Tom’s Big Picture

I don’t think we give the devil enough credit- he is a master strategist, and the only thing I’ve ever read that deals with this intelligently is the Screwtape Letters. While I can’t write as cleverly as Lewis, I will take a stab at explaining a likely strategy of old Beezelbub’s that takes advantage of weaknesses in the contemporary church.

If I were the devil, I’d find “the line”. That is, the line at which something that is deviating from the pure Biblical gospel is no longer effectual for salvation; then I’d invent my own gospel just to my side of the line, maybe with a safety factor of 10-20% past the line to account for any divine mercy I hadn’t anticipated. Next, I’d raise up a smooth-talker to promote this gospel.

Now, in most ages past this strategy wouldn’t have worked. Christians didn’t tolerate any deviance from the norm that was any closer to “the line” than what their church tradition allowed. The reason, of course, is that the closer we allow Christian practice to approach “the line”, the harder it is to distinguish the real soul-damners from true Christians who are just a bit off the preferred path.

But in today’s Christian environment it works great. Innovation (once a dirty word to Christians as holders of God’s unchanging Word) is rewarded and popularity is the only yardstick of success. All I’d have to do as the devil is put my smooth talker on TV and have him sell a bestseller full of wishful-thinking tripe, and Christians would defend my boy from attacks from the minority of traditionalists. And the farther my boy deviated from “the line”, the more popular he would get, because people are tired of hearing about sin, Christ’s death, sanctification and other “churchy” sounding stuff that bores today’s overstimulated media consumer to tears. What they really want is to reach their potential- and what they mean by their potential is acquiring the skills or schemes to increase their ability to indulge in the materialism that’s already enslaving them- in a word, to have their best life now. I would help Christians forget all that junk about storing up treasures in heaven or the old-fashioned Protestant ethics of wealth acquired through hard work- what they really need to focus their mind off of the world to come is a get-rich-quick scheme they think is sponsored by Jesus himself. My boy would be wildly popular in no time. And the more popular my boy got, the more Christians would defend him- after all, he holds a Bible and says “Jesus” and other stuff they think is important.

To avoid judging a brother (*which would be very, very wrong and intolerant of me*), I’ll just refer to this person as “Mr. O”. Before I give you my opinion, I should first note that I am not a dispensationalist, which means I don’t think there’s an imminent rapture or that the geopolitical concerns of Israel should be of any more significance to American Christians than that of Iceland or Peru. I hold to the traditional pre-Darby/Scofield views of prophecy.

But the whole dispensationalist-premillenial prophecy wing of the evangelical church makes for an interesting modern mythology- even if a bad movie. Surely everyone remembers the hokey, poorly made Left Behind movie with Peter York. Anyway, Mr. O’s worship services look to me like a poorly done set for the Antichrist’s False Prophet Tabernacle. I mean really- no crosses, a big animated spinning globe, some saccharin-worded preacher with bleached teeth talking about self-esteem. Mr. O would be side-splitting funny to watch if I didn’t know how seriously he’s taken by the people who watch him.

Is Mr. O inside or outside of “the line?” Since our leaders spurn doctrine and tradition, can we even tell the difference anymore?