"Strange New World" By Carl Trueman

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. I'm sure a lot of folks that are listening or reading this episode of the podcast are familiar with Carl Trueman's book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self which created quite a stir. Rightfully so, but actually he has a new volume out called Strange New World which I think is a distillation of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self . I haven't read it yet but it has a lot of the more complex ideas of the original book. And you're reading Strange New World and want to share some thoughts with us.

Mark Prater:

I am. I'm just about done reading Strange New World and you're right, it is a reduction, a shorter version of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. I wanted to mention it on the podcast, because I want to encourage especially our pastors, and anyone else listening or reading this podcast to read this book because I think it is very helpful for pastors and it can be very helpful for members of our churches as well, in understanding how we pastor and how we preach, but how we actually reach the lost with the gospel. And it's important to track the history, that Truman tracks so well, the history of the sexualization of psychology. And then the politicizing of sex, sexualization, is really what he talks about.

And through all of that, what has emerged over time and I think we're seeing very clearly in the culture is an expressive individualism he mentions in the book. He calls it the modern self and says we're dealing with the modern self in this strange new world. And it's a strange new world because the modern self does not map onto biblical anthropology. This is what he says: “The modern self assumes the authority of inner feelings and sees authenticity as defined by the ability to give social expression to the same. The modern self also assumes that society at large will recognize and affirm this behavior because "self" is defined by what it is, what is called expressive individualism”. And then he just says this in short; “the modern self is one where authenticity is achieved by acting outwardly in accordance with one's inner feelings”.

So you can see what really is authoritative in that definition is how one feels about one's self, how one feels about their sexual identity, even about one's self. And to give expression to that is one way the modern self works itself out in our culture today. So it's really that point that I think it's important for us to understand as pastors in terms of how we preach and how we pastor. We don't compromise truth, but some of the people sitting in our churches are sort of relating to the world and they've embraced that worldview. And for members, we're encountering unbelievers that have also embraced that worldview. And so there's sort of a collision; a little bit of a biblical worldview and a worldview of the modern self. And that's just one of the reasons I think it's such a good book to read.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, that sounds excellent. By way of reminder, as well, thankfully, we've been served well over the past couple years and talking about these issues, including Josh Blount's breakout session Our Citizenship is in Heaven: Christ's Church and Cultural Pressures, that outline is actually on the sgcpastors.com website. For the audio, go to the Sovereign Grace website under Events, Pastors Conference 2021. If you haven't heard that one, I encourage you to give it a listen.

As you read these things and you think about them, how do you think about us in our churches, pastors in Sovereign Grace churches, how we interact with these things, how we apply these kinds of cultural observations to the way that we pastor and care for folks, and with evangelism?

Mark Prater:

Yeah. Great question. In fact, I'm so glad you mentioned Josh's breakout session. It's outstanding. He did that breakout session after The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self had already been published. I don't believe at that time, Strange New World had been published yet. So some of the themes I'm talking about here in this short podcast will actually be helped by even more in Josh's breakout session that you mentioned, Ben. So thanks so much for mentioning that. I think what we have to be aware of in terms of reaching out to people and doing evangelism or pastoring folks who are either new to the church or maybe members of our churches that are being influenced by this, by our culture and the worldview of modern self, it really gets at identity. Not only identity in terms of gender identity that we're seeing the world wrestle with, but also sexual orientation as well. And I thought Trueman had a very good observation when he says when the Christian objects to homosexuality we do that because that's what scripture teaches, obviously.

We believe that it is biblically wrong for men to have sex with men, women to have sex with women. So when we object to homosexuality, a person may think that we are objecting to a set of sexual desires or sexual practices, but the gay man sees these desires as part of who he is in his very essence. The old Chestnut of "love the sinner and hate the sin" simply does not work in a world where the sin is the identity of the sinner. “And the two cannot be separated even at a conceptual level in a time when the normative notion of self-hood is psychological, then to hate the sin is to hate the sinner. Christians who fail to note this shift are going to find themselves very confused by the incomprehension of, and indeed the easy offense taken by the world around it”.

I thought that's just really helpfully said. We really have to think through then, how do we talk to people who are in a gay lifestyle? How do we share the gospel with them? It's really, really important, recognizing that what we view as their sin is actually also their identity. And so that really takes careful thought of what we have to do and that sort of leaves us thinking that sounds a little bit hopeless. What do we do as the church? I think we have great hope. We have great hope, not only in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have great hope in, I think, the church being the church and strikingly different than the culture that is around us as we continue to just embrace God's word.

This is one of the things that Trueman says: "the church protests the wider culture by offering a true vision of what it means to be a human being made in the image of God." And that's so well said because some of the issues that people are wrestling with do get to a biblical anthropology who God has made you as a man or as a woman. And that is to be celebrated. Yes, that is to be lifted up as a gift from God. And then our sexuality in terms of you know, sex between one man and one woman within the gift of marriage is something that God has designed for our good, so a prohibition regarding adultery or prohibition regarding a gay lifestyle, those prohibitions are meant to protect something that is very good.

And when we follow scripture, we'll be enjoyed and will provide a stark contrast to the world around this. So we have to keep preaching what we believe the Bible teaches. And we have to preach Christ because all of us fail to meet the Bible's demands. And all of us are are sinners who are in need of grace. So as Christians, we're not better than those who are wrestling with gender identity. We're not better than those who may be living a gay lifestyle. We all need the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I think that posture and that tone, which is gonna be very important for us, ultimately will help win the day, at least get a hearing for the gospel itself.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yeah, that's excellent, Mark. And as I think about our family of churches and grateful that we have churches that are pastored by men who combine the courage to speak God's word plainly, but also have the care and compassion to do it with love and heart for those who need Jesus. So thanks for the book recommendation. There's also a study guide for Strange New World that would be helpful to guys. I know I'll be picking it up.

Mark Prater:

There is. And he actually has study questions in Strange New World after each of the chapters as well, just to mention that.

Benjamin Kreps:

Excellent. Well, thanks, Mark. And thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here next week. Lord, Willing. Bye for now.