Christ, the Truth of the World

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:17-31

· Dr. Michael Reeves recently lectured about “the modern-day ‘fallout’ in Europe”.

· “fallout” means “to cut off relationship over some issues”

· “Social fallout” means “the manipulation of the social position, ie, beliefs, of people for the development and changes of a society.”

· According to Dr. Reeves, Europe today is skeptical, deeply averse (or opposite) to truth, & syncretistically pagan in its mindset.

· When confronted with truth, most Europeans today feel a glow of sophisticated superiority.

· To today’s Europeans, the truth is yesterday’s “old dream.” – They desire to ignore the truth today.

· Today’s European Church goers, for example, are 20x less than of the US

· But the trend in the US is following the path of European counterparts.

· In the US, anti-Christian movements are more popular and favorite the ever in the history of America.

· Nearly all public & private schools, including universities, are teaching anti-Christian values.

· Socialism and liberal social-political ideologies, such as CRT, are pushed to public beliefs.

· Dr. Reeves asks, “How did Europe get here?”

· The Roman Catholic, according to Dr. Reeves, blames the Reformation & Evangelical Christians – Who broke away from the authority of the Pope of the Roman Catholic.

· However, Dr. Reeves argues that the Reformers, 500 years ago, weren’t questioning authoritative truth of the Bible, but they were rejecting the self-claimed supremacy of the Pope of the Roman Catholic

· Dr. Reeves more accurately explains, rather, that today’s European fallout has more to do with the Enlightenment movement of 18th century.

· The Enlightenment movement, for the first time, promoted “human reasoning” as the foundation to improve human quality and human experience without the external help (or God).

· However, Dr. Reeves asserts that this is only a “half of the whole story”; another contributing ideology was so called “Romanticism”.

· Dr. Reeves claims that we cannot understand today’s Europe unless we understand the Romanticism movement of Europe in 18thcentury.

· Romanticism promotes human feelings, what human love, what human desire through “reconciliation of the spirit of romanticism” with the spirit of Christianity.

· Basically, Romanticism promotes “self-centered” virtue, self-centered mind, feeling, and emotion.

· Friedrich Schleiermacher (means veil maker), a Prussian theologian, is known as the “father of liberal theology” – Understanding Schleiermacher helps understand today’s Europe.

· He argued & preached that Christianity is only part of “true religion”

· He argued & preached & taught that Christianity, as true religion, is NOT about doctrines based on Biblical knowledge.

· But it is about “living a fluid experience of the divine.”

· In other words, according to Dr. Reeves, “do not trouble or bother yourself with any Bible study or sound doctrine” you do not like!

· He claimed that true religion is about personal feeling and is about a taste for the infinite.

· He said, “the essence of piety is the consciousness of being absolutely dependent.”

· But depending on what? à you chose what you want over Christ!

· Another problem here is that Schleiermacher actually did preach Jesus with this false liberal doctrine, and he actually did think he was serving Jesus as a preacher.

· So, the issue of the matter, which is responsible for the faith of the whole European continent comes down to two virtues: Biblical Knowledge & Emotion

· Later, according to Dr. Reeves, Jonathan Edwards wrote about the importance of religious experience and affection.

· “Holy affections are not heat without light”

· Think of it as a camping fire à A fire with heat naturally must also generate heat!

· Edwards on Religious Affections

· Section IV à “Gracious affections arise from the mind being enlightened rightly and spiritually to apprehend divine things.”

· Section I à “What the affections of the mind are? … more vigorous and sensible exercise of the inclination and will of the soul”

· Affections are “… determined and governed by the will, and the mind à is often called the heart.”

· Affections vs. passions à If affections are representation of “heart”, then passions are “animal spirit… mind being overpowered and less in its own command.”

· Based on these, Dr. Reeves concludes that today’s fallen European faith is based on “feelings producing knowledge.”

· But Dr. Reeves asserts that the true Christian faith musts starts with Biblical knowledge and this divine & heavenly knowledge precedes “affections & hearts” towards Christ.

· In other words, feelings preceding knowledge à Syncretistical pagan worshipping

· But Biblical knowledge preceding our affections à Produce faith in Christ

· Therefore, syncretistical paganism continues to produce and promote false gods

· Dr. Reeves concludes that, then, what Europe needs today is à Preach & keep preach Christ-alone with Biblical accuracy.

· Dr. Reeves is afraid that Europe is exporting this liberal theology and movement to the US now, and he believes the US will transformed to be more like Europe à This means the US will become more of “anti-Christian”.

· Christ-alone à Glorious sufficiency and exclusivity on Christ-alone is the universal truth

· Our affection, our heart must be founded on this universal truth

· The only way to defeat the paganism, idolatry, and deceived by false gospel is by standing firm on the doctrine of Christ-alone.

· That Christ-alone, which teaches us that the Person of Christ and the Work of Christ are more than sufficient for our faith, our salvation, and our hope à That we need NOT anything or anyone else but Christ-alone.

· But this there is something else I must add to Dr. Reeve’s brilliant lecture.

· Compromising – We mut never ever compromise the Gospel of Christ or the doctrine of Christ-alone.

· I must add to Dr. Reeves’ lecture.

· Anyone likes history? American history? European history? Perhaps Christian Church History?

· There was a group of Christian reformers called Lollard. The word is a late middle English and originated from a Dutch word, “mumbler”, as “lollen” means “mumble”.

· But these Christian reformers were nothing but mumblers; They had created so called the Lollard movement from the mid-14th century and lasted until 16thcentury.

· It is recorded that one of two men on the street was a Lollard.

· If this is granted, than 50% of European population was evangelical Christian even before the Reformation movement in 16th century.

· This means the Lollard movement began before the Reformation movement of Martin Luther in 1500s.

· That is because Lollards were the followers of John Wycliffe, one of the greatest Christian Reformers.

· The Lollards believed that the Church mission must be Evangelical and imitate the way of Christ by faith in Christ à This was against the teachings of the Roman Catholic at that time.

· According to a book called “Lollards & Protestants in the Diocese of York (of 1509-1558):

· Influenced by William Tyndale, “… the right way, ye and the only way to understand the scripture unto our salvation, is that we earnestly and above all things, search for the profession of our baptism or covenant made between God and us… reference Matt 6, love God and your neighbors… the phrase ‘love is fulfillment of the law’ appears as a marginal note to the text.”

· This short letter or writing reflects the heart of the Europeans àAccording to their own writing, the right way to understand our relationship with God is through the Biblical knowledge.

· From this Biblical knowledge, they became affectious, their heart, soul, & mind all were submitted & surrendered to Christ founded upon their Biblical knowledge.

· These Christian reformers protested against the tyrannical & oppressive church orders for the purpose of reforming, reclaiming, guarding, and teaching the genuine and the only true Gospel of Christ.

· The heart of this movement, the affections of these Christina reformers, was founded on the doctrine of Christ-alone.

· To them, there was no other Master, no other Lord, no other Savior, no other God but Christ-alone.

· William Blair wrote a book about the great revival of 1907 of Korea, The Korea Pentecost.

· Blair described Korea in early 1900 as “Confucianism established as authority and order above all… men were put to death in Korea for daring to make some new invention.”

· Confucianism taught animism and ethics while Buddhism sought to enforce religious authority.

· So then, who suffered? Average people!

· Blair described average Korean people as “broken-hearted”, but they had much love, the brotherly love or “Jung”.

· This was the traditional Korean way of affections.

· As the last Korean dynasty vanished and the Japanese occupation took control of Korea, average people were desperate for some kind of hope because while they were oppressed within and by external forces, they found no hope anywhere.

· Then, the European & American Christian missionaries preached the Gospel of Christ.

· The end result à Repentance.

· “Repentance was by no means confined to confession & tears… all through the city men were going from house to house, confessing to individuals they had injured, returning stolen property & money, and not only to Christians but to heathen as well…”

· A New Christian Nation, the Kingdom of Heaven was established on Korean Peninsula.

· But what happened to Korea today?

· North Korea is under the Communism with no religious freedom

· South Korea is ever eager to import what Europe and America are exporting àThe liberal theology, the syncretistical pagan way of life that worships self-centered beliefs and promotes personal experience & emotion over the Biblical knowledge & truth

· Again, I ask, what is the Truth?

· John 14:6 à “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

· Today’s weekly sermon is called “Jesus is Lord”

· Is Jesus Christ you Lord? Is He our Lord?

· The hymn says “Jesus is Lord – the cry that echoes through creation… the Son of God, the King whose glory fills the heavens…”

· What do you need today?

· Is Christ-alone more than enough for you?

· Is Christ-alone more than sufficient for all of who you are?

· Never ever stop surrendering all your heart, soul, & mind to Christ and to Christ-alone.

· He is the way, and the truth, and the life àChrist-alone is more than sufficient as He alone is the universal truth in His perfectness.

· Let us pray.