Culture

From Zoloft to Zion: Why Your Sadness Might Be Your Salvation

/ davidsschrock

[This article originally featured in our hometown newspaper, The Seymour Tribune]

Do you remember the Zoloft commercials?  They were the anti-depressant ads that featured a cute little cartoon blob, experiencing the emotional transformation that Zoloft promised millions of Americans.

At the ad’s conclusion, they quipped “When you know more about what is wrong, you can make it right.”  That is a true statement.  You cannot offer a solution without properly diagnosing the problem.  But it presupposes that sadness is wrong.  But what if it isn’t?  What if sadness is exactly right, and it tells us that something else is wrong?  Like a fever that indicates the body is fighting something, might not sadness be an emotional equivalent?

In our country, most people probably don’t think so.  Ten billion dollars is spent on Zoloft, Cymbalta, and other products every year.  In effect, freedom from sadness seems like a constitutional right.  Yet, the Bible has a different take on sadness.

In Jeremiah, the weeping prophet records Israel’s sadness.  He writes, “Judah mourns, and her gates languish; her people lament on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up” (Jer 14:2).  But apparently, this intense sorrow is not the result of a chemical imbalance.  It is the result of sin.  God has caused his people to suffer grief, so that they might return to him.

For God, sadness is meant to lead us in search of a Savior.  It is not simply a bodily disease to be medicated; it is a condition of the soul that cries out for help.  Such inward longings are not abnormal.  Rather, in a world ravaged by sin and death, sadness is ultra-normal.  Moreover, the Bible commends contrition and makes great promises to those who are sad. 

Isaiah 57:15 says, “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”  Psalm 34:18 promises, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 51:17 too, “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  Jesus words concur.  “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”  

Friend, if you are plagued with sorrow and inexplicable sadness, there is great hope! The gospel is not for shiny, happy people.  It is for downtrodden, discouraged souls.  And it promises that for all who find Christ, they will find in him fullness of joy and pleasures evermore (Ps 16:11).  The next time you are sad, don’t run from your sadness.  Run to your Savior!

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

The Briefing: Albert Mohler’s New Podcast

/ davidsschrock

“In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” (1 Peter 3:15).

Part of the Christian’s responsibility is to give a defense of the gospel to anyone who asks.  This is the task of evangelism–proclaiming the good news of the hope we have in Christ–and the task of Christian apologetics–making a defense of the faith in a world of competing worldviews.

The challenge for most hurried Christians is finding ways to keep up to date on current events that threaten Christianity.  Likewise, finding biblical answers to the problems posed by these attacks can be daunting.  How should we cultivate our Christian worldview in a world that aims to erode our faith and that denies Truth?

Enter Albert Mohler.  Dr. Mohler is the president of Southern Seminary who has spent more than 20 years defending the faith in public forums.  Recently, his nationally syndicated radio program came to an end, but in its place he has begun producing a daily podcast that looks to be incredibly helpful for thinking Christians and those involved in Christianity ministry.  It is called The Briefing, and it is a 10 minute program devoted to helping Christians think biblically about current events.

In the last week, I have benefitted immensely from its contents.  I encourage you to check it out.  Subscribe to it on iTunes or just stop by Mohler’s website to find illuminating commentary on all the things you will find pressing against Christianity in the news.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Hollywood and the Holy Word: Substance, Supplication, and the President-Elect

/ davidsschrock

What if Barack Obama were white?  Would he have been elected by such a large margin?  I’m uncertain.  It’s interesting that this election was decided as much, if not more, by the color of Obama’s skin than the content of his character.  From the polling data broadcast tonight, it seems many voted for Barack Obama for the sole reason that it is time to elect an African-American president. I don’t disagree. I rejoice in that our country has a black president. But if that is only qualifier for office, it mutes the political, ideological, moral, and even theological issues at stake.

(Interestingly, if people voted only on the superficiality of skin color, it is the converse of MLK Jr’s famous speech, which advocated human appraisal based on the content of our character and not the color of our skin.  With that said, let me say Obama’s election is a milestone inconceivable 100 years ago and unforeseen even within recent decades.  Thus, today’s election stands as a victory for civil rights. For that we give God praise).

Nevertheless, in opposition to those who laud Obama with Messianic ascriptions, I am concerned about the substance of his character and what he stands for in his personal morality and in his political agenda(s).  He is smooth talker, an ear tickler, and a heart warmer, but is he a man of righteous character, integrity, and political justice?  Time will tell.  Every tree bears fruit.

But time has already begun to tell, and much observable fruit has already fallen.  So that in electing Obama as the 44th president, the American people have willfully elected the most pro-abortion, pro-homosexual (and thus anti-family) president in the history of the United States.  Barack’s unwillingness to defend the unborn and his positive affirmation of homosexuality do not just invite the Lord’s wrath they extend it (cf. Rom. 1).  The judgment of God has already been at work in our nation, as more than 40 million children’s lives have been snuffed out since 1973; likewise, the increase in homosexuality is a demarcation of a people that has lost its moral compass and has embraced a pernicious kind of lifestyle.  Abortion and sodomy do not only solicit solicit, they are in themselves part of God’s judgment.  Consequently, unless Obama’s stance on these issues changes radically, I fear that his rule will only further a culture of death and sacrifice decency and life on the altar of autonomous liberty and freedom of expression.  This is not true freedom (cf. John 8:31-32; Gal. 5:1).

His culpability is not isolated, however.  Since the American people hold in our collective grip the sword of government to defend the innocent and to promote justice, we as a nation will give an account to God for our disregard of His standards of justice and law, written on the hearts of men (cf. Rom 2:14-15).  Therefore, America as a whole, is responsible for the election of public officials who use the God-ordained sword of he state to shed the blood of those they are responsible to protect (cf. Rom. 13:1ff).  Sadly, based on previous statements and voting records, our president-elect will move ahead to deny life to the unborn and will promote legislation to obscure God’s design for marriage–hence implicitly distorting the gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Ephesians 5:32).

As I reflect on the events of today, I am more convinced than ever that the American people are deceived by what they see and by what is put before their eyes (cf. 2 cor. 4:4).  The polls today reflected what I would call the “Hollywood Effect.”  Because Barack Obama looked presidential, the American people type-cast him for the role.  In this, the voters acted less like a responsible republic and more like a studio casting agency.  Obama’s speech, his demeanor, his poise, and his looks won him the part.  Compared to the track-record of John McCain, Barack’s political history lacks substance, but his crowd-pleasing performances captured his critics glances and overcame his diminutive experience.  In a world of special effects, scripted speeches, cyberspace, flash photography, and sound bites, our next President is a Hollywood star.

So, substance? Doubtful. Time will tell.  But, screenplay?  Absolutely.  The audience at home has voted.

While I am concerned with the next President of the United States, I will pray for him.  1 Timothy 2:1-4 tells me that God wants me to pray for rulers, that they might come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  I have been convicted by this.  My own lack of prayer for political legislation and political leaders has become increasingly evident as election day arrived.  I have, myself, too often lacked substance in my life–looking spiritual but failing to lift holy hands and prayer.  Yet, in response to recent events, that must change.  I do not want to be a Hollywood Christian, one who could be typecast for the part; I want to be a genuine believer shaped by the Holy Word.

As we close this day and begin a new season in the life of our country, may Christians redouble their prayers for the new president.  May we pray for his salvation and that God would change his mind about abortion, marriage, and other issues of justice.  May we cry to the Lord for mercy, because Americans as a nation are the ones who turns the sword on its own children, who glories in the shame of same-sex unions, and rejoices in both as autonomous freedoms and cultural rites of passage.  May we, the people of God, cry to God for mercy so long as these Christ-rejecting evils persist, and may we pray that our next President not add to the horror but wield the sword well.

Sola Deo Gloria, ds

Will Revelation 11:18 be Green?

/ davidsschrock / 2 Comments

On October 7, Harper-Collins will release the newest “designer” Bible.  Written on recycled paper, using soy ink, and focusing on the eco-friendly aspects of the God’s Word, the Green Bible will draw attention to more than 1000 verses of Scripture that speak about the earth.  Drawing visual attention to these divine statements regarding creation, they will color these verses in a verdant green.  Like the traditional, red-letter Bible, this book will make its environmental mark by “going green.”  Concerning the project, Time Magazine reports:

 

 

 

Green runs through the Bible like a vine. There are the Garden and Noah’s olive branch. The oaks under which Abraham met with angels. The “tree standing by the waterside” in Psalms. And there is Jesus, the self-proclaimed “true vine,” who describes the Kingdom of Heaven as a mustard seed that grows into a tree “where birds can nest.” He dies on a cross of wood, and when he rises Mary Magdalene mistakes him for a gardener.

I would agree, sort of.  From Genesis to Revelation, the Scriptures are very creation-conscious, but always for a larger purpose.  God created the earth for humanity; God sustains and prospers the earth for his image bearers; and one day God will one day regenerate the cosmos so that Jesus Christ and his disciples will superintend that New Earth (cf. 1 Cor. 15:24-28; 2 Tim. 2:11-13). 

Trent Hunter, a good friend and the one who clued me in to the Green Bible’s release, makes several cogent points in his blog on the Green Bible.  He remarks:

Jesus did not enter the earth for the earth. Neither does he redeem humans for the sake of the earth. God’s creative and redemptive purposes are about God’s glory in the praise he receives from those who uniquely bear his image.

I agree.  The pinnacle of creation is the Image Dei, that is humanity, you and me.  However, I would add that while God did not redeem humans for the earth in an ultimate sense.  In another sense, he did.  Jesus died on the cross so that redeemed humanity would again reign over his creation with Him (cf. Revelation 2:28-29).  Thus God is greatly concerned about the earth and its restoration, but his aim in recovering the planet is for His Son and the humanity that his son saved for destruction.  Likewise, God’s wrath is poured out on those who destroy the earth.  This isolated point might be cheered by those who campaign “Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!”  But in truth, it may be those who are most outspoken about the earth that are in fact destroying it by their idolatrous hatred towards its Creator and Restorer.  Consider Revelation 11:15-18:

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
The nations raged, but your wrath came,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name, both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth” (Revelation 11:15-18)

In all this green-talk, I wonder what color Revelation 11:18 will be in the new Green Bible?

In John’s apocalyptic vision, the beloved disciple records the words of the saints who hear the announcement of the kingdom come!  They give praise to the Lord almighty, the one who created all things (see Revelation 4:11), and they exalt him for taking his place as the king of the world he created and established.  They praise because the terror of this age, namely the raging of nations, has come to an end, and they sing for joy because God has come to reward his faithful remnant.  And then they announce these prophetic and perhaps ironic words, “destroying the destroyers of the earth.”  In context, the passage reads: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was…for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”  In other words, with the coming of the kingdom (Rev. 11:15), the time has come for the creator of the earth to judge the earth (Rev. 11:17-18), and this judgment is not upon the flora and the fauna.  It is on the quick and the dead! 

Clearly in this passage, the Green Bible would have linguistic reasons to mark the text green: Those who destroy the earth shall be destroyed!  Don’t miss that, Al Gore may say!  However, the question becomes: Who destroys the earth?  Is it those who litter?  Those who refuse to recycle?  Those corporate industries who emit toxins and dump chemicals into EPA-protected wetlands?  Or is it something else?  The Scripture does not blush.  The destroyers of the earth are those who rage against God (cf. Psalm 2).  The reason that the earth is groaning is not because of carbon dioxide, but because of the curse (cf. Gen. 3:14-19).  The curse that has been declared upon you and me, because of our creation-destroying  sin.  Romans 8 tells the story,

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

From the beginning, the earth has been subjected to futility because of Adam’s sin and ours (cf.  Rom. 5:12ff).  And as the rest of Scripture indicates, the only atonement for sin is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Consewquently, the earth will groan until all sin is dealt with and the sons of God are revealed.  Therefore, the environment will not be restored by legislative efforts to reduce the burning of fossil fuels; the earth will not be saved by green-thumbed gardeners, and it will not be saved by a Green Bible.  It will only be saved by the one man who can re-create and resurrect. 

The testimony of Scripture is clear, we are all destroyers of the earth, and we all deserve to be cast into the burning lake of fire (Rev. 20:14), but the good news is that God sent his son to redeem humanity and the earth.  Again, not through environmental policies, but through his son Jesus Christ–the vine, the gardener, and the second Adam–can humanity and all creation have new life (cf. Col. 1:20).  He alone is the hope of all creation. 

So, what about the Green Bible?  I hope that the Green Bible does well in its sales!  I hope that lovers of God’s creation will pour over the Scriptures that speak of creation and the only One who can bring about the new creation.  I pray that as they read the green and the black ink that they will see that the regeneration of the earth comes not by human effort and green verses, but by one man, Jesus Christ, who alone as the True Vine can save us from our earth-corroding sin.  He alones saves.  He alone restores.  This requires more than just green ink though, it requires red blood.  As Hebrews 9:22 says, “without the shedding of blood, their is no remission of sin,” and as Revelation 11:18 makes clear, without red blood there is no green earth!

May we who enjoy God’s creation and His redemption, praise him for saving the earth by saving a people who are saved by his death, burial, and resurrection.  May those who read the Green Bible come to know the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ purchased with Red Blood.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

(For further reflection check out: Trent Hunter’s Blog “A Scripture for the Prius Age”, Robbie Sagers and Dr. Russell Moore message Environmental Protection and Animal Stewardship, taught at Ninth & O Baptist Church last year, and John Piper’s sermon on the subject, “God’s Pleasure in Creation.”)

U2 and Psalm 40: A Modern Parable

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment

In a concert stadium in Denver, tens of thousands gathered to sing unwittingly from the Psalter. Joining rock band U2 in a chorus of praise from Psalm 40 they sang, “I will sing, sing a new song!” Ironically, when the song closed, and Bono and the band departed, the presumably unbelieving crowd continued to sing: “How long to sing this song… How long to sing this song!” In their amplified chorus, these men and women embedded in the miry pit of Psalm 40, sing of a reality that most of them know nothing about. Yet in their throats resound with words of praise to our God.

The illuminating point and sobering challenge to Christians is this: We who have tasted and seen the goodness of God, how loud do we sing our songs? Do these unbelievers bear louder witness than we? If so, we must turn up the volume, for surely the power of our praise has a far greater amplifier—the blood of Jesus Christ and the power of the gospel. Moreover, in hearing their song, we must have a responsibility to explain to others the deliverance that can be had in Jesus Christ.

May we this week, who know the benefits of Christ (Ps. 103), cry out to the Lord if we are wallowing the pit or suffering the effects of this rugged life; and if we have been plucked out of the miry bog, may we look for those pleading souls and tell them how they too might find the solid rock of Jesus–not in a concert, but in a Christ!