Conforming With Modern Thought

	What about religion at the door of the year 2000?  As we approach the end of this millennium, there are certain questions we must consider.  We have examined the adequacy of biblical revelation and found it to be complete.  It is adequate for our time and beyond.  There is no need for further revelations.
	We have talked about reconciling philosophy and religion and have discovered that there is no reason to abandon something which works for something which does not.  We have considered norms, rules and the Scriptures in a society where things are relative, and we have found that many things are not as relative as some would have us believe.  Certainly, salvation is not relative and does not change with the times.
	Still, various ideas and thoughts do exist.  How should we deal with these?  How can we conform with modern forms of thought?  Should we conform with modern forms of thought?  In other words, what pathway should we take as we draw closer to the door of the year 2000?
	One possible approach would be to simply ignore all other ideas.  We might think of this as the "ostrich solution."  People often react this way when they hide behind traditions.
	"My family has always done it this way," we hear all too frequently.
	Is the Bible comfortable with this approach?
	"And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together around Him when they had come from Jerusalem," we read in Mark 7:1-9, "and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed.  (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, {thus} observing the traditions of the elders; and {when they come} from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)  And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, 'Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?' 
	"And He said to them, 'Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.  But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men."
	"'Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.'  He was also saying to them, 'You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.'"
	Jesus does not seem to like the thought of relying on traditions to close our ears against other ideas.
	Another possible way to deal with different ideas is to attack or ridicule them.  This was how the Jewish teachers tried to discredit the Apostle Paul.  They sometimes attacked Paul's authority as an apostle.
	"Am I not free? Am I not an apostle?" Paul asks in his defense in 1 Corinthians 9:1-2.  "Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?  If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord."
	"I have become foolish;" Paul notes in 2 Corinthians 12:11-13, "you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.  The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.  For in what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not become a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!"
	In addition to attacking Paul's apostleship, they frequently ridiculed his teaching.  This is especially evident in his letter to the Romans.
	"And why not {say}," Paul wonders in Romans 3:8, "(as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say), 'Let us do evil that good may come'? Their condemnation is just."  
	At least seven times in the book of Romans Paul deals with attacks on his teaching.
	The Jewish leaders also attacked Paul personally.
	"For even if I should boast somewhat further about our authority," the apostle states in 2 Corinthians 10:8-10, "which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame, for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.  For they say, "His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible."
	Obviously, the Bible does not recommend attacking or ridiculing as acceptable ways to deal with new thoughts and ideas. By the way, attacks on Paul's authority, teaching and person did not end with the first century.  Those who do not want to accept New Testament teaching today try to say that the writings of Paul do not have the authority of the four Gospels, that the teaching found in Paul's letters does not apply today, and that Paul was just biased by hatred for women or by suppressed homosexual tendencies.  Those arguements are just as worthless in the 20th century as they were in the first.

song

	How are we to deal with modern forms of thought?  Are we to close our eyes and ignore all other ideas?  Are we to attack and ridicule other thoughts?   If neither of these is the correct approach, perhaps we should try compromise.  This is, in fact, the pathway chosen by many.  Sadly, this apparent solution leads only to religious division, not unity.  And we can never put any trust in any group formed in this way.
	"But the Spirit explicitly says," Paul warns in 1 Timothy 4:1-2, "that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron."
	"But realize this," 2 Timothy 3:1-7 instructs, "that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,  treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.  For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
	"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;" Paul observes in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, "but {wanting} to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths."
	"Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God;" we learn in 2 John 9-11, "the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into {your} house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds."
	Compromise does not seem to be the approach favored by the Bible.  Perhaps we should reject everything and go totally "off the wall."  If anything is more popular today than compromise, it is following any strange idea which comes along.  The "New Age" belief along with its acceptance of reincarnation is just one example of this approach.  The same passages which deal with compromise are valid in considering this solution.
	"But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed," we might add from Galatians 1:8.
	The solution is not found in ignoring, attacking and ridiculing, compromising or rejecting everything and going "off the wall."  What, then, should we do?  We should quite simply evaluate ideas we encounter but accept only the truth.
	"Be diligent," Paul recommends in 2 Timothy 2:15-16, "to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. But avoid worldly {and} empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness."
	"Beloved, do not believe every spirit," 1 John 4:1 suggests, "but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world."
	"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception," we find in Colossians 2:8, "according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."
	As we approach the year 2000 we will be facing many new ideas and philosophies.  This is true because we have faced new philosophies every year since the death of Jesus.  We need only remember that biblical revelation is and always will be adequate.  There is no need to reconcile philosophy and Bible-based religion.  We need not be afraid of accepting biblical norms and rules in a society where things are relative because, contrary to what society says, some things are not relative.  And our conformity with other ideas must be to evaluate but to accept only the truth.  Because, when all is said and done, only the truth will set us free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."