Saving Whales or Saving Souls?
23 Nov 2022.
The mainstream Church’s morph into another social institution
In today’s society, truth is increasingly subordinate to feelings.
A society without anchor
It is quite acceptable for comedian and activist, Eddie Izzard, who hopes to stand as a Labour candidate in the next general election, to proclaim that sometimes he is in ‘boy mode’ and sometimes in ‘girl mode’ – often depending on whether or not he is wearing high heels. Throughout it all he expects us to call him a ‘her’.
In the USA an overweight man has won a beauty competition for young women and it is lauded as ‘brave’. Men who were not particularly successful in men’s sports can say they are women and compete in women’s events and become World Record winners. Such examples are perhaps inconsequential in themselves, but they are markers revealing a society without anchor, adrift in a chaotic complex of competing claims to ‘my truth’, every one of which must be respected.
Cultural confusion
When we look for those responsible for the present-day cultural chaos, the usual suspects spring to mind. There is the Frankfurt School (a school of social theory and critical philosophy), and what is termed ‘Cultural Marxism’, following the lead of Marxist philosopher, and writer, Antonio Gramci. We can see that postmodern philosophy has spread the anti-gospel of Nietzsche throughout the universities and colleges and into the schools and media until a generation is indoctrinated.
Postmodern philosophy has spread the anti-gospel of Nietzsche throughout the universities and colleges and into the schools and media until a generation is indoctrinated.
They advocated the thinking behind our present state of cultural confusion. There are also those who should have stood against it and failed to do so. The watchmen who failed to resist the despoilers of our culture are as responsible as those whose aim was to destroy what took centuries to build. Chief amongst the failed watchmen is the mainstream Church.
Christian worldview
Our culture, our values and ways of thinking, our achievements and advances stem ultimately from the Christian worldview. Whether or not the individuals who pioneered our scientific and cultural advances shared the faith – and the great majority of them did – they all operated within the parameters of a Christian worldview. Today’s mainstream Church has failed to defend what has been built on a biblical foundation.
This is not just the view of a Reformed theologian. Writing in The Times on the way in which our culture has been degraded, Melanie Phillips, a Jewish journalist, said: “Crucial to that process has been the absence of any concerted opposition. Institutions such as the Church of England, which might have produced a counter-narrative, have instead been among its principal cheerleaders.”
Radical dislocation
This accommodationist tendency was illustrated this month by Dr Steven Croft, bishop of Oxford, who says the Church of England should lift its ban on same sex marriages. In this he has been joined by the bishops of Worcester, Dudley, Buckingham, Reading and Dorchester. The bishop is even willing to split his denomination apart by setting up an alternative episcopal structure for conservative priests and congregations in order to accommodate LGBTQ+ sensibilities.
Dr Steven Croft, bishop of Oxford... says the Church of England should lift its ban on same sex marriages. In this he has been joined by the bishops of Worcester, Dudley, Buckingham, Reading and Dorchester.
The reason he gives for rejecting the teaching of the Bible and church tradition is that the CofE’s claim to serve the whole of society is at stake because its present stance “is leading to a radical dislocation between the Church of England and the culture and society we are intending to serve.”
Immitating the world
Dr Croft, and those like him, labour under the doctrinal illusion that the Church can only reach the world if it is no different from the world. It is illogical to imagine that unbelievers will consider the claims of Christ if they are unable to discern any difference between being a Christian and being a member of the Green Party. It is hardly surprising if unbelievers think that the Church is more concerned with saving whales than saving souls.
Dr Croft is afraid, lest “we are seen to inhabit a different moral universe.” The simple truth is that Christians do hold to a different moral standard. The Church is instructed to defend the teaching of Scripture, even “if the world hates you” (Jn 15:18).
Preserving the institution
The mainstream Church has morphed into just another social institution. This is a phenomenon that not infrequently happens with institutions. They begin with a vision and the energy and passion to carry it through. Gradually a necessary structure is organised to help fulfil the vision and serve those who do the work. Unfortunately, any structure carries the danger of seeing itself as important and the vision gradually shifts from maintaining the vision to maintaining the structure.
The mainstream Church has morphed into just another social institution.
This can be seen in the pre-Reformation Roman Catholic Church, where the institution was paramount, controlling all and seeing the preservation of the institution as the main function of the Church. Today we see the same movement within the churches of the Reformation. There are members who maintain a gospel vision but increasingly the institution sees the function of the organic Church, the living stones, being to serve and preserve the institution rather than the institution being there to serve local Christian communities.
Another Reformation
Ezekiel 33:1-6 reminds us of the responsibility of the watchman to sound the alarm when danger approaches. The watchman who fails will be held responsible by God.
Without doubt the mainstream Church has failed to sound the alarm. As we needed a Reformation five centuries ago, so we desperately need one today.
The Rev. Dr. Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister and regular contributor to TCW (The Conservative Woman)
Prophecy Today.
