Re-Forged: Living and Leading in a Post-Christian World

By D. C. Tan

Christians today live in an increasingly secular world. Jesus isn't relevant to most people, and someone who admits they are 'born again' may be laughed at like a crazy person who believes in Santa Claus. Whether we are at work, university, or just hanging out with friends, the gospel is effectively off-limits.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Re-Forged
• Release date: Aug 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9780992275426

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The Word and the World

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Hebrews 4:12-13

Over and over within the Bible, the ‘Word’ of God is exalted. No matter how much we may want to gloss over it and move onto the next thing that piques our interest, the Word has a unique and preeminent place within the context of the Bible’s story and teachings. Irrespective of our lack of time, lack of attentiveness or lack of love for it, the Scriptures repeatedly proclaim that the Word is both eternal and divine. Jesus tells us that until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished (Matthew 5:18).

How do we understand the ‘Word’ today? For many people, it is simply a collection of words, written down through the ages to provide moral direction through parables, psalms, proverbs and stories. Sometimes they are helpful, but more often than not they seem irrelevant or out-dated for our contemporary times and sensibilities. For others, the Word consists of ideas, helpful constructs that enable us to interpret life and even the afterlife, but which contain no more truth than say the Koran or the Hindu Vedas or the Confucian Analects. But these are not ways in which the Bible speaks about the Word of God.

What is the Word of God?

When we see ‘word’ written in English, we naturally understand it as a unit of speech or language; a word is simply a group of characters that carries with it some amount of information. In and of itself, a word has no power, no real essence.

In the Greek language, however, there are two words used in the New Testament that are translated into ‘word’ in English. The word ‘Rhema’ means an utterance, something said by Christ, for example, "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word [Rhema] of Christ" (Romans 10:17).

The second and more primary Greek word is ‘Logos’, which is used over 200 times in the New Testament. Logos had a far broader and more special significance than just a word or thought. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Heraclitus and Aristotle used it to mean reason and rational argument. Centuries later, the Greek word logos subsequently became the basis for the English word ‘logic’, with its obvious linkages to wisdom, truth and reason. Philosophers used logos to portray the divine laws that order and sustain the universe. Logos pointed to truth in the entirety of the natural world.

When the Bible talks about the Word of God, it speaks of something even greater than anything the ancient philosophers had in mind. According to the Bible, the Word of God is bigger, more wonderful and more holy than anything we can possibly imagine. In the beginning of his gospel, John speaks of the Word as having creative power, for through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:3, NIV). And not only does the Word create, but He also sustains everything that lives, for in Him was life, and the life was the light of men (verse 4).

Take a moment to reflect on the Word’s creative power. John tells us that before anything was created, God just was. He is timeless, all-powerful, beyond our comprehension. At the beginning of all things, the Word spoke the universe into existence. God simply said Let there be light (Genesis 1:3) and there was light, where previously light had not even existed. It was not that God had just shone light into the universe, but He simultaneously created light and made it shine all at once. And He did it through the power of His Word; God was not constrained by nature, science, karma or any other thing that mankind can think of. Who or what else can compare? How can we respond to a God who spoke all things, our very beings into existence?

The Word is also the light of men. Despite all of man’s achievements and strivings, without Him – if we existed at all – we would exist only in shadows ringing with an eternal echo of God’s power and holy presence. Without the Light, we would live in utter darkness, and as King Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes, Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.

The writer of Hebrews gives us even more clues to the nature of the Word. Here we are told that the Word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), always aware and always present. The Word isn’t just aware, however, it also pierces and slices through all aspects of our reality. The Word is a double-edged sword that cuts through everything that exists: Spiritual things, even ‘soul and spirit’, Physical things, like ‘joints and marrow’, and the Word even cuts through our Emotions and Thoughts, ‘discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart’. Over every part of your existence and my existence, God’s Word has ultimate and supreme power. Whether we comprehend it or not, and whether we like it or not, the Word is always at work, executing God’s plans over our lives, our spirits, our bodies, minds and emotions.

In the days leading up to his death on the steps of the Promised Land, Moses left the nation of Israel with this instruction, "Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life" (Deuteronomy 32:46-47, emphasis added). Consider how profound this is; human words, which we use to talk to each other, sing love songs, communicate our thoughts and even hurt other people, our words pass through our lips for one moment, and then are gone. Usually our words are forgotten in minutes or hours or sometimes days. God’s words last forever and His Word is life itself.

John Piper sums it up well: The Word of God is not a trifle; it is a matter of life and death. If you treat the Scriptures as a trifle or as empty words, you forfeit life.¹

Hebrews tells us that all will be held accountable to the Word on the final day. He has been given the power to judge at the end of all things, and no creature is hidden from His sight but all are exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13). However big or small we think we are, however noticeable or hidden we feel, the Word sees everything about us. And you could say that the Word will have the final word on our lives. So who is this Word – the One who sees all, knows all and judges all? The apostle John provides us the answer in the opening to his gospel, for the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

One of the great mysteries is that God’s Word is personified in Jesus Christ Himself. To know the Word is to know Jesus Christ. To love Christ, we must love His Word.

Delighting in the Word

If the Bible is truly the eternal Word of God, and the Word is Christ Himself, then every Christian must approach it as though his or her life depends on it. For it really does. The big question for each one of us, is do we live as though our lives depend on it?

Even more than this, we should want to grow in our love for the Word with all of our being. As the Psalmist says of the man who is blessed by God, his delight is in the law of the LORD and on His law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:2). The law isn’t just one of his delights, it is his delight. He loves God’s Word; he loves God’s laws, he loves God’s wisdom, he loves God’s eternal plan of salvation that is marked out within His Word. He knows that God’s Word brings a hope that cannot be shaken, provides a peace that transcends all human understanding and gives wisdom for all of life’s situations. And to the man who delights in the Word, Christ reveals Himself, He shows the very nature of His heart and mind, and in the process helps the Christian to become more Christ-like.

Scripture memory is vital. Jesus tells us, If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you… Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love (John 15:7-10). To abide is to live in something with constancy. Abiding in Christ means loving His Word and living in it constantly.

Chuck Swindoll’s personal testimony on Scripture memorisation demonstrates its impact on all facets of the Christian life, I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture... No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified.²

The letter to the Ephesians has been described as the crown of St Paul’s writings³. The magnificent outline of God’s plan of salvation and Christian living also culminates in the most definitive explanation in the Bible of how Christians should prepare for spiritual warfare. When Paul lays out the Armour of God in Ephesians 6, he defines the real nature of the war Christians are engaged in as well as how we are to prepare for battle. He depicts a very real struggle with the Enemy and his forces. For most of us in first world countries, we don’t often see spiritual oppression, at least not like many of our neighbours in developing nations, but Paul is crystal clear in identifying the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (verse 12). While we should not overplay this side of life, Christians are also wise not to discount it.

God provides the Christian with a number of defensive instruments of armour, namely the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. But the solitary offensive weapon that is granted to the Christian is the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (verse 17). Scripture is the Christian’s weapon in God’s war against the devil. A man who is set upon by the Enemy when he least expects it can’t just run to his bookshelf and frantically start flicking through the pages of the Bible to find a Scripture verse that works! And when you are attacked by Satan or his minions, you can’t pull out someone else’s sword! Sometimes when you are beset by life’s darkest moments, it can be impossible to think rationally, even to pray for yourself. In those moments, we need the Word to be already living and active within us to be effectively prepared.

You have to know it, the Word has to abide in you.

God tells us categorically that the Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). The Word is alive, it holds ultimate power over life and death, and it is eternal. The pivotal question for each of us is this: Is the Word living and active in me?

It is striking to read of Christ’s temptation by the devil. After his baptism in the Jordan River when the Holy Spirit descends upon him, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. He fasts for forty days and nights and by the end of this, Jesus is absolutely famished; he has no strength left whatsoever, physically he has no defence. Human strength has failed him. Then the devil executes his plot: he tells Jesus to create bread out of stones to prove that he is the Son of God, he offers Christ the kingdoms of the world, and finally asks Jesus to prove He can conquer death.

Starving, waning, and on the brink of death, Jesus relied solely on God’s Word. The Word was His delight, His peace and His strength. He who was before all things, who created all things, trusted in nothing else under heaven and needed nothing else to conquer all that the devil could throw at Him. In the face of His greatest temptation, Christ responded by drawing from the Old Testament Scriptures that were deeply rooted in His heart: "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Deuteronomy 8:3, italics added).

May we be of the same mind and heart.

Scripture Memory – The 5 and 5 Process

The process of memorising Scripture is fairly straight-forward. Most of us have at one point memorised the multiplication tables as children and they have stuck with us into adulthood. Why do they stick? Because they are ingrained into our thinking and because they are useful in everyday life. Memorising Bible verses is based on these same principles.

The simple process we will follow is this:

1.First, prayerfully ask God to help you love and memorise His Word.

2.Choose verses and entire passages that resonate in your soul. Find verses that will help you in times of need, that help you to praise God or verses that will help you to witness effectively. Start with just one or two verses at a time.

3.Spend a small but dedicated window of time in the morning working through those verses. Follow a simple ‘5 and 5’ practice: read the verses aloud five times, then repeat the verses five times without looking. Start with just one verse and then gradually build from there. You will be astounded at what you can accomplish in just five minutes per day if you keep this up.

4.Review the same verses the following day, but this time you should be able to step down to a ‘3 and 3’ or even a ‘1 and 1’ method. Within a few days you will find that the not only have you memorised the verses but often they become even more alive and take on greater meaning. They will come to mind even when you’re not looking for them. The Word will be alive in you.

Two aids that can help greatly in building Scripture memory are keeping written copies of verses in your pocket, and using Bible apps on your phone or tablet device. Written verses are like miniature swords that can be drawn out of your scabbard (or your wallet!) in times of need or just on the bus or the train. Bible apps are fantastic in enabling you to review your entire list of memorised verses at any time – for example, the free ESV app (English Standard Version – a great modern translation of the Bible) on the iPhone and iPad has a simple favourites list that pops up the verse you wish to review in highlighted text, along with the surrounding verses so that you can expand what you’ve memorised. Amazing!

Over the course of Re-Forged, we will consider and discuss many things relevant to Christian life. But ultimately everything rests on the Word of God. Without the Word residing and resounding in our minds and hearts, we cannot fully know Jesus and we can’t live as He lived.

So the final point is this; take up the Sword of the Spirit, learn it by heart, give it pre-eminence in your life, and delight yourself in it. What a gift, and what a privilege!

PERSONAL REFLECTION

•What does God’s Word mean to you?

•In the midst of your busy schedule, how can you take time out to read and meditate on His Word?

I’ve got the Word… Why do I need a Worldview?

Worldviews really do matter; and not just your own worldview, but the worldviews of those around you. Worldviews are essential learning for all Christians who want to live authentically inside and oustide the church.

Understanding the dominant worldviews in today’s culture will help solidify your faith, draw you closer to God and more deeply into Scripture. You will become immensely more convinced of the gospel’s truth and power for the world, and specifically for your family and friends who aren’t yet Christians. Personally speaking, I have been able to share not just the Christian faith, but also my reason for faith, to non-believing friends who have come away both surprised and attracted to the gospel. May this be one of the outcomes of Re-Forged for everyone who goes through it.

If you are like me, and have been a Christian for many years, you may have attended church countless times, listened to over a thousand sermons, read the Bible cover to cover and back to front, and been part of or led multiple Bible study groups.

But if you are like me, you may also have wrestled with how to balance and integrate your faith with your job, your business, and your social circles outside of church. We all know what being a Christian looks like during Sunday service and even during a mid-week Bible study, but what does it look like on Mondays through to Saturdays? How can we be fully Christian and fully in the world at the same time? How, when the vast majority of those around you are not believers, can you live out your Christian values and ethics without offending your friends and coworkers? How can you broach the subject of Christ and salvation when today’s postmodern culture (that expects and preaches tolerance) finds this incredibly offensive?

Perhaps you may still have some big questions lurking in the background, even some that make you fundamentally question your faith. Is Christianity right, is it true? What if Buddhism or Islam or atheism are true? What would that do to my life? What would that mean for eternity? What would it mean for my children?

A good friend of mine who isn’t yet a Christian once questioned me about faith. He likes Christian values, has a number of Christian friends and generally likes Christians, even though he recognises that there is hypocrisy within the church. His question was about how does a person arrive at unconditional faith, although I sensed what he was really trying to ask was how do people arrive at blind faith?

Note the likeness and yet inherent conflict between these two positions; the first type of faith is unconditional – it holds firmly despite whatever doubts one has and whatever obstacles life may throw at you. It’s the type of faith that Stephen clung to as he was being stoned by the Jewish council for refusing to renounce his belief in the risen Christ. Unconditional faith is the type of faith that made Stephen the church’s first martyr, yet gave him the strength of love and forgiveness to cry out with his final breath, Lord, do not hold this sin against them (Acts 7:60).

Blind faith on the other hand is unthinking, it doesn’t question and doesn’t test the truth. I think what my friend was getting at was his perception that most Christians either don’t have good reason to believe, or can’t really explain their belief. At least, he’d never heard an explanation that made sense to him, that seemed to reconcile faith in the Christian God with views that are commonly held in society today; namely that evolution gave rise to life, and that since all people are inherently good, then there must be multiple paths to goodness or nirvana or the afterlife, whatever those things may mean. The concept of blind faith was like a lingering, bleeding ulcer in my mind for a few weeks after that.

Clearly the God of the Bible demands unconditional faith but not blind faith. He demands unconditional faith, because of the unconditional love that He has given us through His Son Jesus Christ. But our faith isn’t to be blind, for if He is the Truth then naturally we are to apply ourselves to understanding the Truth in all of life. If our faith is blind we may end up building our house on sand instead of the Rock.

King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived besides Jesus, tells us that, I applied my heart to see and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven (Ecclesiastes 1:13). Furthermore, notice from the book of Acts how the gospel was preached in the early church. We are told that Paul in Ephesus entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God (Acts 19:8). The Bereans, who were more noble than other early Christians, received the word with all eagerness and they examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were true (Acts 17:11). And when Paul arrived in Athens, the ancient world’s equivalent of New York, full of wealth and dominated by the intelligentsia, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there (verse 17).

Every person, Christian or not, poor or rich, educated or unschooled, has a set of beliefs by which they live and deal with reality. Most people go about life without thinking hard about that belief system. We’re so busy and there’s so much to do! But in the critical moments where your life is on the precipice, such as when my 18 day old son was lying on the floor in front of me unbreathing, blue, and refusing to respond to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, or when all of your life’s achievements are laid bare and without meaning as you suddenly realise that your days are like grass… the wind passes over it, and it is gone and its place knows it no more (Psalm 103:15), it is in these moments that your underlying beliefs are put to the test and nothing matters except the truth.

That belief system is your worldview. Each person has one, and every person’s worldview is shaped and affected by the culture they live in and the worldviews of those closest to him or her.

Having a more solid understanding of the Christian worldview will help us see that it holds truer than any other by a long way. The Christian worldview helps first with the head, then with the heart. It will make us better husbands, fathers, brothers, and more effective leaders in our communities. We will be able to equip our children to deal with the competing worldviews they will face one day when they leave home, some of which we may not even have heard of yet. We will be able to understand our non-Christian friends better, and relate to them more intimately and respectfully as witnesses for Christ.

What Exactly is a Worldview?

Each of us navigates through life with a set of beliefs that determine how we choose to live and make the best of the hand that we are dealt. This worldview explains the biggest questions of life: Where did I come from? What is the purpose of life? Why should I love and not do evil? Where are we going, if anywhere?

Whether we are conscious or unconscious of our worldview, every single person has one. It is that worldview that forms the basis for our choices in life; we don’t just choose a worldview, it is simply what we fundamentally believe in our innermost being.

Nancy Pearcey, in her wonderful book Total Truth, says A worldview is not the same thing as a formal philosophy; otherwise it would only be for professional philosophers. Even ordinary people have a set of convictions about how reality functions and how they should live. Because we are made in God’s image, we all seek to make sense of life. Some convictions are conscious, while others are unconscious, but together they form a more or less consistent picture of reality.⁴

Let’s take two examples to help us understand worldviews further.

The first example is relatively benign on the surface but fairly common and becoming more prevalent each year. I’m a member of a local gym, and when it opened a few years ago, I was always motivated by the other people who would be working up a sweat and getting fitter and healthier. Now I’ll admit that it’s possible that as I get older I’m just becoming more cynical, but I am 99% sure that the gym has been filling up with more and more people who are obsessed with body image. They pump iron, scream through RPM classes, burn holes in their shoes on the treadmill and then vaporise under a yogi’s tutelage. They are generally young, athletic and good looking, sort of like a Derek or Debbie Zoolander in real life with a real job and a mortgage.

Why does body image seem to be accelerating as not just a modern day ideal, but a norm? If you have it, you will generally be more successful, but if you don’t, then success and acceptance will be more elusive. Is the phenomenon simply due to the influence of Hollywood and the media? Those are all hugely contributing factors, but what about the ever increasing dominance of the naturalist worldview that states that all that exists is matter, indeed that all that matters is matter itself? If people believe that there is no ultimate purpose for life, then they will design their own purpose and will inevitably be self-seeking. Body image, consumerism, health and wealth will all be inevitable outflowings of such a worldview.

As a second example, consider the slums of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. On a recent church mission trip, we visited a small slum village on the edge of the Mekong River. If you haven’t visited a slum before, let me describe the scene to you; imagine walking through knee-high water and sludge, past a dozen or more villagers fishing in a sewer for their family’s daily meal. It reeks and you wonder how the fish can be clean enough to eat. Then suppose you get past the sewer to reach a cattle abattoir. There are two piles of fresh cow bones stacked up four or five feet high by the side of the slaughterhouse. Everywhere you look, you see and smell decay; there are faeces all around, mostly cow, but also human, and blood and guts strewn about the ground. And all around you, there are children playing in and amongst the mire. Mostly the children are naked, some are wearing a few rags. They’re elated to see you, because they know foreigners will pay them attention and sometimes bring gifts.

A good friend of mine spots one girl who is clearly different to the rest. She’s 11 years old, dressed in rags, and unlike the other children playing cheerfully all around, she’s sad. In fact, she looks hopeless, like she’s despairing. In one hand the sad girl is carrying what looks to be like a cow’s jawbone and in the other is a broom.

We found out later that the girl, who we eventually came to call Grace, had been sold as a slave by her mother when she was just seven years old. The abattoir’s owner had told her mother that he would pay her $250, about nine months’ wages, if she would give Grace to him so that she could be adopted as a daughter of his family, be educated in a proper school and receive a much better life. He lied.

Like many young children in the developing world, Grace was sold into child labour and for four years, 365 days every year, she was forced to work in the slaughterhouse from midnight until 3pm in the afternoon, cleaning up blood, bones and manure. Her mother was powerless to do anything about it even though she lived just 50 metres away from her.

There is a happy ending to Grace’s story which we will touch on in a later study, but for now let’s consider her mother’s worldview. Like the rest of her village, she was Buddhist and born into a life of poverty.

Central to the teachings of Buddhism is that ‘life is suffering’. There is always ‘dukkha’ (suffering and pain), which arise from our desires and cravings. Only by ceasing to have desires, or detaching from these desires, can a person achieve the state of nirvana. But very few ever reach nirvana (and it is arguable whether women even can) and for common people in poverty there is only the daily struggle for survival. Grace’s mother’s worldview provided her with an understanding of poverty, but there was no practical hope of actually escaping it. There may have been Four Noble Truths, but there was no Hope. So she sold her daughter for $250.

To anchor our understanding of both the Christian worldview and other worldviews, we will use the following four-step model on life’s big questions. It will also enable us to engage with our friends and colleagues in a way that is respectful yet without apprehension:

1.Origin: How did life begin? How did we come into existence?

2.Meaning: What is the ultimate purpose of life? Are humans more valuable than animals?

3.Morality: What is right and wrong? Where do sin and suffering come from? How should I live and love?

4.Destiny: What is there after death? What does that mean for the present?

PERSONAL REFLECTION

•What worldviews do you see in family and friends around you?

•What forces do you think shape your own worldview?

Two-Story Truth

John 1:10 tells us that the world did not know Him. The world doesn’t know the Word, it doesn’t know the truth. The Bible teaches that the world has rejected God’s truth and more than that, it creates its own truth, its own worldviews to guide life and man’s view of purpose and meaning.

To understand and then reclaim the Biblical worldview, we need to first recognise the divide that exists in postmodern society between ‘heart’ and ‘mind’, as well as ‘values’ and ‘the natural world’. God isn’t just Lord over our hearts and values, He is God over truth and all of