Morals play a large part in religion; morals are good if they’re healthy for society. Like Christianity, which is all I know, the values you get from like the Ten Commandments. I think every religion is important in its own respect. You know, if you’re Muslim, then Islam is the way for you. If you’re Jewish, well, that’s great too. If you’re Christian, well, good for you. It’s just whatever makes you feel good about you.

—A “non-religious white girl” from Maryland, as quoted in Christian Smith’s essay, On “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” as U.S.Teenagers’ Actual, Tacit, De Facto Religious Faith

In his book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, sociologist Christian Smith describes what he refers to as “the de facto dominant religion among contemporary teenagers in the United States is what we might call ‘Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.’”

The creed of this religion, as codified from what emerged from our interviews with U.S. teenagers, sounds something like this:

1. A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about one-self.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

“It’s just whatever makes you feel good about you,” says the teenager from Maryland. Smith’s essay is an eye-opener. Because at the heart of it all:

It’s all about us.

Am I the only one who finds that a bit depressing?

The god of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is best described as “something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist—he is always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process.”

He helps me pick myself up by my spiritual bootstraps, gives me a pat on the head and then is off to… I don’t know, take a nap or something.

Kind of like Superman, but less awesome.

Is that a god really worth believing in?

More troubling is that many of us might be moralistic therapeutic deists and not even know it. Says Smith, “ a significant part of ‘Christianity’ in the United States is actually only tenuously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity’s misbegotten step-cousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

The language—and therefore experience—of Trinity, holiness, sin, grace, justification, sanctification, church, Eucharist,and heaven and hell appear…to be being supplanted by the language of happiness, niceness, and an earned heavenly reward. It is not so much that Christianity in the United States is being secularized. Rather more subtly, either Christianity is at least degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith.

So who or what do we truly believe in?

Do we believe in the God of the Bible, the God who makes himself and his will known to us; who is intimately involved in every detail of creation and is worthy of all glory and praise—or do we believe in a god who is kind of like a sweet, sleepy grandpa who loves to hand out candy but doesn’t really do anything useful?

Who or what we believe in changes everything in life, for better or for worse. When we believe in a tiny pretend god, like the one of moralistic therapeutic deism, we’re at the center. When we believe in the true God, we realize quickly life isn’t about us—it’s about God and his glory. Which do you believe?

An earlier version of this post was published in March 2010.

The first thing we are told about the relationship of the Father to the Son is that the Father thought His Son was doing a great job. [Matt 3:16-17]

So this is what fatherhood is like. This is where fatherhood reaches its ultimate expression. In human history, there will never be a more perfect father-and-son moment than this moment between Father and Son. This is the keynote—pleasure. This is the pitch that a father/son relationship needs to match—“well pleased.”

When we don’t match that pitch, a lot of things start going wrong. In fact, so many things start going wrong that we sometimes miss the source of all the trouble. In our generation we are confronted with many social dislocations that all go back to a foundational father hunger. All men are the son of some man, and all women are the daughter of some man, but far too many of them have never heard their father say anything like what the Father said to His Son.

Douglas Wilson, Father Hunger (Kindle location 84)

Years ago, my wife and I were members of a church affiliated with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. For those who aren’t aware, Canadian Pentecostal churches tend to be a little less, as one American friend put it, “circusy.” They’re generally a little more conservative in their expression of things like speaking in tongues and open prophesying.

Despite not being terribly showy, there were still certain expectations within the church culture. For those of us who did not speak in tongues, the question was often raised, “Why wouldn’t you want all that God has for you,” as if it was a failing on our part that we didn’t express our faith in such ways. (Never mind that Paul wrote that, “each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another” [1 Cor. 7:7] and “in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” [1 Cor. 12:30, 14:9].)

I would leave meetings praying that if it was truly what God wanted for me that I would have the gift, but it never came. In fact, the only thing that came was conviction that this was not a gift that I was to have at all, something that confused the very few leaders I told. Yet the pressure was still there. I was in a worship gathering where two of the pastors both were praying that I would be “baptized in the Spirit” and speak in tongues. And, honestly, it was tempting to start faking just to get people to shut up about it.

Yet that wouldn’t have been honoring to Christ, nor would it have been respectful to them or beneficial to me. Instead, our family eventually decided to leave rather than let our doctrinal convictions on this (and a host of other matters) become a point of conflict.

The concern I have with the line of thinking surrounding whether or not someone “has the Spirit” is it leads to a false dichotomy—that there are some Christians who are on a higher spiritual plane than others. But there’s nothing in Scripture that says there are some believers in Jesus who have the Spirit and others who don’t. Sinclair Ferguson, in speaking of the indwelling nature of the Spirit says, “to have the Spirit is to have Christ… to not have the Spirit of Christ is to lack Christ.” ¹

Simply, the difference between having the Holy Spirit and not is the difference between being saved and lost. If you’re in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit in His fullness. If you lack the Holy Spirit, you’re still lost in your sins.

So how do you know if the Holy Spirit is within you? Look at the fruit of your life.

• Do you want to obey Jesus—and do you strive to do so? (Matt. 7:15-18)
• Do you love others—especially those who are unlovely? (Matt 5:43-48)
• Are you seeing increased evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in your life? (Gal. 5:22-23)
• Do you have a growing hatred of evil and love for what is good? (Rom. 12:9)
• Are you increasingly generous with your time, talents and treasure? (Matt 6:19-24)
• Are you increasingly aware of your own sinfulness and need of God’s grace? (1 Tim. 1:15-16)

What we all need to recognize is that apart from the Spirit’s work within us, the answer to all of these questions is going to be a resounding “no.” It’s impossible to do any of them without the Spirit at work, bringing life into what was dead. So perhaps we ought not to worry so much about whether or not we lack the Spirit. Instead, let’s examine the fruit of our lives and see what is revealed.

Father’s day is coming up real fast and despite what many of us dads let on, it’s an easy day for us to become discouraged—and too often, what happens in our Sunday gatherings doesn’t help. Here are a couple of ways we can encourage dads on Father’s day:

1. Celebrate them.

A few years ago we were part of a church that had a lot of “theme” Sundays. Mother’s Day, Canada Day, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day to my American friends)… you name it, there was a message about it.

But you know what day was always conspicuously missing from the rotation?

Father’s Day.

I don’t know it was ever intentional (in fact, I’m sure it wasn’t), but as a new dad it really stung that fathers were rarely ever acknowledged as playing an important role in their children’s development.

Hebrews tells us we are to spur one another on to love and good works (Heb. 10:24); a great way to do that with dads is to celebrate what they’re doing. Share the Bible’s positive view of fatherhood and remind men that our role as “Dad” is a way in which we emulate our Father in Heaven.

2. Challenge them.

Celebrating fathers isn’t enough, though. Dads need to be challenged, too.

We know there’s a serious problem culturally with men failing to take responsibility for their families, to be part of their children’s lives at all (whether physically or emotionally). Men who neglect their role as fathers need to be corrected, but chances are, that’s the minority of your congregation on Sunday.

When men who are actively involved in their children’s lives hear a steady stream of “men are crappy fathers who aren’t trying hard enough,” it’s easy to feel condemned. But we ought to remember there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).

Nevertheless, even the best of fathers is a poor imitation of God the Father. So we should celebrate the role of fathers, but dads need to continue to be challenged to press further into the role God has called them to. To, as Paul describes the call to sanctification, “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).

If you want to see men actively engage in their role as fathers, encourage them and challenge them to keep going by God’s grace.

Every so often I hear someone talk about needing to “forgive themselves.” They’re holding onto the guilt of a past action and continuing to beat themselves up over it. This, to a degree, is understandable. The conscience can easily be turned against us, and conviction of sin can quickly be twisted into condemnation—even after we’ve asked those we’ve offended to forgive us.

But, in all honesty, it really bothers me when I hear people speak like this. The reason is, when we declare we need to forgive ourselves, we’re unintentionally saying there’s something lacking in Christ’s work on the cross.

Unwittingly, we trivialize Jesus.

When condemnation takes the reigns, we need to remember the answer is not primarily to forgive ourselves or seek to make recompense, but to turn to Christ. Ultimately, our sin problem always comes back to our relationship with God—specifically our need for atonement. Ray Ortlund writes in Isaiah: God Saves Sinners:

How do we make amends at the level of God’s infinite justice? How can our trinkets of morality down here, conservative or liberal, compensate God? The gospel’s answer is the perfect Lamb sacrificed for human guilt before God —and God was fully satisfied. All we should do, all we can do, is bow before Christ in our need. The answer must be that simple, or we’re thrown back on the impossible task of undoing our own guilt.

Don’t become overwhelmed with condemnation of guilt and shame. Instead, look the One who truly does wash your sins away. Don’t trivialize Christ; revere him.

…serious Christians must recapture the Bible-reading habits of some earlier generations. No longer should we be happy with slogans such as “A verse a day keeps the devil away”; still less should we be happy with whatever spiritual nourishment we receive from public meetings while we ourselves do not transform our minds (Rom. 12:1) with the Word of God. Even within the church, there is rising biblical illiteracy. The impact of the cultural pressures upon us, not least from the media, is so devastatingly great that only a mind steeped in thinking God’s thoughts after him will begin to withstand the onslaught.

What this demands of every believer who can read is devoted, reverent, disciplined reading and rereading of the Word of God, a reading discharged in an attitude of eager attentiveness. And what such reading presupposes is time. I am not trying to impose a new legalism. I am sadly aware that it is possible to read the Bible a great deal and merely become self-righteous or wallow in unbelief; but I doubt that it is possible to obey the first command without reading the Bible a great deal.

D.A. Carson, Love in Hard Places (Kindle location 302)

© Gareth Weeks

I’ve been travelling a lot lately with work. Some aspects of travel are terrific, like seeing new places and getting out of my normal routine. But if there’s one thing that’s always difficult for me is being away from my church family.

It’s so important for all of us to be connected in community—not just to go to a place where we hang out for an hour on a Sunday, but to actually be known by people. This is what Jesus has called us to.

I really resonate with the way R.C. Sproul puts it in his commentary on Acts 1:14. Sproul writes:

…when Christ established His church, though He saved individuals one at a time, every person He has ever brought to Himself, He has placed in a body— His church.… We cannot stand alone. We need each other. We need the support of fellowship, the mutual encouragement, the strength, and the prayers of the community in which we are involved. I get excited when people join St. Andrew’s and become part of the congregation. It tremendously strengthens who we are as a body. There are that many more people to pray, encourage, and offer mutual support. That is what happened in the early church. The Apostles went back to the upper room. Later 120 gathered there as a group—the very beginning of the church. What did they do? How did they spend their time? “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.” They gathered together for prayer.

(Acts:You Will Be My Witnesses To The End Of The Earth [St. Andrew's Expositional Commentary])

Despite what our culture whats us to believe, despite how tempting it can be to give into my introverted tendencies and retreat to a cave somewhere, we cannot stand alone. When we are together, and when we are known, we strengthen each other.

Some years ago, a young woman shared her story as she was about to be baptized. She told the congregation how God had been at work in her life (it’s been a long time and the details aren’t necessary) and we all gave thanks to God. And then she said something funny as she concluded and was about to be baptized:

“…and now I want to pay God back by doing something for Him.”

I don’t remember much about that day, but this stuck with me for a long time. I felt uneasy, not because of any doubt about this young person’s profession of faith, and not because I was in a nit-picky kind of mood (although that was hardly uncommon in those days).

No, I felt uneasy because unwittingly this young woman was setting herself up to fail.

Somewhere along the way, she’d picked up the notion that she needed to pay God back for His gracious work in her life, as though that were possible. But this idea should never be given credence by God’s people—it only leads to disaster. Justin Holcomb describes this well in On the Grace of God when he writes:

There is a damaging idea floating around that says, “God saved you, now what are you going to do for him?” This is a recipe for failure. If you come to the table believing you can do anything for God in your own strength or repay him on any level, you have already lost. You are back to confessing your self-dependent spiritual death from which Jesus saved you.

You and I have no power to pay God back for anything—we “go and sin no more” (John 8:11) by His grace alone, not by our own strength. The works we do are works of grace, not for the satisfaction of a debt. When we lean on anything but the grace of God, when we try to pay God back in some way, we set ourselves up for certain disaster.

One of the things I both love and hate about travelling is having my routine thrown off. I’ve got a fairly comfortable routine for life at home, one that I’m generally happy with… But sometimes you have to be away from your normal routine to figure out problems.

For me, it’s a Bible problem. Specifically, reading it methodically and intentionally. 

I read a LOT these days on my iPad, including my Bible. I tend to be pretty focused when I’m reading a book in my Kindle app or in iBooks, and can be quite focused when reading from a Bible app. But sometimes distractions get the better of me and before I know it, I’ve spent more time doing a crossword than actually focusing on God’s Word.

That’s kind of a problem, don’t you think?

Whenever I’m away from the Scriptures too long, it’s easy to see a difference in my demeanor, my thinking and my reactions to difficulties and stress. Although I might be getting a great deal of insight out of a number of other books, I’m not getting the essentials I need straight from the source. Eventually, as a result, the soul begins to starve. A starving soul can’t focus on the right things—it can only focus on survival.

So what causes this in me? It’s tempting to focus on the tools—to blame a tablet for a lack of good time with the Bible. But the problem isn’t the medium. It’s not because I’m reading on a tablet.

It’s because I allow myself to be undisciplined.

And although the source of the problem isn’t the medium, a change can help. Increasingly I’m finding I actually need to have a physical Bible in my hands when I’m trying to study God’s Word. Sometime I can mark up and occasionally hit myself with whenever I’m getting distracted.

I love using my iPad for tons of stuff—I use it all the time and for the remainder of my time away from home, I’m going to keep plugging away and using it for my regular Bible reading. But when I get home, I think I’ll be pulling out one of our physical copies.