Televangelicalism - Robert Wurtz II

sermonindex Jan 22, 2013

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish... So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:28-30, Luke 14:33)

Mass communication over the years has greatly challenged the historical means of presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in turn, dealing with those that have heard the Gospel once a message has been given. Dwight L. Moody greatly took advantage of the press in the promotion of his meetings as well as Billy Sunday. A simple search of Google's Newspaper Archives demonstrates how churches have utilized the press to some degree or another for a very long time. But things were about to change. The turn of the century marked a new day in evangelism practice.

Dwight L. Moody preached his last message in person on Nov. 16, 1899 at the old Convention Hall in downtown Kansas City, MO. He was a tremendous man of God that did his best to see sinners come to Christ. But we must know that this dear man exerted tremendous influence upon the churches and their evangelistic methods. As is common today, ministers that came to see him or read about him employed techniques or something similar. His influence was limited because technology was limited. But the influence of those that would come after through radio and television would far exceed what this man was capable of. Today the churches are alarmingly influenced by individuals that minister in the name of Christ. The weight of the influence is usually based upon the minister's primarily. The results? What is said on radio and TV is soon communicated in the local churches.

Moody returned home with what is believed to have been heart failure and died on December 22, 1899. He was only 66 years old and did a great work for God, but his influence on evangelism was tremendous. We were headed in the wrong direction. We are seeing the beginnings of "mass evangelism."

Then came Billy Sunday, who ministered primarily in large tent gatherings. As a young minister I was thrilled to actually preach behind a pulpit that Billy Sunday once used. But Billy was no theologian. He had a view of getting converted that was a radical departure from years past. We will not review that here, as we discussed the topic earlier in our series Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Kansas Citians built this canvas and wood tabernacle at Admiral and Lydia, in the northeast section of Kansas City. Fifteen boxcar loads of lumber were used. The 215-by-302 foot structure (65,000 square feet) was larger than old Convention Hall. Seating capacity, 12,000 and standing room for 4,000 more. During the seven weeks of the Kansas City revival, 92 sermons were preached. A front-page story in The Star reported on the final tearful farewell, after Sunday's last sermon, June 18, 1916 that a total of 1,356,000 persons had attended and 20,646 of them "hit the sawdust trail." This phrase was used to express Billy Sunday's method of having a person simply come down a sawdust covered floor between the seats and shake his hand in order to signify your conversion. Ministers of Kansas City said several thousands were "converted" in the meetings, who did not come forward. (kchistory.org) In passing I will note that the language of being "hopefully converted" as opposed to what would later come "got saved" was still being employed. This is a radical difference of wording and meaning. Mass tent meetings reached as many as 1.3 million people in seven weeks, but this method was about to give way to a whole new means of reaching the masses.

Christian radio

If "video killed the radio star", then "the radio star killed the newspaper touting tent meetings". It did not happen all at once; it was slow, but sure. Up to this time thousands could be reached in a tent meeting, but in the 1920's things were going to change. Edgar De Witt Jones in his book American Preachers of Today (intimate appraisals of 32 leaders 1971 p. 305-306) tells us that S. Parkes Cadman was the first person ever to give a religious address on radio. Surely this marked a new era for evangelicalism.

Beginning with S. Parkes Cadmon we would begin to experience a widespread influence of a hand-full of individuals upon the churches of God, rather than the Word of His grace in the midst of a local assembly. That is to say, rather than hearing what the Spirit is saying to the local church, ministers were now preaching sermons, etc. that would be regurgitated into local assemblies. If the enemy can control or influence radio and television preachers and singers he can control and influence the local assembly. Although God has placed individuals within the local assembly to be the source of feeding the flock of God, great new challenges were on the horizon starting with Christian radio. Soon they would be quoted and imitated in almost every way. We will watch slowly as the radio evangelists and the televangelists begin to dictate trends and fads within the local churches. This is very sobering.

The influence of mass communication

Let me say here that the use of means such as tents, newspapers, radio, and television is not all evil. It has been the abuse of these tools that has been evil. The solution for abuse is not non-use, but right use. However, as it has gone, I believe it is impossible to fully estimate the influence that radio and television has made upon doctrine and practice in the last 75 years. Why? Because preachers and teachers of local churches are often listening to these radio and TV ministers, and re-preaching their teachings to their congregations yielding an exponential influence over the original broadcasts. Why? Because teachers and preachers are often repeating the radio and TV teachings in local assemblies because they find it useful. But what about when popularity and coolness begins to take the place of rightly dividing the word of God? This is a staggering question. People rationalize that it must be God that is providing them the platform to speak or they would not have it. This is not necessarily true. The devil will provide a false teacher a platform as if it were a light thing. But what has happened? The local teacher and preacher suddenly has to compete for influence with what is being said on the TV or radio. The TV and radio guy or gal suddenly becomes the authority. This totally misses God's plan for a local church in which Christ is walking in the midst and tending the lamp-stand. Christ wants to speak to the local assembly through the local people. This makes for a church modeled after the Spirit of God and not after the latest and most popular thing on Christian TV.

The Negative Influence

This phenomena has given rise to the wholesale spread of much of the pop-Christianity and "fad" doctrines that leave in their wake everything from rife heresy at worst to a trail of outdated books that end up on bargain tables at the local used Christian book stores at best. And though we could spend time at length considering this fact, I wish to point to our passage again and consider an event that took place in the late 1950's that I believe was a warning about the direction of modern Televangelism.

The Tower to No-Where

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him...

Our passage asks us to consider what would happen if a man went to build a tower and then afterwards was not able to complete it because he did not count the cost. This passage existed for over 1900 years as a valuable lesson that in itself was fully able to reveal the mind of God on the subject. And yet I believe, that in the mind of God, He knew that the day would come when just such an event would truly come to pass. God is not taken by surprise. Consider that in Akron, Ohio, the very town where A.W. Tozer was converted (just a few miles to the north of Canton) sits today a tower that is the mocking-stock of a highly popular and respected minister named Rex Humbard. It is the source of countless crude jokes and at over 400 feet tall, it is a mass concrete eye-sore scaring the skyline. He wanted a television studio in the sky, but did not count the cost and was unable to complete the job. Selah.

(Rex Humbard's unfinished tower as it looks today)

Counting the Cost

Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish... So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple...

Can you believe it is said that this massive tower sold in the 1980's for only $30,000? It is essentially a giant cell phone tower last I checked. Some years ago I sat down with a couple from Akron that attended Rex Humbard's church. The husband's father worked on the project. I was told that the concrete and steel in this structure is such that to bring it down would destroy everything around it. This to me is a picture of much of modern day televangelism. Financial problems plagued the ministry in the early 70's and they were not able to complete the tower. Attention turned elsewhere and the tower was left standing. I believe this event signaled the beginning of the "televangelical Gospel" that stripped, for the most part, an essential element of the Gospel: counting the cost. Dependent on supporters, the televangelical message became a slave to ratings and offerings.This is how "name it and claim it" came into many churches as well as the prosperity heresy.

Your 'Television Pastor.'

Although I believe that God use Rex Humbard in many powerful ways, understand that as early as 1966 Rex Humbard was being referred to as your "television pastor". Again, as with Finney, Moody and Billy Sunday there can be no doubt that God used Rex Humbard. But there is something terribly amiss when folk begin to look to the radio and television for a word from God. G.H. Lang in his work, The Churches of God reminds us that God designed the churches so that their influence upon one another was very limited. This would prevent one church from bringing down the rest if some disaster happened. God deals with churches on a local level and individually. Heresy and false teaching can become like the flu in this environment. How? Everyone gathers together and receives and takes the thing back and infects their own congregations with it. Sometimes, good comes from Television ministry, but it can also be a very dangerous thing. Why? Because the TV star has an exalted position in peoples minds allowing them to get by with all kinds of questionable and false teachings. If he/she is likable, people will just keep listening and even defend the person. They become like idols. I can say in my own life that as a young Christian I followed a certain healing minister to 5 U.S. cities and would defend him before man in public and before God in prayer. I recall actually trying to pray God's judgment upon a Christian apologist for exposing some of my "idol" TV preacher's teachings. God have mercy on me. It was the wrong spirit.

The dark side of influence

So what are we to think about ministries coming along that wield tremendous influence upon local churches? Soon the measure (standard) for authority was based on how many stations and listeners a particular ministry had. This all but stripped the local ministers influence. The people in the seats were often much more ready to receive what was said by the TV and radio preacher simply because they were on TV or radio. This is a horrendous way of establishing authority, but it is fully in step with the enemies constant plot to place the authority in the local churches in someone's hands other than the Holy Spirit. What makes matters worse is that a sort of "peer pressure" often develops in which local pastors begin to emulate these men and women in both doctrine and style.

Televangelists Become 'The' Authority

Think of all the times you have heard a TV or radio preacher/teacher quoted? Think about how a special authority is assumed when quoting these men almost as if their very words trump anything anyone else says. In this way the TV minister begins to function with an authoritative influence like the priest or Pope in Roman Catholicism. It is not formal or stated, but the influence is no less real. Modern Christian TV and radio has wielded tremendous influence upon our whole concept of "church". Soon the guy on TV running 5,000 on Sunday is a best seller at the local book store and may have virtually no theological training or understanding.

All too often, lost in the process, is that precious need to come together before God as a local assembly and hear from God on that level. Much of the modern evangelical church has unwittingly exchanged a host of questionable and false teaching for that precious word of His grace that they needed for edification; that Word that is given from Christ specific to that moment and time in that churches history. What is the result?

Genuine Evangelism

As a general question, how do you suppose a person feels that wants to witness to some friends or hold and open air meeting when they just turned on the TV and hear that 2000 people were "saved" at the most recent evangelistic crusade and another 10,000 were reached by radio and television? I tell you a despair comes on many people and whether they say it or not their actions exclaim, "What's the use?" Why am I out here trying to win souls when these guys are seeing people come to Christ by the thousands? They can handle it! I believe this unintended consequence has crippled to a large degree "one on one" evangelism and street evangelism.

True evangelism is like childbirth, it takes time. Nobody has a baby by reciting 5 points of doctrine. The easy-believism/sinners prayer method of winning folk to Christ has worked to strip the willingness to really stay with a person in the scriptures and in prayer until they are truly converted and come into a relationship with Christ. There is also a massive confusion that has come about because of Televangelism- because most people have no idea what God is really asking of them when they come to Christ. Why? Because preaching on counting the cost can destroy your ratings if it is pressed to it's right measure.

An Unlikely Invitation

An old theology teacher once said that God sometimes blesses a questionable reading, of an obscure text, in the minor prophets; but that is not His standard mode of operation. He expects us to rightly divide the word of truth. Although God has chosen to use men in spite of their ideologies, there is still a day of accounting for all of these ideas that are lodged in the minds of multitudes in our times. Finney's concepts, doctrine and "new measures", God rest his soul, have come home to roost in our times. It was not his intention at the time; but he refused to listen to good counsel and now a Pandora's box has been opened up. For example, although Finney was a tremendous soul winner, in his time, it is shocking to realize how the new measures evolved into the sinner's prayer and the resultant shallow idea that folks have of genuine salvation. Why does it matter? Souls are at risk. Also, a "spurious conversion" is a high maintenance and low impact addition to any assembly. It seems in our times though that often the only thing that matters is "attendance" to the meetings. Many are considered "saved" sheerly on the basis that they repeated a prayer and now attend services. Imagine what will happen when these folks learn how to play the part and then move into leadership in the churches or places of influence on radio and TV. Can you see the snowball effect?

What is the solution. We have to begin once again to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all that entails. This means possibly praying with a person until they come through to God. To come alongside and help lead them to Christ. It means discipling folks and allowing our churches to be a place where we pray and hear from God, resisting the temptation to conform to TV and radio pop-Christianity. We have to resist all of the trappings associated with TV and the popularity it brings.

from: http://realrevival.blogspot.com/2009/08/none-now-live-that-remember-part-8.html

C

Compton Jan 22, 2013

...rather than the Word of His grace in the midst of a local assembly. That is to say, rather than hearing what the Spirit is saying to the local church, ministers were now preaching sermons, etc. that would be regurgitated into local assemblies... Soon they would be quoted and imitated in almost every way. We will watch slowly as the radio evangelists and the televangelists begin to dictate trends and fads within the local churches. This is very sobering.

Thanks Robert. We often lament the coflation of the gosepl with politics, but i think that political fusion is really just a part of a larger problem you are touching on here. Under the hegemony of American pop culture, our local congregations have lost a sense of Christ walking in their midst. Even the smallest local churches rely on mass produced media tools to keep current with trends and tastes. They mean well, but many can't imagine life without fitting in to the larger radio and television streams.

I believe the topic you have touched on here merits expanded research. This is the kind of post modern confrontation that the emergent church missed, as they merely replaced one flavor of mass celebrity with another.

Blessings,

MC

R

RobertW Jan 22, 2013

Thanks dear brothers for the support and kind words.

I believe the topic you have touched on here merits expanded research.

I believe you are right bro. Mike.

For those that may be interested the article has accompanying pictures that help give a visual of what is talked about. We are being flooded with so much compromise today and in so many areas that it can almost be overwhelming. But I believe God has a solution.

C

Compton Jan 22, 2013

Robert,

The reason your analysis works so well for me, is the way you have used the post-modernist perspective to deconstruct belief in a "faulty tower", rather then to negate faith in Christ. (The opposite of the what emergent religion has done..they have simply commandeered the broadcast tower.)

Also, you have managed to resist being dumbed down without becoming elitist. I didn't sense any anti-cultural snobbery, but rather an attempt to understand how passive we like sheep have become.

Over 100 years ago, Samuel Morse demonstrated how long distant communication would soon become mass communication. The invention he used to anticipate mass communication was not the telegraph but the repeater. Morse's telegraph had an upper range of less then 300 miles, and so every 200 miles the railroads would hire a man to sit in a remote outpost to receive and resend the incoming messages. It wasn't long before they realized this repeat could be achieved just by mechanically linking the receiver coil to another sender coil, to begin a new 200 mile loop. In this way a single message was able to criss-cross a national network.

So the telegraph enabled long distant communication, but it was the invention of the relay or the repeater that opened the door to mass communication.

We human beings often overlook, or can't see, that we can be just another type of relay or repeater in the circuitry of mass communication if we aren't careful. I find that many people can hardly tell the different between someone else's mind and their own.

The implications for Christians are worth considering. I hope you keep going Robert...I think you have the best framework and approach I've seen for this issue from a biblical perspective.

Blessings,

MC

R

RobertW Jan 22, 2013

We human beings often overlook, or can't see, that we can be just another type of relay or repeater in the circuitry of mass communication if we aren't careful. I find that many people can hardly tell the different between someone else's mind and their own.

Very sobering thoughts here brother. Not wanting to be a 'repeater', but I may incorporate this concept into my next article as I believe it contributes to the conversation. ;-)

A

ADisciple Jan 22, 2013

An excellent article, Robert. It's deeply ironic to think that the messages of the great preachers that are so readily available to us because of modern technology could actually be causing the present famine of the word that is so widespread in the local churches. Why so? Because it is the local churches (not the great preachers) that God means to be the loaf of sustenance for the hungry. "For we, being many, are one bread, and one body..." (1 Cor. 10.17).

I mean... I am thankful for these men. But something is wrong when you compare that menu (the messages of the great Christian personalities) with what is on the plate of the ordinary local church.

"Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord."

Allan

R

RobertW Jan 22, 2013

I mean... I am thankful for these men. But something is wrong when you compare that menu (the messages of the great Christian personalities) with what is on the plate of the ordinary local church.
"Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord."

I believe you are right Allan. I am thankful for these men as well, but we must realize that God wants to speak to us from His word directly and in the local assembly. The Lord has a present word to say to us there if we will have ears to hear.

D

docseth1 Jan 23, 2013

This is a great article. Great statements.

A

AbideinHim Jan 23, 2013

Thank you Robert for writing this very informative article on this important subject.

There are actually only a few programs that I even watch on Christian T.V. any more.

There is a whole technology out there of advertising that uses the methods of the world to draw numbers. Man is only building another tower of Babel to make a name for himself.

If we had more prayer meetings in our churches, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our services then the hungry seekers after God would come. You don't have to advertise the fire of God, it will be it's own advertisement.

Mike

C

Compton Jan 23, 2013

Hi Robert,

I certainly didn't mean to imply that repeating is bad in itself:) I only was pointing out how repeating is as necessary a component of mass media as broadcasting or publishing is. So, i don't think we should, or even can avoid repeating, but only that we should be aware of our tendency to contribute to mass media by our own efforts.

When I said some people have a hard time telling their own minds from others, i feel this is easily demonstrated by how quickly people's minds are shaped by other peoples narratives.

And in the case of the church, if people have a hard time telling their own thoughts from someone else's, then how much harder is it for people to tell Gods thoughts from their own? Considering this, I feel that "media theory" is not just a topic for philosophers to consider. The topic is for anyone wanting to follow the Holy Spirit in a century when every waking second the human mind is bombarded by dissonant voices and perspectives without rest.

Blessings,

MC

R

RobertW Jan 23, 2013

Thanks everyone for the input. It has been very helpful.

Bro. Mike's: The topic is for anyone wanting to follow the Holy Spirit in a century when every waking second the human mind is bombarded by dissonant voices and perspectives without rest.

I had a thought that it seems that people are getting so consumed with communication that there may well be a point when they reach a sort-of "full saturation" where they are unable to absorb what God is saying to them. There is simply so much information passing around that nothing has time to set in the mind or rest on the heart long enough to make any kind of lasting impact. Why? Because the next thing comes and its a different thought process. Almost like in C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. The sheer volume of information is becoming the means by which people are being completely distracted from God. The boy yelling and selling newspapers or the city bus belching out smoke is replaced by the volumes of information as the means by which the heart turns its thoughts away from God. It is like a huge tophet session.

A

AbideinHim Jan 23, 2013

Brother Robert,

I agree with you that there is an information overload going on. There is a mental search for more information, and now with the internet, this knowledge is right at our fingertips. The problem is that just getting information can be dangerous because it can put us in a false postion of thinking that we know God but in reality it is really mental assent. We need to get quite before God, hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and give us revelation.

Mike

C

Compton Jan 23, 2013

The sheer volume of information is becoming the means by which people are being completely distracted from God.

Perhaps this is why we are seeing a chilling dismissal of critical thinking in the West. People are exhausted or overwhelmed. Or perhaps we no longer believe there is a truth to be found at the end of all our thinking.

300 years ago the Enlightenment began as a critical thinking project in which the collective focus was to liberate society from the "enthusiasm" of uncritical religious thought.

Now we are seeing the emergence of the post-modern project in which the collective focus is to liberate society from the burden of critical thinking.

The West turning is turning back to uncritical enthusiasm, but this time for their concept of man, not of God.

And so, just as religious enthusiasm did 300 years ago, there is a new kind of humanist enthusiasm that will protect itself violently from critical thinking. I call this a "new kind" of humanist enthusiasm, because it no longer believes in the universality of humanity held together by the idea of a final model of the world, but rather in a fragmented humanity, divided by fragmented ideas in group or individual identities. The New Humanism has replaced the old, by replacing rational criticism with Identity Criticism.

The Evangelical, who previously managed to synthesize their faith in scriptural revelation and the critical thinking of the enlightenment into a rational biblical faith, finds themselves in a world makes no sense to them. The reason the post-modern era doesn't make sense to the modern evangelical is not because Western thought has abandoned historical Christian belief in biblical revelation, but because it has abandoned historical Enlightenment belief in rational truth. In this context, the "televangelist" they had supported 30 years ago only adds to the absurdity. They have also abandoned critical thinking years ago, and become so aesthetically or economically preoccupied, that they can offer little spiritual or intellectual content or to the urgent conversations of our day.

MC

R

RobertW Jan 23, 2013

Thanks again to everyone for the input.

The reason the post-modern era doesn't make sense to the modern evangelical is not because Western thought has abandoned historical Christian belief in biblical revelation, but because it has abandoned historical Enlightenment belief in rational truth. In this context, the "televangelist" they had supported 30 years ago only adds to the absurdity. They have also abandoned critical thinking years ago, and become so aesthetically or economically preoccupied, that they can offer little spiritual or intellectual content or to the urgent conversations of our day.

I am focused on this point because I think it may be a lot of the reason why teaching can almost become a waste of time in some cases. If folks are not thinking rationally about the subject you lay out before their minds, what hope do we have of ever teaching truth. Could some of this be what theologians refer to as the noetic effects of sin? I'm not sure who all understands the concept, but it deals with how sin can corrupt our ability to think rationally.

sermonindex Jan 23, 2013

Gredo House Ministries has listen noetic theology as its theological word of the day. The meaning isn’t really a very difficult one to lay hold of from a theological perspective. It has been summed up simply as the effect of sin on the mind and postulates that this effect amounts to the mind being robbed of its power of reason to such an extent that the mind (man) suffers loss as a consequence. Nee’ book The Latent Power of the Soul speaks into that profoundly. Whist reading Mike Compton’ contribution to the thread regarding the Enlightenment of Europe and later, by reason the USA, I was struck by the seeming positive context in which this term was used. Specifically the context of post modern believers drawing back into a noetic or superstitious way of thinking about truth and the extent to which reason and effort play a part in acquiring it. In fact the very idea of it has been on my mind from that moment so that in the end I have to say something to it.

What I have to say is this:

The so-called noetic effect of sin without the exercise of faith, produces a reality of axiomatic outcomes being manifestly understood on the one hand as occult and on the other as enlightened reason. If you want to study a man whose mind perfectly demonstrates this then study Isaac Newton who is often presented as a sound christian as well as a scientist, mathematician and philosopher. Apart from the obvious great intellect and reason evident in his scientific endeavours one should look to his occult endeavours as well. Especially the thousands of papers which the Economist Keynes purchased at auction in London from Newtons niece' descendants. If reason and effort were of themselves going to produce an outcome of true enlightenment then Newton would have been your man. Yet Newton had as much interest in looking backwards as he ever intended to look ahead. No doubt as ignorant and ill informed as this will be seen, the so-called noetic effect is nothing more than the fallen condition of man. Likewise truth is no more than being renewed in your thinking.

Faith may be reasonable to a reasonable and inquiring mind. But in the end it is in truth a gift of God which if exercised produces the most reasonable outcome. Hope this does not interfere with your efforts Robert.

Edit Added Link URL Re Above comments on Newton the man of enlightenment. Please see the very last comment by Keynes.

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/Keynes_Newton.html

C

Compton Jan 23, 2013

Could some of this be what theologians refer to as the noetic effects of sin?

Certainly I believe sin dumbs our minds down by harming our sense of cause and effect. Even a Christian may be clear on what the correct "result" of their life should be, but if they estrange themselves from the correct principles and process that produce their correct product, all of life will seem to them as an irrational mystery.

I've experienced this firsthand!

MC

R

RobertW Jan 24, 2013

Hi Andrew,

Faith may be reasonable to a reasonable and inquiring mind. But in the end it is in truth a gift of God which if exercised produces the most reasonable outcome. Hope this does not interfere with your efforts Robert.

I don't think it does. I see faith as response to revelation. God, by His grace, brings revelation to the mind and heart and then leaves us to respond in faith. When I think of the noetic effects of sin, I am thinking primarily on man's ability (or willingness) to agree with the revelation they are given. To me it is irrational not to believe God exists based upon the revelation (light) we have all been afforded; but what I believe is in play is summarized in Romans 1:21:

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Rom. 1:21).

There is a sense in which a person, desiring to break the tension between their evil heart and their conscience, is prepared to entertain a lie. Once the heart is determined to believe that lie the conscience begins to sear. Over time the person will believe that lie in such a way that it despells any truth related to the same subject. They have simply "believed a lie". This is their contribution to the problem and constitutes part 1 of the noetic effect.

We then have the enemies contribution. He has solicited a lie to replace the truth of God, the person has believed that lie, and are moving in it as if it were truth. This brings about part 2 of the noetic effect.

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Cor. 4:4)

If the person refuses to respond to the dealings of God; or as the writer to the Hebrews says, "Today if you will hear His voice harden not your heart", then we move into part three of the noetic effect and I suggest, the most dreadful.

And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thess. 2:10-12)

Although I recognize the eschatological implications of this passage, I believe the principal is always in play. The person refused to receive the love of the truth, being deceived by unrighteousness (the deceitfulness of sin that hardens the heart towards God). The consequence is that God adds the final delusion in order to give the person what they want.

Although God in His grace must speak to us in order for us to have faith, I believe our response to that "revelation", that is to say, "the hearing of His voice" has a direct effect on how we reason out spiritual matters. I'm not so sure it is a matter of understanding truth in an intellectual sense, but rather the mind can become so fixed on a lie(s) that it will not acknowledge truth. Why? It loved unrighteousness.

Blessings,

Robert

R

RobertW Jan 24, 2013

[Certainly I believe sin dumbs our minds down by harming our sense of cause and effect. Even a Christian may be clear on what the correct "result" of their life should be, but if they estrange themselves from the correct principles and process that produce their correct product, all of life will seem to them as an irrational mystery.

This is another vital truth. I want to come at it from a different direction though to make a point. Many people today have learned how to "play the part" without going through the process of truly being born from above. Leonard Ravenhill deals with this in his interview. Although different from your experience, I have seen the emptiness of folks that are trying to imitate faith, but are devoid of the inward reality.

Blessings,

Robert

C

Compton Jan 24, 2013

It may seem we are detouring more then the subject of the thread should be stretched, but there is a reason here to dig a little deeper into the history of American religous thought. The idea or scheme I would like to lay out here is that American Evangelicism was really a synthesis between prior church doctrine and new Enlightenment doctrines.

I think Armkelly has pointed out the difficultly of talking about ideas like enlightenment and post-modernity, while at the same time putting her finger expertly on the essence of the matter in bringing up Isaac Newton. Newton is, in my little scheme, a perfect example of someone who tried to synthesize scientific thought with elements of faith...albeit some of his faith was directed outside of Christian doctrine, to such subjects as Alchemy.

Perhaps this seemed "reasonable" to him because ultimately he believed that, with enough diligence, all types of human knowledges, both natural and revealed, could be unified into one body of human truth.

So, again in my scheme, this belief or assumption in the certainty of knowable truth was what allowed 18th century emerging evangelicalism to cherry pick from the Enlightenments natural knowledges, without feeling an insurmountable contradiction in their own faith. The common link was belief in truth.

Much of this synthesis between natural and revealed truth was achieved by learning from science but not adopting scientism. An example of this synthesis can be found in Wesley, who cultivated himself with a broad reading habit, and Jonathan Edwards, who to this day is regarded as the colonies first true naturalist.

Evangelical Christianity could make good use of enlightenment political theory as well, sharing a mutual appreciation for religious tolerance, as well as a disdain for unchecked government power.

This synthesis culminated politically in the Constitution of the newly formed United States, where for almost 200 years, various evangelical forms of Christianity from Methodism to fundamentalism, to Pentecostalism, could exist with historically relatively low tension as part of the fabric of the nation...more or less. This is how many American Christians today have come to feel their nation was more or less founded on Christian principles,...because it partially was...And this is how liberals today feel America was founded on the idea of secular liberty...because it partially was...

Yet even after taking onto consideration the Enlightenments athiestic conclusions, it's philosophies still offered religion a more genteel posture of disagreement when compared to the barbaric persecutions of kings and popes in prior centuries. This tolerant temperament also invited synthesis between Christian belief and Enlightnement Philosophy.

Consider this gospelesque quote from the Enlightments exemplar book, the Encyclopédie...
"Reason is to the philosopher what grace is to the Christian... Other men walk in darkness; the philosopher, who has the same passions, acts only after reflection; he walks through the night, but it is preceded by a torch. The philosopher forms his principles on an infinity of particular observations. He does not confuse truth with plausibility; he takes for truth what is true, for forgery what is false, for doubtful what is doubtful, and probable what is probable. The philosophical spirit is thus a spirit of observation and accuracy." (Philosophers, Dumarsais)

By the early 19th century the synthesis of christianity and enlightnement produced a millennial theology in which the gospel and science would go hand in hand in bringing the light of Christian civilzation to a dark primitive world. Reason and Grace became the single shared light.. Americans both religious and non religious were enthralled as Sameul Morse successfully tested hisscientific invention of the telegraph with the enthusiastic expression "What hath God Wrought!"

But after the horrors of the American Civil war, and Darwin's Origins, the synthesis became strained. Evangelicalism entered into the 20th century disenchanted with "progress" and became stretched to the breaking point between two poles. And soon after, by the latter half of the 20th century everyone else was also growing disenchanted with "progress"

And so, having first been disenchanted by religion, and then by scientism, modern western man became "post-modern." convservative Evangelicals are of course mostly disenchanted with the ideologies of science, but not disenchanted with their own biblical faith...and in that sense we are not fully post-modern....but we feel adrift in our own age and culture..

If I seemed positive about either the enlightenment or post-modernism, I apologize; I was trying to affect ambivilance. These things simply are as they are. However, if there is one thing in Post Modernity to be positive about, it is the disenchantment with unreasonable faith in mans own self certainty.

Part of what I saw Robert achieving, with his review of the history of televangelism, was to help the last few remaining practitioners in the experiment of mass evangelism to face the music, and finally accept the spiritual impotence of technology and political connections. The synthesis Is over.

Blessings,

MC

R

RobertW Jan 24, 2013

I think that's a word there bro. Mike.