Last Post

It’s been a good year of blogging. Thanks to all the friends and readers who supported me. This may be the end of Epic Christianity, but I’ve arranged for a little parting gift: I’ve added three permanent features for anyone who comes across my website in the future.

1. Downloads page.
2. Links page.
3. How to Read the Bible page.

Even though I still have more to say, it can all be summarized by this: “epic” Christianity is not a blog. “Epic” Christianity is true religion that makes much of Christ: who he is and what he has done. It is the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Don’t be content with “stale” Christianity, devoid of sin and grace, law and gospel, repentance and faith—explicit biblical categories whose depths can be plumbed to eternity. Those things are what I’m all about.

I’ve done exactly what I set out to do: further equip the saints and expose people to church history’s greatest forgotten writers. I take full responsibility for all I’ve done here. I’ve written nothing that I wouldn’t want seen. Even my more provocative posts I don’t regret having written. I stand by all that I’ve said.

One last time, I ask you: Where are the Spurgeons? Where are the Wesleys and Luthers and Ravenhills to fight the watered-down gospel peddlers and those who purvey a sterile, doctrine-less, wishy-washy, man-centered, seeker-driven Christianity-lite? Who will lead us back to the old and narrow way? We, the American church as a whole, need to repent of our new ways and go back to the rock from which we were cut.

Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16)

EDIT: In one week, I will shut down the comments for good, but the blog will remain up. Thanks again to all my readers. Semper reformanda.

— Joshua S. 
(1 January 2013)

Second-to-Last Post

It seems that with all the site updates I’d been making (new features, new look, etc.), I was planning to make this go on for a very long time. But such is not the case. I’m shutting down Epic Christianity. I have my reasons for doing so, but first, I want to talk about all the good things that happened here.

1. Blogging helped me learn to better articulate and understand my beliefs.
2. I tried to update often and consistently and stuck with it for almost a year.
3. I gained a much greater appreciation for full-time bloggers.
4. Sometimes people enjoyed what I had to say. That itself is a good reward.

With that said, here are the reasons why I want to quit.

1. My personal blogging interfered with responsibilities.
2. More importantly, it’s just not my time to blog.

A few months ago, I watched a Paul Washer video.

I initially didn’t like what he said—it made me angry, in fact—but I eventually came to see the truth in his words. It also took the help of a few people older than me to make me heed his warning: “If you’re a young man, this is probably not your time to write a book and change the world or have a blog that gets hits from all over the planet. This is your time to prepare yourself and become a man of God—not to be on the Internet, but to be alone with God in prayer.”

Like many others in the Young, Restless and Reformed crowd, I wanted to be a little Spurgeon, start a self-styled Reformed blog, and save the Internet from bad theology. I think my motives were pure, but I could have used my time in better ways.

Do I regret having blogged? Absolutely not. This was a worthwhile experiment I will look back on with glee, and a good learning experience. Faith is a struggle, and my faith increased as I struggled to write about God. I still have things to say, but for now, it’s not my time to say them. There are other spots in the kingdom that need filling, and I am needed to help fill them.

(Check back tomorrow for my last post.)

Merry Christmas

A Sissified, Needy Jesus?

Voddie Baucham says, “News flash: by definition, God is self-sustaining, self-existent and self-sufficient; therefore by definition, he needs nothing. God does not need you.” For us, it’s the other way around. We as human are not self-sustaining, self-existent or self-sufficient. We are always in total need of Him.

Furthermore, Jesus is not the cool white hippie who just wants to hang out with you. According to the Bible, he’s the second person of the Trinity, the Sovereign Lord through whom all things were made, the Savior of all who repent and trust in him, the Lover of his bride the Church, and the Conqueror who will one day return and destroy all his enemies (John 1:1-3; Acts 5:31; Revelation 19:7, 11-21).

My Time in Christian Youth Subculture

I am the product of a Christian youth subculture. I grew up on Christian contemporary music, Christian t-shirts, and Christian teen magazines (none of which are without their merits). I went to StudentLife camps where hip, young speakers told grandma/puppy dog stories and the clarion call was “let’s change the world for Jesus.” These made-4-teens activities were fun, and the “world changing” aspect appealed to my youthful idealism. But ultimately, a good deal of it was shallow.

I rarely heard anything about sin, Christ or God. Instead, I heard a few common phrases: “change the world” and “make an impact for Jesus.” The subculture was entertaining, emotional and ruthlessly relevant. I enjoyed it very much, but at the age of thirteen, I perceived in it a few deep-rooted problems.

At one of the Christian rock concerts I attended, I stopped for a moment and looked around at the thousands of youth there. With each passing song, their emotions swayed, and the audience waxed delirious. All this built up to the altar call, where the band played moody, wistful songs that got everyone in the mood so they could invite people to “receive Jesus.” There I witnessed almost a thousand youth cry their eyes out in a packed auditorium.

This much was plain to me, an unsaved teenager of thirteen years: that was not the power of the Holy Spirit but a manufactured work of man. In that moment, I was not a participant but an observer, an observer who became embittered against what he perceived as psychological manipulation.

Another problem I saw was the subtle legalism inherent in the messages. It wasn’t the blatant “stop sinning or you’ll go to hell!” type of legalism, but the nice-sounding “if you do your part, God will do his” type. I often heard, “You gotta do this, and you gotta do that, and if you do those things, God will bless you more than you can imagine! Isn’t that amazing? Hallelujah, Jesus!”

And I suppose that’s true, but it was always “do this, do that.” Always rule-keeping, never grace and peace in Christ. I got tired of it, and much of Christian subculture became meaningless to me. For a while, I considered leaving Christianity altogether, but then I encountered and was changed by something new, something I had never understood before: the gospel of grace.

In high school, my spiritual life was saved through the preaching of my youth pastor, who helped me and my friends rediscover the historic Christian faith. He preached the gospel week in and week out until Christ was formed in us (Gal. 4:9). He fed us with love and prayed for our spiritual well-being (John 21:17). He eventually weaned us off “milk” and onto “solid food” (Hebrews 5:12). Many young people like me were saved and filled with a passion for Jesus.

In a few short weeks, the world was changed by one man who preached with an open Bible. He did not use the Christian subculture’s tricks, nor did he preach a benign legalism. He just preached from God’s Word, and the Word changed us. This did more than all the youth camps and pep rallies and concerts ever have.

A Benign Legalism

A benign legalism has settled over present-day religion. It is benign, in that it is well-meaning, and legalism, in that it de-epmhasizes grace, not through outright denial but through subtle omission. This deadly enemy has entered the church to destroy her from within, and it has already destroyed much. Part of the reason is because this enemy is hard to identify. It is not a harsh legalism, but legalism with a smile.

This soft legalism comes from pastors who preach all “life change” and “self-improvement” but no gospel. They eagerly expound “6 Ways to Improve Your Finances” and “7 Ways to Find God’s Blessing” but not Christ and him crucified for sinners. Because their proclamation of the gospel is weak or nonexistent, they end up creating a moralistic, quasi-Christian subculture that has “the appearance of godliness, but [denies] its power” (II Timothy 3:5).

The new soft legalism leads away from Christ and towards despair and self-righteousness. It leads to despair when someone finds he cannot do enough good to merit God’s favor. He discovers that he doesn’t love as he ought, and then he sees Christ as a harsh taskmaster, not the merciful Savior he is. It leads to self-righteousness when someone can keep all the outward forms of religion and garner the praise of men. He thinks himself good, but he puts his hope in a false messiah—himself.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:4-8)

The Bible Is for Simple People

The following selection is from C.H. Spurgeon’s “Sermon No. 172″, first preached on 17 January 1858.
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But I hear some one say, that the Bible is so difficult a book that he is sure he never could understand it. Mark thee, man, the Bible is so plain a book that he that is willing to understand it may do so; it is so plain that he that runs may read, and read while he runs; yea, it is so plain, that the simpler a man is, the more easily he can understand it.

All the learning that man ever received is rather a hindrance than a benefit when he comes for the first time to read the Word. Learning may untie many a knot afterwards; it may unravel many a mystery in after times; but we have heard deep-minded critics say, that at first they would have given all the world, if they could have thrown their learning aside, just to read the Bible as the humble cottager reads it, and believe it as God’s Word, without any quibbles of criticism.

You know how Mrs. Beecher Stowe represents Uncle Tom reading it. He could not read it fast; so he just spelt it over letter by letter, and word by word; and the Bible is one of the books, she says, that always gains by that way of reading. You recollect how he read it. “Let—not—your—hearts—be——;” and then he stopped at the long word; and he fumbled it out at last, and it was, “troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

Why, it gets sweeter from your being a long time reading it; and so far from your want of learning disqualifying you from understanding the Bible, the mass of it is all the more understandable from the simplicity of your heart. Come ye, and search the Scriptures; they are no such mysterious fables or learned volumes of hard words as some men say. This is no closed book, as the priest would tell us; it is a volume which the Sunday School child may understand, if the Spirit of God rests upon his heart. It is a book which the horny-handed workman may comprehend as well as the learned divine, and many such have become exceedingly wise therein.