Idly scouring the internet as I sometimes do, I came across an article entitled 50 NES Quotes You Should Know. I’m no gamer and have no emotional connection to the games of olde like most in gamer culture, but I (correctly) assumed most of the quotes would be funny, and was also keen on being able to make references to old school video games besides “Do a barrel roll!” and “Abort/Retry/Fail?”. And while the article was a success in that regard, the main revelation was gleaned from an offhand comment beneath the fourth page of the article:

Christianity says that people are inherently good and that deep down we all want to do the right thing. Video games prove the opposite is true.

This is not a nitpicky point. This is not a quaint theological issue. This is, quite literally, the first point in the Gospel message: people are inherently not good (Romans 3:10, Isaiah 64:6, 1 John 1:8, Isaiah 53:6). This is the very reason we need a savior (Hebrews 9:22, 1 Peter 3:18, Isaiah 53:5) – because we are unable in our own strength to bridge the gap of sin between ourselves and God – even to make motion in that direction (Romans 3:23, Romans 3:11). It is the foundation and purpose of the entire Christian faith that people are totally, though not irreparably, depraved.

This is the difference between Christianity and generic religion. This is the distinguishing feature that must be emphasized above all the self-help masquerading as trite religion, and the failure to communicate this point is the reason first of all that Liberal Protestantism is virtually extinct, and furthermore the reason for the continuing decline in the quality of what now passes in the Church: it makes itself irrelevant without this point. People see Christianity as just another self-help mechanism, and no one is telling them any differently – some false teachers have even exacerbated the problem by broadcasting from within that Christianity is about self-help (you may have culled from previous articles my scarcely concealed contempt for Mr. Osteen).

The Church loves to talk about “cultural relevance” – engaging the culture where it’s at. Unfortunately this misguided attempt at relevance just makes it indistinguishable from all the other voices. The Church must preach not only Jesus, but why Jesus. Relevance – not only cultural but trans-cultural – requires that we be unmistakably clear on the fundamental issue of depravity.