Summer Conversation 2023

What We have in Common

The title reflects both the unity and division the church experiences in relationship to the world at the present moment - particularly in the West. While the differences often get more media coverage, heated debate, and more clickable headlines, more attention must be paid to that which we hold in common.

One may find surprising the fact that the church-going believer and the trans-activist share some very important and extremely fundamental ideas or might I even say convictions. Here are a few of them.

First, Happiness / Human Flourishing Is a Good and Worthy Pursuit.

The Scriptures and the world call on us to seek happiness and human flourishing. This can be seen in the teachings of Karl Marx who said:

Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution Marx’s Critique of Religion

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.

Even in his attempt to abolish religion, Marx saw something important. Religion’s appeal to the masses was an offer of happiness, a happiness Marx deemed “illusory” or unreal. In Marxist thought, the offer of happiness by religion needs supplanted by a real happiness that could only be achieved through the dismantling of religion. The happiness of religion and the happiness of the secularism rooted in Marxist ideas certainly oppose each other, but the holders of such views share a common desire - happiness and human flourishing.

Another important thinker (Sigmund Freud) who has greatly affected our thinking about happiness and self also saw happiness and human flourishing as the common aim of all of humanity:

Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution Sigmund Freud and Human Happiness

What do [people] demand of life and wish to achieve in it? The answer to this can hardly be in doubt. They strive after happiness; they want to become happy and to remain so. This endeavor has two sides, a positive and a negative aim. It aims, on the one hand, at an absence of pain and unpleasure, and, on the other, at the experiencing of strong feelings of pleasure.

This emphasis on happiness and human flourishing does not itself stand in opposition to the Scriptures. In the Scriptures, we find the happiness and flourishing of humanity to be a major and central concern. Consider first the garden of Eden, there the first humans were placed in a garden filled with fruit designed by God for their pleasure, delight, and nourishment. Adam and Even along with their offspring were meant to be fruitful, multiply, cultivate, and enjoy. In keeping with our terminology, God placed humans in a happy world with all they needed to flourish.

Consider second the constant contrast between the way of the righteous and the way of the unrighteous in the Scriptures.

The Way of the Righteous

Blessed (Happy) are those who walk in it (Ps 1:1, Mt 5:1-12)

The righteous are like a tall tree, well nourished, flourishing, fruitful, and prosperous (Ps 1:3-4)

They know “good success” (Jos 1:7-8)

They will enjoy the good fruit of their deeds and it will go well with them (Is 3:10)

The Way of the Unrighteous

The wicked will perish (Ps 1:6)

Their end is destruction (Mt 7:13)

They reap corruption (Ga 6:8)

Last, consider the picture of the future state of the righteous revealed to us in Revelation 21:1-8

Revelation 21:1–4 ESV

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Fundamentally the believer and the unbeliever, the conservative and the liberal, the prude and the sexual deviant, the globalist and the nationalist, the democrats and the republicans, Dylan Mulvaney and John Piper, they are all after the same end - human happiness and flourishing.

Second, Happiness / Human Flourishing Require the Whole Man.

To know happiness and to flourish, one’s inner man, the heart must be involved and satisfied. This inner man or inner life is referred to as the “self” in our culture or as Carl Truman in his book Strange New World calls it - the “modern self” (p. 21). This inner man or the “modern self” refers

Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution What Is the Self?

to the deeper notion of where the “real me” is to be found, how that shapes my view of life, and in what the fulfillment or happiness of that “real me” consists.

The prevailing thought in the West right now understands happiness and flourishing to being contingent on what is called “authenticity.” We live in a “culture of authenticity.” Authenticity refers to that state in which one’s external actions and life and words expresses authentically what one feels, thinks, desires, and experiences internally in his or her heart.

This idea is captured in the expression “coming out of the closet” which refers to the moment when a member of the LGBTQ+ community publicly announces he is gay or she is lesbian. This marks a shift and a change. Before coming out of the closet, the individual - his or her true self with all her sexual desires for other women, her ideas about herself, and her true feelings about traditional mores were hidden out of view tucked deep within a closet. She performed in the view of others according to what tradition or religion or her parents desired of her while being inauthentic to her true self. By “coming out of the closet,” she announces to the world her true self and in doing so she finds the freedom to act accordingly, to know longer wear a mask and put on a show. Now, with the true self identified publicly she commits to expressing her true self by dating other women, updating her social media profiles, and voicing her opinions and wants.

The conviction of the culture of authenticity is this, “One cannot be happy, one cannot truly flourish” when the inner man is locked away and unable to be expressed. There must be alignment, continuity, and consistency between the inner man and the public life.

The emphasis on continuity between the inner man and the public man, internal desire and thoughts and outward actions and expression finds emphasis not only in the culture but also in the Scriptures. Consider just a few moments of emphasis we find in the Scriptures.

First, consider the nature of the OT Law. The Law details how to act and live in relationship to God and to man. But, God through Moses made clear, that the whole of the Law hangs on love. The great commandments are love God and love your neighbor. Love is a matter of the heart. The heart loves, and the Law requires that our hearts love the Lord our God with all our heart soul and mind, and that we love our neighbors as ourselves. The Law from the very beginning demands of humanity a continuity between the inner man and the public man.

Second, consider Jesus’ rebukes of the “hypocrites.” They carefully obeyed the letter of the Law. They with zealous commitment and great discipline studied the law and with meticulous care kept every jot and tittle of it. They never missed a worship service. They never failed to point disobedience. They were watchful and careful. Yet, Jesus had this damning message for them,

Matthew 15:7–8 ESV

7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

The examples we could give of this same thought are so numerous in Scripture I won’t spend much time highlighting them. The only conclusion one can come to when reading the Scriptures is that continuity between the heart and one’s life is not just a matter of personal happiness of but of morality. It is immoral for the heart to “fall” out of love with God and man regardless of whether or not one learns to “do the right thing” in contradiction to his inner man’s desires and thoughts.

Last, consider the letter written by the apostle John. In his first letter, he tells us that he wrote so that we might know joy (I Jn 1:4). Towards this end, John compares and contrasts the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world, the kingdom of love and the kingdom of hate. Take note of how he describes those who belong to the kingdom of God, light, and love.

1 John 5:1–3 ESV

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Do you see the continuity between the inner man and the outer? Christians are those who love God in their hearts and obey God with their hands. Their obedience is not burdensome. They do not obey as employees obey a harsh boss. No, they obey willfully, gladly. They do not conform outwardly against their true desires but they obey the commands motivated and compelled from the heart. As desire for food compels us to drive 30 minutes to the steak house and as appetite compels us to pay way too much for 12 oz of prime rib and asparagus, so love for God and desire for His glory compels us in freedom to hear and obey His commands. The Christian life, the life of joy is one of continuity between the inner man and the outer man, between what we genuinely feel and think and desire in our hearts and what we say and do with our bodies.

Third, Happiness / Human Flourishing Is Intimately Tied to Community.

Perhaps surprisingly, even with all our emphasis as a society on individualism, the need for community remains a stubborn reality. Humans do not flourish in isolation. This point could not be stated more pointedly than when stated by the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine revealed this conclusion after 4 decades of research:

“Lacking social connection - and in particular, scoring high on measures of social isolation - is associated with a significantly increased risk for early death from all causes.”

Qt. in “Epidemic of Isolation and Loneliness,” p. 24

Back in 2010, a different study concluded:

Social isolation is arguably the strongest and most reliable predictor of suicidal ideation, attempts, and lethal suicidal behavior among samples varying in age, nationality and clinical severity.

2010 Study, “The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide,” qt. in “Epidemic of Isolation and Loneliness,” p. 29.

These statements made by scientists in lab coats after doing much research and calculation confirm what each of us knows from experience. Loneliness, isolation, lack of community, and depravation of meaningful relationship do not describe happy, flourishing human beings. As a matter of fact, to seek happiness and human flourishing is to move from loneliness to not lonely, from isolated to not isolated, from outside to inside the social circle, from shallow relationships to deep relationships. The United States surgeon general attributes this draw towards community to our being “biologically wired for social connection” (“Our Epidemic of Loneliness,” p. 9).

This emphasis on community in the quest for happiness and flourishing can be found within the current culture and within Scripture. Within the current culture, one need only to look to the hotly contested arguments around the LGBTQ+ community. Within this community suicidal ideation levels rise significantly higher than among those outside of this community. Often they report feeling isolated and disconnected. Stories without number can be found on social media in which a member of the LGBTQ+ laments feeling rejected and expelled from the general community in which they live.

The overwhelming instruction coming from those in power both in the marketplace and in the government is a message of acceptance, affirmation, and tolerance. We must fight isolation and loneliness along with their terrible side effects by opening our arms and embracing everyone. Many even take a position which equates exclusion of an individual or group with killing them. The line of thought goes something like this:

Those isolated and lonely are more likely to commit suicide > The LGBTQ+ community feels isolated and disconnected > This isolation and loneliness is due to the culture’s rejection of them > Therefore, to reject them and exclude them is to push them towards suicide.

The arguments around the LGBTQ+ community make up just one example of this line of thought. If one zooms out, he will find the same line of argument being applied to all different types of groups. The emphasis on health and fitness leads to a stigma on the unfit and obese leaving them feeling excluded and isolated. A negative view of those with mental disorders often leave those battling depression among other troubles feeling isolated and unable to seek help or be honest.

My time restraints keep me from saying more, but enough has been said to make this observation, the current LGBTQ+ movement and more generally the rising influence of what we call “identity politics” cannot be fully understood and addressed until included in our understanding is a recognition of the deep desire and even need of those who identify with all these different groups for inclusion in real genuine community.

As I stated a moment ago, the emphasis on community in the pursuit of human happiness and flourishing can also be seen in Scriptures.

First, consider that after the LORD formed Adam but before he created Eve, God made this assessment,

Genesis 2:18 (ESV)

18...“It is not good that the man should be alone...”

In an act of correcting an un-good thing, God brought Eve to Adam. The two became one. Together they became the first couple which soon became the first family which eventually became the first community, then city (See Gen. 2-5). When the surgeon general observes that humans are “biologically wired for social connection,” he points out in nature what God reveals in Scripture. We are wired for community because God has created us with such hardwiring.

Second, consider the contrasts between the two opposing kingdoms we see in Scriptures - the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. The kingdom of the world is characterized by war, conflict, injustice, oppression, division, hostility, rivalry, and broken relationship. In the kingdom of the world, we do not find love but murder as we see in the shed blood of Abel by the hand of his brother Cain. On the other hand, the kingdom of God is characterized by peace, unity, justice, mercy, oneness, impartiality, love, joy, fellowship, and steadfast commitment to one another. Whereas the kingdom of the world knows fragmentation, the kingdom of God knows reconciliation.

Last, consider the end of all God’s work in redemption. We see a glimpse of this future in Revelation 7. There we find “a great multiple of people that no one could number” from every nation, tribe, peoples, and tongues gathered around the throne of God. This people with one unified voice rejoices in worship over Jesus Christ, the Son of God who went as a Lamb to the cross so that they might be redeemed.

It is the great multitude which makes up that eternal city we read about in Revelation 21-22. In this city, no death, no tears, no mourning, no pain will be found for “the former things have passed away.” The things we know now as part of the human experience - sin, passions of the flesh, the pride of life and the love of this world - will finally come to an end, and with their end will come a new city empty of rivalry, division, hostility, deception, oppression, and fragmentation. In this city, happiness and flourishing will be the experience of all who reside there.

Psalm 46:4–5 ESV

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.

It is no accident nor mere coincidence that the height of human flourishing and greatest experience of joy and happiness presented in the Scriptures occurs in the context of a diverse city with God at its center.

In the mind of the world and in the mind of the church, the pinnacle of human happiness and flourishing takes place in a community. Be sure, these ideal communities look drastically different, but they are in fact communities of united individuals bound together by some common understanding of love and some shared experience of joy.

Although our society stands divided on many points, we do share a few common ideas and convictions. Each of us desires to know happiness as part of a flourishing community in which the inner hearts and physical hands know continuity rather than disjointedness.

It is in light of these shared ideas and desires, I’d like to spend the rest of my time instructing the church as we seek to love and serve our neighbors at a time when hostility, misunderstanding, and irreconcilable differences between the church and the world seem to be multiplying at an incomprehensible rate.

What We Must Do

We Must Uphold God As the Only Source of Heart Satisfaction

All men seek happiness and human flourishing, and God - not just a vague undefined deity, but the God who has revealed himself first through the Scriptures and then through Jesus - stands as the only one grand enough to meet the many desires of our souls. Those with thirsty souls may come to Him and know the spiritual equivalent of an ice cold glass of water on a blazing hot summer day in South Carolina. At His right hand one finds pleasure - eternal pleasure.

More than just a source of satisfaction, gladness, and joy, the Scriptures assert him exclusively as the source. Whereas the world holds out an endless buffet of potential gods each promising to quench the unique desires in the hearts of men, the Bible offers us God in Christ.

For those who know God as the only true option of gratification of the heart, two errors must be avoided as we engage our current culture.

On one hand we must not adopt the view of the libertarian whose view I’ll sum up with this sentiment, “Do what you want to do as long you you leave me alone.” There is a pattern of thought especially on the political right and in many of our churches that looks on the mess of the world not with compassion but with indifference. The libertarian is willing to say to the transgendered man, I disagree with you but you are free to go about your pursuit of happiness with the only restraint being negative effects for me! As long as you do not threaten my sense of security by coming into the women’s bathroom, you leave our children alone, and you don’t use our tax dollars to pay for your breast implants. ”

On the other hand, the secularist preaches liberation, “Do what makes you happy, you owe it to yourself.” The secularists encourages each man and woman to listen to their hearts. What does their heart want? That and that alone will make them happy so they must chase after it. They must get it, and who are we to restrict them along they way? It is loving to assist them and help them along the way!

We must recognize that the many forms of perversity we see in our culture are desperate attempts by human beings to find happiness. If the Bible is true, everyone of their attempts will end up proving vain and empty. Both the libertarian’s and the secularist’s posture toward the world as they seek endlessly and unsuccessfully for gladness of the heart and human flourishing stand as heartless as a doctor who fails to offer and insist upon the right course of treatment in deference to the patients whims, ideas, and preferred prescription. They have one hope, to drink from the fountain of life. To lift up the cup offered to them by Christ and to drink His water. If they do not, they will die unsatisfied and unhappy.

We Must Aim at Conversion of the Heart

The culture, as we have seen a moment ago, understands correctly that in order to know happiness and flourishing the whole man must know unity. The hand which reaches out to take hold of that which satisfies must be directed by the desires of the heart. You cannot delight in that which you do not first desire. You cannot cherish that which you do not first crave.

In order to enjoy dinner, I must first desire what lies on my plate. I personally will eat and enjoy just about anything, but I loathe cucumbers and olives. Their unique flavors ruin everything they touch. Countless otherwise delicious chef salad’s and mouthwatering, gourmet pizzas have been ruined by the presence of these appetite ruining vegetables. Sure, there is the possibility that I force my hand to lift these disgusting pieces of food to my mouth and eat. I may go through the motions of eating perhaps not to offend the host who foolishly served them to me. I may get them down with out vomiting. I may survive, but I am not happy. I did not enjoy it. I am not satisfied, and I am certainly not flourishing.

The church must realize that when we hold out God to the world as the only source of their satisfaction we do so to a people who find God infinitely more undesirable than I find cucumbers and olives. They “esteem him not;” when they look upon Him they see “no majesty” and “no beauty” that would make Him desirable (Is 53:2-3). The bread of life which possesses everything necessary to please their taste buds and satisfy the hunger of the hearts appears before them as a stone. They are ignorant not of the fact of Christ but of the glory of Christ. The God of this world has blinded the eyes of their hearts so that they do not see when they look upon Christ, His glory (2 Co 4:1-6).

What the world needs is conversion.

When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy Conversion Is the Creation of New Desires

conversion is the creation of new desires, not just new duties; new delights, not just new deeds; new treasures, not just new tasks.

Fourth, Happiness / Human Flourishing Is a Moral Matter

When I say that Happiness & Human Flourishing is a moral matter I have two ideas in mind.

Seeking happiness / human flourishing is morally right.

That which is morally right leads to happiness and human flourishing.

The gospel preached by the this culture is this, “You can be your true self. You are free! You are free from religion, you are free from tradition, you are free from outdated social norms, you are free from ancient ideas about sex and sexuality. You are free, free, free, and the only thing holding you back is fear.”

The demand of the culture is “Follow your heart.”