Torch, Fall/Winter 2012

Summer 2006 / TORCH 25 One wonders if the emerging church would exist if fundamentalists in the early part of the last century had not largely jettisoned social concern in a pendulum swing away from the liberal social Gospel. Many doctrinally sound churches who are making inroads for the Gospel among post-everythings are heading back into the city and meeting social needs in tangible ways, reuniting orthodoxy (right belief ) with orthopraxy (right practice). Fishing for vegetables in the emerging soup involves avoiding the pitfalls of emergent syncretism on the one hand and legalistic separatism on the other. While culture will certainly continue to shift, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the solid Rock we must winsomely present to our post-everything culture — using timely methods to proclaim timeless truth. Mark Irving is director of discipleship ministries at Cedarville University. After graduating from Cedarville, he attended Dallas Theological Seminary where he earned a Th.M. in educational leadership. T T ruth or C onsequences? by Pastor Bob Rohm “One word of truth outweighs the entire world.” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn, upon being awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970 “What is truth?” Pontius Pilate half-heartedly inquired at Jesus’ trial. The answer to this question is one of the most important responses anyone would ever proffer. After all, eternity is in the balance. Is truth simply whatever an individual believes? In his book The Truth War , Dr. John MacArthur defines truth as “that which is consistent with the need, will, character, glory, and being of God. Truth is the self-expression of God.” In stark contrast, the postmodern worldview posits suspicion to any claim of ultimate meaning or certainty. How is a genuine follower of Jesus Christ to respond to the apologetic challenge of our day? Ravi Zacharias explained it this way in Beyond Opinion: “I have little doubt that the single greatest obstacle to the impact of the Gospel has not been its ability to provide answers, but the failure on our part to live it out.” He went on to report that a Hindu friend questioned the experience of conversion by saying, “If this conversion is truly supernatural, why is it not more evident in the lives of so many Christians I know?” Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Acts 4:12 states, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” The good news is that Jesus Christ is both the way and the truth. He was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead. His death and resurrection have provided forgiveness for our sins and a certain future. Let us live our lives as proof of the supernatural intervention of God in our hearts! Fall–Winter 2008