Another “Idol Of The Heart” To Be Mortified: Placing Culture Over Christ

 By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at The Heidelblog:

Published July 29, 2022

Twenty five years ago a famous preacher in NYC made the expression “idols of the heart” ubiquitous. There is another idol of the heart that needs to be added to the list.

If one values winning the culture war over the purity of the gospel, one is an idolater. If one cares more about “saving America” than the “pure preaching of the gospel” (Belgic Confession art. 29) then one is an idolater. The gospel is not “in by baptism, stay in by cooperation with grace.” That is the very corruption of the gospel rejected in the Protestant Reformation. The Westminster Confession brilliantly articulated the Reformation consensus:

Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness, by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.

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