Biblicism

I read this blog about Counterfeit Gospels and it spurred on these thoughts. It is a short read and will help with the following.

I think I am able to comment on this because I am personally well acquainted with intellectual pride and such. So this comes about myself as much as anyone else.


Intellectualism/Biblicism

In the other blog, they define Biblicism as “I know my Bible inside and out, but I do not let it master me. I have reduced the gospel to a mastery of biblical content and theology, so I am intolerant and critical of those with lesser knowledge.” This is a bad thing and might lead to a bad end of your faith or of a church that centers on it.

And we see that this is a pride that not only happens with studying the Bible, but with any intellectual pursuit. It is a temptation for all of us, but I think especially those in seminary. So what does Biblicism look like and how can you move away from it.


There are several results of Biblicism in the life of a Christian, these might sound familiar to you as they did to me:

1. Us vs. Them - the us is everyone who agrees with you, the them is usually everyone else (even other Christians). You look down on other Christians because they do not REALLY study the Bible like you do.
   
   
2. Negative spirit - no one has it all down like you do
   
   
3. Dead End - Studying the Bible is your end not your means. The problem is that the Bible is meant to be a path to God (prayer and meditation are other spiritual disciplines for knowing God). The Bible is not the Ultimate, Jesus is the Ultimate. One must keep him in mind when you study or you are wasting your time.
   
   
4. God is distant - you know about him, but you do not experience him. He is someone to learn about, like George Washington. And like George, you never get to know him personally.
   
   
5. No Grace - there is no grace in Biblicism. You are earning your salvation by being smart enough. That is your work and it is just as legalistic as those who tried to combine keeping the law with grace in Galatians.
   

What to do about it: Pray. Here is an example. Also start letting the cross and grace permeate your life. Do not base your life on how much Bible you know. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Rely on the cross and rely on grace.

Prayer:
Lord, you were and are the most knowledgeable and intelligent being ever. You are the one who gave us our minds and our comprehension. By you Wisdom you created the earth and everything in it. You created the designs of nature, the intricacies of cells. You knew about strands of DNA before we could ever fathom such a thing. You also placed the stars in the skies and the planets in their orbit. And you care for your creation. When the birds calls out for food, they call to you and you provide. You are truly the God over all.


There is such a temptation Father to become proud when one becomes learned. But I know I must continually look to Jesus. He knew everything there is to know in the universe. But when he came down, he lived as a poor, homeless carpenter. He was certainly humbled. He spoke and many times no one listened. His family even thought he was crazy. Knowing all this I cannot hang on to my pride. In fact it is your word that teaches me that you oppose the proud and those who think themselves to be wise, but shine upon the humble.

With all this in mind, I reflect on your call to know you more. I know one path to know you is through your Word. What a gift you gave us with it. But this is not the end, because your word points to something outside itself. Therefore, knowing your word is not the end but the path. And the path is to know you more. I do want to know your word more, but not for the sake of becoming smarter than someone else. Instead I want to reflect on it more to know your character, to understand how you worked in the past, and then hopefully have the wisdom to understand how you are working in the present and will work in the future.

But Father when I learn, I want to always keep in mind that your word does not point to itself, but to you. It is to connect to you.

Father, may you also give me grace when I interact with others who likewise look to you for grace through your Son. I know just because we disagree that does not mean we are enemies. There is some basic level of family in the Greater Church. I do not want to throw that away because I think I know more about the Bible. I know that would hurt the kingdom and hurt you Lord Jesus. One part of the body calling another part trash. That is no way to follow you. I know Lord that reflecting on your work on the cross will keep us humble. I know reflecting on the grace you offer will keep us from becoming proud.

Lord, may you keep us humble, may you keep us in grace. We are not saved by works (good or bad) but by grace through faith.

Thank you Father for your Son and what he has done for us. Amen.

Choice pt. 2

Then why do I feel this
if it is right
three miles a day
why do we fight

If it is natural
and it is what it is
then why do we hate it
and cry it amiss

One says he thus spoke
Zarathustra
to the man on the tightrope
Fulfillment in job
and you are alright

And Mr. Russell says
it will all pass away
your neighbors, your kids,
it will all decay
Accept it. That's life
That's death

But I hate it,
I don't want it.
Why must it be?

Many see the God
who drives us form the tree
with sword, with fire,
closing Paradise shut.

But see he drives us again
He moved through the one
and calls us to redemption

He says hate it,
and hate it well.
It is unnatural

Come home
Find fulfillment in me
I have prepared a place for you
under this shaded tree.

Choice

How do you look at death?  Here are a few options:

"I have long known that the devil would trip me. Now he will drag me to hell. Would you prevent him?"

'"By my honor, friend," answered Zarathustra, "all that of which you speak does not exist: there is no devil and no hell. Your soul will be dead even before your body: fear nothing further."

The man looked up suspiciously. "If you speak the truth," he said, "I lose nothing when I lose my life. I am not much more than a beast that has been taught to dance by blows and a few meager morsels."

"By no means," said Zarathustra. "You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands."

When Zarathustra had said this, the dying man answered no more; but he moved his hand as if he sought Zarathustra's hand in thanks. (Thus Spake 20)

Translation: There is no heaven or hell. In the end there is no judgment. There is honor in life when you live honorably. Don't shed tears over the end.



Here is another option:

"[With death] no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined for extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins." (Bertrand Russell)

Translation: Again shed no tear or drop of sweat over death. There is nothing to fear because there is nothing. Accept be a man about it, but keep living for now.



Here is another option:

Death frightens us all. It is an unknown abyss. There might be a judge at the ground floor, a doorman, or nothing at all. In any case it scares us. We can try to laugh it off, like Woody Allen (It's not that I am afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens), but the fear remains.

Something inside of us longs, even demands for life and love to last. If this is it, love is a tease. And the only way we can ever know one way or another is if someone stood outside the all of humanity's house of life and death and told us what it was like outside.

Jesus tasted life and death. He entered the house, experienced life and death, and now stands outside, the conquering one. He frees us from the fear of death by offering a life that continues. He can only do this because he died the death we should have died. But now there is no fear, life and love can continue like we long for them to.

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." (Hebrews 2)

You can probably guess which one I choose.

Good article

Here is a good article about Brian McLaren's New Christianity.

This is a good review. It is necessary because Brian McLaren leads people away from Christ not towards him. Lots of people enjoy his books, but they are not Christian truth.

1 Peter 2:9

1 Peter 2:9

What a great picture of the Church. Obviously we have not always looked like this. We have acted carelessly, fought bloody wars, and scarred parts of history. But this is God's design and description of us.

We are this, that we might praise God, who by his grace moved us from darkness to light, from the power and delusions of Satan to the steady rock, the foundation, the corner Stone, our Lord Jesus.

We should not be that special. We should not be that different, just another club, organization, or group. But no. He has moved us from darkness to light and that makes all the difference in the world.

Systemic Issues

Systemic Issues:

I worked at an IT help desk.  During this time, I learned something about change, systems, and people. 

I worked for a company that supported another company that moved from a paper system to an internet based system.  The company supported veterinary clinics across the US.  Therefore, many, many middle aged women, who (as they remind me) have for so long used a paper system, now have to convert to an internet based system.  This causes all sorts of confusion, anger, and all sorts of distress.  My job is to help these women change from the old to the new.  As they would see it, they are changing from a system that works, to a system that is annoying, confusing, and purposeless.  Most of the calls are pleasant, because the women are pleasant, just confused.  I see myself as the man who does not bring them fish, but one who teaches them to fish for themselves.  I try to give more guidance than answers. 

However, as with the case with people, confused people can be pleasant, but they can also be angry.  Their anger then is directed toward the help desk agent (me).  Here is one of these cases:

A woman called who couldn't sign up for the new system (typical).  I gave her guidance.  I told her that in order to sign up everyone had to have an email address.  This did not sit well with her.  (Keep in mind I am not sarcastic to the women, this would just be counter productive.  Also keep in mind this is a rare case, not the typical response.)

"Well, three of my girls don't have email." 

"Well ma'am, what I would recommend is that you go to  Yahoo! or Hotmail and sign them up for a free account.  The way the system works is that you have to have an email address in order to sign up."

"That is crap.  These girls don't want email addresses.  I don't want to sign up for email addresses.  This system is crap."

Right after this conversation, I read 1 Peter 2:4-8.

Believing in Christ is on some level a system of thought and believe.  God created a good world.  Disobedience to him frayed, mutated, or messed up the good creation.  His plan of forgiveness and redemption runs through the work of his Son, Jesus, on the cross.  A recreation begins and ends with him.  Our hearts are changed, our minds renewed.  This is the plan and system of salvation that God established. 

However in 1 Peter 2:4-8, we find that some don't accept or want to accept this system.  Some want to be really, really bad and in that way rebel against the system.  Others want to try to be really, really good so that God owns them salvation.  This is also rebelling against the system; essentially saying, "This system is crap."  In both forms, people find themselves rejecting the work of Jesus to not only change themselves from the inside out, but also all of creation, starting with the heart of man.  In that way, the foundation stone (Jesus) is rejected and he then becomes not a foundation but a "stone that causes men to stumble," one that "makes them fall."  But how precious and how good for those whose foundation is Jesus.

Church Growth Ideas

So I just read this article.  Check it out first. 

Basically what the churches are focusing on in this article is how they are perceived by the outside world. Worship services are graded on how they are perceived by nonchristians. Is it friendly? How was the sermon? And so on. 

The Bible does teach us to be conscious of how we appear to those on the outside (Titus 1:6-7, here this speaks of individuals, but also can extent to groups).  However, the problem here is that these churches are over concerned with how they appear. We need balance in everything we do. If I walk leaning too far to the left, I will fall over. If we are too concerned (and maybe only concerned) with how we appear to outsiders, we will fall. 

Instead, let's look 1 Peter 2:5, I think this speaks to part of the Church's identity. 

In the verse, we are called a holy priesthood.  Generally this means we are to:

1. Reflect God's holiness (Lev. 19:1)
2. Offer spiritual sacrifices (Heb. 13:15)
3. Intercede for man before God (Moses does this here, Exodus 32:9-14, but actually read the whole chapter)
4. Represent God before man (Matthew 5:43-48)

I think the whole idea of wanting the make the worship service experience enjoyable to outsiders falls under #4. God is loving and welcoming to sinners. He sent grace to the world! We want to be loving and welcoming as well. But is this not an overemphasis? Is this not too far? Grading a church's effectiveness, usefulness, or Presence fill-ness, basing it on what outsiders think. 

We must not be so consumed with church number growth that we forget about the other functions of the Church. We must not be so consumed with one tree that we forget about the forest.