"Complacency can also can be seen to go hand-in-hand with the "God-is-sovereign" argument. This argument claims that there is nothing that we can do to change the culture because since God is really in control of everything anyhow, everything is happening just the way God wants it to. Its true, God is sovereign. But the entire New Testament is a call to action for the believer. Jesus said "Go out into all the world," "Preach the Gospel," "Make disciples." God's sovereignty is not an excuse for our inaction, rather, it's a promise that if we obey His call to act, He will move mightily. If you were in a burning house, you would not lie in bed and say "God's got this under control; it's all part of His plan." You would rush out of bed, get everyone out of the house, and then call 911. If there was a way you could fight the fire, you would do it. There would be no room for complacency. Likewise, there is no room for complacency in a Christian's response to the culture. In Luke 19:13, part of the point Jesus makes in a parable is that the believer is to occupy until He returns." -- David Hoffman
The entire New Testament is not a call to action beloved. It is a call to repentance. Ironically, he cites the one directive Jesus gives us which is to preach the Gospel. Not to change nations. Not to conquer cultural mountains. Preach the Gospel. God's sovereignty means He is in control. The saddest thing is that in his analogy of the burning building Hoffman fails to see that it is the church that is on fire. While he is off playing Ren and Stimpy, trying to take over the world, his own home is burning to the ground. The church today is no longer a shining city on a hill. It is no longer salt and light to a dying world. It has spent the past three decades trying to cozy up to the world and be relevant to it. It has spent the past three decades removing sin, the cross, and repentance from preaching and worship. Leaving an impotent, false gospel in its wake that saves no one. The bible says if the people called by my name repent and turn from their wicked ways He will heal the land.
"Another way a Christian can respond to the culture is in cowardice. The anti-Christian sentiment within the culture can seem overwhelming at times. As Satan expands his influence in the world, it can easily produce fear. This fear exhibits itself in several different ways. Some Christians embrace an isolationist mindset and try to avoid any and all interactions with the culture lest they be defiled by it. This is an incorrect response. Jesus made it clear that He overcame the world and that He is greater in us than the devil who is in the world. The Bible also says that we are more than conquerors and that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. God has the power to change what we can't change, but if we cower and fear, we miss out on the opportunity to be participants in spreading God's influence within this culture." -- David Hoffman
It is true that some Christians live in the Christian bubble, eschewing all things in the world and Hoffman is right to say this is not how it ought to be. Especially in this age where the church has so compromised itself with the world that there really is not that much of a difference. Take music for example. I know Christians who virulently oppose any form of secular music but listen to absolutely horrific and unbiblical "worship" music. The problem here is when Hoffman tries to leverage the bible to make his point. Jesus has not overcome the world so we can physically do the same. This was a spiritual statement that no matter what tribulation we may face in the carnal, we already have victory through Christ in the spiritual. Yes it is true that He that is in us is greater than he in the world but if Hoffman had bothered to read the context, which I have provided in the key verses today, he would have seen that this verse is about discerning false teachers. How painfully ironic. This is why you do not strip mine the bible. You cannot just cobble a few verses together out of context and think you have made a cogent point. Hoffman gives up his true goal here and that is to influence culture. Except the bible never tells us this is our job beloved. We are ambassadors for Christ through the preaching of the Gospel, period. God gives the increase based on His sovereignty, through the preached Gospel.
