The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Anjela Paje of Spokane, WA, from the tape, GC 1301-X, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 26."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1983. All Rights Reserved.

Questioner

I have a question relating to the direction that the church, generally the Christian church in America, is taking. And, in particular, Grace Church. We are, as Christians, admonished to be salt  in a corrupt world. I feel, though, that many times, Christians who are sincere believers are not always terribly well informed as to the state of the world. The newspapers, some newspapers are quite misleading. Television has its devotees among the Christian community, but television is slanted news, so we’re really given a piece-meal diet, and it’s very difficult for Christians to sort out fact from fiction.

What I have in mind is a proposal and a question at the same time, as to the direction that Grace Church proposes to take in teaching its body of saints certain facts relating to the world around us. We know from a "Salt Insert" in the bulletin two weeks ago that the federal government through the IRS has its eyes on Christian schools with the expectation that if the Christian schools don’t balance their racial quotas, why the government will remove the church from its tax exempt status. That’s only one battlefront. There are others, as we know. Abortion is another.

So, what I have in mind is a proposal here that contains several subjects which I think would be of interest, general interest, to the body here. We’ve just completed a Wednesday night series on the cults, and Logos has had one course that I know of on Stewardship. But, I think, these are just touching the periphery of of the possibilities.

For example, let me read from a short list I made up here. Why not inform the the body of believers about the situation of the government vs. God, working into a history of this country when it was Christian, instead of humanistic? We need to know more about stewardship, not just money management, but resources. We need to know more about Communism. We need to know something about the sociology of religion. Dr. Frances Schaefer pointed out that, in his book, How Shall We Then Live, that religion is becoming sociological. That is to say that preachers are tailoring their sermons to meet the expediencies of the community. Perhaps we could learn something about the dictatorship of a godless majority, and the leveling influence that it has on all of society. You know, a dictatorship abhors another system that has its absolutes. And, our absolute is the very God above.

John MacArthur's Answer

Okay. Let me stop you at that point, so I can react to that. Basically, I think, all those things are very helpful things. And, let me tell you my response as to a course in that. And, you’re coming down a track that I think is very important.

Some years ago, a very close friend of mine, Dr. John Stead, who’s the Dean at Los Angeles Baptist College out here, and has his Ph.D. in sociology. All his life, as long as I’ve known him, we’ve played football and baseball and stuff in high school, but he was always politically oriented in his thinking and all through his life he’s tracked these kind of things. A few years ago, we ran a special course which he taught on the believer, informing him about civil government, giving him a history of political science, a history of forms of government. I had a conversation with him the other day because I was very concerned that some students going to a Christian school in our area were being given George Orwell’s book, 1984 to read about Totalitarianism. Well, George Orwell’s 1984 is not a good book on Totalitarianism. It’s fiction. If they wanted to read a good book on it, they should read Arthur Kessler’s book, Darkness at Noon, which is the classic treatment of Russian Totalitarianism of the ‘30s, which was the revolt that put Communism into power. But, I’m very concerned about those kinds of themes. So, I would agree with that, and I think we will, in the very near future, have a special course on that available to our people because there are some very current issues.

Secondly, when we sent Sam Erickson to Washington D.C., and we have supported him, I don’t know if you know that. We have supported Sam, to the amount of about $2,000.00 a month. As a project of Grace Church, as he has developed the center for law and religious freedom of the Christian Legal Society, which is a lobby group. It’s a conservative, evangelical group to counter the ACLU. But, there is a new lobby group, and they’ve been extremely effective. They have not only been effective in lobbying for many, many cases in Washington, they have newsletters that are available that can keep us informed, and if you’ll call my office, we’ll give you their address, and you can be regularly on the mailing list to get the information from the Christian Legal Society of the Center for Law and Religious Freedom. And, then, you can become a real catalyst in that area. Secondly, they have been asked on several occasions by the White House to recommend key people that could go in to White House Staff. And, right now, they have placed two born-again, evangelical, conservative attorneys in the White House Staff who are working personally with the President’s Cabinet in these matters. And, so, they’ve had a tremendous impact. I do agree with that.

Now, let me say a third thing, and then we’ll go on to another question. The third thing I want to say is, it’s difficult for me to see myself in that role because that’s not what God’s called me to do. So, I want you to understand that I feel the priority to do what the Lord has enabled and called me to do. But, while I admit that that’s not my emphasis, I do admit, also, that it’s helpful for us to have a sense of that. And, to understand where our country is going, and what freedoms we are perhaps losing because we need to take the means that are put at our disposal to deal with these issues. So, I appreciate that. That’s very helpful. Thank you.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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