Consensus or Unity? Not Quite Yet

I haven’t posted a daily reading lately, as I was lead off on a rabbit trail regarding APDL. Rabbit trails are allowed in the search for truth. This rabbit trail wound up delivering a truth I sought regarding the posts below on baptism. More on that later. Anyway, I Googled APDL and came up with some criticisms out there. Some echo misgivings I’ve felt tugging at a corner of my mind somewhere, but others are just way over the top. These guys hit a mark in taking issue with Saddleback’s emphasis on “contemporary music” as God loving “cultural variety.” They warn the new Israelites (or “Americans” per David Gelernter) to beware of growing “…bored with God's Word and…” embracing “…a wide variety of cultural and spiritual thrills.” That was foreign gods, Baalism and dancing about the Asherah poles in ancient Israel’s time. Our modern day equivalents could be say… well, I don’t know. Amy Grant?? New Ageism?? Eastern Mysticism? That would be “Multi-Cultural” in general, what we called “Political Correctness” back in the 80s. Idol worship is nothing new however. When Elvis Presley got done with Gospel music, he ran around Hollywood making B-movies and gleefully diddling starlets and co-stars much to the amusement of the whole country. Adapting Christian principles to modern culture is walking a razor’s edge – kids, don’t try this alone at home – is what I can hear Father God whispering in our ear.

Nor does APDL discuss much about an intelligent fear of God’s wrath in another mark Crossroads scores on. The parallels between ancient Israel and America get a little frightening sometimes when one considers what eventually happened to ancient Israel as it drifted towards itself and away from God. While God delights in our discovery of Him, He’s not going to tolerate a whole lot of crap from mature believers that oughta know better by now. Translations can be good or they can be BAD! In my career as an engineer, I’ve had my tech-edited reports come back completely turned upside down in meaning after the tech-editor tried re-writing a difficult technical concept into “plain English.” Some difficult technical concepts are just that and should remain as just that to broaden the reader’s technical depth. Same goes for the Bible. Crossroads points out the postmodernesque nature of some modern Bible translations in dealing with the word “fear” for example. It is quite wise to fear the Lord and His wrath for straying from the course. Any fool should recognize the serious can of whoop-ass waiting for those wanting the plain English version versus the unvarnished truth. That would be one of those nagging tugs I’ve felt from time to time when encountering these new translations. Now I’m waiting for the hip-hop translation and how it will refer to Mary (my Catholic roots exposing themselves here)!! Would she be a “b” or an “h?” Yikes!!

More to come on this....