On faith and the modern, Western church

Personally, I don't define faith as a "leap into the dark" or "a jump into the unknown." Faith is trusting what we think to be true. Even though we cannot foresee the outcome, we trust in the object of our faith. Faith is not irrational or unreasonable. And faith is not credulity or gullibility.

The object of our faith should be trustworthy. Therefore, our faith should be rational and reasonable. If we were scaling the walls of Mt. Everest, and I gave you the choice between old, worn-out bed sheets to tie together versus new, professional-grade climbing ropes, which of these would you choose? Those who are unreasonable, gullible, or irrational cannot tell the difference between the two. The faith itself is only as good as the thing we are trusting. Taking blind "leaps of faith" and hoping something will catch you is, quite frankly, dumb.

When the church, especially in the late 19th century, opted out of intellectual engagements with unbelievers, not only were they disobeying God (take every thought captive...baptize all nations...), but they abdicated the realm of ideas to pagan philosophers and scientists. They surrendered their intellectual property to the fickle winds of change, saying, "You just gotta have faith, man. Jesus loves you."

Unfortunately, our disengagement from the world of ideas is, in my opinion, a big reason why the Western world is in the moral crisis it is now. You cannot just say, "Take a leap of faith." This is unreasonable. Rather, you have to demonstrate why the climbing ropes are better suited to the task than old bed sheets. Otherwise, people may start asserting ridiculous notions like, "One's just as good as any other. It is the faith that counts. It is the faith which produces the meaning of our existence." Sound familiar? In a nutshell, isn't this what we are doing now? Yes! it is! It's called Postmodernism.

Nowadays, the church largely tries to cater to this very poisonous idea. They argue, "We have to make the word of God more relevant." So they water down the message to cater to the misguided whims of their congregations, accompanying their milquetoast theologies with flashing, pretty lights and digital media. They don't appeal to people's minds--those have been lost to the devil and his lies about Postmodernism--but to their emotions and sense-perceptions. That's why you can walk into so many churches today and see messages that suggest "Jesus is your buddy," or "God wants you to believe in yourself," or "God just wants you to be happy." They dim the lights, creating an atmosphere that almost resembles a disco, and call it "praise and worship." It all feels so grand and spiritual.

But they have no more discernment than they had when they entered!

How can a church be "relevant" when it fails to tell the truth? How can they say "we need to be more relevant?" Is the truth, holiness or the wrath of God not relevant to us? Of course it is! If a church really wants to be "relevant" today, then it needs to rescue the minds of its people. We need an Exodus from the current secular state. This means that we must faithfully engage in the important questions of our own day in a rational fashion. It is prime time to rescue our minds from the dark influences of these times. We need to stop acting like whiny consumers and start acting like bold Christians.