What Has Happened to the Evangelical Christianity of Not Long Ago?

Let’s be honest, the main problem that some have with the video of Greear is the music he lipsynched to. I remember BJU’s Gold Rush Daze and a variety of other events at Christian camps, Christian schools, and youth rallies at my IFB church where pastors, youth pastors, college presidents, and teachers “acted the fool.” No one that I was aware of had a problem with any of it.

Since W. A. Criswell was brought up –

Yes, I can imagine him doing something a little like this. Pastors have often made fun of themselves, and just had fun with their congregations. There is a time to be serious, and a time to laugh.

W. A. Criswell dressed up in an Easter Bunny costume during Easter programs for the kids at First Baptist Church, Dallas, TX. And he acted like, well, an Easter Bunny.

Yet, Criswell also stood and preached the glorious reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of, one day, our own Resurrection.

https://www.wacriswell.com/sermon-topic/resurrection/

I doubt if I’d do what either Criswell or Greear did, but sometimes we can be outraged a little too quickly.

David R. Brumbelow

If you doubt this, Wally, take a look at Olson’s list. Do we have a Biblical mandate for Wednesday night prayer meeting? Are we Sabbatarians? Do we call our meeting hall a “sanctuary” (hint; that’s not traditional Baptist theology! It refers to sacraments being practiced there)? Do we excommunicate people for failing to work in the nursery or Sunday School? Does Scripture prescribe setting a specific time for “revivals” or VBS? Does Scripture command us to listen only to Christian music, or to watch a Billy Graham crusade in lieu of a football game?

Sorry, brother, but that’s all “fundagelical culture of the 1950s through the 1990s”, exactly as I said.

Now I concede that I personally practice a certain amount of what Olson endorses because I enjoy it and find it helpful, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s really endorsing more fundagelical culture than any Biblical mandate, and absent a Biblical mandate, I’m at a loss as to why we should mourn the loss of a part of this relatively new culture. Maybe as we lose it, we can gain what the ancient church had in Acts.

[John E.]

Let’s be honest, the main problem that some have with the video of Greear is the music he lipsynched to. I remember BJU’s Gold Rush Daze and a variety of other events at Christian camps, Christian schools, and youth rallies at my IFB church where pastors, youth pastors, college presidents, and teachers “acted the fool.” No one that I was aware of had a problem with any of it.

Made me think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmSQlu5PjP0

(Some of you may recognize some of these guys…)

Nearly 15 years ago at Shepherd’s Conference, I heard Phil Johnson state something like this: the contemporary Evangelical Movement is in greater need of reformation that the Roman Catholic Church was when Martin Luther posted his 95 Thesis.

I agree that context does determine so much. So in what context is it good for a preacher of the Gospel to sing, “I want to dance with somebody. I want to feel the heat with somebody. I want some body to love.” Perhaps with his wife? Pretty sure that my wife would have been embarrassed if I were singing this song in public.

1 Timothy 3:1-7

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

[Larry Nelson]

Made me think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmSQlu5PjP0

(Some of you may recognize some of these guys…)

I’m sure I’ve seen this before, but that blasphemy reminds me of the worst of Benny Hinn, Kenneth Hagin, and all the rest of the charismaniacs. Disgusting!

[T Howard]

Is cultural accommodation in and of itself problematic? Can we accommodate the culture in ways that is not sinful or problematic? Or, is all accommodation wrong?

[RajeshG]

What examples of or teaching about cultural accommodation that is legitimate do you see in Scripture?

[Kevin Miller]

RajeshG wrote:

What examples of or teaching about cultural accommodation that is legitimate do you see in Scripture?

I Cor 9:20-21 seem to refer to some sort of cultural accommodation. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.

Well, you’ve got Galatians 3:28 and Acts 10:13 and Acts 11:7. You’ve also got the widespread use of purple, a product of pagan Tyre, the use of embalming for Joseph and Jacob, and a lot more.

But really, probably the most compelling example of cultural accommodation is the New Testament itself. You have a book written by Jews, most of whom spoke Aramaic (a borrowed language from the Babylonians) with a smattering of Hebrew, but it’s in Greek, and a lot of it has to do with how the cultural traditions of the Jews can be, and should be, abandoned for the Gospel. That’s powerful.

Never mind the fact that the culture we have in today’s church is not exactly that of the ancients. You want to bind yourself to the culture of the ancients, be my guest, I guess, but it’s going to entail a lot of changes from what we do today. And if you’re going to claim that today’s church culture (or that of 1960 or whenever) is the only acceptable one, you’re just conflicting with history and Scripture there.

Is that it? In the whole Bible, is that the only passage that you can find that refers to “some sort of cultural accommodation”?

In addition to what Bert mentioned, In Acts 16:1-3, Paul had Timothy circumcised to culturally accommodate the Jews.