Idolizing Ideology

                          

     He’s very cool. He dresses cool. He talks cool. And he believes cool things. But underneath all his coolness there’s a stench of idolatry. He presents as the celebrated ‘nice Christian’, a non-threatening, meek and mild lover of love. A ‘love’ of his own description. The cool preacher peddles a ‘love’ that at once cloaks him in piety and assures his audience that love means loving all things, except of course those poor souls who don’t love like he does. Afterall, what is better than love? This is his kind of love; a love the cool Christian can use as a cudgel. If you disagree, well, you’re just not loving!

     Sadly, the cool preacher gets his definition of love in culture, not God’s Word. The culture informs his preaching, for it is the culture in which he wishes to ingratiate himself. 

     The culture may say “Christians are mean!”. The cool preacher responds, “Yes, they are, but I’m not!”.

     The culture may say, “Christians are racists, bigots, and homophobes!”. Again, the cool preacher agrees, and responds, “True! But not me! I love everyone!”. And of course, what he means is, “I accept all things, all beliefs, and all behaviors, as long as they’re ‘loving’". 

     A favorite pious defense of homosexual relationships is to toss out a portion of a disambiguated Bible verse by saying, “Against love there is no law!” [compare with Gal. 5:22-23] as if proclaiming one’s love for something makes it acceptable to God simply because you love it. Is Scripture twisting allowed when it’s done in love? In his mind, the ambiguity of his love is what makes the culture minded preacher superior to the ‘mean’ Christians who don’t look at love as an emotion of Man, but that which emanates from God. For God alone is love. Without God there is no love.

     The world blanches at this truth and therefore, in his haste to appeal to a fallen world, the cool preacher redefines love in his own image. And he stands that image upon his pulpit and beckons the congregation to bow down.

    The cool preacher is a wolf invading the sheepfold of the Protestant churches. He’s mad. Mad about the non-conformity of Christians into his way of thinking. There’s a strawman in his sermons that he uses to continually promote his own ideology. This strawman doesn’t love the way he wants them to. This strawman doesn’t vote the way he wants them to, and this strawman is a big meanie. So the sheep under his teaching will ever hear and only hear, his angst and his ideology. They will be starved of the means of holiness but will be stuffed with the ideology of a disgruntled, but cool, wolf.

     Yes, the woke preacher sounds like the culture of a fallen world because he belongs to the culture of a fallen world. He does not bow his knee and confess Jesus Christ is Lord but bows his knee to his own novel version of Christ and confesses his version is best. In his faux humility he elevates himself above God’s Word. He is the definer of love. He is the discerner of sin. He has his own theology, and man, is it ever cool!

      And if in his appeal to the culture, he should acquire converts to his ideology, like the Pharisees of old, he makes them twice the sons of hell as himself [Matt.23:15].

    The wokester, the cool preacher, the idolater of his own ideology is a product of a church that’s lost its way; a church that has abandoned its first love by redefining love. And only by returning to the ancient paths can this church be restored to a source of life for its people. Christ defines our life by showing us how to live. He is Love and only in Him can we know true love. 

     To this fallen world that’s not cool. The world wants a love that is self-centered and painless, without struggle and blind to sin. But the Christian life is about struggle. We struggle trying to become the child of God He desires each of us to be. We struggle to love one another the way Christ loves us. It is in our struggles that we feel God’s mercy, forgiveness, encouragement and above all, His love.

    The culture has nothing for us. The cool preacher has nothing for us. But in the Church Christ founded, God has given His Spirit. And in that Church, you will experience what true love is. No matter how cool the ‘love’ the cool wokester peddles may seem, it can never compare to the limitless love of God. God’s love is not predicated on ideology. God is calling us to smash our idols and love as Christ loves us. As St. John prayed, we too must pray that we in our political or cultural constructs diminish and Christ increases in all we do and how we love [John 3:30].

   Find an ‘uncool’ Church. A Church that hasn’t given itself over to the culture. Find the Church Christ founded at Pentecost. You’ll love it.