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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith.

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And today I want to ask you, what is the sin of Christian fatalism, Christian fatalism,

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and why is it so deadly? But first I wanted to let you know that we have just appreciated your

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listenership over the years. And I know that many of you have been listening

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quietly and silently behind the scenes for Solomon. I've met some of you in the grocery store

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or at a baseball game, something like this, and I've always endured that. But what I'd like to do

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is formally invite you to a dinner on the last Wednesday of every month. I believe the next one

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is February 22nd, Wednesday, a very last Wednesday then of the month of February at seven o'clock

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in our fellowship hall for a spaghetti fellowship dinner. We'd like to do this on behalf of all of

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you listeners and just give you a chance to meet me and a few of our people in our congregation that

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will help me make that dinner. But that would be then at five o'clock, 5 p.m., not 7 p.m., but 5 p.m.

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on the last Wednesday of February. Please set that aside. Plan to meet us. Plan to come out and see

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us. Well, back to our topic. What is the sin of Christian fatalism and why is it so deadly to us?

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Throughout history, the Christian church has been optimistic about its power and ability through its

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Lord Jesus Christ to transform the world around it in conformity with the gospel. This goes to the

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very heart of our culture, society, and politics as well. Yes, dear listener, Christianity has the power

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through our Lord Jesus Christ and the ability to transform our world. From the earliest proclamation

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of the gospel, for that matter, the expectation was that it would be victorious in every sphere of human

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activity. Jesus himself said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, that is

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based upon that authority in heaven and earth. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations,

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all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

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teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of

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the age. We are to baptize and make disciples of all nations. Doesn't say all individuals and all

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churches and on and on. No, all nations. And he told Peter, I tell you, you are Peter. And on this

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rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the

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keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you

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loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Indeed, this is the promise of the gospel that it will

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transform nations, not just families, not just individuals, but nations and cultures and societies.

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One of my favorite examples of this is from the book of Acts, where the apostle Paul is passionately

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preaching the gospel to the magistrates, King Agrippa and Festus. Festus said to Paul as he was preaching,

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he says, Paul, you're out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you out of your mind. But Paul just

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turned around and he appealed directly to King Agrippa. He said, King Agrippa, do you believe

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the prophets? I know that you believe. And Agrippa's response is instructive too. He said,

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in response to Paul, in a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian?

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Well, the question is left open as to whether either of these Roman officials ever became believers.

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But what if they had? What would Paul's advice to them have been, do you think? Would Paul have said,

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King Agrippa, you must resign your kingship because the garments of the gospel must not be

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soiled with politics. Would he have said that to him? Would he have said, King Agrippa, now that

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you're a Christian, you must keep a strict separation between church and state and not let

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your newfound faith affect your political decisions as a king. Would Paul have said to King Agrippa,

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don't bother your pretty head about changing anything in your kingdom because the signs are present that

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the rapture is going to happen soon. And the great tribulation and the Antichrist will be here.

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There's nothing you can do about those things here and not. Would he have said these kinds of

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things to King Agrippa? No, of course not. Paul would have passionately told him what he told

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the Colossians. And whatever you do, Paul said to the Colossians, and he would have said this

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to King Agrippa, and he says this to us too, whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the

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name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him, unquote. As a king, Paul would

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have expected King Agrippa to do all things in his business as king in the name of the Lord Jesus.

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And this is exactly what majestates and scientists and businessmen and tradesmen have done, whatever

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they're calling, throughout history. And it has transformed our culture wherever it has been applied

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too, including government and politics and society. Just look at the West in comparison to the rest of

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the world, dear listener. Where would you rather live? King Charlemagne, for example, did everything

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in the name of the Lord Jesus, and he established a rich culture and society that began to be called

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Christendom in his own day. Newton did everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and ushered in the era

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of modern science, nicknamed the Newtonian universe. And George Washington, of course, did everything in

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the name of the Lord Jesus. And along with his co-founding fathers, established the most liberating

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document ever created. That is the United States Constitution. And on and on we could go. And I

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have done in other places and other lectures too, documenting the incredible power the gospel has

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to transform not only the individual soul, but also the world around that soul, that very world in which

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the individual convert to Christ lives. And this is the rich heritage the gospel has throughout

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redemptive history. That is until recently. The modern American church has become a clutch of chickens,

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a bevy of brainwashed bots, a flock of fatalists, a flock of fatalists. Fatalism has infected and

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affected the American Christian church. Fatalism is defined by the Oxford companion to philosophy as

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the belief that deliberation and action are pointless because the future will be the same

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no matter what we do. Good brief definition of fatalism. The belief that that deliberation and

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action are pointless because the future will be the same no matter what we do. The classic example is

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given from antiquity and it's called the idle argument, idle, I-D-L-E argument. That is you're

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fated to either recover from your illness or not. And therefore it does no good for you to call a

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doctor. This is absurd of course, and most people would see it so, but the modern American church

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has fallen prey to it when it comes to acting out the gospel in their world. We have become a nation

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of Christian fatalists, a nation of Christian fatalists, and this fatalism appears in four

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different forms. Number one, our eschatology can make of us Christian fatalists. Number one of the

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four forms of fatalism in America, our eschatology can make of us Christian fatalists. Doctrines like

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the rapture and the great tribulation make such Christians throw up their hands in futility at doing

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anything to affect the life and culture in America. This school of end times teaching is practically

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all that most Americans know, and it is inculcated as gospel. But it is not, and it has in reality

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only been with us since the early 19th century when men like John Nelson Darby began teaching what is

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now known as dispensationalism. Darby and other teachers like C.S. Schofield and his Schofield

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Reference Bible brought a novel doctrine to America. That is, it's new, and if it's new, it's not true

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in most cases, a novel doctrine called the pre-tribulation rapture, the pre-tribulation rapture.

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If you're a Christian out there these days, I'm sure you've heard of this doctrine. Never before

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found in Christian doctrine, though, it teaches that the church will be taken up into heaven, that is

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raptured, to be with Jesus before a period of great judgment and trial comes upon the earth,

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and that will be called the great tribulation. It's then that the wicked will get what for. Then

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the evil world and all of its nasty sin will be punished. Then God will bring justice in full

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measure upon the world. In the meantime, I don't have to do anything about it. One teacher, the

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evangelist Oliver B. Green, who lived between 1915 and 1976, but he was a famous exponent of this

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pre-tribulation rapture doctrine. He says, and I quote, God will not judge this earth nor the wicked

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in final judgment until the church is taken out of the earth. That promise is clear. And then he quotes

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Revelation 3, verse 10, because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour

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of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth, unquote.

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And he goes on to say, Green goes on to say, this verse definitely refers to the great tribulation

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period after the rapture, unquote. Well, what this pre-tribulation rapture teaching has done is

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create a kind of escape hatch mentality in the church whereby the world is getting worse and worse and

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there's nothing we can do about it. It's descending towards the great tribulation, but not to worry,

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we will be snatched into heaven before it all goes down. And therefore, great labors too,

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and as I quote, then see where this is from, as great labors then to form a more perfect union,

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establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the

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general welfare, excuse me, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

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Well, these become futile and useless. Some teachers even say that these activities go against faith

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and what God is trying to do. A certain fundamentalist strain says save souls, not cultures.

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This is fatalism, pure and simple. Christ insists that we be salt and light in our world,

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not hiding that light under a bushel when it comes to politics, culture, and society.

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The apostle Paul would have saved and sent King Agrippa back to be a Christian monarch in the full sense

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of the term. And our founding fathers would have the Christian religion shape our politics, culture,

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and society while having no one church or one denomination dictating and dominating the government.

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All of them would rebuke the idle fatalistic response of the contemporary American church

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and its false eschatology, I submit to you.

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Well, there is a corollary attitude then to this rapture mentality, and it is number two.

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Of the four different kinds of Christian fatalism, this contributes. That is, a glib, shallow theology

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can make of us Christian fatalists. Number two, a glib, shallow theology can make of us Christian

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fatalists. Many Christians have a schizophrenic approach to God's sovereignty, denying his election

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of individual saints to salvation. I hear things like this all the time in this region, you know,

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for instance, that God gave us all free agency and that we can choose to believe or not.

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So, we reject God's sovereignty in this realm, but we shrug our shoulders about politics, society,

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and culture, and we say, oh, God is in control. There's nothing we can do about it, and this is

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the way it's meant to be. God is in control. Well, if you have ever said this about some evil

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or some situation in our world upon which you could affect and impact, then you are expressing

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your own fatalism, not God's omnipotence. God is in control is a cop-out for you, not a profound

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statement about God's nature and guidance of history. God is in control betrays a lack of understanding,

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not only of God's true sovereignty, but also your responsibility in this world. Our leaders teach

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us poorly on these matters. God is indeed sovereign over every moment of redemptive history.

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In fact, the emperor Nebuchadnezzar said this after his experience with God. He said, and I quote from

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Daniel, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

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All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will

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among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to

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him, what have you done? Unquote. But rather than a fatalistic approach to getting involved, God's true

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sovereignty, as expressed in the Bible, should impel us to action, knowing that that action will turn out

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for our good and his glory. The apostle Paul puts it this way, and I quote him, work out your own

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salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his

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good pleasure. He says this in Philippians chapter 2. So, work for God's good pleasure, dear listener.

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Get off your bottoms. Stop being apathetic. Stop being fatalistic. Your action for God's good pleasure

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will turn out for his glory. We were meant to redeem our world, dear listener, insofar as we are able,

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and once more, when I speak of our world, let me say, I do not mean the world as the abode of the

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prince of the power of the air, Satan. I do not mean the world as the place of sin and misery. No,

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the Bible also uses the word world to describe our immediate life circumstances and surroundings. For

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instance, Paul talks about married men and women concerned about worldly things, that is their day-to-day

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affairs. Paul also says there are many languages in the world, that is the day-to-day affair of speaking,

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if you will. And Paul says we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity. That is in the

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world, that is the day, the arena of everyday behavior. So, it is this world that we are capable

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of redeeming, dear listener, working out our own salvation and working for his good pleasure.

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Listener, you can do this. You are obligated to do this. It is not enough to say God is in control

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and absolve yourself of responsibility to change the world. God is in control is cheap,

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shallow theology. God is in control is a personal cop-out, not God's all-in. You may be thinking

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you are asserting God's all-in, but you are not. God is in control is a personal cop-out,

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not God's all-in. Well, thirdly, a third kind of Christian fatalism is a misinterpretation of Romans 13.

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A misinterpretation of Romans 13 can make of us Christian fatalists. Oh, so many pastors and

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Christians take this text and text like it out of context. Paul says in Romans 13, verse 1,

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let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except

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from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God, unquote. Now, it's easy to take this verse

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in its absolute sense and just say, well, we're expected by God to do whatever we're told by the

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government. It's sinful to think we can change or criticize it. After all, the government we have

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is instituted by him. Well, occasionally, you'll have a pastor qualify this maybe by saying,

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unless that obedience directly contradicts God's expressly stated will. Sure. Then a few popular

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examples are trotted out, like a command to have an abortion, or worship an idol, or deny one's faith.

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And then on we go with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, often cited as biblical examples to

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follow, as well as Peter before the Sanhedrin, when he said, we must obey God rather than men.

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Well, otherwise, at least for these teachers, it is useless to protest or to work to change the

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government or to resist the government in any way. In fact, many of them will say it is disobedient to

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do so. Because Paul goes on to say, therefore, whoever resists the authorities, resists what God

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has appointed. And those who resist will incur judgment. Therefore, these teachers go on. We

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must go with the secret police when they come for us. We must get on the trains when they take us away

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to the camps. And we must go into the showers when it's time for us to be gassed. After all, whoever

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resists the authorities, resists what God has appointed. Now, I may have dramatized this here a

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little bit for you, but most American Christians are sublimely comfortable with such an interpretation.

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It's easy. It's simple and uncomplicated when having to make difficult moral and ethical decisions.

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Just let the government do whatever, and I'll do my best to stay out of the way and save souls until

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the rapture. When Christ sets up the millennium, I hear many say, when Christ sets up the millennium,

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then there'll be perfect government, but not until then. And I can't do anything about it until then.

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Oh, this is Christian fatalism. This understanding of Romans 13 is a misunderstanding, and it is nothing

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less than Christian fatalism. Because in Romans 13, in its context and in its background, the apostle

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Paul would insist on this, implicit is the understanding that said government knows, understands, and practices

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the bad. Paul goes on to say, rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. He is God's

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servant, Paul says, for your good. Oh, implicit. Government knows, understands, practices the good,

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knows, understands, and eschews the bad. Implicit is the understanding that the magistrate will

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administer true justice, equity, and mercy under the law. Implicit in this text also is that good and

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bad. Is that defined by God in his word, not just any old thing the government might say. Oh, is child

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sacrifice, for example, good or bad? If you lived under a Philistine ruler, it would be good, and you

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would be expected to obey. And those who espouse the present understanding of Romans 13 would have to

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agree. Well, Romans 13 also is not the only place where our behavior with respect to government occurs.

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Paul knows this, and he would expect us to know it too. When a magistrate is unjust, for example, he is by

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definition an illegitimate authority, and he must be resisted. Proverbs 28.4 says this, those who forsake the

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law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them. Those who keep the law resist those who forsake the

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law. We are responsible for insisting that justice and mercy be administered equally to all by our

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magistrates. Proverbs 24.11 and 12 says, rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those

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staggering towards slaughter. If you say, we knew nothing of this, does not he who weighs the heart

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perceive it? That is God. Proverbs goes on to say, does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not

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repay each person according to what he has done? Oh, dear listener, as a Christian, your voice must be

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heard. As a Christian, you must work in your world to establish a more perfect union, if you will, and

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all that that means. And as a Christian, you must hold the government accountable for the good and the bad

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by God's standards, that is the Bible, and not just accept it for what it is. Number four, once again,

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the fourth thing that makes of us Christian fatalists is believing the hypnotic lie of a separation between

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church and state. Believing the hypnotic lie of a separation between church and state can make of us

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Christian fatalists. Yes, dear listener, neither scripture nor the constitution teaches the understanding

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of the separation between church and state hammered incessantly by progressives today. For them, it means

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that Christians are to shut up and have no influence, no impact, or voice in government, doesn't it? We know

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this. No crushes on the law, no 10 commandments in the halls, and no prayers in the schools, right? In fact,

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if you are a nun in a Catholic hospital serving as a nurse, for example, we have seen this in court

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decisions here recently, then you must pay for abortions and birth control, whatever your conscience

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may say to the contrary, as per Obamacare, right? The progressive attitude towards Christianity,

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and not any other religion, parenthetically, the progressive attitude towards Christianity,

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however, has metastasized over the decades from one of benign neglect to open hostility, hasn't it?

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If you oppose the progressive agenda on biblical principle, well, then you're an enemy of the

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progressive. You are a right-wing extremist who is inherently evil. The primary culprit, however,

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the primary culprit in this shifting of attitude and giving of ground is not the progressive, though.

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What would you expect an implacable foe to do when he sees his enemy giving ground in the war?

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Would you expect him to surrender? No. He will press his advantage. This is precisely what the

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progressives are doing, too, aren't they? What we'd expect them to do, then, as our enemy. But is this

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so? The primary culprit in all of this is you, I would say, dear listener, the Christian cowed by a

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distorted view of the separation of church and state. Oh, the doctrine of the separation of church

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and state, as it has been inculcated by the progressive, has browbeat you into silence and

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fatalism. Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. Our constitution says so, doesn't it? But is

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this so? Two points I want to make with you about this doctrine of the separation of church and state.

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Number one, the first amendment was to keep the federal government out of the religious affairs

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of the states. Yes, and the language is quite explicit. Congress shall make no law respecting

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the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Specifically, it meant there

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would be no national denomination as there was in the country of origin, that is, England. This is the

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background of the first amendment. And then the federal government could, therefore, not force church

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tithes, as in England, church bishops, as in England, or could not force forms of worship on the

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states or the people and their churches. So that was the purpose of the first amendment. The government

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was always expected to be profoundly influenced by the Christian religion. Daniel Webster says as much

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in that he asserts that the Bible had a profound effect upon the laws and the constitution of the

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United States. Secondly, we must also note that Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists

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also meant to protect Christians from state influence, not the state from Christian influence.

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Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists, in which this phrase, the separation of church and state

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was coined. It's nowhere found in the constitution, but in his now famous letter to the Danbury Baptists

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who were concerned about the federal government tyrannizing them the way the British government had back

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in England. And thus they composed a letter to the new president, Thomas Jefferson, and expressed

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these things. Well, Jefferson wrote back to them that he too felt that, as he says, religion is a matter

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which lies solely between a man and his God. Jefferson felt, and he goes on to say that the

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legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions. And I contemplate with sovereign

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reverence, Jefferson says, that act of the whole American people, which declared that their

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legislature would, and he then cites the first amendment, make no law respecting the establishment

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of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Jefferson goes on to say, thus building

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a wall of separation between church and state, unquote. This was his phrase, not the constitution's

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phrase. Dear listener, let me underline that with you again. Nowhere found in the constitution,

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the idea of a separation of church and state. And in its context, when we understand it in the

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context of the letter, it reassures them that it is the Danbury Baptist of government's restraint

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towards the Christian religion, not the Christian religion's lack of influence on government.

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In fact, the founders expected that the Christian faith would have a salutary influence on government.

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Yes, John Adams said that our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is

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unfit for any other. So, dear listener, come out of your Christian fatalism, if any of these tendencies

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are doors. In fact, you were wired for action. You were built for action as a Christian. Christ expects

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you. He sends you out to baptize and disciple the nations. And that includes our nation, the United

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States of America. And our founding fathers would have expected you, them, to baptize and disciple

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this nation too. And do so boldly, do so freely, and do so in the confidence that God will honor

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his promises. This has been Pastor David Bass exhorting you to indeed come out of your Christian

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fatalism and begin to act and redeem this nation. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at

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101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And we encourage you to come out of the shadows,

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come and visit us not only at our worship service on Sunday at 10 a.m., 101 4th Street on the corner

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of 4th and Boulevard, but I also invite you to our spaghetti dinner, spaghetti fellowship dinner, on the

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last Wednesday of this month, the month of February, at 5 p.m. in our fellowship hall. I'll be there

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slinging spaghetti along with a few of our other members, and we encourage you to join us. And you can call us

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for more information and for feedback at 523-0196. That's 523-0196.