Author : Matthew C. Gartner
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 40,38 MB
Release : 2023-05-04
Category :
ISBN : 9781778263101
Book Description
Does going to church on Sunday, donating, volunteering for ministries, trying to be good, and professing belief make us disciples worthy of Jesus? Do we find in our churches the true family Jesus spoke of, where "brother" and "sister" are not awkward labels given to people we don't really know? Does our discipleship transform our church and the world around us as Jesus commanded, or does it merely ensure we get along with them? "Living with Babel" is about transforming our discipleship to Jesus Christ, to become God's instruments of transformation to a culture that does not acknowledge Him. It is about questioning the views we hold that undermine our faith in God and Jesus' purpose for his Church. Millions of Christians, of every denomination, have been led to believe that the modern Church, having grown and existed for almost 2000 years since its founding, must be true to Christ. Indeed, that thousands of churches, books, and pastors seek to make "true disciples" within this evolved Church would seem to give this assumption credence. Yet the Bible itself speaks to a very different discipleship, a discipleship that Jesus himself demonstrated and commanded his disciples to have--Whether we enter through the broad or narrow gate depends on this discipleship. It is evident that our decaying modern culture is increasingly abandoning belief in God and in the godly principles of the past, despite the continued presence of the Church in it, and this fact alone should give us pause to question: If the Church is truly a city on a hill, why is it so hidden in the world? Are the ministries we undertake really building the Kingdom? Is the fellowship we have truly edifying and healing each other? Have we ourselves been genuinely transformed? "Living With Babel" begins with the nature of Humanity, demonstrating through the story of the Tower of Babel in the Bible (Genesis 11:1-9), how human beings and the culture of today are essentially no different from the time of Babel. The builders of Babel used brick to build a tower so tall that it would exceed the power of God. Likewise, today, Mankind has embraced science, technology, medicine, and humanism in its own attempt to be God. The same fallen nature of Mankind persists. "Living With Babel" explores this fallen, worldly, and technological landscape using COVID-19 as a case study, to examine the pandemic from secular, modern Christian, and Biblical perspectives. Through a history of the Church from its founding to the modern day, it also examines the developments and heresies that have contributed to undermining the true purpose and fulfillment of the Church. Its conclusions provide the unpalatable truth of how the evolution of the Church has led believers away from true discipleship to a comfortable co-existence with the culture, leaving both believing and unbelieving untransformed to the Kingdom. Recognizing this reality, "Living With Babel" provides a model of true discipleship to Jesus Christ, aligned with the truths of scripture that call us to both separate ourselves from, and be agents of God's transformation to, the world in obedience to Jesus--It is a guide on how to live with Babel.