Unmasking Worldliness - Bible Witness

Unmasking Worldlinessseek the truth, they had missed out the verymethod whereby the truth of God is revealedbecause it was plain foolishness unto them.The divinely appointed method ofpreaching the Gospel has always beenunattractive, even disgusting to the worldlywisewho considered it foolishness. Theirattitude towards the God-ordained methodof bringing souls unto salvation will preventthem from really knowing the Godof salvation.Do we not also see the same attitude insome ministers of the Gospel these days?Churches today consider Gospel-preachingto be outdated and have thus replaced itwith modern methods. Pragmatism takescentre stage as the pulpit is set aside. A lotof drama, choreography, signs and wonders,and funky music have replaced preaching asthe major means of presenting the gospel.They believe that the worldly means ofcreative presentations, flashy gimmicks aswell as ingenious devices will bring in thedesired results. They say that these are themethods that attract churchgoers nowadays.Thus this fulfils what the Scriptures hadprophesied, that people “after their ownlusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,having itching ears; and they shall turnaway their ears from the truth, and shallbe turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).Modern methods may indeed attract theworld and they will remain as such – anattraction. But God has chosen preachingto be the method of calling sinners untosalvation. In God’s omniscience, He usesthe preaching of the Gospel to confoundthe wisdom of the world. And untothose that believe, the foolishness ofpreaching makes them wise unto salvationthrough faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.Worldly wisdom repudiated by afoolish message“But we preach Christ crucified, unto theJews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeksfoolishness; but unto them which are called,both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power ofGod, and the wisdom of God” (verses 23-24).The story of Christ crucified, being the powerand wisdom of God, was as repulsive to theJews as it was ridiculous to the Greeks.The Judaizers take great offence at thepreaching of the Gospel because it reducesthe observance of Jewish laws to nothing interms of their salvation. Thus the message“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thoushalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:31)is a big stumbling block to them.The Greeks, on the other hand, find follyin the message, “That at the name of Jesusevery knee should bow, of things in heaven,and things in earth, and things under theearth; and that every tongue should confessthat Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of Godthe Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). Is JesusChrist the Lord and the Messiah? Was Henot mocked and persecuted by His ownpeople? Did He not die a horrible death onthe cross? That is a stupefying message totheir critical minds.The root word translated “foolishness”(μωρός) is where we get our Englishword “moron”. Thus the message “Christcrucified” is a moronic idea to the wiseGreek thinkers in view of their superficialknowledge of Christ. The message thatChrist was crucified is true. But the Gospelstory does not end with His death. TheLord Jesus Christ resurrected from thegrave on the third day according to theScriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).continued on page 1816 Bible Witness