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By Cornelis Pronk
Serious problems exist in almost all of our churches.
Most of these problems are of a moral nature;
marital infidelity, pre-marital sex, internet-accessed
pornography, sexual abuse, undisciplined TV and
video viewing etc.
What is Happening in Our Churches?
What is happening to us? Why are so many of
our baptized and confessing members and even
middle-aged and older members involved in conduct
altogether unbecoming to professing Christians? The
answer is simply this: worldly thinking is influencing,
if not controlling, the minds of many church
members, especially the youth. Whether consciously
or unconsciously, but many of our young people
and older members as well, are adopting ideas and
lifestyles that only one generation ago would have
been unthinkable. It is almost trite to say it, but our
society is thoroughly hedonistic, i.e. pleasure oriented.
Let me be specific: we live in a sex-saturated
environment and no one is completely immune to its
poisonous influence.
A Very Important Book
The other day I picked up a book by Crossway Books,
a reputable publishing house, but by an author
unknown to me, Daniel R. Heimbach. The book is
titled True Sexual Morality, Recovering Biblical
Standards for a Culture in Crisis. The book came
recommended by conservative evangelicals, such
as R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Elisabeth Eliot Gren, Paige
Patterson, and even Fred Barnes, regular contributor
to Fox News World. In my opinion this is the best book
on this subject to date and I heartily recommend
it as a "must read" for all our pastors and others
who are concerned about what is happening in our
culture today. Although Heimbach writes primarily
with reference to the situation in America, there are
obvious implications for the whole of our Western
civilization. I quote:
"Like tremors rising from deep underground,
something seismic is affecting the foundations of
our culture. Since we became a nation, nothing so
divisive has threatened common life in America,
and never have the stakes been so high. In just one
generation we have witnessed a total revolution in the
way people think of sex and this in turn is creating
a demand for monumental revisions affecting every
social institution at almost every level. Pornography
in print, celluloid, and electronic .forms is exploding,
and what shocked our parents is considered standard
for entertainment and advertising today. Same-sex
relationships are considered normal and restricting
sex to marriage is considered abnormal. Behavior
once thought shameful is flaunted now with pride,
and praised as daring and courageous ... Everything
related to sex, gender, and family, whether in law,
pOlitics, defense, education, entertainment, health,
business, or religion, is being shaken to the core"
(p.32).
Notice what the author says at the end of that
paragraph. Also religion is being shaken up by this
new way of thinking about sex. "Opposing factions
are tearing churches and whole denominations apart.
Sexual standards long thought essential are being
denounced as un-Christian, and top officials in the
church are in some cases themselves claiming that
the church will die if Christians do not learn to reject
the Bible and take a new, more sensual approach on
sex" (p.33).
Heimbach is not only speaking of mainline
denominations such as the United Church of Christ,
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the
United Presbyterian Church, the Episcopal Church of
the USA (counterpart to the Anglican Church in
Canada), and the Southern Baptist Convention, but
also of many conservative, evangelical and Reformed
denominations.
Heimbach mentions several things, which suggest
that the new ideas about sexuality are affecting, first
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Tbe Paganization OJ Tbe Cburcb
of all, evangelical doctrine. For instance, he wonders
why suddenly evangelicals feel it necessary to change
their view on the Trinity. Is it because Christ's
submission to His Father supports the biblical
teaching that wives ought to submit to their
husbands? Why does Christ's relationship to the
church have to be redefined? Could it be because Paul
uses Christ's headship as a model for husbands being
head of their families? Again, what is the real motive
behind the rush to revise the doctrine of creation? Is it
the desire to make it fit a new vision of human
sexuality and to get rid of male-only leadership in the
church? Why all the research to prove that
homosexuality is a condition caused by genetic
factors? Is it to make it easier to accept them as full-
fledged members of the church without having to call
them to repentance?
Three Approaches to Sexual Morality
Heimbach thinks that none of these things are
happening by coincidence. Instead, he sees a definite
connection between the changing attitudes to human
sexuality in society and the eagerness on the part of
some evangelicals to reinterpret Scripture's teaching
on sex. And the sole motive behind this eagerness is
the desire to make sexual standards among
Christians more acceptable to the surrounding
culture.
What is taking place today in our society is nothing
less than the paganization of our Western culture,
including the main driving force behind that culture,
namely the Christian church.
According to Heimbach, there have been two
opposing approaches to sexual morality in Western
civilization. The traditional approach, based on
Scripture, holds that sex is not to be practiced as an
end in itself, but rather as a means to an end, the end
being to strengthen the marriage bond and to support
the family. Sex is restricted to husbands and wives
who, if they become parents, are responsible for
raising children to become productive members of
society.
With the rise of modernism an opposing view of
sexual morality emerged. According to this view, sex
serves no moral or spiritual purpose beyond the
experience of sex itself. Everyone is free to use sex
whenever or with whomever he or she chooses, with
mutual consent.
Then came postmodernism. Dissatisfied with
modernism's non-spiritual permissive approach to
sex, postmodernism developed a kind of New Age
view of sexuality that still affirms permissiveness and
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sensuality but adds a spiritual and mystical
component to it. According to this view, sex is
meaningful, not because it builds marriages and
strengthens family relationships, but because it
enhances spirituality. The main purpose of sex is to
connect oneself with the spiritual power that operates
the universe. It puts one in touch with cosmic energy.
Engaging in sex is like accessing electric power, but
in such a way that everyone controls his or her own
switch.
Heimbach is convinced that this relatively recent
postmodern view of sex poses the greatest threat to
our Judeo-Christian civilization. In his own words:
"the greatest single moral-spiritual threat to truth in
our culture these days is a rising fascination with
paganism that defines morality as anything spiritual
and then reduces it to anything sexual" (p. 38).
The sexual revolution taking place today in America
and other Western nations is not a haphazard
phenomenon, but a carefully planned strategy called
deconstruction (p. 40). It is being developed by social
engineers who seek to redefine, redesign, and
reconstruct every institution in our society, including
the church.
How We are Affected
How does this help to explain the immoral conduct
displayed by some in our Free Reformed churches you
may well ask. Surely we do not engage in revisionist
exegesis! Our people can never blame our pulpits for
their sinful behaviour! Again, few of us think of sex in
terms of spirituality. Pagans and post- modernists
may get a spiritual high out of sexual experience, but
we are more likely to be influenced by hedonistic
modernists who are only looking for physical and
sensual delights (I'm not so sure about that, as I hope
to explain in the next article). But let me say this for
now: wrong biblical preaching and teaching are not
the only causes of sexual misconduct. Sinful
behaviour usually starts at a much more primitive and
elementary level. Sin is always first a matter of the
heart. Heimbach says that sexual sin begins with
dissatisfaction with God's laws governing sexual
matters. let me illustrate. You are a married man but
your wife is not what you thought she was when you
married her. She does not meet your expectations and
you wish you could terminate the relationship. But of
course, the Bible forbids divorce on such flimsy
grounds. Instead, God commands you to love your
wife and to cherish her. You find that hard to do.
Impossible really. Why is God so strict on these
matters? You are not happy and feel you have every
right to be. So why not marry that other woman? She
Corneli..J Pronk
would satisfy my deepest needs. But the Bible won't
allow it. The church will not give its permission. Well,
then, I'll have to start an affair outside marriage. God
will understand; I hope so any way.
Another scenario. You are single and interested in
girls but so far no girl has shown any interest in you.
What are you going to do? Be celibate for the rest of
your life? I can't do that, you protest. Sure, the Bible
says that the only outlet for sex is marriage. But is
that realistic? I'm only human. Why can't I rent a
porno movie once in a while? Or try phone sex or the
chat room on internet? The lord will understand. After
all, He made me this way!
And how about this? You do have a girlfriend and you
are madly in love with her. She is crazy about you too.
The only problem is, the church and your parents
insist that you wait till marriage. That's asking too
much, you feel. I'm a healthy man with hormones
coursing through my system. I'm not made of stone
and neither is she. Sorry, but I'm going to have to
bend God's laws a little here. Everybody's doing it and
we are really in love, so ... Heimbach's comments are
right on:
"Shaping Christian morality to the culture destroys
respect for the Bible, and as respect for biblical
accuracy and authority collapses, biblical moral
standards seem less and less relevant. Eventually the
moral authority of the Bible is abandoned completely
in favor of a culturally popular, indulgent approach.
Sexual morality is redefined according to sexual
desires, and the indulging of sexual desires is thought
necessary to achieve higher levels of personal
development. At this stage, biblical standards are
ridiculed, sexual differences are maligned, and the
boundaries God has set to keep sex pure and good are
attacked as harmful or dangerous" (p. 114).
A Call to Action
It is in this kind of society that we live and bring up
our children. The pressure on us is tremendous and
will only get worse as the great apostasy continues.
How important it is therefore to take a stand and
instruct especially the coming generation in what the
Bible teaches, not only about the way of salvation, but
on the way of holy living, especially when it comes to
the role sex plays in our lives. Here the church has an
important task. But parents also, and they first of all,
must see to it that their children receive a solid
grounding in biblical truth as it relates to our subject.
This means also that they must send them to good
Christian schools or provide solid biblical home
schooling. To expose our covenant children to the
public school system today is inexcusable. Everything
I have said about the new pagan sexual morality is
promoted by our neo-pagan educators today and it is
impossible for your children to escape its poisonous
influence eight hours a day, five days each week.
There also has to be much stricter supervision of
what our children and young people watch on TV,
videos, DVD's, and access on Internet, than has
apparently been the case. The influence of our
immoral culture is everywhere; also in the immodest
clothing that is marketed, and even purchased and
worn by our youth to church and school. Parents,
especially mothers, must teach their daughters and
warn their sons that clothing or the lack of it incites
and encourages immoral thoughts and acts forbidden
by God and is a disgrace for Christians (see 1 Tim.
2:9,10; 1 Peter 3:3-6). Not only our young people are in
danger of contamination. Their parents are not
immune either to the filth that daily seeps from the
sewers of our modern entertainment media and the
culture in which we live. The cases reported at our
Synod in June did not involve children, nor young
people alone, but mostly young adults and older
members.
let me close with one more quote from
Heimbach's book.
"If ideas about Christian sexual morality do not
come from scripture and scripture alone, they must
come from something outside scripture treated as
if it were superior to scripture. A person may only
want Christian morality to seem nicer, or more
compassionate, or more compatible with natural
reason, and he or she may have no intention of
changing anything essential to Christian faith. But
anything outside the Bible used to make it supposedly
better inevitably revises biblical morality in a pagan
direction" (p.115).
Cornelius Pronk (pronk@frcna.org) is
the editor of The Messenger, the official
publication of the Free Reformed Churches,
from which magazine this article, September,
2005, was originally printed. Reprinted by
permiSSion.
http://www.frcna.org
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