Celebrating the Fourth of July as a Christian

This week people all across the United States will gather to celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation. How should Christians observe this secular holiday? This dilemma is only heightened as the flaws in our society have become more evident in recent decades. As Christians, we recognize that our ultimate citizenship is found in the kingdom of Christ, but that does not mean it is wrong for Christians around the world to be patriotic.

I fear many Christians haven’t spent enough time thinking about what it means to be a godly citizen of the kingdoms of this world while at the same time maintaining our primary allegiance to Christ. On the one hand, we have those who appear ashamed to be American at all. It is as if it is below them to recognize the many mercies and blessings Americans have. On the other hand, we have those who worship America almost in place of God. This type of idolatry is to be condemned as well. Christians should reject both of these extremes.

So how we celebrate the Fourth of July? With an eye toward the blessings God has given us in this country and where we as a people have been faithful. Such a celebration also entails recognizing where we need to repent as a people and seek to obey the laws of God. America is not now nor has it ever been perfect. We are a group of sinners, just like every other nation. Our Founders recognized our tendency toward sin and wisely put in checks and balances to prevent the abuse of power. One thing Christians should be thankful for this Fourth of July is the messiness of a constitutional republic. People often complain that our politicians don’t do much, and that’s part of the point. It is supposed to be difficult to legislate in our form of government. This is one of the protections our Founders established in our republic.

I firmly believe it is right for Christians to celebrate America, specifically her founding ideals. To be clear, we have never perfectly lived up to our principles. We live in a fallen world, and there will never be a human established utopia, but our ideals are there to guide us and to be the foundation society is built upon. The principles America was founded upon are righteous and worth preserving even if we never fully lived up to them. The problem isn’t the ideals, it’s us. Hence the wisdom of a limited government.

What are these ideals Christians should celebrate? I’ll give you two found in the Declaration of Independence. These powerful words establish a fundamental Christian truth, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Note that the Founders acknowledged mankind was created, not evolved from some cosmic goo. If Darwin is right, then the Founders are wrong. If Darwin is right, then there is no equality, except we are all equally meaningless. Darwinism is stained by the blood of its mantra—the survival of the fittest. There is no equality, only power to survive. Without this belief, Darwinism doesn’t work. But the Declaration of Independence got it right; God created mankind, and therein, our equality is established outside of ourselves—we are all made in God’s image.

It is at this point the objection will be raised, “But what about slavery? Clearly our country didn’t actually believe in such equality.” It’s a fair point, as I stated we have never fully lived up to our ideals, and slavery is one of the more wretched examples of our failure, just as abortion is today. Yet it would be historically naïve to suggest that slavery was a uniquely American problem or institution. Having said that, America did still fail to live up to this ideal, but through our history we have sought to right that failure. The principle wasn’t the problem; it was our failure to live it out.

The second ideal is found in the very next phrase of the Declaration that mankind is “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Because God exists and he created mankind, our rights are rooted in Him. Today politicians seek to expand every service under the sun to be a basic human right because we view rights as something given to us by the government. But whatever the government gives us, it can take from us. The Founders were correct that our rights are God-given. This is a warning to all governments and politicians who seek to violate them. Recognizing this means the government is neither our God nor our savior. Throughout history, government has played the role of the oppressor and one who takes away the rights God has given. We cannot worship both God and the State. This ideal rightly acknowledges that the government’s power is limited because God exists and he has given us rights which no man may take from us with just cause.

These are the ideals all Christians in our country should embrace and celebrate this week. We should thank God for these graces in our country. These virtues all point outside of us to our Creator God. These are things we should pass along to our children before they are altogether forgotten.

The problem we find ourselves in today is that many people think the problems aren’t our failure to live up to these ideal, but the ideals themselves. We are witnessing cultural rot in America at a breathtaking rate as we vilify these righteous principles. As Christians, we should point our country back to these principles, but we cannot stop there. We must point our society primarily to the source of these ideals—the God of Scripture.

This week, I will celebrate the evidences of God’s grace in our country. God is at work, as the legacy of America’s ideals has slowed our decay. Our hope is not in our country, but in our God who brings life through repentance and faith. I’ll celebrate the God-given truths enshrined in our founding documents, and I will call all who will listen to repentance. Where there is evil and wickedness, it is the duty of all Christians in every generation to urge our neighbors to turn from evil and find healing and life in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We should celebrate that we can do just that with relative ease in our country.

Levi J. Secord

A Watershed Moment: The SBC, Critical Race Theory, & Intersectionality

In The Great Evangelical Disaster, Francis Schaeffer issued a clarion call warning evangelicals about the coming crisis over truth and Scripture. Schaeffer saw the necessity of truth rooted in Scripture to a faithful Christian testimony in a relativistic world. It was a watershed moment, meaning that whichever side a person chose would set them on a trajectory. One trajectory would affirm the full truthfulness of Scripture setting a faithful course of life and ministry. The other trajectory would start with compromising on the inerrancy of Scripture and ends up in full heresy.

The image of a watershed is helpful because where the river splits the two streams remain close, but their final destinations are worlds apart. In the same way, the two sides in a theological dispute often appear close, but the danger is the direction the two camps are heading in. History proved Schaeffer right, as those denominations which compromised on the inerrancy of Scripture are now unrecognizable and not Christian in any meaningful way. He was no prophet, just a student of history as he wrote, “It is interesting to note that there was a span of approximately eighty years from the time when the higher critical methods originated and became widely accepted in Germany to the disintegration of German culture and the rise of totalitarianism under Hitler.” He rightly noted these types of watershed moments have happened before. The pattern is clear, some seek to compromise with the world in apparently insignificant ways, but this sets the individuals and their followers on a course which leads to utter ruin.

Fastfoward to today, and it clear evangelicals are facing a similar watershed moment. Last week the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) passed a statement, Resolution 9, which endorsed the use of critical race theory and intersectionality as intellectual tools. To be fair, the resolution does not fully embrace these tools, as it affirms Scripture as the sole chief authority. Yet the resolution does take a step toward affirming the ideologies as positive tools Christians should use. Why is this troubling? Because both critical race theory and intersectionality were born out of modern Marxism, often called cultural Marxism. These two instruments cannot really be separated from their origin as they are tools used to justify and advance the progressive agenda of our day. Marxism is openly anti-Christian, and it brings sin and chaos everywhere it goes. It is the tool of Satan to both enslave and deceive the world. What business can the church really have with such ideologies?

To put it plainly, critical race theory and intersectionality cannot be divorced from the worldview they belong to and support. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, warned:

Ideas, as we know, do have consequences, and one of the most lamentable consequences, but the main consequence of critical race theory and intersectionality is identity politics, and identity politics can only rightly be described, as antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to see identity politics as disastrous for the culture and nothing less than devastating for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a watershed moment for the SBC. If this resolution is just a flash in the pan, then it will not impact the denomination much at all. But if this is the first step toward a greater embrace of these ideologies, then the SBC has started a sure descent toward unfaithfulness. The SBC must chose between the two paths. None of us can serve two masters.

Some may wonder why a pastor who is not a part of the SBC cares about this resolution? This is a good question. I did belong to this denomination not long ago, and I have a positive view of it. I desire the best for the SBC, for it to remain faithful. I went to the flagship seminary of the SBC and earned my Masters of Divinity. Moreover, I have a lot of friends in the SBC. I care deeply for it and its faithfulness. This is why I write today, not to bash the SBC, but to as a friend offering a warning. Church history is clear on these types of moments, and the SBC of all denominations should know this.

To my SBC friends, this is a pivotal moment in your history. I recognize that many of those people who are cautiously employing these ideologies are still faithful brothers in Christ. One can affirm Resolution 9 and be a good SBCer. But ideas have consequences. They aren’t neutral. As pastors we know this, we live in the realm of ideas and arguments. A choice sits before all Christians today, to embrace a biblical understanding of social issues, or to embrace the Marxist vision. You cannot embrace both. If you take one step to the left, it invariably leads to another. It is a watershed type decision. You cannot serve both God and Karl Marx.

We must also remember, individuals do not renounce the faith overnight. Institutions do not become apostate in a year. It happens little by little as the consequences of our ideas are lived out. It happens as people walk the trajectory of their affiliations and refuse to repent. The SBC of all denominations should know this. It was only by the spectacular success of the Conservative Resurgence that SBC turned back from theological liberalism a generation ago, only to find itself flirting with a new form of liberalism today.

I know to some within the SBC, I will never be more than a Yankee outsider, but the warning signs are clear for all to see. Theological liberalism manifests itself in new forms every generation. It finds success by infiltrating the faithful because it appeals to the perceived needs of our age. In the last hundred years, we have seen theological liberalism manifest itself and bring death in the forms of higher criticism, the seeker-sensitive movement, the emergent church, and now the social justice movement. All of these were watershed decisions, and the fallout is there for all who are paying attention. The core issue remains the same, is the Bible true and sufficient? Ideas have consequences, and the SBC stands at a fork in the road. I pray the pastors and messengers of the SBC will carefully consider this moment before the Word of God. As Schaeffer noted, embracing higher criticism eventually led to the destruction of the German people. It is my prayer that critical race theory and intersectionality do not lead to a similar destruction of the SBC.

Levi J. Secord

A Godless Education is a Worthless Education

An education which ignores God is worthless. What do I mean by this? Clearly, we can learn certain truths about the world without any reference to God. An unbeliever can rightly learn that two plus two equals four. Not only can he learn this, he must, and it will do him good throughout his life, especially when balancing his checkbook. My objection is not that education cannot teach real things to real people which will have real impact in their lives; rather, my argument is that such a pragmatic view of education is ultimately worthless.

Solomon made a similar observation in Ecclesiastes 1:16-17:

I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

Solomon, in his quest to break free of the fallen cycles of this world looked to wisdom and knowledge. He sought education as a form of deliverance. He tells us it didn’t work. We think the same way today as we look to education to solve all the problems of our societal ills. The problem is, it isn’t working. It is a striving after the wind. Education cannot save, especially one which does not recognize God.

We live in a purposeless society. We believe there is no God and therefore there is no ultimate purpose. Life is viewed as being relative. Therefore, the only meaning in life is found by satisfying the self. My life is about me, and there is nothing else. If this is true, then life is ultimately meaningless. This is the inescapable truth of the post-modern worldview. This purposelessness is both what we are taught and what we teach in our education. Like Solomon, we are stuck in a repetitive cycle without any hope for it to change.

Without any ultimate meaning, pragmatics take over. Life, including education, becomes about what it can do for me. The problem is, an education which doesn’t recognize God can’t really do much for you because God is the center of all knowledge. This used to be recognized as theology was considered the “queen of the sciences.” The term university comes from, the realization that there is a universal truth to organize all knowledge and education by—the Creator God. To put it plainly, education used to acknowledge that nothing in this universe can be truly known if it is divorced from its Creator.

The truth is, we don’t live in a purposeless and pragmatic world. No, this is God’s world. He made it, and all of it reflects something about God. He is the center of all true knowledge, and therefore, he is the center of true education. The purpose and meaning of education is to know God through his creation. This reality is made clear in Colossians 1:16-17:

For by him [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Everything was made through Jesus and for Jesus and he holds all things together. Jesus Christ is preeminent, that is of utmost importance, in everything (Col. 1:18). Since this is true, Christ is central to everything. Since this is true, education which does not recognize Christ has lost its center, its meaning, and its purpose. Such an education is ultimately worthless. Sure you’ll be able to balance your checkbook which is good, but doing that without reference to God leaves you stuck striving after the wind.

Education has a greater purpose than producing workers for the marketplace. It is ultimately about mankind coming to know its Creator through his revelation. It is only by submitting to Christ that we can escape the pragmatism which distorts our so much of our thinking. There is an ultimate purpose to education and that is knowing God through Christ. Without this center, our education becomes untethered and doesn’t accomplish anything of lasting value. Such an education is nothing more than striving after the wind. If there nothing more to education than pragmatics, then it is ultimately worthless knowledge in a meaningless world.

Levi J. Secord

The Oneism Idolatry of Homosexuality

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a lecture and Q&A by Dr. Peter Jones. In his presentation, he displayed how Romans 1 shows that there are really only two religions in the world. Jones classifies them as oneism and twoism religions. Christianity is a twoism because it recognizes there is a Creator God who exists outside of the universe. So there are two fundamental realities: God and creation. Christians worship the Creator God who is outside of and distinct from his creation.  All other worldviews and religions are fundamentally a oneism, that is they worship the creation instead of the Creator (Rom. 1:25). For oneists, there is only the created universe and inevitably in some way creation becomes God.

Jones’s analysis is helpful because it is both biblically based and simple to use. As I thought on this truth I was struck by its application in many areas of life, but especially in the realm of sexuality. These two fundamentally opposed worldviews lead to different sexual views and practices. Why would my mind go there? Because that is exactly where Paul goes in the rest of Romans 1, “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;  and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (26-27). Rejection of God leads to embracing sexual sin, namely homosexuality.

What is inescapable in Romans is oneism religion leads to God’s judgment. This judgment takes the form a oneness sexuality. Of course not everyone who embraces oneism is homosexual, but rather homosexuality is the capstone of this worldview.  To put it plainly, all our problems fundamentally start with false worship. We are creatures designed to worship and who/what we worship will determine the direction of our lives. This is evident as the oneist worldview leads to a oneness sexuality. By that I mean homosexuality.

The underlying idolatry of all homosexual sin is the rejection of the creator/creature distinction of Christianity. It is an outright rejection of our accountability before our creator. Romans 1 tells us that as we reject God, he hands us over as a society to this oneness in our sexuality. We reject the complementary natural sexual relations of heterosexuality. Homosexuality at its root is loving the same thing that you are when we are designed to love that which is different than us. Homosexuality denies the explicit twoness of human sexuality. Men and women are different, and these differences are complementary. Homosexuality rejects the twoism truth of Christianity both in belief and in practice. What happens as we worship the creation instead of the creator is that inevitably we start to worship the self. Homosexuality is the capstone form of self-worship as it embraces a radical, unnatural oneist view of life.  

What we worship determines how we live. God has created human sexuality to reflect the complementary nature of creation, its twoness.  This complementary nature is chiefly displayed in the gospel. This is why we are told true marriage, one man and one woman for life, reflects the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:31-32). It points to the greater reality of God, his creation, and his plan of redemption. In the gospel, Christians are united to Christ. The two become one. In some supernatural way, we are united to God through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Two different realities become one. Marriage is a picture of this reality when a man and woman become one.

Homosexuality a rejects all of this. It denies God’s picture of human sexuality. It denies the glory of God revealed in marriage. It denies the twoism reality of the universe and of human sexuality.  This is the unnatural result of rejecting the twoist reality of God and his creation. In its place, mankind embraces a oneism and a unnatural oneness in our sexuality.  

Christians must realize that the moral problems we have today run far deeper than most of us realize. It starts not with sexual orientation, but our disposition toward God. If we reject the proper worship of God, we will worship the creation. The implications of this rejection will be felt throughout all of society. It is only by understanding that God exists, and that he is outside of Creation as its Lord, that we can renew our society. Christians must proclaim and live by this truth—this is God’s world and we are called to worship him alone.

Levi J. Secord

You Who: A Book Review

The following is a guest post by my lovely wife, Emily Secord.

Who am I? This question dominates much of our modern thinking, especially as women. Countless idols claim to answer this question by turning within the self. We are offered the path to true happiness through looking inside of ourselves. The problem is we always come back from this search dissatisfied and we are still left with this unquenchable thirst. So we continue to look for meaning within, and that’s exactly the problem. We cannot satisfy ourselves because we are limited, created beings. We need something bigger and greater than ourselves.  Christianity stands opposed to the idea of finding ultimate joy in our self-identity or through self-actualization. The Bible reminds us we were created by God and for God. Rachel Jankovic addresses how we got so off track and how the gospel offers hope in her book You Who: Why You Matter & How to Deal With It.

 Her book is full of biblical wisdom like this:

Samuel Rutherford penned this gem: ‘Your heart is not the compass Christ Saileth by.’ What a glorious thought that is! Christ is not subject to the insights or the whims of our hearts. And while we might feel that our hearts produce nothing but the most valuable insights, Rutherford might say, ‘Christ regardeth them not.’

  This is the life-giving truths found in this book. We are ceaselessly told to follow our hearts, and we need to discover the true essence of ourselves, and then we will be happy! It is only through this secret knowledge that we will reach our full potential and become truly happy. Rachel Jankovic excellently navigates the historical reasoning of why our culture is the way it is. In a simple yet profound way, she explains why our culture believes so many lies.

 She weaves in examples and metaphors to show how we’ve gotten to where we are and how the gospel counters these lies.  Jankovic reminds us that while our culture preaches selfishness what we really need is to die to ourselves by living for the glory of God! She writes, “My need to know me gets swallowed up in the glory of the one who made me- the one who holds me in his hand. If you would know yourself, seek your God. Know your God, and you will know yourself. Live to his glory, and you will be living fully to your own potential. Live for his glory, and he will lift up your head.” This is a much-needed reminder; we are to live for God’s glory. Our best life isn’t now. Our lives are not about becoming the best me or washing my face.  Life is found in losing it in and for Christ. Jankovic basically asks us, “What if my life isn’t actually about me at all but is actually about a glorious God who is worth our worship regardless of our circumstances?”  

 I would recommend all women read this book (available now in the church library). Rachel beautifully corrects our culture’s call for people to seek themselves in themselves and offers the Christian response. She explains things in a simple yet profound way and encourages women to about our world through a biblical worldview. New and old in the faith would all benefit from reading this book. This both will bot challenge and encourage Christian women to live for the glory of God and the joy of his people! Then and only then will find true life.

Emily J. Secord