The Founding Fathers are often the rallying figures for the conservative faction of America. They point to these men as deeply religious leaders whose piety would be able to subdue all the 'evils' of modern progressivism and federalism that has so besmirched this great nation. They speak of the Divine selection of America, and the rights that God gives.
A look into history tells a different tale, however. For centuries leading up to the American Revolution, it was the assumption of the people of the world that God ordained government, and therefore the common population should be subservient toward it. However, with the rise of new ideals of the 'rule by the people, for the people' we find that the Founding Fathers did not believe in the right of government as ordained by God; instead, they believed it was man who had the right to chose to be ruled. This is a major step in humanism that modern Fundamentalist tend to overlook; that the Founding Fathers did not believe the message of Romans 13 which clearly states that God ordains government. Instead, they believed it was the right of men to decide who rules over them. They denied the authority of God and instead believed they could establish a form of government that took its authority from the people, not from God. This was not a 'Christian' ideal, it was a strongly, intentionally secular idea for its era.
This departure from Scripture is indicative of the real setting of the American Revolution. It was a humanistic movement led by religious men. The term religious does in any way imply Christian or Christlikeness. Instead, we see a denial of Scripture and a reversal of God's position. Instead of viewing God as the authority figure who decides who rules us, the Founding Fathers believed that God had given them rights that even God Himself could not deny: life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness. None of these so called 'rights' are scripturally based, indeed we are called as Christians to die, be slaves, and to crucify our fleshly desires. In short, the exact opposite of the claims of the Founding Fathers.
This is unsurprising if we look at the men who penned this document. Thomas Jefferson, the penman of this worshipped document, was not a Christian, but a Diest. He did not believe in the Godhood of Jesus, nor his Messiah status. Instead, Jefferson thought Jesus to be a good teacher. As such Jefferson authored his own version of the Bible. The Jefferson Bible was a cut and pasted document that removed all references to Jesus deity and any supernatural elements from the Gospels. He was against the idea that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. This by definition makes Thomas Jefferson an AntiChrist President.
George Washington, another of the worshipped ancestors of America, was explicit with the Muslim nations of his era that the Unites States was not a Christian Nation. He put that in plain writing when making a treaty with them in 1797. The exact words, written in Arabic, but read in English to the entire Senate were as follows, "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." This approved by the Senate and signed by the then president, John Adams, another of the Founding Fathers.
America is a wonderful land of great opportunity, but that does not make it the most holy nation that has ever existed. There is much revisionist history on both sides of the American divide. We should not worship the Founding Fathers, nor should we worship the icons of our nation. Worship belongs only to God, and as such we are called to be servants of the appointed government. That does not extend to worshiping its Founders, who were impressive and accomplished men; but we do well to remember that they were as fallen and sinful as our current government.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Monday, August 15, 2016
The Topic of Expository Teaching
Expository preaching is the buzzword of the Reformed movement today. "If your pastor would only use expository preaching, all your churches problems would be solved," they seem to say. For those who aren't familiar with the term "expository preaching', it means to preach Scripture chapter by chapter, verse by verse, in its original order and meaning. Sounds very biblical, right? In fact, the advocates of expository preaching will tell you that avoiding the 'shallowness' of topical preaching and sticking to expository preaching will create a firm foundation for the church that will help it avoid fads of Christianity, oh the irony.
In the rush to not skip over any part of Scripture, the expository movement has somehow forgotten to check if expository preaching is Scriptural itself. Did Jesus use expository teaching? Did Paul? Did Peter? How about James? Anyone in the New Testament at all? How did God Almighty preach when He was here? How did His hand-picked followers preach?
Jesus used Scripture in His teachings, but He used it to underline the points He was making while on particular topics. His recorded teaching is all topical. In fact, there is a constant theme to His teaching: love. Some preachers in the modern era have said that we preach too much on the love of God and not enough on His wrath. I disagree. If every human from Adam to the last human to draw a breath all preached the love of God till their dying breath, we would not do the love of God justice. God would not take us aside and tell us that He doesn't love us that much. I understand what these preachers mean, that there is more to God than 'just' love. While that may be true, love was Jesus's main theme when He taught, maybe it should be ours as well. We should never undermine that love. Jesus used it as His theme in almost every message He preached. If it is important enough to God that He preached on it, it should be to us as well.
But what about the disciples? Did they teach topically? Yes, and we see that in every message that they they preached. No matter where they start, they always bring the focus back to their main topic: Jesus Christ. Paul said he wished to know nothing else among the Corinthians than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They had an unending theme: salvation through Jesus. Even in Paul's sermon where the name of Jesus was not mentioned, the theme of God's salvation through repentance and the resurrection are made clear.
Now, I strongly believe that preachers should study the Scriptures in an expository manner themselves. The teachers of the church should have a thorough understanding of all of scripture in order to preach and lead in a Godly manner. Even group study can benefit greatly from expository study for mature and earnest Christians. However, the obsession with preaching in an expository manner is not Scriptural, nor does it seem to have the miraculous effect on churches people claim it does. You know who does have a miraculous effect on the church? Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Our relationship with Him should be our obsession. He is our theme, our hope, and our God. He should be the theme of everything we do. Every message preached should point back to Him.
In the rush to not skip over any part of Scripture, the expository movement has somehow forgotten to check if expository preaching is Scriptural itself. Did Jesus use expository teaching? Did Paul? Did Peter? How about James? Anyone in the New Testament at all? How did God Almighty preach when He was here? How did His hand-picked followers preach?
Jesus used Scripture in His teachings, but He used it to underline the points He was making while on particular topics. His recorded teaching is all topical. In fact, there is a constant theme to His teaching: love. Some preachers in the modern era have said that we preach too much on the love of God and not enough on His wrath. I disagree. If every human from Adam to the last human to draw a breath all preached the love of God till their dying breath, we would not do the love of God justice. God would not take us aside and tell us that He doesn't love us that much. I understand what these preachers mean, that there is more to God than 'just' love. While that may be true, love was Jesus's main theme when He taught, maybe it should be ours as well. We should never undermine that love. Jesus used it as His theme in almost every message He preached. If it is important enough to God that He preached on it, it should be to us as well.
But what about the disciples? Did they teach topically? Yes, and we see that in every message that they they preached. No matter where they start, they always bring the focus back to their main topic: Jesus Christ. Paul said he wished to know nothing else among the Corinthians than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They had an unending theme: salvation through Jesus. Even in Paul's sermon where the name of Jesus was not mentioned, the theme of God's salvation through repentance and the resurrection are made clear.
Now, I strongly believe that preachers should study the Scriptures in an expository manner themselves. The teachers of the church should have a thorough understanding of all of scripture in order to preach and lead in a Godly manner. Even group study can benefit greatly from expository study for mature and earnest Christians. However, the obsession with preaching in an expository manner is not Scriptural, nor does it seem to have the miraculous effect on churches people claim it does. You know who does have a miraculous effect on the church? Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Our relationship with Him should be our obsession. He is our theme, our hope, and our God. He should be the theme of everything we do. Every message preached should point back to Him.
Reforming Anabaptists
As our Anabaptist traditions fade and are replaced with more modern Protestant and Catholic ideas, many forms of church function are changing. We are replacing the tradition of our fore-bearers with the traditions of the fore-bearers of the Reformers. Teaching, doctrine, and style of the last five hundred years are being pulled up and quickly and quietly chucked out of the window as we scramble to replace our backward and embarrassing past with the prestigious and regal formalities of the Calvinists. All but Calvinism itself has been accepted, with patriotism being lauded as Christlike, weapons of self defense touted proudly, and Zionism becoming the norm; all the while we cover our mantles with guns, flags, and crosses.
How do Mennonites become functioning Calvinists? By turning from studying the Word to following loud, confident men. We listen hungrily to the confidence and emotion of teachers who teach the religion of Americanism. We drink up stories of the nobility of long dead men, fantasizing about becoming them, idolizing those who came before us. Instead of turning to the purity of Christ and His Word, we take in the predigested words of those who speak boldly. We idolize fallen humans of the Old Testament; sinners who are under grace, just as we are, and relish in the violence of their lives. We take the stories of Godly men and deify those men, rather than glorify the Creator of men.
Sadly very few people born as Mennonites believe or even understand anything that the Anabaptists taught. The last century of Mennonites have left a poor example of leadership and theology and instead of improving the situation, we have abandoned the focus that the original Anabaptists taught; namely, following Christ and only Christ. Instead, the majority of Mennonites have become "Reformers in Denial". That is, they adopt the teaching of Reformed personalities on tv, youtube, and the radio without understanding the theology and meaning or implications behind that teaching. We have become starved for leadership, and like starving men, we stopped checking what we are using to fill that void. In our hurry to have human leaders to look up to and admire, we have trampled the foundation that our Anabaptist forbearers insisted upon: the literal interpretation of Christ's commands and obedience to them.
Instead of this literal interpretation, we have substituted the doctrines of the Reformed Church. Our churches may not accept TULIP theology in so many words as of yet, but that is usually out of ignorance, not disagreement. We have turned from a literal application of the Sermon on the Mount to the American Reformed teachings of justified lethal self-defense, the glory of mammon in the form of capitalism, and the inalienable rights that are promised to all men that are not found in the Bible, but instead in American Scripture, the Constitution. We reinterpret loving your enemies to somehow exclude the actual enemies of the United States or those of the new nation of Israel. The teaching of the Anabaptists is dead, so now Mennonites are now scrambling to join Calvin's followers, a mere five hundred years late to the party.
Our Anabaptist heritage doesn't make us better than other Christians, however the teaching of the original Anabaptists still is founded upon God's truth. Not because its labelled Anabaptist, but because it is founded in following Christ, literally and fully. It is not founded in adding teaching to Scripture, such as the Just War Theory or TULIP. Instead, Anabaptism is about removing these human doctrines from our faith.
Sadly, most Mennonites don't even know the term Anabaptist, nor what it means. We have become ignorant, both of history and theology. As such we have turned to predigested theology offered in an appealing way through some easy to use media, be that tv, the radio, or youtube. As such, I very much doubt that my son's generation will have any qualms about Reformed doctrine, as the majority of them won't even bother to find out what that means. Instead, it will just permeate the church as the easiest and most available teaching to digest, with very few, if any, to care enough to find out why so many of their forefathers were martyred for disagreeing with the Reformed doctrines. While our forefathers were willing to die for rejecting man's doctrine mixed with God's command, we cannot be bothered to tell the difference.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
What Does It Mean to be a (Bat)Man?
Two years ago, I was talking to a friend of mine. He asked me a question that I have pondered in my mind for a while now. His question was this, "What is your definition of 'being a man'?" Now of course being a man can be construed as being born male and being over eighteen. But that is not what was being asked here. The question is a valid one and in our current area I'm sure many of my cohorts would say that David was a prime example of being a man. Strong, fearless, obedient, Godly. Which I agree entirely.
There is more to this question, I think. This desire to 'be a man' as we put it, permeates our society. Big beards, big trucks, concealed weapons, UFC, MMA; all these flood our society. Machoism is alive and well in America and in the church. There is an intense obsession with 'manliness' in our generation. There are websites, books, and YouTube tutorials on 'how to be a man'.
While being manly is all well and good, there is logical and human reason why our generation of Christian men feel the need to look up to facial hair and testosterone. It feels good to be capable of instilling our will on our fellow man, to force them to yield to our strength. Much of modern 'manliness' is really just a power struggle. Its about being the biggest, bulkiest man in the bunch who gets to order the rest of the 'beta' men around. This is frankly the antithesis of Christianity. Becoming strong to force our will upon the world is the exact opposite of Christ's teachings of self-sacrifice. The reason Christians pick David as 'manly' is mainly due to his war record. I've been hard pressed to find anyone in our generation who was obsessed with the manliness of David's poetry. Instead, they all point to his battles, the blood he spilled, as the cause to admire his manliness.
While I do believe that David is a great man; I have another example I prefer to use when answering this question. My incarnation of 'manliness' (excluding Christ Himself) would be Bruce Wayne, aka Batman. I'm not kidding. Well, maybe I am kidding a bit, but bear with me. Although Batman may be fictional, he sets standards that those of us attempting to be manly would do well to follow.
Bruce Wayne is a wealthy man who dedicates his life and fortune to helping those that cannot defend themselves. He does this out of his own pocket, with his own time. He doesn't do it for praise; in fact, no one knows his name. Instead, he personally invests his life in improving his city, Gotham, without accolade and without regard for the status of the person he defends.
Secondly, Batman doesn't force his will upon others; instead his goal is to defend the helpless from that very fate. His goal is to free others to make their own choices; even when those choices are foolish, nefarious, or evil, like those of his rival, the Joker. Although Batman does not believe that the Joker deserves to live, he does not take another life into his own hands. Instead, Batman attempts to free everyone, even those who despise him, to make their own choice. This is exactly what God Himself does for us. He frees us to choose, even when we choose evil. The Joker knows that Batman will never kill him; most of his plots revolve around that assumption. Batman lets Joker make his choice, yet he never condones the evil choices he makes. Batman does all in his power to negate the evil choices of others with the choices he himself makes. He incarnates the ideology that goodness cannot simply kill evil; for in doing so those who thought themselves good become the very bullying, dictatorship of evil they sought to destroy.
While this example of manliness may be a bit satirical, there is more than a grain of truth to it. The form of manliness that Christ shows us embodies this truth as well. Christ allowed everyone to make their own choice about Him; he did not force Himself upon them. He was not a brute, but a healer and defender. He allowed those who mocked Him to do so. He didn't condone the evil around Him; yet He did not force Himself upon them either. He was frank and honest with people, both in praise and condemnation. Yet, in the end, Jesus let both groups make their choice.
There is more to this question, I think. This desire to 'be a man' as we put it, permeates our society. Big beards, big trucks, concealed weapons, UFC, MMA; all these flood our society. Machoism is alive and well in America and in the church. There is an intense obsession with 'manliness' in our generation. There are websites, books, and YouTube tutorials on 'how to be a man'.
While being manly is all well and good, there is logical and human reason why our generation of Christian men feel the need to look up to facial hair and testosterone. It feels good to be capable of instilling our will on our fellow man, to force them to yield to our strength. Much of modern 'manliness' is really just a power struggle. Its about being the biggest, bulkiest man in the bunch who gets to order the rest of the 'beta' men around. This is frankly the antithesis of Christianity. Becoming strong to force our will upon the world is the exact opposite of Christ's teachings of self-sacrifice. The reason Christians pick David as 'manly' is mainly due to his war record. I've been hard pressed to find anyone in our generation who was obsessed with the manliness of David's poetry. Instead, they all point to his battles, the blood he spilled, as the cause to admire his manliness.
While I do believe that David is a great man; I have another example I prefer to use when answering this question. My incarnation of 'manliness' (excluding Christ Himself) would be Bruce Wayne, aka Batman. I'm not kidding. Well, maybe I am kidding a bit, but bear with me. Although Batman may be fictional, he sets standards that those of us attempting to be manly would do well to follow.
Bruce Wayne is a wealthy man who dedicates his life and fortune to helping those that cannot defend themselves. He does this out of his own pocket, with his own time. He doesn't do it for praise; in fact, no one knows his name. Instead, he personally invests his life in improving his city, Gotham, without accolade and without regard for the status of the person he defends.
Secondly, Batman doesn't force his will upon others; instead his goal is to defend the helpless from that very fate. His goal is to free others to make their own choices; even when those choices are foolish, nefarious, or evil, like those of his rival, the Joker. Although Batman does not believe that the Joker deserves to live, he does not take another life into his own hands. Instead, Batman attempts to free everyone, even those who despise him, to make their own choice. This is exactly what God Himself does for us. He frees us to choose, even when we choose evil. The Joker knows that Batman will never kill him; most of his plots revolve around that assumption. Batman lets Joker make his choice, yet he never condones the evil choices he makes. Batman does all in his power to negate the evil choices of others with the choices he himself makes. He incarnates the ideology that goodness cannot simply kill evil; for in doing so those who thought themselves good become the very bullying, dictatorship of evil they sought to destroy.
While this example of manliness may be a bit satirical, there is more than a grain of truth to it. The form of manliness that Christ shows us embodies this truth as well. Christ allowed everyone to make their own choice about Him; he did not force Himself upon them. He was not a brute, but a healer and defender. He allowed those who mocked Him to do so. He didn't condone the evil around Him; yet He did not force Himself upon them either. He was frank and honest with people, both in praise and condemnation. Yet, in the end, Jesus let both groups make their choice.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Honor Your Mother
Mothers are wonderful. Nothing in this world is as pure as a mother's love, nor as devoted. There is something sacred and holy about the care a mother gives for her children. Sadly, sometimes children forget that their mother is more than a free source of food and work, but a human with a soul who has emotions and trials of their own. No mother is perfect, but we should not expect them to be.
What is more disheartening is when children grow older, leave their mother, and then decide that they now have authority over her to judge and condemn; or worse, blackmail and extort by withholding familial bonds. Throughout Scripture we find that we are to honor our mothers, without question or doubting. We are never called to judge or preside over them, we do not have the right to do so, no matter how high and mighty we may feel we have become. We have no right to tell our mothers what to do. God forbids it. Even if they are wrong, it isn't our place to tell them so.
The Solomon in his wisdom said that dishonoring your mother is shameful. (Proverbs 19:26) Proverbs also states that such a man should have his eyes gouged out by ravens. (Proverbs 30:17) Even Jesus, whom we know for his loving forgiveness said that a son who speaks evil of his mother deserves to die. (Matthew 15:4) Proverbs gives us a detailed description of the man who would dishonor his mother. (Proverbs 30:11-14)
Yet I know men who profess to be Godly, that think it is perfectly acceptable to disown their own mother because they don't like how she handles her personal health. They seem to think it is a good motivation to withhold her grandchildren so they can make a point. This is evil behavior. Never should a Christian have to tell another Christian that treating your mother this way is wrong. It's wicked. Jesus says that anyone doing this deserves death. Jesus never minced words. He forgave prostitutes, thieves, even the very men who killed him. But when God came down to earth, He said that people who do this to their own mothers deserve to die.
I must say, I dare not disagree with God Almighty.
May God have mercy upon your soul.
What is more disheartening is when children grow older, leave their mother, and then decide that they now have authority over her to judge and condemn; or worse, blackmail and extort by withholding familial bonds. Throughout Scripture we find that we are to honor our mothers, without question or doubting. We are never called to judge or preside over them, we do not have the right to do so, no matter how high and mighty we may feel we have become. We have no right to tell our mothers what to do. God forbids it. Even if they are wrong, it isn't our place to tell them so.
The Solomon in his wisdom said that dishonoring your mother is shameful. (Proverbs 19:26) Proverbs also states that such a man should have his eyes gouged out by ravens. (Proverbs 30:17) Even Jesus, whom we know for his loving forgiveness said that a son who speaks evil of his mother deserves to die. (Matthew 15:4) Proverbs gives us a detailed description of the man who would dishonor his mother. (Proverbs 30:11-14)
Yet I know men who profess to be Godly, that think it is perfectly acceptable to disown their own mother because they don't like how she handles her personal health. They seem to think it is a good motivation to withhold her grandchildren so they can make a point. This is evil behavior. Never should a Christian have to tell another Christian that treating your mother this way is wrong. It's wicked. Jesus says that anyone doing this deserves death. Jesus never minced words. He forgave prostitutes, thieves, even the very men who killed him. But when God came down to earth, He said that people who do this to their own mothers deserve to die.
I must say, I dare not disagree with God Almighty.
May God have mercy upon your soul.
Saturday, March 19, 2016
The Devil Made Me Do It
When I was growing up, I was taught that games like Dungeons and Dragons were demonic. I avoided them at all costs. I feared them and assumed that what I was told was true. As an adult, I started to wonder what exactly about these games was demonic, and did some reading. I have a hard time finding any evidence of demonic influence, yet the games still make me uncomfortable.
This isn't an uncommon issue in Christianity, I'm afraid. The fear of otherwise neutral things based on the fear-mongering of others. In Christian circles, it is common to blame almost any unfortunate situation on the Devil, and it is also common to accuse anything that is misunderstood as being demonic. People look for evil influences in politics, music, books, even in soft drink companies. Why?
I find that this obsession is usually held by people in fear. They fear that they will somehow unwittingly fall for some demonic trap or force. Therefore they look for evil in everything, and as happens with any conspiracy theory, if you look hard enough and want to find something badly enough, you will find something to latch on to. Just like those who believe that reptilian creatures rule the earth or that some secret Illuminati group controls our fate, people who look hard enough for signs of demons will find what they are looking for; real or imagined.
As I already stated, this obsession with demons is based off of fear. It is also entirely unnecessary. Christ has defeated all demonic forces for Christians in our place and as such, we have nothing to fear. Christ is our substitute, He is our defense against the darkness. As long as we are in Him, nothing can take us away. (John 10) So then why are so many Christians, including pastors, so obsessed with demons?
Fear is easier to preach than faith. Scaring people is easier than motivating them, so preachers who do not want to put in much effort preach on one of two subjects: the Devil or the book of Revelation. Both of these subjects are then preached in such a manner as to literally 'scare the hell out of' the congregation. However, we find that our God is not a God of fear, but of peace. (2 Timothy 1:7) In fact, we find that God wants us to be of sound mind, to be strong, and to not fear.
Fear mongering is un-Godly. It is lazy preaching. It focuses on evil instead of Jesus. As such, I find it to be a dangerous and unprofitable form of teaching. In my experience, preachers who end up feeling the need to mention the Devil in every sermon they preach usually do so as a habitual fallback plan. They are so accustomed to focusing of evil rather than good that it has become their nature. This is an unhealthy example for a church. Our habit should be to exalt Christ, not credit every happenstance to the Devil. In some circles, every illness, poor choice, and misadventure is attributed to the Devil. In doing so, they ascribe more power and glory to him than he deserves.
Some would accuse me of underplaying the power of the Devil. To them I would simply say this: Beside Christ, who is my Lord, Savior, and God, there is no power that the Devil has. I'm not underplaying anything. I'm instead focusing on the Author and Giver of Life. If we focus on Christ, we will not go wrong. He is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. There is no other. We need nothing but Him. That should be the natural fallback of every preacher. We should always fall back to the magnificence of Christ. If we do, our doctrine will be Godly and the Devil will be of no consequence to us.
This isn't an uncommon issue in Christianity, I'm afraid. The fear of otherwise neutral things based on the fear-mongering of others. In Christian circles, it is common to blame almost any unfortunate situation on the Devil, and it is also common to accuse anything that is misunderstood as being demonic. People look for evil influences in politics, music, books, even in soft drink companies. Why?
I find that this obsession is usually held by people in fear. They fear that they will somehow unwittingly fall for some demonic trap or force. Therefore they look for evil in everything, and as happens with any conspiracy theory, if you look hard enough and want to find something badly enough, you will find something to latch on to. Just like those who believe that reptilian creatures rule the earth or that some secret Illuminati group controls our fate, people who look hard enough for signs of demons will find what they are looking for; real or imagined.
As I already stated, this obsession with demons is based off of fear. It is also entirely unnecessary. Christ has defeated all demonic forces for Christians in our place and as such, we have nothing to fear. Christ is our substitute, He is our defense against the darkness. As long as we are in Him, nothing can take us away. (John 10) So then why are so many Christians, including pastors, so obsessed with demons?
Fear is easier to preach than faith. Scaring people is easier than motivating them, so preachers who do not want to put in much effort preach on one of two subjects: the Devil or the book of Revelation. Both of these subjects are then preached in such a manner as to literally 'scare the hell out of' the congregation. However, we find that our God is not a God of fear, but of peace. (2 Timothy 1:7) In fact, we find that God wants us to be of sound mind, to be strong, and to not fear.
Fear mongering is un-Godly. It is lazy preaching. It focuses on evil instead of Jesus. As such, I find it to be a dangerous and unprofitable form of teaching. In my experience, preachers who end up feeling the need to mention the Devil in every sermon they preach usually do so as a habitual fallback plan. They are so accustomed to focusing of evil rather than good that it has become their nature. This is an unhealthy example for a church. Our habit should be to exalt Christ, not credit every happenstance to the Devil. In some circles, every illness, poor choice, and misadventure is attributed to the Devil. In doing so, they ascribe more power and glory to him than he deserves.
Some would accuse me of underplaying the power of the Devil. To them I would simply say this: Beside Christ, who is my Lord, Savior, and God, there is no power that the Devil has. I'm not underplaying anything. I'm instead focusing on the Author and Giver of Life. If we focus on Christ, we will not go wrong. He is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. There is no other. We need nothing but Him. That should be the natural fallback of every preacher. We should always fall back to the magnificence of Christ. If we do, our doctrine will be Godly and the Devil will be of no consequence to us.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Sola Scriptura VS Total Inerrancy
Coming from a conservative background, I was taught that Scripture, specifically the King James Version, was totally inerrant; meaning it is without flaw, perfect, and absolutely pure. After all, it is God's Word, how can it be any less? This view of Scripture respects the Holy text about as much as God Himself. Indeed, this view makes Scripture as the outpouring of God a literal part of God.There is no room for flaw within perfection, and if God is perfection Incarnate, how could any part of Him not be so as well? With that reasoning, it is logical that Scripture must be flawless.
As I got older, I began to study my Anabaptist roots. Of course, one of the originators of the movement that eventually spawned the Anabaptists was Martin Luther. He held the view that all doctrine should be found in Scripture; that is, if something isn't in Scripture then we shouldn't make assumptions about it, and that no doctrine should be based on anything that was not directly from Scripture. He called this Sola Scriptoria, Latin for "by Scripture alone". This meant that Luther did not hold to the Catholic teachings that were found in places like the Apocrypha, verbal tradition, or in Jewish histories. Above all, however, he was saying that he disagreed with the Catholic church's power to create doctrine that was equal to Scripture or even sometimes considered above Scripture. He believed that Scripture was not only the first authority, but the final and only authority.
However, these two views are incompatible. No where in Scripture does Scripture itself claim to be inerrant. It states itself to be God-breathed and useful. However, man is God-breathed and useful, but very far from flawless. To claim that Scripture is inerrant deviates from the five hundred year tradition of Sola Scriptoria that Martin Luther set. Ironically, anyone who holds one of these two positions almost invariably holds the other as well. Yet, clearly you cannot say that Scripture is the only authority and then promptly add to it yourself. This is not to say that Scripture is not Divine; nor that God does not protect His Word. It is to say that both the doctrine of Sola Scriptoria and the doctrine of Inerrancy are doctrines of man, not explicit in Scripture.
As noble and well intentioned as both of these doctrines are, they have some failings. Chiefly, they attempt to place absolutes in places God did not do so. Absolutes are dangerous things, and time finds a way of twisting the most noble intentions of liberty in one generation of theologians into chains that confine and cripple the next.
Sola Scriptoria
When Luther stated his doctrine of Sola Scriptoria in his Five Solas, he intended to undo the binds of men's doctrine. However, even with those noble intentions, he was not removing the doctrine of man, but instead replacing the Catholic doctrines with his own. Doctrine is almost exclusively derivative, and by limiting all doctrine to explicitly Scriptural sources he was already breaking his own rule. The doctrine of Sola Scriptoria is not found in Scripture, and as such it fails its own requirements. It is an excellent guideline in limited usage, but in modern theological circles this doctrine has been abused in order to exclude any form of 'human reasoning' from theology. However, any reasoning we do is 'human reasoning' for how can our reasoning be anything but human? Of course, there are those who would say that there is also God's reasoning, but God is by definition omniscient - meaning He knows all. This is axiomatic. If God wasn't all knowing then He wouldn't be God. As such, God doesn't reason by Himself; instead, He knows. We do not use reasoning to understand things we already know, instead we use reasoning to attempt to understand things we do not know. As such, God never needs to reason Himself. He can help us reason, but as such it is again a human reasoning and then by definition 'human reasoning'. Simply put, human reasoning is the attempt by humans to understand things that we do not understand. We cannot simply remove reasoning or we would remove the very thing God commanded us to do. (Isaiah 1:18)
Do you see the madness? You cannot reason away reason. The folly of taking a well intentioned concept, Luther's Sola Scriptoria, and twisting it into a means to remove reason from theology is absurd. The concept of Sola Scriptoria itself is 'human reasoning'.
Now, Scripture is indeed God's Divine Word and useful for teaching, correcting, and training. (2 Timothy 3:16) However, there is a massive difference between using Scripture for these purposes and claiming that only Scripture can be used for such purposes and absolutely nothing else. If a teaching is contrary to Scripture then of course Scripture supersedes men's teaching; but a great many things are not directly mentioned in Scripture. Therefore we must use reasoning to find God's will for our lives. We cannot assume that every moral question that we face will be explicitly mentioned in Scripture. We have to take the nature of the teaching, the implication of the teaching, and the focus of the teaching and use reasoning to find a solution. In fact, that is what we are doing right now. No where in Scripture is the question of Sola Scriptoria addressed, so we are taking the context of Scripture and reasoning our way toward an answer. In believing in Sola Scriptoria in its most rigid, letter-of-the-law way, you are already using human reasoning. It is impossible to use this as our only standard, for it defies the standard it creates by its own existence.
Just because a great leader like Luther advocated a position like Sola Scriptoria does not mean it is right. To assume that doctrine is true because a great leader authored it would simply be following men instead of God, which we are explicitly forbidden from doing in the very Scriptures that we follow. (Matthew 15:9, I Corinthians 3) I am not saying that Luther was a heretic, far from it. Luther was a Godly man but yet he was still a man. As such he was not perfect, but had to do the best he could in the time he lived. The same can be said for us. We have not been commanded to defend Luther, but instead we are to follow God. It is what Luther desired, and it is what we should desire as well.
The weight of Scripture is not what concerns me. I believe as Luther did that Scripture is divine. It has the ultimate say. However, there are places that Scripture is silent. In those places, reason must be used. Issues like abortion, slavery, and the supremacy of one economic ideal -capitalism, communism, or socialism- over the others are issues that are not explicitly mentioned in Scripture. Yet, we cannot simply wash our hands of these things and claim that we have no dog in the fight. In many situations both sides of an issue have Scripture to back their belief, yet we must use our reasoning to come to a conclusion. The issue of slavery in the United States was one such issue that both sides believed they were in the moral right. Both sides had Scripture to back their beliefs, yet the two ideologies were incompatible. We now side with one over the other and are appalled at the though of anyone trying to use Scripture to defend such a vile practice, yet Scripture can be used to defend slavery. It is only when we go beyond the Sola that we see the meaning in the Scriptoria.
I think the issue with Sola Scriptoria is not in the Scriptoria portion, but the Sola. I would advocate a less assonant form of theological leaning: Alpha Scriptoria. Scripture has the primary say in our theology; nothing comes before it. However, sometimes we must reason beyond the explicit into the implicit. As such, Scripture is not the sole, but rather the dominant and prominent, guideline for theology.
Total Inerrancy
As I stated earlier, I was raised with the unwavering conviction that Scripture is inerrant. Yet, Scripture does not state this anywhere. To believe this, we have to take a viewpoint that is more nuanced. Frankly, I cannot say that any translation is inerrant, not even the sometimes almost worshiped King James Version. Why? Because this belief is not driven by God, but by men who wish to create for God something that God does not feel He needs to defend.
To make my point, let me ask you a simple question. What is the Devil's name? You know that the angels have names, like Gabriel and Michael. So what is the Devil's name? If you answered Lucifer, I'm happy to inform you that you're wrong. Why? Well, take a look at this verse from Isaiah chapter fourteen verse twelve.
Hmm... It appears that the Devil's name is Lucifer after all. Well let's take a look at a few other English translations and see if they agree.
Uh, oh. They don't. In fact, no other translation in German or Latin gives the Devil the name Lucifer either. In English only very early translations like the Geneva and Wycliffe translations would include the name Lucifer. Why is that? Let's take a look at the Latin Vulgate Translation () of the same verse and see what it says.
Quomodo cecidisti de caelo lucifer qui mane oriebaris corruisti in terram qui vulnerabas gentes. (Isaiah 14:12 Vulgate)
Here we see the problem. The fifth word in is lucifer, which is the latin word for morning star. It literally is the word for morning star, the same term used for Jesus in elsewhere. (II Peter 2:19) When Jerome translated the Hebrew Old Testament word מזרות into Latin in 382 AD he used the literal Latin word for morning star, lucifer, which is what the Hebrew word means. Note, lucifer is never used as a name until the English translation turns it into a name by capitalizing the Latin word rather than translating it into English. Later translations corrected this error, but for hundreds of years, the English speaking population believed that the Bible said the Devil's name was Lucifer. This belief continues today, as most of the population would assume that the Devil's name is mentioned in Scripture.
Not only that, but we have literally different versions of some Biblical books. The book of Jeremiah that Jesus may have read differed greatly from the one you and I read in our English Bibles. We have two full and differing versions of this particular book that have survived to the modern day: the Masoretic text and the Septuagint. We have no definitive way of knowing which is the more accurate to the original, even our oldest copies that were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls have bits and pieces of both forms of the book. In the New Testament, authors quote both the Masoretic texts and the Septuagint texts, yet they do not seem to be concerned with their differences. They make no issue over the fact that the texts differ because they worship God, not texts. Wether or not those books were translated with absolute inerrancy or not, they had complete faith that the truth of God was not twisted. The same is true in our time. Even if some translator errors occur, like the infamous Wicked Bible, the truth of God is not confined to exact translation. God's truth transcends any concept of human translation purity.
We cannot say that God's Word is totally inerrant in its translation. We have proof otherwise. However, we can say without a doubt that God's Word is inerrant in its message of salvation through Christ. It is not the KJV, NIV, or ESV that will save souls. It is Christ. This message rings forth clearly throughout Scripture, whether you are reading the Latin Vulgate or Luther's German translation. Man's work is not inerrant, even when translating something as holy as Scripture. However, God is perfect, and we can trust Him to lead us in His way, no matter which language we read His Word in.
CONCLUSION
Faith in Christ is not about having an iron grip on our doctrines, refusing to let go of the things we were taught for fear of losing our salvation. Instead, we are to grow in Christ, realizing that this may mean growing past the things that we were taught by men, but never growing past the need for Christ that lead us to grow in the first place. We do not fear that by learning more we will find God inadequate. Instead we can grow past that which we were taught knowing that God knew these things all along and is waiting for us to come to more understanding like a patient Father waiting for His children to learn more so that He can teach them even more than before. God is not fearful that we will somehow learn more than He can anticipate; instead like the loving Father He is, He enjoys watching His children grow more and more with each generation. It is only logical that we use the steppingstones left by our forbearers and build upon them. That does not invalidate the faith of those great men; instead, it builds upon their faith to expand God's kingdom.
As I got older, I began to study my Anabaptist roots. Of course, one of the originators of the movement that eventually spawned the Anabaptists was Martin Luther. He held the view that all doctrine should be found in Scripture; that is, if something isn't in Scripture then we shouldn't make assumptions about it, and that no doctrine should be based on anything that was not directly from Scripture. He called this Sola Scriptoria, Latin for "by Scripture alone". This meant that Luther did not hold to the Catholic teachings that were found in places like the Apocrypha, verbal tradition, or in Jewish histories. Above all, however, he was saying that he disagreed with the Catholic church's power to create doctrine that was equal to Scripture or even sometimes considered above Scripture. He believed that Scripture was not only the first authority, but the final and only authority.
However, these two views are incompatible. No where in Scripture does Scripture itself claim to be inerrant. It states itself to be God-breathed and useful. However, man is God-breathed and useful, but very far from flawless. To claim that Scripture is inerrant deviates from the five hundred year tradition of Sola Scriptoria that Martin Luther set. Ironically, anyone who holds one of these two positions almost invariably holds the other as well. Yet, clearly you cannot say that Scripture is the only authority and then promptly add to it yourself. This is not to say that Scripture is not Divine; nor that God does not protect His Word. It is to say that both the doctrine of Sola Scriptoria and the doctrine of Inerrancy are doctrines of man, not explicit in Scripture.
As noble and well intentioned as both of these doctrines are, they have some failings. Chiefly, they attempt to place absolutes in places God did not do so. Absolutes are dangerous things, and time finds a way of twisting the most noble intentions of liberty in one generation of theologians into chains that confine and cripple the next.
Sola Scriptoria
When Luther stated his doctrine of Sola Scriptoria in his Five Solas, he intended to undo the binds of men's doctrine. However, even with those noble intentions, he was not removing the doctrine of man, but instead replacing the Catholic doctrines with his own. Doctrine is almost exclusively derivative, and by limiting all doctrine to explicitly Scriptural sources he was already breaking his own rule. The doctrine of Sola Scriptoria is not found in Scripture, and as such it fails its own requirements. It is an excellent guideline in limited usage, but in modern theological circles this doctrine has been abused in order to exclude any form of 'human reasoning' from theology. However, any reasoning we do is 'human reasoning' for how can our reasoning be anything but human? Of course, there are those who would say that there is also God's reasoning, but God is by definition omniscient - meaning He knows all. This is axiomatic. If God wasn't all knowing then He wouldn't be God. As such, God doesn't reason by Himself; instead, He knows. We do not use reasoning to understand things we already know, instead we use reasoning to attempt to understand things we do not know. As such, God never needs to reason Himself. He can help us reason, but as such it is again a human reasoning and then by definition 'human reasoning'. Simply put, human reasoning is the attempt by humans to understand things that we do not understand. We cannot simply remove reasoning or we would remove the very thing God commanded us to do. (Isaiah 1:18)
Do you see the madness? You cannot reason away reason. The folly of taking a well intentioned concept, Luther's Sola Scriptoria, and twisting it into a means to remove reason from theology is absurd. The concept of Sola Scriptoria itself is 'human reasoning'.
Now, Scripture is indeed God's Divine Word and useful for teaching, correcting, and training. (2 Timothy 3:16) However, there is a massive difference between using Scripture for these purposes and claiming that only Scripture can be used for such purposes and absolutely nothing else. If a teaching is contrary to Scripture then of course Scripture supersedes men's teaching; but a great many things are not directly mentioned in Scripture. Therefore we must use reasoning to find God's will for our lives. We cannot assume that every moral question that we face will be explicitly mentioned in Scripture. We have to take the nature of the teaching, the implication of the teaching, and the focus of the teaching and use reasoning to find a solution. In fact, that is what we are doing right now. No where in Scripture is the question of Sola Scriptoria addressed, so we are taking the context of Scripture and reasoning our way toward an answer. In believing in Sola Scriptoria in its most rigid, letter-of-the-law way, you are already using human reasoning. It is impossible to use this as our only standard, for it defies the standard it creates by its own existence.
Just because a great leader like Luther advocated a position like Sola Scriptoria does not mean it is right. To assume that doctrine is true because a great leader authored it would simply be following men instead of God, which we are explicitly forbidden from doing in the very Scriptures that we follow. (Matthew 15:9, I Corinthians 3) I am not saying that Luther was a heretic, far from it. Luther was a Godly man but yet he was still a man. As such he was not perfect, but had to do the best he could in the time he lived. The same can be said for us. We have not been commanded to defend Luther, but instead we are to follow God. It is what Luther desired, and it is what we should desire as well.
The weight of Scripture is not what concerns me. I believe as Luther did that Scripture is divine. It has the ultimate say. However, there are places that Scripture is silent. In those places, reason must be used. Issues like abortion, slavery, and the supremacy of one economic ideal -capitalism, communism, or socialism- over the others are issues that are not explicitly mentioned in Scripture. Yet, we cannot simply wash our hands of these things and claim that we have no dog in the fight. In many situations both sides of an issue have Scripture to back their belief, yet we must use our reasoning to come to a conclusion. The issue of slavery in the United States was one such issue that both sides believed they were in the moral right. Both sides had Scripture to back their beliefs, yet the two ideologies were incompatible. We now side with one over the other and are appalled at the though of anyone trying to use Scripture to defend such a vile practice, yet Scripture can be used to defend slavery. It is only when we go beyond the Sola that we see the meaning in the Scriptoria.
I think the issue with Sola Scriptoria is not in the Scriptoria portion, but the Sola. I would advocate a less assonant form of theological leaning: Alpha Scriptoria. Scripture has the primary say in our theology; nothing comes before it. However, sometimes we must reason beyond the explicit into the implicit. As such, Scripture is not the sole, but rather the dominant and prominent, guideline for theology.
Total Inerrancy
As I stated earlier, I was raised with the unwavering conviction that Scripture is inerrant. Yet, Scripture does not state this anywhere. To believe this, we have to take a viewpoint that is more nuanced. Frankly, I cannot say that any translation is inerrant, not even the sometimes almost worshiped King James Version. Why? Because this belief is not driven by God, but by men who wish to create for God something that God does not feel He needs to defend.
To make my point, let me ask you a simple question. What is the Devil's name? You know that the angels have names, like Gabriel and Michael. So what is the Devil's name? If you answered Lucifer, I'm happy to inform you that you're wrong. Why? Well, take a look at this verse from Isaiah chapter fourteen verse twelve.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (Isaiah 14:12 KJV)
Hmm... It appears that the Devil's name is Lucifer after all. Well let's take a look at a few other English translations and see if they agree.
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low! (Isaiah 14:12 ESV)
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low! (Isaiah 14:12 ESV)
“How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations! (Isaiah 14:12 NASB)
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations! (Isaiah 14:12 NASB)
Shining morning star,
how you have fallen from the heavens!
You destroyer of nations,
you have been cut down to the ground. (Isaiah 14;12 HCSB)
how you have fallen from the heavens!
You destroyer of nations,
you have been cut down to the ground. (Isaiah 14;12 HCSB)
“How you have fallen from heaven, O shining one, son of the morning! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have made the nations weak! (Isaiah 14:12 NLV)
Quomodo cecidisti de caelo lucifer qui mane oriebaris corruisti in terram qui vulnerabas gentes. (Isaiah 14:12 Vulgate)
Here we see the problem. The fifth word in is lucifer, which is the latin word for morning star. It literally is the word for morning star, the same term used for Jesus in elsewhere. (II Peter 2:19) When Jerome translated the Hebrew Old Testament word מזרות into Latin in 382 AD he used the literal Latin word for morning star, lucifer, which is what the Hebrew word means. Note, lucifer is never used as a name until the English translation turns it into a name by capitalizing the Latin word rather than translating it into English. Later translations corrected this error, but for hundreds of years, the English speaking population believed that the Bible said the Devil's name was Lucifer. This belief continues today, as most of the population would assume that the Devil's name is mentioned in Scripture.
Not only that, but we have literally different versions of some Biblical books. The book of Jeremiah that Jesus may have read differed greatly from the one you and I read in our English Bibles. We have two full and differing versions of this particular book that have survived to the modern day: the Masoretic text and the Septuagint. We have no definitive way of knowing which is the more accurate to the original, even our oldest copies that were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls have bits and pieces of both forms of the book. In the New Testament, authors quote both the Masoretic texts and the Septuagint texts, yet they do not seem to be concerned with their differences. They make no issue over the fact that the texts differ because they worship God, not texts. Wether or not those books were translated with absolute inerrancy or not, they had complete faith that the truth of God was not twisted. The same is true in our time. Even if some translator errors occur, like the infamous Wicked Bible, the truth of God is not confined to exact translation. God's truth transcends any concept of human translation purity.
We cannot say that God's Word is totally inerrant in its translation. We have proof otherwise. However, we can say without a doubt that God's Word is inerrant in its message of salvation through Christ. It is not the KJV, NIV, or ESV that will save souls. It is Christ. This message rings forth clearly throughout Scripture, whether you are reading the Latin Vulgate or Luther's German translation. Man's work is not inerrant, even when translating something as holy as Scripture. However, God is perfect, and we can trust Him to lead us in His way, no matter which language we read His Word in.
CONCLUSION
Faith in Christ is not about having an iron grip on our doctrines, refusing to let go of the things we were taught for fear of losing our salvation. Instead, we are to grow in Christ, realizing that this may mean growing past the things that we were taught by men, but never growing past the need for Christ that lead us to grow in the first place. We do not fear that by learning more we will find God inadequate. Instead we can grow past that which we were taught knowing that God knew these things all along and is waiting for us to come to more understanding like a patient Father waiting for His children to learn more so that He can teach them even more than before. God is not fearful that we will somehow learn more than He can anticipate; instead like the loving Father He is, He enjoys watching His children grow more and more with each generation. It is only logical that we use the steppingstones left by our forbearers and build upon them. That does not invalidate the faith of those great men; instead, it builds upon their faith to expand God's kingdom.
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