This episode elaborates on the reasons why many Christians fail to fall in love with God's Law, as the psalmist did in Psalm 119. In addition to failing to embrace holistic salvation promised in Romans 8:2, leading to a convoluted appreciation of God's Law, many modern believers do not intentionally set their minds on the Spirit. They presume that regeneration automatically makes them spiritual. Survey evidence by George Barna indicates widespread Biblical illiteracy among evangelical Christians, resulting in an inability to accurately discern flesh from spirit. (Hebrews 4:12) Since Scripture is substantially an expression of God's moral Law, failure to love God's Law partly stems from ignorance of the Scripture.
Christians on Welfare: when the church is the problem
Based on survey evidence, this episode posits how the majority of American evangelicals are on spiritual welfare. They haven't mastered the basics and are unemployed Christians as a result. Seeker churches are symptomatic of this "milk" approach where services are principally designed to present the basic gospel message, repackaged differently every week. The seeker model contradicts the purpose of the five-fold ministry which is the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. The endless supply of "milk" sermons in many ministries explains why the majority of evangelicals are still on spiritual welfare.
The Perfect Setup for Identity Politics in the American Church
This episode provides an historical overview of evangelical Christianity, highlighting the decline of Biblical literacy and a Biblical worldview in the last 50 years. While roughly one-third of Americans identify as evangelical, only 10% meet the criteria based on the core doctrine tests of Biblicism, crucicentrism, and conversionism. And only 40% of these evangelicals actually have a Biblical worldview. Interestingly, this decline in Biblically-based Christianity has occurred while Christian influence in the political sphere has dramatically increased. The concurrence of these two trends is the backdrop of the perfect storm of the invasion of identity politics in the American church.