consolation and hope lies in the words of James.
Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. [James 1:2-4. RSV]
Larry G. Johnson
Sources:
[1] “Introduction: Acts,” The Full Life Study Bible, King James Version, The New Testament, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1990), p. 239.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., p. 240.
[4] A. W. Tozer, “No Saviorhood without Lordship,” The Root of the Righteous,” (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: WingSpread Publishers, 1955, 2006), p. 95.
[5] Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2010), pp. 292-293.
[6] Tozer, “No Saviorhood without Lordship,” The Root of the Righteous, pp. 96-97.
[7] Larry G. Johnson, “Strange Fire – The Church’s quest for cultural relevance – Part IV,” culturewarrior.net, January 9, 2015. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2015/01/09/strange-fire-the-churchs-quest-for-cultural-relevance-part-iv/
[8] Robert Lowry, “Nothing but the Blood,” Hymns of Glorious Praise, (Springfield, Missouri: Gospel Publishing House, 1969), p. 208.
[9] Peter F. Jensen, “A Vision for Preachers,” Doing Theology for the People of God, (Eds., Donald Lewis and Alister McGrath, ( Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1996), p. 219.
[10] Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Ed. Rev. Leslie F. Church, Ph.D, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1961), p. 1832.
[11] Larry G. Johnson, “Strange Fire – The Church’s quest for cultural relevance – Part III,” culturewarrior.net, January 2, 2015. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2015/01/02/strange-fire-the-churchs-quest-for-cultural-relevance-part-iii/
