Politics and worldview 2

Coming back to the blog post I wrote yesterday about Politics and worldview, I started thinking of Christian maturity.

(11) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Eph 4:11-14 ESV

It seems to me that the maturity of the church depends a lot on the ministers of the church. Naturally, the maturity of the church does not depend solely on these ministers. However, it seems to me that Paul thought that the role these men play in the church is of great importance.

When I look at the 21st century church, I cannot but think that as an organism, it still has not grown into mature manhood. The people of the church are still very prone to being "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes."

The ministers of the church therefore, have an ever growing task to bring the church to maturity. However, that does not seem like it will be happening soon. The evidence for this is all too clear when we see a church with great influence--notice that I did not say good influence--likeSaddleback Church deciding to go Hollywood style "glitz and glamour" with a singles night where they will dance the night away in the "Worship Center." It just seems to me that the church continues to be influenced by what "works" (whatever that means) in the world and using the methods of the world. This is in no way conducive to church maturity. Maturity will lead us away from the ways of the world, not to it! Paul will call what Saddleback is doing "human cunning" and "craftiness in deceitful schemes."

It is because churches do this kind of silly worldly stuff that the people in those churches are not maturing. Just to make sure that you understand; knowing theology and doctrine cannot be equated to maturity. It is how that doctrine influences your life that will determine how mature you are.

When it comes to politics, the way you behave in, and respond to, politics and how you vote will clearly show your level of maturity as a Christian. When you keep on supporting parties like the ANC and even the DA, then I have to put a big question mark next to your name. Both of these parties are terribly weak on the big issues and in fact both support abortion (the systematic elimination of human beings - GENOCIDE!) and other horrible sins!

Pastors, it is time for you to start preaching a Biblical worldview from the pulpit, not shirking away from controversial stuff like politics ("oooooooohhh"). You have a mandate from God to preach the truth, ALL OF IT! You do not have the right nor the mandate to pick and choose the truths you will preach on!

Continue to Politics and Worldview 3...