Destroyed Foundations!
Faith is a choice, but biblical faith is not a blind leap into the darkness.
God does not define faith in that way. Biblical faith finds its
foundations in the inspired Words of God. In other words, biblical faith
begins with believing that the Bible is the very Word of God. Faith
apart from the knowledge of God that comes through the knowledge of
God's inspired Bible is really not faith at all in that it has no
foundations.
"1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? 2 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. 3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? 4 The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. 5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. 6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. 7 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright" (Psalm 11:1-7).
Every new generation of Christianity morphs itself into some abstract of reality.
This generation of professing Christians at the beginning of the
twenty-first century are four or five generations away from ever having
to really "earnestly contend for the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3). In most part, we are a generation
whose only knowledge of Liberalism is some abstract sense of outcomes
and dictionary definitions. There are few alive today who actually
wielded the Sword of the Lord in the middle of the onslaught of the
attack of theological Liberalism as it sought to undermine and destroy
the very foundations of the faith. Most professing Christians
have very little comprehension even of what theological Liberalism is.
They certainly do not understand the birth children of theological
Liberalism known as New Evangelism, Ecumenicism, Theonomic
Reconstructionism, or even such things as the New Age Movement.
We are a generation of Christianity that has grown into some abstract sense of spiritual immaturity when in fact we do not even know what spiritual maturity looks like, let alone what is involved in being spiritually mature.
We have bathed ourselves in the socially engineered propaganda provided
by Liberalism inviting it into our homes in the forms of public
Humanistic education, television, worldly music, and Hollywood films.
The foundations have been destroyed while we stood on the sidelines and
watched it happen. We have allowed true biblical Christianity to be
marginalized by the world by allowing Bible doctrine to be minimized in
our churches.
We
have this lofty idea about ourselves as we see ourselves standing above
the problem when in fact we are very much a part of the problem.
This was exactly the condition of the nation of Israel when God raised
up the prophet Isaiah. The vision of the Lord that Isaiah received is a
vision every Christian living when the foundations have been destroyed
MUST see. We must understand Isaiah's vision of God because this vision
reveals to us the basic meaning of destroyed foundations.
Every
new generation must have a renewed vision of God and our purpose in His
plan because every new generation of Christians are an extension of the
foundation upon which the next generation must build. Each new
generation of Christians are the foundations that are being destroyed
by compromise and corrupted, liberalized doctrine. A foundation of
Christianity is destroyed when that generation is weakened in its
resolve to fight the fight of faith and to battle against the world's
efforts to incorporate us into something that distorts the image of God.
"1 In
the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he
covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he
did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. 6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (Isaiah 6:1-8).
We
often read this text and miss its instructional intent. Although the
focus is upon Isaiah's vision of God in all His glory and holiness, the
emphasis of the text is upon how that understanding of God changed
Isaiah's view of his own spirituality. In turn, Isaiah's understanding
of the Person of God changed Isaiah's view of even the most spiritual in
the nation of Israel. The statement of Isaiah 6:5 is profound in ways
we cannot even comprehend. "
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." The Hebrew
word translated "I am undone" means Isaiah was brought to silence
as he viewed in awesome terror the holiness of God. Yet, even that does
not give us the total meaning of Isaiah's transformational
understanding of humanity compared to the character and nature of God.
Isaiah saw his own character and nature compared to God's.
Most of us are like Isaiah. We are saved and no longer live like the
rest of the world. However, we confuse having a knowledge of
righteousness with being righteous. We see ourselves as part of
the solution to the world's problem when in fact we are, in most part,
still partners with the world and part of the problem. This is what
Isaiah saw when he saw himself and the rest of the best of Israel compared to God. The foundations are beginning to crumble under our feet because we do not see that our feet are part of the crumbling.
Generation
after generation of Christians degenerate and morph into abstracts of
the real thing because we lose the historical context through which
previous generations fought. Liberalism was birthed out of German Rationalism, Higher Criticism, and Lower Criticism. These were professing Christians
that questioned everything. The verbal plenary inspiration of the
Scriptures was questioned, critiqued, and morphed into every abstract of
reality possible. The outcome was that very few professing Christians
any longer trusted their Bibles as the foundation for absolute truth.
The Liberals considered this outcome progress. Once the
foundation of verbal, plenary inspiration was destroyed, the Liberals
began to attack the cardinal doctrines of the faith. The foundation of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ was destroyed for many by destroying faith in
the virgin birth, and the deity of Jesus. The foundation of the
doctrine of redemption was destroyed by destroying the doctrine of substitionary atonement and the elimination of any teaching on the Blood of Christ. Liberalism left Christianity emaciated and powerless to engage the world because Christianity now held in common the world's values. The problem was that in the transition this new Christianity ceased to be true Christianity.
True Christianity was demonized and radicalized by Liberalism and then marginalized into cultural irrelevancy. From that position of irrelevancy many began asking the same question David asked. "
If
the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do" (Psalm 11:3)?
Their answer to the question was to try to make God relevant to the
world once again. From this, the already compromising New Evangelicalism
morphed into the Emerging Church and even more corrupt, inclusive forms
of Ecumenicism. The corruption of separatism and militant
Fundamentalism morphed into soft separatism using Contemporary Christian
Music (CCM) and became a new kind of New Evangelical converging itself
with all forms of theological corruption in the pursuit of something
called cultural relevancy.
Like
Isaiah, this generation of Christianity does not even comprehend the
problem, let alone understand it, and therefore becomes part of the
problem. They do not understand the problem because the problem is not that God is irrelevant to the world. The problem is that God has been made
irrelevant to world because the God of the Bible is no longer the god
the world knows. God has not changed. The world has created a false,
liberal idol that has replaced the God of the Bible.
The
world is always changing by becoming more ungodly and antichrist with
every generation. The problem is that the liberal world has changed
Christianity when they recreated God in their image. Although most
Christians may not be as unbelieving and as corrupt as the unbelieving
world, in most cases we are just a few steps behind them.
Thinking
themselves to be somewhat righteous by comparing their lives to the way
the world lives, they fail to look back over our shoulders to see just
how far short of the glory of God they really are. We have
raised a generation of children who think it is more important to be
cool and sexy than it is to be holy and righteous. We are now a
generation that has been so corrupted that somehow we have even
convinced ourselves we can be both cool and sexy as well as holy and
righteous. The foundations have been destroyed!
Because
we have lost the historical context of the struggle between
righteousness and truth with unrighteousness and deception, we cannot
even understand what David is asking in Psalm 11:3. Historical context is more than just important. Historical context is CRITICAL!
In Psalm eleven, Saul is the king of Israel. Saul has surrounded
himself with counselors who were feeding his paranoia regarding David
usurping the throne of Israel. There was no danger of David doing that,
but this is what Saul had allowed his mind to be filled with. In I
Samuel 26:20, David states his belief regarding Saul's pursuit of
David's life - "
for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains."
David
has also surrounded himself with friends who were bad counselors. In
Psalm 11:1-3, David is actually questioning the counsel he is receiving
from his friends, "1b how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? 2 For, lo, the wicked bend their
bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily
shoot at the upright" (Psalm 11:1b-2). David's friends were telling him
to take himself out of harm's way and go hide in obscurity in the
mountains. Yes, Saul wanted to kill David. Yes, Saul was corrupting
justice and promoting unrighteousness in Israel. Is the solution to
these kinds of problems running away and hiding thereby silencing the
voice of justice and righteousness by securing your own safety? When
righteousness is threatened by unrighteousness, should the righteous
flee in fear?
What
should the righteous do? The point of the discussion is that the best
thing the righteous can do is BE RIGHTEOUS in the midst of
unrighteousness! When the foundations of righteousness have been
destroyed, true believers should become part of a new foundation of
righteousness!
This
is why it is important to understand human nature and the subtlety of
our propensity for Centrism. Because of our corrupted nature and our
hatred for rejection, when confronted with a choice between radical
unrighteousness and radical righteousness, our natural propensities for
acceptance leads us to put ourselves somewhere in the center of these
two radicals. Most people will do that because that is where the vast
majority of people involved in making the same choice will put
themselves. There is an innate tendency for the doctrinally shallow and
spiritually weak to follow the majority.
Do
you think Satan understands that aspect of our corrupted character? Of
course he does and he uses it against us. This is what defines
progressive Liberalism. This is why and how every new generation of Christianity progressively digresses away from biblical normalcy morphing themselves into some abstract of the real thing.
The second thing Satan depends upon is biblical ignorance.
There are three progressive essentials necessary in order to avoid
personally becoming part of destroying the foundations of righteousness.
These three progressive essentials keep us from becoming progressive
Liberals.
1. Knowledge of God's Word (II Timothy 2:15)
2. Understanding what you know ("Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way." Psalm 119:104)
3. Wisdom is knowing how to apply and live what you understand
"1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. 2 For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. 3 For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. 4 He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. 5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. 6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. 7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. 8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. 9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. 10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many. 11 I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths. 12 When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. 13 Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life" (Proverbs 4:1).
Herein
lies the problem that defines why the foundations are so easily
destroyed. Every new generation begins with NONE of these three
essentials to the continuation of righteousness. We begin with
complete ignorance of God's Word and no comprehension of its value to
our lives and existence. Therefore, we have not real motivation to learn
the Word of God or invest the thousands of hours necessary to
understanding the Word of God. We are naturally untrusting of people and
our ignorance keeps us from being able to choose the right people to
help us know what God's Word says. Human nature normally rationalizes
that the majority is correct and therefore chooses what the majority
chooses. Human nature avoids what the majority considers radical. The
majority way is what Jesus calls the "broad way."
"13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).
Our
natural propensity for Centrism leads us to constantly morph ourselves
into some manufactured abstract of the real thing until there are
hundreds and thousands of levels of corruption. Most people
have little comprehension of grammar and syntax and so they do not even
have the most basic tools necessary to understand God's communication
through words and language. They certainly cannot understand the use of
the anthropomorphisms, similes, metaphors, or colloquialisms used so
often by God in His Word. Such ignorance cripples them in the basics of
understanding and applying the Word of God. Because learning all of that
is hard work, most people never even make the effort. Hence darkness
engulfs the light and evil commands the high ground through cultural
apathy and indifference to God.
Theological
Liberalism has created political Liberalism. Political Liberalism has
morphed out from theological Humanism into secular Humanism.
The transition takes place from a Humanistic view of God to removing God
altogether from the view. When God is taken out of theological Humanism
all that is left is secular Humanism. Removing the very notion of God
from the discussion is the goal of political Liberalism and secular
Humanism. This is the purest and heinous form of Antichristism. Secular
Humanism seeks to completely remove moral absolutes based upon the Bible
with their own moral absolutes based upon political correctness.
Removing
all moral absolutes based upon the Bible and replacing those moral
absolutes with politically correct absolutes are the hidden philosophies
within the Common Core Curriculum being promoted by our national
government. This is certainly evident in the curriculum's sex education
where experimentation regarding gender oriented sexually is encouraged. Liberalism hides its real agenda behind the clouds of noble causes where the ignorant and careless are easily duped as dopes.
"If
the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?" The answer
is found in Psalm 11:4-7. The answer is that there is a message for
which the righteous are responsible to proclaim when confronted by the
destroyed foundations of unrighteousness in any generation. The
solution against the unbelief of scientific Empiricism is not a debate
that offers the axiomatic defenses of apologetics. The solution against
the unbelief of scientific Empiricism is the declaration of God's
existence and God's sovereignty over His creation regardless of their
rejection of His existence. The answer to unbelief is a message.
The answer to the unbelief of Liberalism is a proclamation that there
is a holy God upon His throne and unbelievers will be judged by Him in
the near future. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this
the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). The message is Psalm 11:4-7.
"4 The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. 5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. 6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. 7 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright" (Psalm 11:4-7).
The
point of these verses is that even if the foundations of righteousness
in this world have been destroyed, the foundations of righteousness in
Heaven have not been destroyed. Even though the "born again"
Christian seems powerless in the midst of the onslaught of
unrighteousness, he is not. We can say with Job, "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth" (Job 19:25). Psalm 11:4-7 tells us that we can know
that God alone creates a majority in His sovereignty. Therefore, join
that majority and proclaim that majority!
It
would appear that Liberalism, as in the days of old, has once again
risen to a position of dominance. A nation founded upon the governance
of God's Laws of righteousness has been corrupted by the very courts of
Law designed to protect the Rule of Law. Moral absolutes defined
and established by belief in the inspired Words of God have been
replaced by the Humanistic moral absolutes of political correctness.
Constitutional Law and justice have been corrupted and replaced by case history Law through the undermining of Fluid Constructionism. Churches, that once proclaimed belief in sola scriptura,
have abandoned the Word of God for cultural relativism. It would seem
by all appearances that righteousness is dead and its foundations have
been destroyed. What does this tell the true believer living in the days
of destroyed foundations? This apparent defeat tells us we are close to
the revelation of the righteous One.
"3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the
heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the
water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept
in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men" (II Peter 3:3-7).
The point of II Peter 3:3-7 is similar to Psalm 11:4-7. God is still upon His throne! Unbelief,
the advances of Liberalism, and the world's attack against everything
that is holy and righteous is just a façade of victory. Do not run and
hide.
Do
not let the world silence your voice or relegate your testimony to hide
yourself away in obscurity. We are not the first of God's people to
face this kind of dilemma. Noah faced it and preached the righteousness
of God (II Peter 2:5) for the one-hundred and twenty years he spent
building the Ark. The unrighteous world mocked him and ridiculed him
daily as he spent all his time and resources to build and ark of
survival against the judgment of God that would come in something called
rain. The message to unbelievers has never changed. As we watch the
advances of Liberalism and unbelief capture the hearts and souls of this
world, the message we have from God is repent and believe! There is no compromise! No unbelieving Christ rejecter will be spared! God is consistent in His dealings with mankind and God's judgment is an imminent historical constant in this world.
"1
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there
shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And
through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of
you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not. 4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly" (II Peter 2:1-6).
What
is the point of religious freedoms in a society that rejects belief in
God or in most part radicalizes and ridicules people of real biblical
faith? According to Bill Nye the science guy, belief in a
literal interpretation of a book that is thousands of years old is an
endangerment to our next generation's ability to advance and compete on a
global scale where other societies are not hampered by such archaisms.
Or, consider the new Catholic Pope's proclamation that belief in a
literal Hell or a God of wrath and condemnation no longer fits in with
our New Age view of a God of love, peace, and tranquility within the
vast diversities of religious beliefs. Do any of these
proclamations of pseudo-wisdom change God's eternal dynamics in any way?
They certainly do not. Paul's proclamation to the corrupters of the
Gospel speaks just as loudly two-thousand plus years after he declared
it as the day he declared it.
"6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:6-9).
The
main point of Psalm 11:4-7 is that the true believer's victory over the
apparent domination of unbelief and unrighteousness will not be found
in human alliances. Yet this it seems is the solution to which
humanistic thinking first leads us. We rationalize that evil is
advancing and unrighteousness is prevailing therefore we must become
more inclusivistic in our alliances. We make such rationalistic and
logical deductions without even considering that such thinking is
humanistic and pragmatic. We have example after example of God's
condemnation of this kind of rationalism in His dealings with the nation
of Israel. When God's people make ungodly alliances to reinforce their
strength by increasing their numbers, they do so at the sacrifice of
their alliance with God. God hates this kind of thinking for it is
really a manifestation of unbelief.
We
know that after the exodus and the twenty-six year record of the events
recorded in the book of Joshua, the very next generation abandons their
faithfulness to God and begins to incorporate the pornographic
compromises of paganism in their midst - ONE GENERATION! The
point before us is just how fragile a culture is when a culture loses
its emphasis upon maintaining the purity of faith and doctrine. In one
generation after the miraculous victories of the land of Canaan the
miraculous is taken for granted. God is forgotten and the promises made
in their covenantal declarations to Joshua are broken. Take a careful
look at two Bible texts that record events just two years apart - Joshua
24:15-22 and Judges 2:10-15.
"15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day
whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were
on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. 16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; 17 For the LORD our God, he it is
that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the
house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and
preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people
through whom we passed: 18 And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God. 19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20
If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and
do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. 21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD. 22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses" (Joshua 24:15-22).
"10 And
also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there
arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet
the works which he had done for Israel. 11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: 12
And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out
of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people
that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. 13 And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. 14
And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them
into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the
hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer
stand before their enemies. 15 Whithersoever they went out,
the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said,
and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed"
(Judges 2:10-15).
"In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6).
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