One thing I
have watched for years in American Christianity but could never put my finger
on is the prevalence of unbelief.
By that, I
mean that God has told us all sorts of things in His inerrant, infallible,
verbally-inspired Word (and yes, that means I have already lost some of you
academics), and multitudes of professed Christians: (A) Do not believe that God
actually said a given thing, whether by denying the inerrancy of Scripture or forcing
a prefabricated theology into the text; or (B) believing that God indeed said
it, but that they are (inexplicably and inconsequentially) excused from
believing and living accordingly.
One would think
in a nation where the English Bible is shamefully available that such unvarnished
stupidity would be rare, that it would be the hallmark of only the truly
Biblically illiterate, or blatantly obvious apostates.
However,
self-and-oft-proclaimed evangelicals are more than capable of such arrogant,
autonomous disregard for the Holy Text. To wit, I offer a non-exhaustive,
representative list:
God
says that He created
the world in six literal, twenty-four hour days (Genesis 1-2; cf. Exodus 20:11,
31:17), but believing that would make me look like a
fundamentalist/what about all of the scholarship that disagrees/I’ll look like
a cult member/why does the universe look so old/a literal reading of Genesis
doesn’t matter.
God
says speaking in
tongues is the ability to give inerrant revelation in unlearned, actual,
identifiable human dialects, and that Holy-Spirit given tongues must only be exercised
one at a time and must always be accompanied by translation (Acts 2; cf. 1 Corinthians
12:10, 14:21-22, 27-28), but maybe there’s another gift of
tongues/private prayer languages don’t have to be interpreted/you’re just
quenching the Spirit through unbelief!/Paul talks about tongues of angels/I know I’ve spoken in tongues because I’ve experienced
it/insert some other claim to exercise a gift of the Holy Spirit which allows
it to look absolutely nothing like anything the New Testament describes,
despite the Holy Spirit inspiring the very verses it contradicts.
God
says He unconditionally
elected a vast number of souls to salvation from all eternity,
apart from any foreseen faith or anything outside His own will (Acts 13:48;
Romans 9; Ephesians 1:4, 11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13), but what about free
will/that’s so unfair/I don’t know that God/that stifles evangelism/it doesn’t
really matter because it’s just a big mystery.
God
says everything Paul
writes is Scripture and a command of the Lord (2 Peter 3:15-16; 1 Corinthians
14:37; cf. John 16:12-15; 2 Peter 3:2), but the red letters are the only really
important ones/Paul was wrong/insert some
other claim that totally invalidates the reality of Paul’s apostolic authority
and verbally-inspired writings, and Jesus’ authorization of both.
God
says the instrument of
the believer’s justification, not its ground or cause, is repentant faith alone
apart from any works and that this is the dividing line between a true and
false gospel (Romans 3-4, Luke 18:9-14), but what about James/that’s antinomianism/that
leads to false security and carnality/insert some other rationalization which
spits on Jesus’ plain words here.
God
says an integral
part of saving faith is surrender to the sovereign and comprehensive Lordship
of Jesus; salvation necessitates turning away from sin and unbelief to turn
toward a humble, loving, and submissive devotion to and complete dependence on
the Lord Jesus alone for salvation; that
there is no distinction between a Christian and a disciple; and that genuine Christians
must and will persevere in personal faith and holy living until they meet the
Lord in Heaven as the holiness without which no one will see the Lord; and that
as such this is another dividing line between a true and false gospel (Matthew
28:18, Colossians 1:21-22; John 8:31-32; Romans 10:13, 11:22; ) but
that’s for a different dispensation/that’s adding works to salvation/submission
is adding something to saving faith/Christians can be carnal/the Bible never
says Christians will persevere/the fruit might not be visible to anyone
else/GRACE!!!!!/ insert some other example of stubbornly poor exegesis and bad
theology here.
God
says women are not
supposed to be pastors (1 Timothy 2:11-14, 3:1-2), but that’s just
cultural/Paul didn’t really write those letters/Paul was wrong/that’s
misogynistic and evil/what about women who have a calling/the wider culture
will think we’re insane.
God
says genuine
masculinity has nothing to do with bravado, an obsession with sports, a
rejection of emotional intimacy and physical affection, and lack of verbal
communication but with reflecting Christlikeness (Galatians 5:20-22) and which
expressly includes tenderness, vulnerability, intimacy and passion (Acts
20:37-38; 1 Corinthians 11:1; Matthew 11:28; Philippians 1:7), but
guys shouldn’t say they miss each other/it’s weird for guys to hug/what will my
wife think/what will my pastor think/insert some American and non-Biblical view
of masculinity here, often without even a token attempt to support such from
Scripture.
God
says that love normatively
includes deep emotions and a profound heart attachment (Romans 12:10;
Philippians 1:7-8; 1 Peter 1:22; 2 Peter 1:7; cf. the negative example in
Jeremiah 8:2), but love isn’t an emotion/love is an act of the will to do good
things for someone/God would never command emotions/God doesn’t care about how
I feel/insert some banal stupidity about having to love other Christians but
not like them.
God
says that love
includes verbal and physical affection, devotion, emotional yearning and
intimacy, and sacrificial commitment despite the messiness of relationships
(Romans 12:10; 2 Corinthians 6:11-13, 7:2; Galatians 4:19; Philippians 2:25-26,
4:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8, 17-20, 3:10-13; Titus 3:15) but I’m exempt because
I’m a man/the Bible doesn’t really speak to relationships/that’s inconvenient
and messy/that’s for a different level of relationship/I’m not called to that/that isn’t the way I show
love/what will my wife or husband think/that violates my boundaries.
God
says the Bible is
sufficient to meet all the believer’s spiritual needs and contains everything
we need for life and godliness (Acts 20:32; 2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16-17) and
that we are complete in Christ (Colossians 2:9) with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3) and the pathway to
fullness of blessing and joy is believing obedience to the revealed Word of God
(John 15:5-11, 16:12-14, 23-24, 17:17; 1 Peter 3:8-13) but the Bible isn’t
really enough/psychology speaks to the mind and the Bible speaks to the
soul/biblical counseling is simplistic/the means of grace aren’t enough/how can
you help people with mental illnesses?
God
says rejection of
another believer or even holding them at arms’ length is sin and rooted in
selfishness (Romans 15:7; Philippians 2:3-4), but I have to have my
boundaries/I’m doing it out of love for them/I have a right to what I want/those
verses don’t apply to this relationship.
God
says that His
inerrant Word is to be the standard and control for everything we think, say,
believe, feel, and do (Jeremiah 8:8-9; Psalm 119:118, 128,142, 150-151, 160; 1
Timothy 6:3; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Titus 2:15; Matthew 5:18; cf. 2 Chronicles
20:6; Matthew 28:18), and thus that we are supposed to test everything
including our perceptions and assumptions by His Word or else have a false and
distorted view of reality, but the Bible isn’t sufficient/there
are grey areas/I don’t agree with your interpretation/insert some arrogant
rationalization by appealing to some contrary authority while still claiming to
believe in Biblical authority.
And finally:
God
says to respond to
His Word with anything other than comprehensive, heartfelt, believing obedience
and submission is to respond with a stiff neck and the height of arrogance
(Psalm 119:21, 85; cf. Proverbs 16:5), but God wants a broad perspective/we
have to hold our positions with humility and not dogmatism/there is so much we
don’t know/humans are finite and see through a glass darkly/there just has to
be a center of core truths and then nothing else matters/insert some story that
smugly lambasts those bigoted and small-minded fundamentalists, ironically
proving my point.
God
says to dither or be
ambivalent or apathetic towards any of His Word, once understood, is to disobey
and disbelieve Him and thus be chastened accordingly (e.g., note Jeremiah’s
example in Jeremiah 13:1-2; cf. Psalm 119:60, 128, 158), but I don’t agree with
your interpretation/where is grace in that?/that’s the attitude of someone who
confines God to a book/insert some rationalization that presupposes God is
perfectly okay with Christians waiting to believingly obey Him until it is not sacrificial
or they feel like it.
As a graduate
of a professedly evangelical undergraduate institution, I wish I could say being
surrounded by educated professing Christians all day meant I never heard these kinds of flimsy dodges,
rationalizations, and attempts at intellectual autonomy.
Alas, no.
Many of the above responses to these Biblical claims are ones I
actually heard from fellow students and even faculty (especially faculty, who were often the worst culprits), either to
these or similar statements. Such is the beauty of rationalizing away our responsibility
to obey Jesus. Most of our excuses work on more than one uncongenial command.
The problem
underlying all of these excuses is simple. Each categorically, silently presupposes that the
Christian life is a process of negotiation, and that individual Christians have a note
from God which excuse them (but only them) from having to do or believe all
sorts of things they don’t like. How such a note can be from the Lord yet
blatantly contradict His Word -- and how professed believers can seriously think
the Christian life is a democracy, not a master-slave relationship -- is rather
conveniently not even considered.
Also, notice not
one objection intelligently and cogently deals with the Biblical assertion. It
merely presupposes that the Biblical assertion is wrong because it crosses the
objector’s will, and an alternative course, consisting of mere gainsaying and rationalization
of disobedience, is chosen.
I find all of
this quite sad.
We live in an
evangelical culture where unbelief and autonomy are so profoundly entrenched that
anyone who dares to stand against it on the authority of the inerrant written
Word alone is perceived as a threat, as an intruder, as opposition that mist be
quelled and dealt with, often with the fervor of people who think their sin is really what God wants (with mangled
Bible verses to prove it).
There are only two ways to live: God's way, or our own. Knowing and following His way comes from an intimate and submissive relationship with His precious Word in all areas of life and leads to salvation, fullness, and blessing. Anything contrary to that, then, is our Own way" -- our default, which dishonors Him and exalts self, and leads to damnation, emptiness, and cursing (Numbers 15:39; Psalm 73:27, 119:128, 130; Proverbs 2:13, 3:32, 11:3, 20; 13:13, 14:2, 15:10, 16:20, 21:8, 1 Timothy 6:3; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; cf. Proverbs 16:18). It is from our own way that we were delivered (Isaiah 53:6) so that we might come under God's power and kingdom (Acts 26:18, Colossians 1:13), which is decisively opposed to the current world system of unbelief and autonomy (John 18:36).
As
Christians, we profess to have made a fundamental, foundational, life-altering commitment
to the authority of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:3). This authority is
mediated to us through His Word because the Word is how God speaks to His
people. As such, any person who rejects the right of Christ to rule over him en toto is clearly not a believer,
whatever he might claim.
However,
numerous professed Christians reject the right of Christ to rule over them in
specific areas of theology or practice -- and such is considered a mark of noble
spiritual maturity. Of not being legalistic and narrow-minded and restrictive.
We’re free in Christ! Grace! Mercy! We don’t want to be angry fundamentalists!
And so on. They never actually deal with the Text. They simply assume its obvious
interpretation is wrong because such would cost them, entail repentance and humility
and submission and death to self, exchanging their will and way of thinking for
that of God’s, and allowing Him to settle in ever more comprehensively as the sovereign
Lord of every part of their lives…and all of that is just too messy and
difficult and painful and hard.
Which is the
nuanced, dishonest, and polite way of saying, “I just don’t really care about obeying Jesus; I will fight anyone
who has the gall to hold me accountable to my professed embracing of the Bible
and the lordship of Jesus; and His commands don’t really apply to me because I’m
really the one in control.”
This means it
is also the nuanced, dishonest, and polite way of pushing Jesus off of the
throne of your heart and life and settling down upon it yourself, scepter and
crown firmly in place.
