In a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, George F. Will says, “The challenge confronting the church can be expressed in one word: modernity.” He is exactly right—even though his concept of what is the church is not biblical, his perception of what constitutes the church’s challenge is entirely correct. What we face as the people of God today is what he terms modernity.

His definition of that term is likewise perceptive and very accurate. Listen to it: “Modernity teaches that freedom is the sovereignty of the individual’s will—personal volition that is spontaneous, unconditioned, inviolable and self- legitimizing.”

That is about as fine a definition of our subjective-thinking society as you will find. I have said on numerous occasions, “in this country we’re more interested in our ‘rights’ than we are our ‘wrongs.” We have lost contact with the word of God and have made contact with ourselves. It’s as simple as that. We have become the authority, not the Bible.

This subjective theology, promoted and practiced, by the denominational world in general, and particularly by the so-called “community church” concept, is what religion is all about in our age. In today’s religion, our choices are so specially our own that no “one has the right to tell me what to do.” Our decisions are based not on objective, definitive truth, but on what and how we “feel” about a matter. There is, in this doctrine of modernity, no such thing as a truth that is for all; there is only truth for me.

This doctrine finds its way into the church if we are not careful.

It is seen in our casting away of the ancient gospel in favor of a social gospel. The church has been turned into a benevolent society. It has become little more than a country club in many places, offering a place to gather and enjoy entertainment and engage just enough worship to salve ones conscience. In today’s churches it is not uncommon for people to engage not in what is commanded in worship, but what is desired by the populace. The church has been turned into a secular school organization as well, with more attention being paid to day care facilities and mother’s day out programs than to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In many places, it seems to me the church is involved more with the world than with the Lord. And that’s in churches of Christ, folks.

In order to participate in all these secular endeavors there has to be an renunciation of the ancient gospel, a surrender of scriptural precedent, an abandonment of the ancient order. There is no way to reconcile what many churches are doing today to the plans and forms given in the New Testament. There has to be an abdication of the Scriptures in order to facilitate what is being done in many churches today.

How can it be, you ask. Easy. Subjectivism. You make truth relative to the situation, make it fit whatever you want to do. And then you add emotionalism: if it feels good, how can it be wrong? After all, didn’t God create us?

Modernity is the abandonment of conformity to God’s will. It takes many forms. Sometimes it’s referred to as the New Hermeneutic, a modern way of interpreting Scripture. Sometimes it is called Contemporary Worship or sometimes it’s called Ecumenism. There are all kinds of appellations, all of which are intended to Bible-centered Christianity, to call attention away from any sort of objective standard of regulation.

You can’t have it both ways. And you can’t water it down, either. You either respect the word of God all the way, or you abandon it all the way. There is no in-between. The Scripture does not say “if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God, except….” (1 Pet. 4:11 LBX) There is no exception. It does not say “whosover goeth onward, for just a little way…” (2 Jn. 9 LBX) There is no exception. It does not say, “All Scripture is ordained of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be nearly furnished to most every good work.”

If the word of God is true, if it is complete, if it is all we need, let us use it. We have no right to changer it (Gal. 1:6-9 LBX). If it is up to us to use what we want of it, change it where we want, apply it only as we see fit, then let’s just forget the whole thing and do what we want.

God has spoken. That’s good enough for me.