Criswell Theological Review 2.1 (1987) 39-61
[Copyright © 1987 by
digitally prepared for use at
Gordon and
THE SUBTLE CRISES
OF SECULARISM: PREACHING
THE BURDEN OF
C. RICHARD WELLS
The path
from the "then" of biblical exegesis to the "now" of
biblical
preaching always proceeds between borders. On one side
are the
times, on the other, timeless principles. The contemporary
preacher must
negotiate the path so as to bring the truly universal
teaching of
Scripture to bear on conditions similar in some significant
ways to
those addressed in Scripture. The path is strewn with debris
from
earlier (and sometimes careless) travellers. And we
must be sure
we
actually remain on the path, lest we find ourselves digressing along
an
overgrown trail that leads to a place where nobody lives.
Our plan for this article is to point out some of the significant
landmarks that
lie on the path from the prophet Malachi to a genera-
tion approaching the last decade of a
phenomenal century. We will
work in
two ways. First, we will attempt to mark the path in broad
outline. We
will suggest: (a) parallels between the conditions of Mala-
chi's age
and those of our own; and (b) major theological themes
addressed to
Malachi's audience; and, by application, to us. Second,
we will
attempt to develop a preaching program from Malachi.
I. A Practical Theology of Malachi
Malachi and the Malaise of
Most scholars agree that Malachi was written sometime during
the last
half of the 5th century B.C. The reader will find extensive
introductory material elsewhere in this Review. The critical point here
is that
Malachi's prophecy appears within a strategic nexus of social
and religious
realities.
40 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
The Social Realities. Just as there were three deportations to
with a
group of exiles in 536 B.C. After some delay (cf. Haggai and
Zechariah),
the people completed the
458 B.C.,
Ezra the Scribe returned with a second group, and labored to
restore the
knowledge of the Law (Ezra
Nehemiah
came with a third group. Under his twelve-year governor-
ship, the
walls of
inaugurated (Neh 5:1-13; 13:7-27). If we assume that Malachi dates
from a
period following Nehemiah's brief return to
then the
setting for his ministry is about one century after the end of
the
Exile.
During this century of gradual return to the land, several impor-
tant changes occurred in the political
environment of
balance of
power in the
ward
toward
in
August, 490 B.C. Ten years later they defeated the Spartans at
Thermophylae and briefly occupied
watched his
navy defeated at
point on,
the Persian government became less and less efficient, and
more and
more corrupt and weak, an unnerving experience for
Second, the
people who filled the void left by the deportations
continually
frustrated the returning exiles. They evidently taxed the
Jews (Neh 5:4), a burden that lay on top of that imposed by
itself.
Some had to borrow money just to buy food and pay taxes
(Neh 5:14-15). These neighbors accused them to the central
govern-
ment of
so that
it had to be done in shifts, with half the men working and half
standing
guard (Neh
The pragmatic realities which awaited the exiles may have proved
more
distressing than the political. The situation in
bleak. The
extensive ruins (Neh
project
compared to those of the more glorious past (Ezra
2:3), diminished whatever initial enthusiasm may have existed.
And
the
prospects for a better life seemed no better now. Small wonder
that few
in
accustomed to
life there, many knew no other life, and some had
prospered.
The Religious Realities. The greatest difficulty for
however, in
what the Exile and subsequent events did to her identity.
The
shattering experience of the Exile raised many questions about
Wells: THE SUBTLE CRISES OF SECULARISM 41
in a
new way. In the Exile,
in the
face of catastrophe. Now she wondered about the presence of
God in the
face of life!
Furthermore, the Exile had the advantage of being a trauma.
Traumata
summon the reserves of the human spirit. They tend to
purify, to
strengthen, even to ennoble. The post-Exile was not trauma;
but, to
use the popular description of
aise." As G. A. Smith put it, the Jews of
Malachi's age were "denied
the
stimulus, the purgation, the glory of a great persecution." Instead,
they were
"severely left to themselves and to the petty hostilities of
their
neighbors."1
Theologically and pragmatically, these were hard realities. After
all, the
Jews had returned. They had returned to Yahweh from their
idols.
They had returned to
to
build the
returned to
re-institute the true worship of the true God. It is in this
context of
"obedience" that the crisis of God's presence develops.
Once again,
Smith is helpful:
[The Jews] entered the period, it is true, with some sense of
their
distinction. In exile they had suffered God's anger,
and had been purged
by it. But out of discipline often springs pride. . . . The tide of
hope,
which rose to flood with [the completion of the
away, and left God's people struggling, like any ordinary tribe of
peas-
ants, with bad seasons and the cruelty of their envious neighbors.
Their
pride was set on edge. . . . 2
This
generation had done the "right things," but God had not re-
ponded in kind.
Malachi and the Crisis in
T. V. Moore pointed out in the last century that whereas
"before
the
captivity the besetting sins of the Jews were idolatry and supersti-
tion," after the Exile "they were
prone to the other extremes of
practical
atheism and Epicureanism."3
tinctiveness. Out of disappointment and difficulty,
she had lost any
sense of
the nearness, the power, the glory, the relevance of God. The
irony is
that she had thus become essentially pagan--"secularized,"
1 G.
A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets (2 vols;
Doran, n.d.) 2.342.
2
Ibid., 2.342-43.
3 T.
V. Moore, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (1856,
reprinted;
of
Truth, 1979) 350.
42 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
we
might say. In her complaint that her faith did not get her any
advantages, she
abdicated her faith. She joined secular culture, then
complained that
God did not care! R. Braun puts it finely: "through
[Malachi]
God spoke his word to a people sadly disappointed with
the
course of events in their time and sorely tempted to give up their
religion as
an irrelevant relic from the past."4
The Subtle Crisis of Secularism. Malachi's opening word re-
flects the extraordinary seriousness of this
condition.
den")
is rare in the prophets: "It never occurs in the title except when
it is
evidently grave and full of weight and labor."5 The
"burden"
belongs to
through
Malachi" (1:1). The prophet lays before
crisis6 which involves at least three elements.
First, it constitutes a subtle accomodation
to the prevailing cul-
ture. G. Campbell Morgan points out in his
fine little devotional
commentary that
the character of the people was bound up in their
continued
defense "wherein?" "Wherein hast Thou loved us," they
asked
(1:2), or "despised Thy name" (1:6) and so forth (1:7;
3:8;
They have been boasting themselves in their knowledge of truth,
re-
sponding to that knowledge mechanically,
technically; . . . and,
when the
prophet tells them what God thinks of them they,
with astonishment and
impertinence, look into his face and say, "We
don't see this at all!"7
Malachi is a prophet for our age. Certainly Christians suffer
terrible
persecution in many parts of the world. But in most of
tend to
accept dominant cultural values uncritically. Their commit-
ments frequently amount to little more than
window dressing. Con-
temporary
artist Steve Taylor puts this form of Christianity in the
mouth of
his "Christian" politician who proudly declares:
4 R.
Braun, "Malachi-A Catechism for Times of Disappointment," Currents
in
Theology and
5 Thus
Jerome on Hab 1:1. Cited in C. F. Keil,
The Twelve Minor Prophets
(2 vols.; 1868, reprinted; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1977) 2.3. All Scripture quotations
are NIV
unless otherwise indicated.
6 J.
Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (
1972) 162.
7 G.
Campbell Morgan, Malachi's Message for Today (reprinted;
Baker, 1972)
30-31.
Wells: THE SUBTLE CRISES OF SECULARISM 43
I'm devout, I'm sincere, and I'm proud to say,
That it's had exactly no effect on who I am today!8
D. R. Davies has put it more strongly. The sin of our age he
is the
enthronement of Man at the centre of life, being and
thought.9 Modern culture seems (quite unconsciously)
to assume that
it is
within modern man's capacity to erect what is, in effect, a
Christian civilization on a basis of secular belief."10 The real tragedy,
however, is
that
Church members are only a degree less secularized in their
conscious-
ness than the public that is completely divorced from the Church.
Theoretical appreciation of belief in another world is, of course,
stronger
in the Church than in the world. But it is not by any means a
dynamic
disturbance in the life of the believer.11
The religion
of
danger is
universal.
The Relation between Faith and Life. Second, the crisis in
Malachi
involves the relation that exists between true faith and real
life. It
is a crisis of relevance, that is, of the role God plays in the task
of
living. Malachi indicts
lifestyles
betray a cozy belief that what one did with God on the
Sabbath and
what did Sunday through Friday had very little to do
with each
other.
Christian psychologist Newton Maloney observes that this sort of
belief
permeates contemporary society. He cites the influential "role"
theory of
T. R. Sabin who hypothesizes that each individual
moves in
five
different environments, which together constitute a pattern of
roles
leading to identity.12 The five environments are: (1) physical
(including the body and natural environment); (2) situational
(one's
cultural
life, including work, play and the like); (3) interpersonal (the
people with
whom one interacts); (4) idealistic (one's goals, ambi-
tions, values and so forth); and (5)
transcendental (one's experience
8
9 D.R.
Davies, The Sin of Our Age (New York:
Macmillan, 1947) 23.
10 Ibid
12.5
11 Ibid.,61.
12 T.
R. Sabin, "A Role Theory Perspective for
Community Psychology: The
of
Social Identity," Community Psychology and Mental Health (ed. D.
Adel-
son and
B. L. Kalis;
44 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
of or
with God, or the supernatural). Maloney illustrates the
this way:
Identity
a combination of one's status in all life roles
Role
thoughts, words, feelings, and actions leading
Physical Situational Interpersonal Ideal
Transcendental13
Maloney goes
on to point out that while Sabin is right to include
God
in
human identity, he is wrong to make God just one more among
equals.14
Malachi would emphatically agree. God will not be one among
equals. One
may live as though God were irrelevant, but God is still
relevant!
Disaster follows the relegation of God to the periphery of
life. The
priests may forsake the covenant of Levi, perhaps thinking
they will
be more in tune with the times (2:7-8), but it explodes
before
their eyes: "So I have caused you to be despised and humili-
ated before all the people"(2:9). And
those who accept the pagan
view of
marriage and sexuality uncritically (
able
sorrows (
("so
guard yourself in your spirit,"
Perhaps we may borrow again from Davies. He points to three
remarkable
paradoxes that have ensued from the coronation of man:
(1) The
"abolition of other-worldliness" has failed to produce a better
world here
and now; (2) The "dissolution of the spirit" of man has
failed to
produce a better knowledge of humanity; and (3) The
anthropocentric faith has actually resulted in "the degradation of the
human
person."15 Accomodation is a subtle
crisis, but a real one. In
trying to
be relevant to culture, we make God irrelevant. But God will
never be
irrelevant. He is eternally contemporary.
13 H. N.
Maloney, "Introduction," Wholeness and Holiness (ed. H. N.
Maloney;
14 Ibid., 25.
15
Davies, Sin, 58-123.
Wells: THE SUBTLE CRISES OF SECULARISM 45
The Meaning and Value of Covenant. Third, the crisis in Mala-
chi
centers on the meaning and value of covenant. The word for
"covenant" (berit)
occurs six times in the prophecy (2:4; 2:5; 2:8;
homiletical significance.
It is of course well-established that various legal, contractual
agreements were
known in the ancient world, and that many of the
essential
features of these covenants appear in various biblical con-
texts.17 However, the biblical covenant is not merely a legal device. In
G. Quell's words, it "is a legal transaction for which
there is no
analogy in
the circle of experience"18 precisely because it is not,
strictly
speaking, legal. It is personal and relational, as well as regula-
tive, judicial, normative, and obligatory.
Quell seems to struggle put-
ting its
exact character into words. He calls it "a regulated form of a
fellowship
between God and man or man and God" (and, at times,
man and
man as well).19 He also describes it as "a medium in man's
relation to
God which is designed to promote reflection"20
These and similar definitions yield three distinctive features of
berit.
First, covenant is a personal relationship: "The Presence of
YHVH is
built into the structure" of covenant.21 Second, the covenant
is a
committed relationship. This explains why berit
and hesed ("loyal
love