My February 19 Blog, gave a well-known wartime metaphor for our current dilemma; the story of the Trojan Horse. The Trojan Horse of course is a story from the war between Troy and the Greeks. The Greeks had built a giant horse statue. In its hollow shell, they strategically placed warriors. The Greek army sailed away supposedly leaving the giant horse “statue” behind. In their pride and superstition, the Trojans took the statue back inside of their gates. The hidden Greek warriors then slipped out at night and opened the gates from the inside to the returning Greek army who had sailed back under the cover of darkness. In fairness, the Greeks inside the Trojan Horse were not really barbarians. (That was a term given by the Greeks to those from the uncivilized world.) My use of the term “barbarians” is the mixing of metaphors to provoke the image. So the imagery does hold as far it goes. The application for us then is that the threat in the form of ideas has been smuggled within the walls of the Church.
Understand that this type of threat is not new for God’s people. Adam and Eve were confronted with the outside voice Who questioned God and His Word (Gen. 3). The Old Testament nation of Israel all too often was led by their Kings in embracing ideas brought in from an outside pagan world. (Num. 25; 1 Kings 18, 2 Kings 16, etc.) In the New Testament, we see this quite regularly as many of the Epistles are written to contend against outside ideas infiltrating the Church. More deceitful yet were those ideas that some attempted to amalgamate with the Truth of God in some erroneous effort that Christianity could somehow be improved (1 John addressing an early form of Gnosticism; Rev. 2, i.e. Thyatira, Pergamum). The fact is, the more God’s people look like the world, the more likely we have been invaded. And in all of these examples the question that needed to be asked was, “Says Who?”
This then brings us to one of the greatest invasions of our day. This one invading idea is responsible for much of the Church debates on social justice, race conflict, homosexual rights, men and women identities and roles, transgender-ism, and virtually every fracturing conflict we face today. I call this the “Epistemological Crisis.” Epistemology is the study of how we come to know something. In similar terms, we could call it a “Crisis of Authority.” It all amounts to confusion and loss of the original foundation from which all Christians start any conversation; that is, The Living Omni-God actually exists. And inextricably linked to this is He condescended to communicate with us through His ordained means- His Word. God is. And God speaks. It is a matter of “Who and What!”
We must understand that all people rely on some absolute first premise or authority for any discussion or conclusion they come to. I often explain it like the domino effect. Like those long lines of dominoes carefully stood on the narrow end in great designs, there is always that first foundational domino. When it is pushed over it starts the ensuing topple of the entire design- one domino after another in a stunning performance. No matter how intricate and maze-like the domino design, the line can be traced back to the original domino that started the entire process. So it is with every conclusion you hold this very day. If you could “backtrack” everything you believe you would come to some beginning “domino” as it were. This is what we call our original presupposition or our final authority. And, as stated, everyone has a final authority whether they hold it consciously or not. One of the key features of a final authority is people hold it by faith. We trust it. This is true whether that be the atheist who trusts in his reason, or what he may call “First Principles.” It could be the all-too-common field of social sciences with its sociology or psychology that begins all interpretations of data with their accepted authority of autonomous man. It is true of the Religious cults who trust in his or her leader, or some publishing house like the Watchtower. For many Christians, it is their favorite pastor or celebrity Evangelical voice. But for the truly faithful Believer, the one who desires to walk according to the Spirit- the final Authority is God who speaks to us in His Authoritative Word. You must catch this last point. It is the key to understanding the Trojan Horse of the day. Everyone- whether consciously or not, actually operates by faith in some final authority. Read that a few times over.
So here then is the Trojan Horse of the day: There is any number of ideas that come into the Church from our secular (anti-theist) world around us. Most often these ideas started in some academic or philosophical setting. These ideas are often then carried through the arts and into the public consciousness. Once in the public arena these ideas become held as common knowledge. Scholars call this the “social imaginary.” And these ideas do not just “float around” as they were, but are embodied by real people. Like the Trojan Horse, they are then carried inside the walls of the camp.
Once inside the Church, far too often these ideas have never been considered in light of where they came from. What was the first “domino” for these ideas? We fail to ask the question, “Says Who?” Like the social imaginary around us, they are just adopted as common knowledge. Let’s just pick one hot topic; the roles of men and women. Influenced by the secular world around us and movements like feminism, the commonly held belief today is what we call “egalitarian.” The idea is men’s and women’s roles are pretty interchangeable. Men and women are pretty much the same and “equal” in every respect. If I were to even mention a possible alternative, say a patriarchal view- I would be excoriated! Just mention the “P” word in most settings and you are automatically some type of misogynistic terrorist. But are the egalitarian conclusions accurate? Most when asked will just jump in the middle of the stream of “dominoes” and begin to tell what they think. But where did that thinking come from? You see, as a Christian, I must start with my presupposition that God actually exists and He spoke quite clearly about these things. I then study the Scripture from the beginning of Genesis to the end of my Bible. I then lay these pieces on the table as it were. I find that I have just spanned at least 4000 years of cultures, languages, and different walks of life. Yet, I can see God’s very clear calling, pattern, and principles for what it means to be a man and a woman. And I will tell you; an egalitarian position is not remotely a Biblical view. It is impossible to come up with that unless you import other ideas from other sources than the Scriptures. In other words, you must bring in the Trojan Horse. (If interested we cover this topic “Men and Women: It’s God’s Idea” in some length with over 20+ hours on the Preach and Persuade Podcast with Sam Pirrotta and myself. But I will warn you, numerous collegiate young men and women are changing their life plans after hearing these podcasts! https://preachandpersuade.com/man-and-woman/)
This then follows that virtually every difficult issue in our churches this very day comes down to a fundamental question of what is my first or final Authority? Says Who? And understand, it is not just having the correct doctrinal statement about the Authority of the Bible, but it comes to the application of such. Do we listen to God? Is His Word sufficient to deal with these issues? I recently read about a short research project done by Aaron Renn of The Masculinist Podcast (Aaron was with us on the Preach and Persuade Podcast February 9th. I would also encourage you to check out his Masculinist Newsletter as well https://themasculinist.com/). Aaron Notes:
It’s perfectly appropriate to preach about race and there’s sadly a lot of room for improvement in America on racial matters. But most of what I see today in the church is a scripture-light recitation of talking points, most of which are of recent secular origin, with remarkably little evidence that most of the people repeating them have any particular knowledge of the subject. . . . I took every article published on the Gospel Coalition’s website in 2017 that mentioned race to determine how many scriptures they cited. Nearly half of the articles did not cite a single scripture. Another 20% only cited one scripture. That’s an example of what I mean by a scripture-light approach. (The Masculinist #49: Aaron Renn)
Did you catch that? The Gospel Coalition, an Evangelical authority for many believers would fully embrace the doctrine of the Authority of Scripture. But notice the published articles on issues of race were virtually void of what God was saying in these matters. And sadly, this is true of many if not most of our churches. In contrast to 1-2 verses, I encourage you to read this blog post written by 18-year-old Katelynn Richardson called “An Open Letter to Inter-Varsity” (https://weekdaywalk.com/an-open-letter-to-intervarsity/). In this letter, this young woman can recognize the failure occurring within the ministry of Inter-Varsity regarding social justice/race issues. As you read, notice how she applies Scripture while the leaders of that campus ministry misuse the Bible based on other authorities that they have allowed within the walls. She is asking, “Says Who?” In so doing she is exposing the Trojan Horse in Inter-Varsity.
I have had many similar experiences. In one such situation, I was meeting with a leadership team at a church. They were asking me about the strategy for some International work I was doing. I explained its success witnessed by actual praise from the International leaders, numerous new evangelistic/church planting ministries that developed, and other such fruits. Further though, I wanted to make a very specific point of emphasis that the greatest reason I know the work is effective is that all the teaching and preaching is Biblical. And I trust God’s Word to do His work. Even my teaching on topics such as evangelism and church planting does not rely on some tool developed by others but it all comes exegetically straight out of the Scriptures. In response to my emphasis, one of the leaders began to question my perspective. I was familiar with the track he was going down. It finally culminated in him cautioning me that I needed to read three different books by two different sociologists as I needed to understand that my “Bible had been translated by white European males!” That is exactly what was said. I am sure he felt he was being well-meaning, but can you see what he was saying? My Bible was biased with a white, western, male perspective. I could not trust it. I needed sociologists to inform me as my view of the Scriptures was insufficient. This church leader was unknowingly relying on an authority other than the Scripture to tell me that Scripture was not a sufficient authority. (You may have to read that again as well). In the notion he had accepted and was suggesting to me he had already answered the, “Says Who?” Can you see it? This is the Trojan Horse again.
The crisis of our day is framed as “How do I know?” And how we answer is a serious one. Just consider this type of invasion has digressed to the point that a young teen has no Transcendent Authoritative Voice telling them how they know if they are a boy or a girl? They must decide this for themselves (Self is the authority). There are only two answers to the question “How do I know?” One answer in its absurd arrogance questions God, “Did God really say?” And then by some blind faith relies on some idolatrous authority most often unconsciously considered. The other answer says, “Who and what I know is more important -God exists and God has spoken.”
The enemy is waging war against God and humanity all around us (Eph 6:12). Meanwhile, we as Christians have been duped into bringing false ideas inside our lives and churches. We allowed the Trojan Horse within our walls. The Horse is now empty. The enemy has invaded. The rescue needed has always been the same: Repent of our foolish unfaithfulness and pride (as if we know more than God), dispel the false ideas, and turn back to asking one simple question; “Says who?”