Our greatest peril

While preparing to present the "Becoming a Contagious Christian" course, I watched a series of curbside questionnaires in which random people were asked to comment on their belief in God and how to get into heaven. Why was I not surprised when the responses were typically post-modern, ranging from rambling agnosticism to a determined opposition to a biblical world view?

A core aspect of resistance to the gospel message is the denial of the "setup" to the gospel. The "setup" refers to prevailing conditions that make the advent of the message of salvation necessary and good. If a grubby fireman manhandled you while you were walking down main street, you would be upset and demand an explanation. If the same fireman manhandled you as he rescued you from a burning building, you would receive the gesture in an entirely different way. What we believe to be the prevailing conditions of our times has a huge effect on how we receive the gospel. People are prepared to acknowledge the possibility that all of mankind is in extreme peril. However they are not prepared to entertain the idea that the holiness of an unseen God should be their greatest concern.

As crazy as this sounds, with all the threats of disease, war, poverty and other social ills, the greatest threat to mankind's enduring prosperity and blessing is the Creator Himself.

People would say "Surely, if a such God exists, then a biblical version of Him would be loving and forgiving?" Why should he be regarded as our primary concern in a world of earthquakes, floods, crime and the like? The answer to that question lies not in the portals of heaven, but inside ourselves.

The problem exists in the tendency of every person to believe in his or her own tailor-made brand of virtue. I'm referring to the inner accountant in all of us that will not rest until we justify our iniquities to somehow "balance the books" and remove any moral debt we may owe. We have re-educated our consciences and validated every instinct, desire and drive that emerges from the human heart, calling it "expression" and an aspect of individuality.

Our refusal to accept and submit to a divine moral code has ruined or removed our "compass" and without knowing it we have steered our "vessels" onto a warpath against God. He has remained unchanged and He signals us with the terms of peace, otherwise known as the gospel. Unless we accept his terms, this war will be our Waterloo.