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09:24:08 pm on September 5, 2008 |
Here’s the thing. There are a lot of people out there who will disagree with me on what I am about talk about and those people are not wrong in totality but merely wrong in part and that is the very thing that is dangerous. It’s the partialy right… but tragically wrong that is so common in theology these days. It’s exactly the tool that satan used with his first temptation in the Garden and the temptation of Jesus in the desert. It’s both a twisted and redacted version of God’s word that Satan uses to suit the sinful desire of the heart which he hopes will ultimately benefit his plan for this world of which he is given power for this time. Satan simply likes to give us what our sinful heart desires to achieve his end. And we often fall for it hand and foot.
But at the risk of debasing my point I will agree that I often fall for the tricks of the King of Lies. However, I feel that I have my eyes open in this circumstance and am able to see clearly the tactics of the evil one and his ultimate goal. I will also declare that I have been describe as a stubborn person and have at times participated in arguements that were for arguments sake and were not beneficial to the kingdom. I also assume the supremacy and inerrancy of scripture and the fact that scripture interprets scripture and that it is our only hope for knowing truth. I am also decidedly calvinist and have been known to say in the response to the question, “Are you Calvinist?”, “No, I’m Christian”. Hopefully this gives you some sense of my background for interpreting my opinions below.
Now, to point that is at hand: Should we speak harshly against those who are going against orthodox Christianity or should we instruct gently or not at all those who are heretics because to speak harshly may defame the Christian reputation or worse yet God Himself and perhaps lead astray those who are seekers.
A couple things are at play here and I will try to cover them systematically and in a brief yet comprehensive fashion.
Satan has a decided goal in mind: Chaos, destruction, and death. He seeks to destroy and impede the gospel at all costs. However, we must understand that the devil is not a God but a god. He is not omniscent or omnipresent. Is a created thing and therefore under God. He is an arch angel with 1/3 of the angels as his army, and he’s God’s most glorious creation and it was his glory which lead to his pride and eventually his fall. He is powerful but not all powerful and we have a sword that is more poweful than the king of lies, namely, God’s Word. And unless we use His word against his lies we will fall before the evil one because of the pride we showed in attempting to reason with the devil. Therefore we must approach everything with the Word of God in order to discover how to respond to any question. (I understand that this statement does not sit will with some people(I know because I experience this temptation also) because our heart wants to say and our mind reason that we can discover truth outside of scripture, however this is a huge discussion of its own that I do not have time to go into.) We are, however, able to know his tactics and therefore take defensive and offensive action against them. Go here for more discussion of this topic.
So knowing Satan’s goal and some of his tactics and who he is, how does this affect this discussion? The questions that I propose next are I feel appropriate. Does satan want to distract, discourage, destroy, create chaos about Christianity and Christ by tempting proclaimed Christians into verbal arguments with other proclaimed Christians regarding the truths of scripture and doctrine so as to put one against and one therefore defame Christ and Christianity by a show of disunity? Or Does satan want to distract, discourage, destory, and create chaos by tempting christians into passivity as to allow false doctrines to flourish and pluralism to take hold? For these, I believe, are the questions at hand.
If we hold that satan employs the first tactic then it is understood that he would never promote truth in it’s purest form but would always promote heresy or twisted and redacted scripture, for he loves to masquerade as an angel of light so as to promote a different gospel. So if that stands, it would be heresy against orthodoxy, because satans goal, lest we forget, would be for heresy to win out over orthodoxy so as to lead as many astray as possible with Satan only being on the side of heresy. But if Gods Word is more powerful than satans lies and is the only correct response to twisted scripture why would Satan ever choose a fight with orthodoxy for he would always lose. His best bet would be to convince those who are Christian that their fight with heresy is pointless and fruitless and would only lead to divide in the church or cause defamation and hence scare away seeking people consequently allowing the evil one an unchallenged environment to promote heresy. So I think it is fair to say that Satan would never start a battle with orthodoxy based off of the logic above and would only employ a tactic of seeking to convice orthodox christians into passivity.
However, now we’re left with how to approach the unorthdox proclaimed Christian who teaches heresy. Do we gently or harshly confront? My answer, NO MERCY!
Galatians 1:9, 5:8-12, 1 Timothy 4:15-16, 6:3-5, and the book of Jude.
How should we treat the searching Christian who doesn’t know yet but is desiring to know the truth but maybe confused about what to believe? Gently.
Romans 14:1, 1 Timothy 4:15-16, Jude 1:22
How do we know when to be gentle and when to be harsh? If the heretic we are speaking of or to has decided what they believe, are unteachable and claim to be Christians we should treat them harshly as both to seperate their belief from ours making sure to point out that they are not Christian but also hope that the Spirit would awaken them to their folly through the Jackhammer action of our words. However, they must not be given the opportunity to call themselves Chrisitan when their message is decidedly different from that of the gosple. On the other hand, if the person is questioning but has not decided what to believe we should instruct them gently and pray for their understanding.
The next question that is neccessarirly begged is, “What is orthodoxy?” Those who proclaim their false doctrines believe what they are preaching is orthodoxy and what we’re preaching is heresy. So we must have a way to know who is right. To which I reply. Is their message Jesus centered? Is it in any way more focused on some aspect more than Jesus? Does it minimize the work of Jesus in any way? To answer these questions we must know the scriptures well and the false doctrine in question well. In short it takes work through study and prayer and we should never go at it alone.
Lastly, what do we do with all those verses regarding divide in the church? What do they mean? What are they speaking to? In Short they are speaking to the people in the church who are argueing over secondary issues or basically things that detract from Jesus. (for is to possible to be an orthodox christians but fall into the temptation of putting secondary doctrines above Jesus) We shoud as a church (believers not seekers) seek to be united in our approach to the primary issues and let the secondary issues fall to the side and not let them defame the church or ultimately God and consequently divide us.
I hope this is helpful to all who fear speaking out against heresy, but most of all that it inspires all to educate themselves on the primary issues of the Bible and of God so as to form a solid biblically based orthdoxy.
SOLA DEO GLORIA!
K.B.
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04:18:24 pm on July 2, 2008 |
This post is a must read. It speaks about the issue of evangelism when being a Calvanist and hits the answer square on the head. In fact I have nothing to add to it, so check it out.
K.B.
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06:54:10 pm on June 19, 2008 |
I want to try to communicate this well so bear with me and my rambling. I hope my point comes through.
I feel that any standard of living that we lust for is, or can be, a god. And sometimes we try to force a standard of living on other people. For example Africans or Indians or American Ghettos. We say,
“Let us develop programs for you, let us provide homes for you, let us get you jobs, let us give you money, let us show you how to eat well.”
What makes our answer for their life so right? If all we do is teach the poor how to live like wealthy americans than all we will have ended up doing is creating more wealthy pagans who still will lust for more wealth and less of God. We’ve provided them the riches that they lusted for, but none of the true substance that they need to live, namely Jesus.
Now don’t get me wrong, we should care for the poor, the homeless, the widow but we must not forget EVER that there is a real danger of feeding their lust for more worldly wealth. In other words, I think we need to find how to provide for those people (material things) without spreading the cancer of Americanism in their hearts and minds even more.
What does it subtly say to a person when we give them something nice and new that they couldn’t buy on their own? First of all, they will like it. Second of all, they will like us for giving it to them. Third of all, I feel that it subtly says that we thought that they needed that thing. We thought they needed it so they might think everybody else thinks they need more things like this too. So now they have in their hearts a desire to live up to a certain standard. To lust after more. To try harder to get that next thing. And when they can’t do it (and they will never achieve it), they fail. They beat themselves up. They go to extremes (prostitution, drugs, alcohol) to try to attain it, or they simply give up (suicide) for if money is your god and you don’t have it… what is there to live for?
All this to say… I feel there is a unique way to reach the lustful-american-mind of the poor in america, and I want to find it. I want to provide to the poor, windowed, and homeless in way that makes Jesus known and their bodies nourished, but doesn’t proliferate their desire for more wealth. I know that if they truly KNOW the King Jesus that they will lust for only more of Him, but how can we provide for their current needs while we teach them about Jesus?
Maybe my answer is simply, the Gospel. Maybe it’s as simple as bringing them the good news with a meal and pray that they hear the message. I hope that is the answer, because that is the best one I can come up with.
K.B.
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05:28:26 pm on June 6, 2008 |
I would like to begin this post by saying that the inspiration for it came from here. Give this link a quick look-see.
Secondly, I do not claim to know every pagan/secular person in culture, but I have observed quite a bit and was once a pagan myself and so I will speak with authority regarding my observations, however my observations are in no way exhaustive and may well be wrong in certain aspects. I will claim however that my observations are majoratively true.
Frankly, I’m a bit mad and frustrated. I’m tired of the hypocrisy coming from the world. Why should we be tolerant of lesbians kissing in front of our children? Why should that be a teaching moment and if it was what do you expect us to teach our young child who’s innocence was so casually assaulted? Why should we? After all, you’re being intolerant of our beliefs, morals, and lifestyle? If you’re so tolerant, why can’t you tolerate us? Isn’t that the point of your toleration? To say in essence, “You can believe what you want and do what you want and desire. Who am I to say it’s wrong? I can tolerate your lifestyle.” Can’t you see the hypocrisy in what your saying? It’s your attack on us that is intolerant! What should be said from you who waves the flag of tolerance so faithfully is, “Oh, she has the right to be mad and to get that person thrown out of the game. That’s her belief. More power to her for doing what she thought was right.” Am I wrong in this?
You see, tolerance, when fully fleshed out to its inevitable extreme leads to apathy. Apathy leads to a life devoid of passion and a life without passion and zeal is desperately lonely and hopeless. For what is there to stand up for? Everything is to be tolerated. To each his own. Whatever floats your boat. There’s no mission.
But what I want to point out is that nobody takes tolerance to that level becauseof it’s loneliness and hopelessness. What happens is that those who wave the flag of tolerance make tolerance their passion and mission. It’s their life and they pursue it with a team, for lack of a better term. Ultimately though, they will only tolerate what they are willing to accept or what seems right to them. You will never see, hopefully, somebody standing up for the person who murdered their children declaring that we should have tolerance for his choice. Again I have to say that the scary result of total tolerance is the tolerance of such evil things, I hope that day never comes, but it would be the end result of total tolerance. It’s for that very reason though that the people who wave the flag of tolerance will only do it for the things they deem right. Therefore, tolerance simply becomes their battle cry for the proliferation of their preferences. The reason they do this is because we were created to worship, created to be zealots, and created to have purpose. Whether it’s a passion for baseball, sex, or God, we will worship something. And for a lot of people declaring “tolerance” has become their way of furthering their cause/god by diminishing resistance through the scare tactic of “I don’t want to be perceived as intolerant by anyone.” “I don’t want to be the person who disagrees, because then people might think I’m intolerant.”
The problem that pop culture has with Christians is that we have a book (written by our God) that tells us what’s right and wrong (absolute truth) and we aren’t (or shouldn’t be) afraid to say we disagree with things that our culture has perceived to be tolerable but that our Bible has said is wrong. I will tolerate till I’m blue in the face something that the Bible says I should tolerate. (it is the very word of my GOD! after all) But I will not sacrifice the word of my King for the preferences of my culture. That would be like spitting in the face of my King.
All this to say, I will be patient but not tolerant of the things that I disagree with in our culture. I will live in this world but yet be an alien to it. And ultimately, I will hold out hope for the making-right of our world through the return of my King, namely, Jesus Christ, but until then I swear allegiance to my King and His word.
K.B.
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05:02:44 pm on April 30, 2008 |
I believe that in any good reformation there are going to be things that people disagree about, for if there wasn’t any disagreement there would be no need to reform, hence I’m not against being a polemicist. In order to change we need to face our differences and choose sides. Now, you must understand, that I believe the church for the most part in America has become so perverse that it is no longer recognizable as Christ’s Church, but instead is on the verge of becoming a mere cult to the worship of money, America, self, moralism, and religion; for if you do not understand this then you will see my points as pointless. Because of this abounding heresy found in most American churches division is necessitated and recommended. Take a look as these verses regarding division in the New Testament:
Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. John 9:16 (italics added)
Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Luke 12:51-53 (italics added)
Jesus came at a time when division was necessary. He divided people by those who would believe His Gospel and those who would not. We must not be afraid to divide away from those who have perverted the Gospel.
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Romans 12:9
Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. Romans 16:17-18
Also the book of Jude
We need to act in accordance with the spirit and by the will of God given through the Holy Scriptures to become a holy (seperate) people. This does not mean fortressing our faith and removing ourselves from the world, but rather being distinct and remaining true to the Gospel. That means evangelism among the world (culture grand and small), it means remaining faithful to the truth but being flexible with the presentation. As Mark Driscoll says, “there are some things that remain in the closed hand and some things that remain in the open hand.” (paraphrase) The bible is in the closed hand.
So in the spirit of becoming holy and blameless we must contend ernestly for the Gosple and that means not being afraid to step on heretics toes. We should seek to reform gently those who have wandered from the path of truth, but not be afraid to say their wrong and we don’t want them to associate with us. It’s okay for them to think what they want, but there comes a point when they’ve wandered too far and they’re no longer Christian, they’re something else completely.
K.B.
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05:04:03 pm on April 22, 2008 |
Romans 1:25 “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.”
Wow. I don’t know about you, but that sounds a lot like my life. I often worship God’s creation rather than the one who created it. How weird does it sound to say to a work of art hanging on a wall in a gallery “Awesome! You are so beautiful! I am so glad you decided to look like this because you are amazing!” No! You commend the artist with those accolades. You might comment on his skillful hand, his eye for color, his careful placement of shadow, or his conception and command of that conception.
We must stop living as if the Creator God isn’t in the room and give worship where worship is due.
It really goes deeper than worship though, we not only worship God’s creation but don’t we also take the painting off the wall and change it? And don’t we go really beyond changing it to saying to the artist that what he made was wrong? And don’t we often times go even further and pervert the artist creation to how we want to see it by spitting on it, cutting it, burning it… Don’t we “…invent ways of doing evil…” (Romans 1:30) to God’s amazing creation.
So I say again, we must stop living as if the Creator God isn’t in the room. Lest we forget that we are also His creation.
But we can’t will it can we? For we have been “…given over to our shameful lusts…” (Romans 1:26) There is no hope in us ever being able to give proper worship to our amazing Creator. We are utterly sinful. Our only hope is that our Creator choose to fix us, for how can the created thing become it’s own savior? We must rely on our Creator to choose and to fix us. Romans 9:11-13
“Yes, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad-in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:not by works but by him who calls-she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’
God in His sovereign choice as Creator and through His omnipotence has chosen those in His creation that He will save and those whom He will destroy and as Creator, He is completely justified, for who says to the Artist you can’t destroy that? It’s His to destroy or His to save. Amen!
K.B.
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05:16:11 pm on April 17, 2008 |
So I’ve been reading Romans a lot lately, we all have been, and it dawned on me how much I’ve grown up without Gods Word in my life. Yea I went to church, a fundy church at that, and yea I was in youth group; I did all the things I was supposed to do (sort of). As long as I was the favorite of that current leader that I was under everything else could slide. It was about pleasing him or her and putting on a show. Why? you may ask. (Here’s is where my pondering has lead) Because I didn’t know the gospel! I was taught by my spiritual leaders in my church all of the things that I was supposed to do as a “good christian”. “You shouldn’t lie” or “You shouldn’t lust after women, that’s disgusting” (sometimes they threw a judgment in there too, just to mix it up I guess) Sure, those things are true, but where was the gospel in all this judgement? No where to be found by me. It was all tired moralism. Why wasn’t Romans 2:4 quoted to me,
“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”
Or
Romans 8:28-31
”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
You see, this is the gospel at the heart, Jesus died for us so that we could be justified and glorfied and changed! If this would have been told to me in place of the judgements and moralism God’s kindness could have led me toward repentance. His word is enough! (imagine that)
So… here I am reading God’s word not for any other reason other than to read it, and guess what? It’s changing my life. You see, when we go to God’s Word with a presupposition about what we’re going to get out of it we’re going to get exactly what we want out of it. We’re going to twist and contort until it fits the asnwer we desire, but when we read and surrender all in humble knowledge of our own inadequacy to understand what we need and when we stop conforming the gospel to our falleness and begin to let the gospel conform us, then the power of God’s written Word is endless.
My suggestion: Pick a book of the Bible and read it. Come to it empty (no specific questions, no attitude, (simply said, don’t be looking for anything)) and you’ll leave full (with exactly what the spirit wanted you to get from it).
K.B.
