Dr. Mike Jones

Dr. Mike, Will Those Christians Who Use Profanity and Crude Language Make Us More Relevant in Reaching Our Culture?

[Excellent question!] Former renown journalist, atheist, and now Christian apologists Lee Strobel, who has written best-selling books, most notably, “The Case for Christ,” and “The Case for Faith,” has built his career around relentlessly seeking the truth!

And through careful investigations, he was surprised to conclude, “By my nature, how God wired me up, I tend to be a person skeptical of things; so I think, in my case, God use the evidence for the faith to open my eyes to the truth of who He is.” Lee concluded that, God is truly faithful, holy, and He transformed hearts – from hearts of stone to hearts of Flesh.

The reason that I’m singling out Pastor Strobel, is because of his tenacity for truth. His love for the writings of the Apostle Paul as a ‘stickler’ of the Word; and one thing the Apostle emphasized was that Christians are to engage in the world, according to 1st Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.”

Apostle Paul was saying, I know what you are going through with the different aspects of life. I’ve been there! He’s not talking about cases and things criminal and sinful; nor contrary to moral law. He is saying, my speech was seasoned with God’s grace; and when I spoke (to Jews and Gentiles), about the saving grace of the Gospel, which leads to Salvation … it was that I might gain some.

Nowhere in sacred Scripture do we see nor hear of God’s people engage in our culture with profanity and crude language; and yet, week-in and week-out, we see celebrities who invoked the name of Christ in their interviews, as though, they have a relationship with him, but, when in roles, they swear and curse the same as those, who have never professed Christ.

A well-known Pastor in the Seattle Washington area was voted out of office by his governing Presbyter, because he constantly use profanity to explain Scriptures to the congregation. I’ve been in automobiles, riding with Christians when their Christian friends called them on their car phones, and halfway into the conversation, you could hear curse words, and you could tell it was part of their normal conversation, when explaining events or situations, that ‘irked’ them. On the other hand, I’ve been in serious conversations with those who don’t profess Christ as Lord, and were livid about something they saw or heard, and yet, they are very apologetic after saying a few, what society has deemed, ‘BAD’ words.

Last but not least, our senior political leaders, who are surrounded by a council of religious advisors use profanity and lie on a consistent bases, and we come to accept it as ‘Alternative Truth’. Yet, in the past, this type of  behavior would have caused an uproar, and a Moral Majority would have deemed the person “A pervert in our society.”

Pastors caught in infidelity, and on Sunday mornings, they are still preaching from their pulpits, and when members of their congregation is questioned about alleged misconduct, they are heard saying, “He’s not doing anything differently than other pastors have been caught doing, in the past.”

One noted theologians sum it up best, when he said, “When becoming like the world in order to save the world, we lose the very thing we were saving the world from.” Simply put, we have shifted the trust in the power of God and His Holiness to trusting in the power of our own cleverness. Therefore, we cannot pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, here on earth, as it is in heaven.”

In conclusion, the most that we can say is this: those who are Christians and practice such a thing as using profanity and vulgar language, aren’t touching nor changing the hearts of SINNERS, but demonstrating that they actually enjoy using that language and enjoy being a part of this world system. And in some recently stated incidents that I reported in a couple of previous Q&A session, it seems as if the world is having an adverse effect on the church: noted gospel artists teaming up with a secular artist, and his album becomes #1 on the Gospel Billboard Chart; and a large church in San Francisco conducted a service “Beyoncé and the Hebrew Bible.” “Worshippers at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco had a spiritual experience Wednesday night — but instead of hymns, the choir sang Beyoncé.” And The ‘Gospel Of Inclusion … EVERYONE will eventually be SAVED’ is still popular [today]! Apostle Paul who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament and who said whatever I say in Scripture is because I have the Spirit of God in Me, wrote this in Ephesians 5:3-4, “Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes, these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.”