Monday, February 15, 2010

How should a 1st century faith talk?

There is some hubbub over the pond as it were regarding a sermon given by one Angus MacLeay. According to the Daily Mail, he said something shocking in a sermon: Wives should submit to their husbands. Now, I am not going to get into the arguments regarding submission and the role of women in the church, not into the similar admonishments for men to lead in the home and to love their wives as Christ loved the Church (i.e. giving His life up for her). What I found interesting was this one quote from the article:

One woman churchgoer said she was ‘disgusted’ by the sermon, adding: ‘How can they talk that way in the 21st Century?’

Another, who also did not want to be named, said: ‘We’re supposed to let our husbands talk for us and remain silent? What kind of medieval sermon is that?’

Here is the thing ladies. Christianity is not a 21st century faith. It is a faith founded in the 1st century and it is not dependent on the approval of the culture. It is a faith where the truth was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and it is not the Bible that needs to change to conform to the culture. Nor should we expect the culture to conform to the Bible. We should proclaim Christ and those who are born again by the power of the Spirit should seek to be conformed to the Scripture, not to have Scripture sliced and diced, molded to our preferences. Ours is a faith where a man was murdered in a most unpleasant fashion to save those who hated Him from an eternal hell. That also doesn't fly in our sanitized world but it is who we are. If you are a "church-goer" who doesn't like that, stop "going to church" because that is the church that Christ established, ordered and died to redeem.


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