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93 pages

English

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The great challenge for the Christian in a post-Christian context is how to impact this fallen world with our faith. In Making a Difference, beloved theologian R. C. Sproul shows readers how to confront today's moral and social issues with an effective biblical response. Dr. Sproul first examines the major philosophies that affect the way Americans think and act--secularism, existentialism, humanism, and pragmatism--and then presents ideas on how to apply a biblical perspective to spheres of public life that need the Christian's influence today: economics, science, art and literature, and government.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Christianity

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 janvier 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493416271
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0518€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 1986 by R. C. Sproul
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Repackaged edition published 2019
ISBN 978-0-8010-7784-5
Previously published by Revell in 1986 under the title Lifeviews
Ebook edition created 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1627-1
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations in this book are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
“Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag” by Felix Powell and George Asaf © 1915 (Renewed) Warner Bros., Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
“You Light Up My Life” by Carole King © 1973 Colgems—EMI Music, Inc., and Elorac Music. Used by permission of Warner Bros. Music. All rights reserved.
The Proprietor is represented by the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.
Dedication
To Dr. Thomas Gregory
Teacher, Counselor, Friend
Contents
Cover 1
Half Title Page 2
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Dedication 5
Part I : World Views 9
1. The Importance of Cultural Awareness 11
2. Secularism: Ignoring the Eternal 23
3. Pessimistic Existentialism 39
4. Sentimental Humanism 59
5. Pragmatism: “ Made in USA” 77
6. Positivism: “Seeing Is Believing” 99
7. Pluralism and Relativism: “It’s All Relative” 117
8. Hedonism: “Grabbing for All the Gusto!” 135
Part I: The Christian’s Role in Society 147
9. The Christian and World Economics: A Look at the Law and the Profits 149
10. The Christian and Science: How to Fuse Faith and the Atom 165
11. The Christian and Art: Painting by the Numbers 179
12. The Christian and Literature: Faith and Fiction 189
13. The Christian and Government: What to Do When Uncle Sam Wants You 203
Index 219
Back Ad 224
Back Cover 225
part i WORLD VIEWS
1 The Importance of Cultural Awareness
Every Christian is a missionary. If we carefully read the book of Acts, we will see that when persecution arose in Jerusalem, all the Christians were scattered except the apostles. Those who were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Gospel (Acts 8). That was the way the Christian church multiplied. It was not by an ordained clergy, by the apostles, or even by the deacons. It was the rank and file of Christians who took the Gospel wherever they went in the ancient world. In other words, they were missionaries.
In the modern church we make a distinction between the “professional missionary” and the “layperson.” The distinction is between paid missionaries and volunteers, between “full-time” hired employees and rank-and-file church members. Sadly, it has come to mean that the paid professionals are responsible to do the missions task. The layperson’s job is to pray for the missionary, give tithes to the missionary, and in other ways encourage the missionary. The missionaries are the players; the rest of us are cheerleaders.
God teaches us otherwise. Of course there is a special place for the paid professional. However, the biblical definition of a missionary has nothing to do with salary. A missionary is not simply “one who is paid.” In biblical terms a missionary is “one who is sent .” Here is the crux of the matter. We are all sent. It is our calling to be witnesses. Every Christian must get in the game. There are no cheerleaders—only players.
Some missionaries go to Africa—others travel to Asia or to Europe. Every missionary goes somewhere. We all have a mission field, if only our own neighborhood or office building. Every corner of the world is a mission field. There are no boundaries in this world beyond which Christian witness is out of bounds.
Suppose for a moment that you had the opportunity to meet Jesus face to face. If in that meeting you had the chance to ask Jesus one question, what would you ask Him? The disciples had the opportunity to ask Jesus questions every day. They asked Him how to pray, how to heal the sick, and questions about theology. There came a moment, however, when they were down to their last question. They stood with Jesus on the Mount of Olives, the mountain of ascension. Jesus was about to depart from them. The cloud of Shekinah glory was ready to envelop Christ and lift Him to heaven. Jesus was leaving this planet.
There was time for one more question. What was it? The disciples asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6 NIV). I wonder why they asked that question. Wouldn’t it be nice if Jesus had answered, “Yes. The work is finished. I am going to the right hand of the Father. As soon as I arrive and am enthroned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, you can all enjoy a vacation. I’ll take care of everything. I’ll make sure that every element of the world recognizes My reign. We will make an official announcement by writing it in the sky. Then I will send angels to every remote part of the globe to make absolutely certain that everybody knows that I am now the King of the universe. You fellows take a rest. Go back up in the stands and enjoy the game.”
We know that is not what Jesus said. Rather He answered their question something like this: “Look, it’s none of your business when the kingdom is going to be restored to Israel. My Father has a timetable for that. What is your business is Be My witnesses .”
The kingdom of God is real. At this very moment Jesus sits in the seat of cosmic authority. He is now the supreme ruler of the world. He stands over the governments of this world. He is King. The president of Russia must answer to Him. The Dalai Lama of Tibet must answer to Him. The prince of Morocco must answer to Him. The president of the United States must answer to Him. But there is one big problem. His kingdom is invisible . Not everyone knows about it. All over the world people are living as if Jesus were not King.
Some people believe that there is no God. Others say that there are many gods. Some folks believe that man is supreme. Others believe that man is worthless. Many people believe there is a God, but they live as if there were no God. Still others ask, “What difference does it make?”
Where Christ is invisible, people perish. Where His reign is unknown or ignored, people are exploited. They are demeaned. They are enslaved. They are butchered. They are aborted. They are raped. They are causalities of war. They are robbed. They are slandered. They are oppressed. They are cheated in marriage. They are cheated in their wages. They are left to go hungry, naked, and unsheltered. They are consigned to loneliness. They are ridiculed. They are frightened—that and a whole lot more, is what difference it makes.
We Are All Missionaries
In all of life’s situations we are to be His witnesses. Our job is to make the invisible reign of Jesus visible . The world is shrouded in darkness. Nothing is visible in the dark. No wonder then that we are called to be the light of the world. Every single one of us has a mission. We have all been sent to bear witness to Christ. That means simply that we are all missionaries.
Imagine being sent to a foreign country as a missionary without any prior training. Imagine receiving no instructions about who the people are, what language they speak, or how they think. Before a missionary can go to a foreign field, that person must study the country in depth. He must learn the language and the customs and gain some insight into how the people think. A tribe in the jungle has a vastly different outlook contrasted to middle-class suburbanites or inner-city apartment dwellers.
Let’s assume that we are missionaries to the United States. What is needed for our preparation? It’s not enough simply to know the content of the Gospel. It is also important that we understand the society in which we are acting out our role as missionaries. Helping you to understand our culture is the purpose of this book. It is an attempt to describe the culture of the United States as it now exists, to show how this culture affects Christians, and to suggest how we can respond biblically to that culture as Christian witnesses.
It would be a dreadful mistake for us to assume that our culture is a predominantly Christian one. Yet our country doesn’t deserve the term “pagan” either. Our country has been strongly influenced by Christianity and by Christian values. Some have suggested that we have been influenced in the same way people are “influenced” when they receive an inoculation to prevent a disease. They are given a small dose of the disease, just enough of it to be immune to the real thing. Perhaps that is what has happened in our American culture: just enough Christianity has penetrated our society to make us “immune” to the Gospel.
Our nation is not pagan, because paganism is a pre-Christian condition that exists where the Gospel has never been preached. That is not the case in the United States. Ours is what I call a secular environment, a secular society. The secularization of the American society is a post-Christian phenomenon, not a pre-Christian one. Pre-Christian is pagan. Post-Christian is secularized.
It is also important to understand that our culture is a melting pot. We do not live in a culture that is uniform, where only a single definable world view or value system is operating. In North Korea, for example, we find a uniform system of thought that everyone is required to emb