There comes a point in the life of a sincere follower of Christ when they realize where they stand in history and that, yes, there are indeed evil forces in the world that seek to twist and ultimately destroy the Gospel message.
And because of that, such forces, however they appear, must be resisted. While everyone has their own journey of faith, this realization usually occurs in a weighty moment or series of moments. Learning how to discern the holy from the profane, to distinguish truth from falsehood, is a must. There is no way around it. There really is a cost to following Jesus. False teaching, false prophets, false Christs…they’re all a thing, and the New Testament writers don’t mince words about it.
There’s a reason Scripture warns about them repeatedly throughout the Gospels and Epistles. And yet, among some Christians, resisting what is false becomes an obsession to the point where an unbearable contentiousness pervades and gives rise to what I have referred to in a previous essay as the “idol of perfect theology.” It is this idol which, I believe, has partially fueled the rise of the “exvangelicals” who are today among those counted as religious “nones.” The pernicious deception of this idol has not been examined nearly enough, in my view, because of the otherwise noble impulses that undergird it.
Before I get too deep into this, let’s establish a few basics and revisit some history in all of its messiness.
In fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies throughout the Old Testament, Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. His life and ministry is recorded in the Gospels. As a sincere Christian, I consider his crucifixion and resurrection as the most important events in human history. He not only paid the ultimate price for sin on the cross, he defeated it, so much so that not even death could hold him down. He was supernaturally raised from the dead, appeared to his followers, and then ascended. Human flesh entered the Godhead! He’s now seated at the right hand of the Father, the place of authority where he now intercedes for us. Mere weeks later, the Church as we know it, was born.
Gathered in the Upper Room during the Feast of Shavuot (also known as the Feast of Weeks), the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, was poured out on those gathered there. The Good News of the Gospel is not just that God gave His Son, but at Pentecost He also gave His Spirit, by whose indwelling believers in Jesus are enabled to live a holy life and advance the Kingdom.
As is recorded in the book of Acts, we read that the church was “of one heart and mind.” We also read that in this time there was great persecution of the earliest followers of the Way, those who believed in Jesus. Many were killed in brutal fashion.. But despite all of that, the Church continued to grow and multiply. In fact, one of its chief persecutors, Saul who became Paul, wound up penning a third of the New Testament.
And then, conflict arose. Ah, the human condition. It always bites us in the backside time and time again. Yes, even people on the resurrection side of the cross still battle fallenness. In one instance, Paul rebuked Peter sharply (see Galatian 2:11-12). Differing factions of believers had issues, and the church ran into problems. In Acts 15:28-29, on one such disputed issue, it was said that as they worked out a solution as “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”
Years later the canon of Scripture closed. Letters correcting problems from the apostles (mainly Paul) were circulated to all the churches in Asia Minor, Italy, and Greece.
And then the next 1700 years of history, frequently marked with conflict and wars and fights and disputes.
Catholics and Eastern Orthodox say Holy Tradition is the standard, though they disagree about the origins. The Great (East-West) Schism in 1054. The Protestant Reformation erupted in 1517, most notably when Martin Luther affixed his 95 theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
There’s the English Reformation, and later the Wesleyan brothers who pioneered what would become known as “Methodism” within the Church of England. The 1906 Azusa Street Revival that gave birth to American Pentecostalism, and decades later, the charismatic movement in the 1970s. There was a resurgence of Reformed theology in the early 2000s. And let’s not be West-centric here. There’s also the East African revival and the revival on the Korean peninsula in 1907. And so much more. All this to say, God has been and is at work all over the earth. And Jesus will return in glory though even He doesn’t know the day nor the hour (Matthew 24:26).
Finding Jesus in the midst of this is dizzying. Even amid all of the riffraff of difficult personalities, religious conflict, and church hurt, King Jesus still shows up and changes lives. History is certainly bumpy and brutal at times, but the Kingdom the Lord inaugurated remains at hand and it has never stopped advancing. He continues to do wondrous works all over the earth.
What I’ve described above is very basic Christianity 101 and some rudimentary history..
But to return to my earlier point, no serious student of Scripture can gloss over the New Testament and say that false teaching is no big deal. It’s sobering, really. Paul repeatedly stressed the importance of being watchful. Yet watchfulness can go awry. Is there a way to be of “one heart and mind” while having varying views on theological matters without undermining the Gospel to the point where it is distorted beyond recognition?
What sincere person who earnestly desires to live his or her life with the recognition that Jesus is Lord of all and that they need Him for salvation, would want to willfully distort Scripture? Who, other than a money-grubbing narcissistic sociopath with truly sinister motives, really wants to be a cult leader or false teacher?
The more I think about it, the more insidious I realize it is.
Many evangelicals, God bless them, possess a noble impulse to resist false teaching. Many genuinely want to be as obedient as they can be to Scripture. For many, their hearts really are in the right place.
But isn't it just like the Enemy to take good, honorable motives and twist them into a heavy burden? What often starts out as diligent watchfulness winds up as neurotic paranoia. The most destructive of lies always seem to have some degree of truth mixed into them.
When I see a certain kind of Christian who is so obsessed with having God and how He works all figured out and systematized in a watertight fashion, I feel a combination of sadness, frustration, and disgust. It’s as though they think they must be so precise with their doctrine to the point almost as though they treat theology like a highly complex math problem for which he need the most truthful accuracy or the entire world will explode because of the error. I just want to shake them by the shoulders and ask them: “Who put this insane amount of pressure on you? Who told you that you had to have this ironed out so neatly, with every doctrinal i dotted and philosophical t crossed?”
For Western Christians, much of this pressure flows out from the philosophy and standards of the European Enlightenment, but many don’t even realize it. There’s a kind of prideful post-Enlightenment construct, one that demands that everyone adhere to this kind of meticulous, error-free ethos.
In his seminal book that was deeply critical of modern culture, Ideas Have Consequences, Richard Weaver maintained that the “scientists have given [modern man] the impression that there is nothing he cannot know, and false propagandists have told him that there is nothing he cannot have.”
The lie of what the modernists have perpetuated is that “science” provides the answers to all things, indeed, that everything we can know has a scientific explanation. If we haven’t discovered it yet, it is guaranteed that science will one day find the answer.
Many sincere Christians in the modern era take this same approach but instead of science providing all the answers, they insist that the Bible does. It’s true that the Bible is inexhaustible and full of applicable truths. The wealth of wisdom in the pages of God’s Word cannot be surpassed.
And the Holy Bible, at base, reveals who God is. It is infallible, inerrant, authoritative, God-breathed, and contains all things necessary for salvation. But, and this is going to sound sacreligious to some, but the Bible does not promise us the fullness of all knowledge.
The “idol of perfect theology,” as I’m labeling it here, is based on a rationalist philosophy that is mixed with the Christian faith. But it’s a dreadful combination. Jesus never promised we'd ever attain this illustrious perfection. Even the most well-read of biblical scholars, no matter how many credentials and years of study they have under their belt, still “see through a glass darkly,”as the Apostle Paul put in 1 Corinthians 13:12.
And “seeing through a glass darkly”, though not an excuse to be intellectually lazy, means it not only is OK to not have it all figured out, but that we can’t expect to ever see with the kind of clarity the modernists demand we see. What we can see – the light that we have been given – we must hold fast to unapologetically. And, quite obviously, seeing through a glass darkly also doesn’t give anyone a license to embrace false teaching or to distort what has been revealed.
Yes, cling to biblical truth. Yes, love, cherish, savor, and study the Word of God. And yes, resist false teaching and what God has clearly called sin with as much gusto and determination as you can muster.
But we do not, I repeat, do not, have to have perfect theology to be theologically orthodox. Jesus, who said we must become like little children (Matthew 18:2-5) or we wouldn’t enter the Kingdom, does not require it. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He doesn’t want you carrying a scrupulous, post-Enlightenment religious burden you were never meant to carry.
Give me Jesus, the Light of the World, over the Enlightenment and its ungodly psychological pressures any day of the week. And twice on Sunday.
Nice historical synopsis and love the Weaver quote. You've wrestled leviathan here, and having dropped my theological idol at Jesus' feet I can now say, " Preach, sister!"
One of the best "History of Christianity" lessons I've ever read - Thank you! Satan's laughing his head off at folks who are in search of the perfect theology. The "search" truly becomes their "idol." Great post!