My first question is: Do you read the Bible? If yes, then why do you read it? The answer to the first question is very easy, yes or no. However, the answer to the second question is varied. Some people read it to acquire knowledge they can use to win arguments with other Christians. Others read it to have a perceived advantage over other Christians, so as to win their favor or respect. Still others read the Bible because they are drawn to the truth. Personally, I've found much peace, solace and encouragement from reading the word. However, I too have been caught up in trying to win prideful arguments using the word, when I should've been demonstrating the love it so resoundingly teaches.
I guess I should state that I'm not a big fan of perceived "high" Christianity or "super" Christians. I never have been because I've always felt like these folks were walking hand in hand with pride, while refusing to deny its existence in their lives. I'm referring to people who call themselves theologians or folks who love to frame their conversations or text in a format which is overly-complicated to the average person thereby attempting to garner some respect. It's almost like they're trying to hide their perceived "secret" knowledge in a format only the "true" intellectual Christians can decipher. All others are unworthy of such knowledge. (I have a personal belief which goes something like this: complexity increases exponentially with the pride of the people involved.) The next step for these folks is to go down a road Christianity has already worn out and is still treading. That is to put "special" priests who are to teach the people and then withhold the Bible (for it is obviously far too complex) from the average person. Sound familiar? A true theologian will not refer to themselves as such and their words and conversations will be piercing to the heart, especially to those God so decides to humble. Pride will be very limited in their speech, but love will be abounding through the Spirit. Trying reading C.S. Lewis or listened to Ravi Zacharris. These are two men, whom I believe; God has shown His most excellent teaching through. It's all summed up in one word, love. What could be more simplistic then love? Yet this one word has been debated since the Fall. However, there's no debating this with God and His love demonstrated through His son Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was the word. Then sin entered into the world through man, first in the form of pride. Then sin gave birth to death and the words of the false teachers reeked of this stench. This stench only grows fouler over time, as false teachers aren't born overnight. Once Satan gets that foothold of pride in the soul it eats away. Then very subtly and quietly a heretic is born. A once well respected theologian suddenly begins to omit or question the validity of certain parts of scripture, leading up to and eventually including denying Jesus Christ as the only way. (Nazi Germany and its relationship with particular churches and prominent German theologians of the time, is a good resource for this topic).
Here's a probable scenario: Pride plants its seed. Followed by a sense of superiority. Perhaps soon after the Bible becomes a weapon to weed out the non-elect. Several opportunities to conveniently misinterpreting the Word. Then the topics turn to glorifying man, instead of Jesus. Maybe man isn't as sinful as the Bible indicates? Maybe there's another way, other then Jesus? Stroking others pride ever so subtly garners their loyalty and devotion. Smooth sounding words have won over many ignorant men.
Hitler didn't win over Germany by fear. He won them over through their hearts, through the coercion of false prophets.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
I don't have to go any further then the Bible to see other examples of the same corruption of a society by pride cultivated by false prophets.
Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones. Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones. (Hosea 10:1-2)
We should all read the word to learn about God. We should read it to see the story of our savior, Jesus Christ, unfold before our very eyes. We should read the Bible to provide His Holy Spirit with the opportunity to open our eyes. We should read the Bible to learn about real love. I believe it's this real love of God, which, if it bears fruit in our hearts, will spring forth a bountiful harvest through a changed, truly counter culture life.
We need to keep in mind the Word is a two edged sword wielded by Jesus Christ alone. However, we have access to this sword by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and our adoption as a sons.
Pray for humility to serve our fellow man. Pray for a heart to love the lost and leave the "elect" status to God, who alone is worthy to judge the hearts of man. Repent of your pride and consider yourself the least when interacting with others. A servant of all. A friend of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, not through any works of man.
8 comments:
As a too-oft practioner of prideful pontification myself, I agree. However, I do think that it would be an error to consider complicated speach or theology inherently prideful. There is a context for all things and an intended audience for most communication. One speaks differently to children than one does to teenagers than one does to adults.
Knowledge is not evil, but can make proud, like money makes greed, or sex makes lust. Knowledge that fears the lord and edifies his people (with however many or few sylables) is the goal of communication and of teaching.
1 cor 8 "1 Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. 2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him."
I'd like to thank you for your transparency, for allowing us to know your thoughts in this posting. However, I'm not certain I know exactly what you're attempting to point out here. Are you saying that theology itself is a bad thing? Or are you saying that pride in discussing theological issues is the problem? Are you saying that theology without love is wrong? Or you saying that the average Christian is hurt by exposure to theological ideas he doesn't understand? Are you saying that as Christians we need only love and should avoid education because it is the path to heresy? The reason I ask these things is that there is a tremendous amount of theology wrapped up in your statements in this posting and that at least some of those theological implications are things the average Christian should understand and grapple with. I'd appreciate your further comments for clarification. Thanks.
I have to confess that when I finished this article I wasn't at my best and questioned my judgement at publishing this particular article. However, after receiving two excellent comments I'm glad I did!
BAP,
I will defer to Nathan's comments above, for some of your questions. He did a good job of elaborating in areas I should've spent more time on.
1. I absolutely don't believe theology, in itself, is bad.
2. Yes, I believe pride in theological discussions is a big problem, especially potentially with monologues. Here's a question: How can 1000+ folks ask the pastor to elaborate on anything?
3. Absolutely yes I believe theological discussions without love is more then wrong, it's destructive. (1 Corinthians 13)
4. No. I believe all Christians need to be exposed to theological discussions/concepts. However, I'm a proponent of dialogues rather then monologues, given that dialogues are interactive and quesitons can be asked. I also believe we are far to lazy (on a whole) and need to investigate our own beliefs, starting with the Bible. Historical documentation and current archeological digs in Israel are also a great resources for validating the Word and the utter wretchedness of mankind (which validates the necessity for a savior).
5. No. I definitely believe theological education is very good. Pride (or sin) is the true path to heresy. I believe all Christains need discipleship / accoutability. We need to ask more questions.
I want to make a correction to something I wrote:
complexity 'potentially' increases exponentially with the pride of the people involved.
Just like wealth potentially leads to greed.
My focus for this article is the birth of the false teacher/prophet. I've run into my share of "super" Christians who use "high" theological language and misuse the Bible to confound, manipulate and mislead the weak. I've also read and heard about so many folks who fall away from the faith as their perceived knowledge increased. Of course it's not the knowledge, but the pride that is the real issue. Don't believe anyone who indicates they came to terms with the existence of God purely on their own intellect or abilities, especially if love seems to be lacking in their discussions of Jesus Christ.
I hope this answers your questions.
Bill, thanks for your answers to my questions. I actually asked them because I am in general agreement with Nathan's comments before mine.
After receiving your response, I think I understand better your underlying thoughts in publishing this post. You seem to be focusing on monologues as the problem, but have you considered that monologues may be a very different thing from sermons, from teaching within the church? I cannot speak for the motives of any given pastor when he stands before a congregation and offers a theological monologue. However, I do understand that a teacher within the Church is in a sense simply teaching, taking part in the necessary dialogue that is intimately associated with all education. The same is true in an abstract sense of any number of publications on "high" theology, even if only a few may adequately or comfortably participate in it. An inadequate teacher is not necessarily so because of pride.
I agree that as Christians we must "test everything" and "hold on to what is good," but I am uncertain as to exactly what you mean when you use the word start in reference to "starting with the Bible." Do you mean that the first step to understanding what one believes is to investigate it in the Scriptures? Or do you mean that ultimately what one believes must be consistent with and uphold what the Bible has to say on the subject? Or both? Investigation of the Scriptures is sure to lead to ideas and information outside the Scriptures because the Bible is given in the context of an entire created order. Not all of value that can be encountered outside the Bible is simple historical and/or archaeological documentation, which are themselves not simple in many ways.
I agree that there are many in our world who have followed a path of heresy, and they are in some way very prideful in that. However, the increase in knowledge of some Christians has also led them to heretical crossroads, not because of their pride, but because of their ignorance and lack of preparation for their encounter with certain ideas.
C.S. Lewis himself, one of your examples from the posting, seemed to believe and even said so that the learned among us as believers in Christ must act to and are even present to do what others in the Church cannot by offering a defense against ideas that have the capacity to cripple the unprepared. However, there is no room for principled unwillingness to learn more. The Christian life is an education in itself, and we are to meditate upon the truth of God at all times. A time-tested and honored intellectual tradition in the Church such as theological education and dialogue also needs to be defended from those who would apply the label of pride and heresy to it lightly. I say this only to reiterate the caution offered by Nathan.
Thanks again for your posting.
Bill, I think the real issue is perception over reality. These false prophets and teachers you mention are putting on the good Christian front. I think that there could be people who have grown up in a church. There is a potential that they never believed but feel comfortable in the christian community and know what to say and how to act to be precieved as good christians. It could make sense for such people to go to Bible college and Seminary still not believing. These people would then be in positions to teach and preach. The knowledge they recieved is not from the Holy Spirit.
Hey Bill,
I did get a bit confused myself over some things in the post, but I believe I understand your points of contention. Pride is bad, but I agree that knowledge itself is a good thing. Teaching can be false and should be verified by the lens of scripture. Even pastors must be held accountable by this. I believe we all agree on these things. Don't think there's really anything to add here.
I am still a bit confused over the line - "We need to keep in mind the Word is a two edged sword wielded by Jesus Christ alone." I think you may be mixing a couple verses here. I agree Hebrews 4:12 refers to Jesus when it speaks of the word of God and a double-edged sword. But when it comes to weilding "the sword", the word of God clearly refers to the Bible (Eph 6:17), which, is obviously something intended for us to weild (1 Tim 3:16).
Although I'm glad this article encouraged so much discourse, it appears as though my initial instinct to not publish this article may have been good. This was probably an article better broken up into at least two parts. I really should've elaborated more on topics like teaching, learning theology, reading the Bible and the expression of love for Jesus Christ and the absence of godliness in these areas with false teachers/prophets.
As a bit of personal background, to hopefully shed a bit of light on my perspective, I attended Denver seminary back in 2000-2001. Unfortunately I lost my job soon after 9/11 and so I was unable to continue pursuing this education. I'm currently praying and seeking out a path to be able to attend Southern Baptist Theological seminary, if this is God's will for my life. After visiting the seminary I was very impressed with their focus on Jesus Christ and educating the future leaders of the church, @ $150/credit hr (for current SB members). If it's God's will I'd like to pursue an MDIV in North American missions (church planting). So I hope this communicates that I'm not anti-education. I do feel that education (especially in the form of discipleship) is a blessing and we should humbly accept it as such.
Greg: My saying Jesus wields the sword comes from Matthew 10:32-39: "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her motherinlaw— a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Heh heh, I find it funny how I chided on spelling errors last time and just mispelled "wield" twice. THE IRONY! Argggh...
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