Replacement Theology
By Thomas Waters
Jeremiah 2:12–13 - Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
In our schools and text books, government buildings and courthouses, culture and values some have tried to replace God’s standards of conduct with man’s philosophies and ethics. While such replacement has largely been legally and culturally successful, it comes at a steep cost.
Personal preferences have replaced God’s standards for righteousness and conduct. Therefore, sin is not so big an issue. In our culture, for example, premarital sex, cohabitation of unmarried couples and homosexuality are not considered sin, but matters of personal choice. Since sin is not such a big issue, the redemptive work of Christ on the cross is viewed by many as antiquated and unnecessary. Since there is no bad news concerning sin, the Gospel (Good news of Jesus as Savior) is unimportant and replaceable.
Not only have we replaced God’s standards of holiness with changeable mores (i.e., social standards), we have replaced humanity with self. Once it was generally believed that what all peoples had in common and what distinguished them from animals was that humans were created in and bore the image of God. However, since God is a notion and creation a myth what matters is not a human being bearing God’s image, but individualism. Since no two human beings inhabit the same reality what is most important is not the greater good or even truth, but individual happiness.
Not only have we replaced God’s standards of holiness with changeable mores, human nature with individualism, we have also replaced character with personality. For years we have heard politicians and sport’s personalities say, “What I do in my personal life does not matter.” Oh? However, such claims may be correct as what matters in our culture is not character, but how well one stages himself. We live in an image-sensitive culture. Thus in every area of life, politics, sports, entertainment and yes even in religion, it is not holiness or character which matters so much as image.
Not only have we sought to replace God’s standards with personal preference, humanity with individualism and character with personality, we have also sought to replace guilt with shame. Shame, the result of some cultural or image faux pas or gaff, while embarrassing is based upon horizontal relations and can be dealt with in a number of ways. Guilt, however, is based upon a vertical relationship (i.e., the reality of God and being accountable to Him) and can only be dealt with redemptively and only through the Divine provision of the Savior Jesus Christ. Thus, the importance of declaring both the law of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately these cultural replacements are influencing the church and too often the Gospel has been replaced by programs, feel-goodism, moralism, sings and growth strategies. Until we recover and clearly proclaim that we live in a moral universe governed by a holy God the Gospel of Jesus Christ will continue to be diminished and replaced. And so long as we replace God’s truths with man’s wisdom, our culture will continue its spiral of degradation, obscenities and destruction. |
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