Is Every Trend in the Church Wrong Because it's Popular?

Now, Contending for the Faith. In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: “Dear Dave and Tom: I’ve got an issue that’s been bugging me for quite a while. Red flags go up for me every time something comes along in Christianity that becomes popular not only in the church, but sometimes in the world, as well. The Purpose Driven Life is one example, but there are others: The Passion of the Christ, The Prayer of Jabez, Veggie Tales, and so on. My question is: Just because something reaches considerable popularity, is that biblically legitimate grounds for being wary?”

Tom: You know, Dave, of these things that the questioner mentions, the common response among Christians is, “Well, God is really using this, and this is the way God is working now. He’s doing a new thing,” so on and so forth. But is it legitimate to pull back and say, “Wait a minute here! If the world is going for this, there’s got to be some problems with it”?

Dave: Well, Tom, in one sense that’s legitimate, because Jesus did say John 15, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you’re not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” 

You know, He never promised that we would be voted in as president, so you could raise some questions right there. We have a Christian president. How many compromises has he been forced to make on the way up? Does he really stand for Christ and His Word, or does he have to represent everybody else, and so forth? Could a true Christian really do that? 

On the other hand, there were times when Jesus was very popular. They mobbed Him. They followed Him by the thousands because He was healing the sick, and feeding them, and so forth. But when He began to tell them the truth—John 8 is a classic example. It says in v. 30: “As he spake these words, many believed on him.” And—wow! They believed He was the Messiah, but they had a different idea of who the Messiah would be, as we talked about in our first segment. So when He began to say, “Oh, if you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free,” whoops! They backed off. Eventually He has to say, “You are of your father the devil.” 

And finally, they pick up stones to kill Him! And these are those of whom it was said they believed on Him. So, number one, I have to be careful about popularity, because it didn’t turn out well in Jesus’ day regarding Him.

Tom: Or for any of the apostles, or many of the disciples.

Dave: Yeah, but they were never popular like He was. But there was a time when He was popular, but it didn’t turn out well. Number two, what is Jesus saying? “If you continue in my word.” So in the final analysis, it’s not, “Well, how popular is it or isn’t it,” but, “Is it true to the Word of God?” 

Now, we have what was called the “social gospel,” for example. “Well, let’s take care of the sick. Let’s build hospitals, and let’s have orphanages, and let’s feed the poor,” and so forth. That’s all good, but Jesus also preached the gospel to the poor. That’s what He said to John’s disciples when they came to check him out: “Well, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame walk, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” 

So unfortunately, the social gospel, going back a few years now, it became so social, so intent on meeting people’s physical needs, that they didn’t meet their spiritual needs. 

You could take—for example, here is Christ, remember? Five thousand men, besides women and children…He says to the disciples, “We’ve got to give them something to eat.” And the disciples say, “Well, we don’t have enough. Let them go home and buy something.” Jesus said, “If we send them home now, they’ll collapse on the way home, because they’ve been here with me three days, three nights, and I have been teaching them.” It doesn’t sound like the social gospel: Feed them first and then try to give it to them.

Tom: Yeah, it’s not exactly Maslow’s hierarchy of needs here.

Dave: Yeah. So, Tom, you know, we haven’t gotten into doctrine. What about The Purpose Driven Life? We did a whole series on that. What about The Message, you know? What about The Prayer of Jabez? We did something on that. What about The Passion of the Christ? We did something on that. But we’re simply talking in general terms. Yes, if it is that popular with the world, then you had better be careful! And Christ was very popular once, but when He gave them the truth, then they eventually crucified Him.

Tom: Dave, you’ve written about numerous Bibles, and we see in Christianity now we’re trying to make the Bible more popular—not just The Message, but we have Bibles for teens that change the language, that do these things because they want to be on the “in.” They want to be popular, or make it popular among Christians, but these things are problematic. I mean, they’re polluted at best.

Dave: Well, Tom, they’re changing the language not only, but changing the meaning and changing the message and changing the whole approach.

Tom: In order to make the Bible popular. Now, what about that, Dave?

Dave: Well, Tom, I remember in the revolutionary days, not too many years ago, and Christians were trying to do that. And I remember the statements from particularly one communist: He had broken off his engagement, he had gone to Mexico, and there he said he was willing to die for Marxism. And he really mocked these Sunday school classes, the youth groups where they’re just entertaining them. He said, “If it is worth living for, it’s worth dying for. I’m going to give myself totally…” And that was what Jesus called us to do. He said, “Take up the cross and follow me.” 

So what we’re doing is we’re taking our young people away from the real truth. They don’t have anything really to live for. It’s not worth dying for. It really isn’t genuine Christianity, and we’re doing a great disservice to them.