The Divine-Deli-Cafeteria Religion and the Sufficiency of Scripture

This week Newsweek released a story that shows us how far the American mind has drifted from looking to scripture for answers. As we are quickly closing in on the date for the Sufficiency of Scripture conference in December, I am mindful of the various influences that have banished this kind of thinking from American culture. The compromised church, the fruits of public education, the addiction to age segregation, the collapse of the family in America have created a completely different world than our founding fathers conceived.

Newsweek magazine sums it all up by saying, “We Are All Hindus Now.” (Click HERE to view full article)

Newsweek declares that, “America is not a Christian nation,” even though we were founded by Christians. The magazine says that we now think more like Hindus than Christians. Citing the Rig Veda (Hindu scripture), “Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names.” This means that all paths lead to God whether Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Wicca or otherwise.

The article goes on to say that Americans no longer accept the Christian proposition that Jesus spoke, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” Today 65% embrace the idea that “many religions can lead to eternal life”-including 37% of white evangelicals. America embraces, what Stephen Prothero calls, "the divine-deli-cafeteria religion." He says it is "very much in the spirit of Hinduism.”
Prothero puts his finger on the pulse of American thinking – pragmatism. He says, "It isn't about orthodoxy. It's about whatever works.”

Further, Newsweek reminds us that our views of death and dying are rapidly changing. Whereas we previously believed in the sacredness of body and soul, now more of us believe in reincarnation and cremation. Today, a whopping 24% of Americans believe in reincarnation – up from 6% in 1975.

The author ends the article revealing the real issue that is being attacked – the gospel itself. She quotes Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion at Harvard, saying that all of this rejects the Christian doctrine of the resurrection. This is the fatal flaw and the final blow of the American mentality that rejects scripture as the only guide. It denies the resurrection of Christ, the credence of which all of Hindu thought seeks to destroy.

One element of the importance of the sufficiency of scripture is this: When you abandon it, the gospel is eventually abandoned. This is one of the hard lessons of the seeker sensitive movement turned “emergent.” Now, without scriptural foundation, instead of Christianity, you get the divine Deli "cafeteria religion." To understand how to rebuild the foundations that have been destroyed, come and learn what it means to trust the Word of God as applicable to every area of life at the Sufficiency of Scripture 2009 Conference in Cincinnati this December 10th through 12th. Or, as the NCFIC interns have dubbed it, "S.O.S."