Recently, on a Wednesday night, I shared some thoughts about our responsibility as Christians to engage culture. Al Mohler has defined our (American) culture using seven characteristics, each of which begin with the word self.

• Self-fulfillment. We are a culture that seeks to satisfy ourselves, seen primarily in the triumph of the therapeutic culture. Self-help books and self-therapy books abound.
• Self-sufficiency. We actually brag about this one. I did it my way all by myself. This is American, but this is not necessarily godly.
• Self-definition. We define what it means to be human (the abortion debate, the cloning debate, and even the designer birth debate), what it means to be male and female (the gay marriage debate), what it means to be _______ (insert your own).
• Self-absorption. We are totally focused on ourselves. We have back decks and back yards, no longer do we value front porches and neighbors. We regularly see divorce because “I wasn’t happy…I needed to do this for me.”
• Self-transcendence. This suggests that we can pick up bits and pieces of religion from where ever we want and that will be good enough. We recognize the inherit spirituality within ourselves, but we fool ourselves into believing that we can define and dictate God.
• Self-enhancement. This is the idea that we can actually make ourselves better than God did. This abounds with the ideas that we can extend life, with parents who give breast augmentation to their kids for graduation gifts, with liposuction, and botox.
• Self-Security. We believe ourselves to be relatively secure. Though we say things like “You aren’t promised tomorrow,” few of us rarely believe that to the very core of our beings. We are pretty confident that tomorrow will come and that it will be pretty good (nearly half of all Americans).

As Christian people, we are called to live in our culture, but to do so with the intention of changing our culture. We are not supposed to look like our culture. The Christian life is a counter-cultural life. As we seek to live out the gospel and share the gospel with our friends, relatives, co-workers, and neighbors, let me encourage you to be different. We are to be defined less by “self” and more by Christ. He is our ultimate judge. All that we do should be to bring glory to him, not to satisfy ourselves. If simply take Christ at his word to love him with all of our hearts and to love our neighbors as our selves, then we will see that our culture has lost its bearing.

As the summer draws to a close and as we look forward to the fall, look for your fulfillment in Christ. Do not buy the lies of our culture, instead, accept the truths of God’s word and seek to honor him with your life. Focus on Him and others, and watch as God uses you to transform your world with the gospel.

Mohler’s complete chapter can be found in Preaching the Cross.

Mohler, Jr., R. Albert. Atheism Remix. Wheaton, Il: Crossway, 2008. 

“Albert Mohler is a steady guide, unremittingly clear-headed.”  This John Piper quote dawns the cover of many of Dr. Mohler’s books on the social landscape that lies before the contemporary Christian.  This Piper quote provides a concise description of Atheism Remix published in 2008 by Crossway.  Not only is this book “clear-headed”, but is even-handed in its approach to the “New Atheism” that is sweeping across America and Western Europe.  Atheism Remix is a treatment of the work of “The Four Horsemen of the New Atheist Apocalypse,” (39) as Mohler calls them, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens.  Atheism is not new, as Mohler points out (17), but these new atheist are, “evangelistic in intent and ambitious in hope.  They see atheism as the only plausible worldview for our times, and they see belief in God as downright dangerous –an artifact of the past that we can no longer afford to tolerate, much less encourage.” (12) 

Mohler first discusses the New Atheism in relationship to it End-Game of Secularism.  He points out that it was, “only after the Enlightenment that atheism became a real intellectual force.” (18)  It would progress more rapidly through the lives of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud.  The writings and influence of these men would lead to the rise of the, “explicitly atheistic state,” (27) one void of religious influence where, “Marx’s assumption that religion is ‘the opiate of the masses’” (27) had to be fully embraced and, “that opiate must be taken from the people and replaced with the vision of the new Communist man.” (27)  Mohler codifies Max Weber’s arguments when he concludes that the end goal of both the contemporary secularist and the New Atheist is that, “eventually modernity would lead to society’s disenchantment with the enchanted world, by which he meant a world in which God is necessary and meaningful, and its entrance into a disenchanted (or secular) world.” (29)  This is clearly the end-game of the New Atheist. 

Mohler then moves on to discuss the assault that this New Atheism is having on theism.  In this chapter he gives background history on each of the “Four Horsemen,” shows their credentials to be in this debate, and briefly describes their contributions to the atheist/theist debate.  One of the most insightful quotes of the entire book comes from this chapter and is a stern warning to those who lead Christ’s churches.  In reflecting on the early religious training of both Dawkins and Hitches, Mohler writes, “There is something to be learned here.  A tepid introduction to Christianity turns out to be a poor preparation for life, and an even poorer preparation for hearing the gospel.” (53)  Dr. Mohler then spends the rest of the chapter discussing eight characteristics that set the New Atheism “apart from older forms of atheism and that frame its challenge to Christian belief.” (54)

Carl F. H. Henry said, “the world is looking for an evangelical demonstration of Christianity, not merely an intellectual defense.” (65)  In the third chapter of Atheism Remix, Al Mohler takes the reader through a multitude of defenses that should be prevalent in the arsenal of the contemporary Christian.  Much of this chapter is dedicated to the responses of Alister McGrath and Alvin Plantinga to the work of the New Atheists.  He does point out, however, that, “the Achilles heel of the critiques offered by McGrath and Plantinga might be their own acceptance of the larger project of evolution” (84) and as such, “the evangelical Christian…must remember that the burden of our concern is not merely to refute atheism or to argue for the intellectual credibility of theism in any generic or minimal form.  Instead, our task is to present, to teach, to explain and to defend Christian theism.” (84; emphasis his)

Finally Mohler discusses the Future of Christianity and its relationship with the New Atheism.  He says, “Christians must summon the courage to respond to this challenge with the full measure of conviction and with a bold assertion of biblical theism.” (90)  That is not, however, how many of those who occupy the liberal side of the theological spectrum deem this debate.  Mohler interacts with several of those liberal theologians and their writings in this final chapter.  Tina Beattie, for example, “accuses Hitchens and Dawkins of making the same mistake made by fundamentalists–reading the Bible as if it is true.” (93)  Mohler shows that clearly this is not the answer.  In his book The Disappearance of God, Mohler discusses Gerd Lüdemann, a theologian who after spending his life denying, “the resurrection of Jesus, the virgin birth, and eventually the totality of the gospel,” (Disapperance, 108) finally came to say that, “a Christian is someone who prays to Christ and believes in what is promised by Christian doctrine.  So I asked myself” ‘Do I pray to Jesus, do I pray to the God of the Bible?’ And I don’t do that.  Quite the reverse.” (Disapperance, 110)  Lüdemann now goes after liberal theologians who he says, “should give up their claim on Christianity for the sake of honesty.” (Disapperance, 111)   This is the point Mohler returns to time and time again in this last chapter of Atheism Remix.  He concludes with this sobering statement:  “The New Atheists are certainly right about one very important thing–it’s atheism or biblical theism.  There is nothing in between.” (108)

Atheism Remix is an important read for pastors because the books being distributed by Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens are front and center on bookshelves across our country.  Mohler points out their books have spent significant time on the New York Times Best Seller List (43). As pastors, we are going to increasingly face this tidal wave of unbelief.  1 Peter 3:15 ESV tells us to, “always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”  Atheism Remix is a good place to begin preparing that defense.  The enemy we face is always ready.  The New Atheists are prepared to give a defense for their lack of hope.  Al Mohler has laid out for us their battle plans and in so doing leaves us no excuse to have our defenses down.

“Authentic expository preaching takes the presentation of the Word of God as its central aim. The purpose of the preacher is to read the text, interpret the text, explain the text, and apply the text. Thus, the text drives the sermon from beginning to end.”

R. Albert Mohler, Jr. The Disappearance of God: Dangerous Beliefs in the New Spiritual Blindness (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2009), 194.

“Reflecting poetically on the urgency and centrality of preaching, the Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter once remarked, ‘I Preach’d, as never sure to Preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.’ With vivid expression and a sense of gospel gravity, Baxter understood that preaching is literally a life-or-death affair. Eternity hangs in the balance as the preacher proclaims the Word.”

-R. Albert Mohler, Jr. The Disappearance of God: Dangerous Beliefs in the New Spiritual Blindness (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2009), 190.

In his most recent book, The Disappearance of God: Dangerous Beliefs in the New Spiritual Openess, Albert Mohler, devotes two chapters about defending the doctrine of hell in today’s culture. He closes chapter five, “Hell Under Fire, Part 1,” with this:

“Our responsibility is to present the truth of the Christian faith with boldness, clarity, and courage–and defending the biblical doctrine in these times will require all three of these virtues. Hell is an assured reality, just as it is presented so clearly in the Bible. To run from this truth, to reduce the sting of sin and the threat of hell, is to pervert the gospel and to feed on lies. Hell is not up for a vote or open for revision. Will we surrender this truth to modern skeptics?”

(R. Albert Mohler, Jr. The Disappearance of God: Dangerous Beliefs in the New Spiritual Blindness. Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2009, 38.)