Paradigms
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2 NASB
Conformed – Paul’s term, syschematizesthe, is a word about shaping behavior. It’s not really about doctrines of dogma or statements of faith. It’s about how we live. Paul exhorts his reader to not fashion their lives after the ways of the world. But in order not to become a part of the ways of the world, without even knowing it, you must first know what the ways of the world are. You must know something about the paradigm you need to leave behind if you are going to transition to a new one.
Perhaps the best way to articulate this change in perception is to refer to a book given to me by Dan S. Against Christianity by Peter Leithart is a penetrating examination of the difference between the post-modern view of the world and the biblical view. According to Leithart:
Modernity refers to the civilization of the West since about 1500. Culturally, modernity is characterized by “value pluralism,” which entails the privatization of religious institutions and religious claims. Every individual and every group chooses its own shared values, and civil society is the arena where those values enter into combat. Politically, modernity is shaped by “liberalism,” the political system dedicated to the one proposition that political systems must not be dedicated to one proposition.
Through its roots in the patristic period, Christianity in its more developed form is the Church’s adjustment of the gospel to modernity, and the Church’s consequent acceptance of the world’s definition of who we are and what we should be up to. Christianity is biblical religion disemboweled and emasculated by (voluntary) intellectualization and/or privatization.
Christianity is not merely haphazard embrace of the values and practices of the modern world. Worldliness in that sense has plagued the Church since Corinth and will be a temptation to the end of time. Christianity is institutionalized worldliness, worldliness accepted in principle, worldliness not at the margins but at the center, worldliness build into the foundation.[1]
Leithart draws a needed distinction between Christianity (the “official” religion of the West) and the Church (God’s people in the world). Christianity is a part of the world culture, accommodated to the systems of the world through its organization, goals and operation. Just think about the scope and actions of the Roman Catholic Church. It is big business with a worldwide, organized hierarchy. In fact, it is probably the first multi-national company. Of course, any of the mainline denominations fit the bill today. What this implies is that the members embrace a cultural orientation that is dictated by the religion and that religion is in cooperation with the state. So, state and religion work out a pact of mutual non-aggression. The state passes laws that endorse or protect certain religious freedoms and the religion endorses and supports certain activities of the state. Just consider the almost universal acceptance of democracy as the proper political system of Christianity. Nothing in the biblical record supports this idea. Where did it come from? From the Greeks. The Church is not a democracy. The Kingdom of God is not a democracy. But most Christians have accommodated to the state by accepting democracy as the correct political system.
This same shift can be seen in economic policy, social liberties, civic responsibilities, education, ethics and philosophy. The biblical worldview is an all-embracing reorientation of life to a radically different culture. It is Semitic, ancient, theocratic, without hierarchy, distributive economics and maximized personal responsibility. Its legal system is compassionate but without appeal (there is no supreme court that can overrule God’s law). Its educational system is focused nearly exclusively on Torah. It is exclusive (drawing careful distinctions between those who are followers and those who are not) and intolerant (demanding repentance). In fact, it is a lot more like the culture of Islam than it is like the culture of the West.
Most Christians today have absorbed the cultural values of post-modernity. They believe in tolerance, inner truth, private religion and the separation of State and Church. They just don’t realize that none of these are biblical. So, they act more like Greeks than followers of the King, but they aren’t aware that there is really any difference.
It’s time to open this discussion, to realize that living a “Christian” life is not the same as being a good, morally upright member of the nation. Everything must change if we are really going to embrace the teachings of the Messiah and make Him our King. How can “Your will be done on earth” be our motto if what we do is nothing more than proper ethical behavior as outlined by the laws of the land?
Those who have embraced a Messianic view of Scripture are often still part of the cultural paradigm of the West. They may no longer call themselves Christians, but their fundamental ways of behaving in the world are still part of the Western Church’s accommodation. What you call yourself really makes no difference. What matters is not being conformed—and for a lot of us this means radical change.
Topical Index: paradigm, conform, Leithart, Church, syschematizesthe, Romans 12:2
[1] Peter J. Leithart, Against Christianity, p. 17.
Well, you did promise/warn us this was coming! Thank you, though!
What you and Leithart have described is our Babylon. If we do not fall out of agreement with each and every facet (and a whole lot more,too) we are going to find ourselves lining up with the world AGAINST the true Body.
IF we are going to renounce one set of behaviors, however, we have to trade them in for another set. If things are that bad off, there needs to be something we can see that is modeling what we should be doing.
You know you cannot just drop one shoe. You have to drop the other one, too.
At some point we are going to have to talk about the Biblical definition of community, for all of Torah assumes such community, and an astounding percentage of it simply does not make much sense without such community as the backdrop for the instructions. I blame this as the main reason that people were able to be convinced Torah did not apply, for it is clear that a lot of its instruction just does not fit our current definition of societal community well at all.
Yep, the Children had to be forklifted out of both Egypt AND Babylon before they could even enter back into covenant, for the covenant required the cultural conditions that allowed this particular community substrate.
So, define Babylon, that’s first. Today got us aware that we have met Babylon and it is us.
Then we have to figure out how to get out of it.
Then we have to figure out what we should be doing instead.
Funny that the angel of Rev. 13 does not tell us to change personal moral behavior; the message says “get out!” I assume that is because Babylon consists of our current community; those with whom we identify and associate.
Lots to think about.
Agreed, Laurita!
Words that echo what I was feeling yesterday after reading a thread on FB (yeah I know) that degenerated into how much ‘teachers’ of Torah were not receiving from the body … first there was a quote of scripture (you know the one) and then people chiming in that they give, give and give some more of their time, their resources etc ect yet 90% (or some ungodly #) of people just take and take and take. My response was to gag. To my simple way of thinking – if you have to complain about how much people are giving and how much you are giving (no matter how you lace the words with ‘love’) then you have just exposed whose side you are on – and that is not the Holy One of Israel. For He keeps His promises to His children – He provides. We either simply believe it – or we don’t. If you have a need – put it out there – those with a heart that want and can give, WILL. Do you really want to stand on that stage and berate the ones who can’t or won’t?
At this point … yes, I have left the room. No longer do I ‘listen’ to the ones walking in the front lines (save for a few that don’t even identify with that room). It is just too frustrating. So I am gingerly walking along side of Skip as he slowly unveils his ideas. Ideas that quicken my spirit because the room I was sitting in looks exactly what I came out of 30 years ago. However, at this stage of the game, I’m not sure I want to be in any ‘rooms’ any longer – I need the pasture, the refreshing breeze kissing my cheek – and some true all encompassing shalom. Will this path lead to it … probably not. But maybe I’ll get a bit closer to what it might look like and that is exciting. Many ‘ideas’ that I have held onto during these last ten years have certainly disintegrated, gone by the way side and yet … no one really knows. Maybe the timing is not yet right … not sure. And now…I am rambling. All that to say….keep dropping those shoes Skip!
Shalom everyone, I would like to make statement response. This is an excellent answer to those who think that the sacrificial system is done away with. Make yourself living sacrifices…. And this is how we do it. Yeshua showed us the way. If I am crucified with Christ yet I live not me but Christ in me he does the work. All this leads with the other comments to perfect Unity that the Old Testament practices we’re never done away with. Shalom
this was outstanding! Thanks for continuing to “beat the gong” about how different we must be and how passionate we must become towards God’s (only) true way in order to not be conformed to this present evil age. It is a life-long struggle and we need the armor of God to accomplish this and to stand at the end.
Leithart says, “By filling the Church with nominal believers, Constantinianism encouraged a change in the meaning of the word “Christian” and in the understanding of the Church. Earlier, a Christian was a baptised person who had adopted the way of life demanded by Jesus, but after Constantine, the word could no longer be identified with baptism and church membership, since many who are “Christian” in that sense had not themselves chosen to follow Christ.” The fact that many within the Church did not meet the early Christian definition of ‘Christian” led to the idea of an invisible church: “The class of true Christians continues to be a minority” but now the minority was a “church within a church” rather than a minority within the Roman Empire. Under the Constantinian settlement, the nature of mission changed. It no longer involved “calling one’s hearers to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord” but instead “became identical with the expansion of Rome’s sway.” Church leaders assumed the role of “chaplains” to political powers, rather than acting as leaders of an alternative political power. History no longer centred on the people of God, but on Kings nobles and potentates. A Christian trader was no longer expected to follow Jesus’ teachings; he was expected to conform to the natural laws of trade. Quotes from John Howard Yoder.
Hello secular Christianity. 1700 years later it is not too much different. Is it any wonder why we left the Catholic Church and we make our community where we find it?
TRANSFORMED!
Can any of us transform our own minds? Or is it done through the power
of God’s Spirit as we feed on His Word?
“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has no place to lay his head.”
Following Yeshua is no easy worldly gig. It demands a newly pliable
spiritual heart and a truly transformed mind to match. Otherwise, His easy yoke
and light burden would be well beyond our grasps.
I totally buy into being just a branch and apart from Him I can do nothing.