No Method To The Madness (Cont.)

The church today has its own theological spin-doctors and religious hucksters bent more toward the prize of a following than the discipline of truth.  And so we have mainstreamed the phrase “our common brotherhood in Christ,” (referred to in the previous article) content with the feeling that it sounds so good.  Just don’t scratch thru the surface of it though because there’s practically nothing underneath such  empty religious lingo.  “Our common brotherhood in Christ” must be based on a solid biblical premise.  A premise that far exceeds the, “I’m a Christian, you’re a Christian let’s just get along” mentality.  To extricate Christian unity from the imperatives of scripture is like trying to drive a car without a highway.  True biblical unity requires more than popular clichés.  It requires a very clear grasp of New Testament church standards and a surrender to their authority.  Until that is done, we delude ourselves in thinking that more will ever come of so little.

Now back to the gentleman in my living room discussed in the last article. “It’s our beliefs about scripture that have divided us”,he explained, “focusing on them will only produce more of the same.”  Warning!  It’s reasoning like this that has hoodwinked so much of the western Christian church today into the folly of doctrinal homicide.  Destroying so many of the doctrines (Note! If you have a problem with that word “doctrine” I’m surprised you’ve made it this far.) that have historically made the church great.  Not only does the biblical doctrine of New Testament unity lay helplessly bleeding on the ground so also do many others, and the number is increasing all the time.  Baptism by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ, salvation thru repentance and conversion, separation from the world and the pursuit of purity, the true nature and purpose of grace, dying to self, praying in the spirit, forsaking sin, loving the Word of God and highlighting the importance of understanding it – are just a few of the many New Testament doctrines that have faced the firing squad and lay bleeding in the dirt!  The atrocity of all this is that many go on seemingly oblivious to this whole tragic affair.  Where are the Martin Luthers crying “Sola Scriptura,” by scripture only?  Where are the John Husse’s, the Savanarola’s and other great reformers of Christian history who called the church back to biblical integrity.  The western Christian church is dying for lack of reformation and if it doesn’t get it soon, judgment is in the wings.

     Anyway let’s consider this statement posed to me.  Is it true that our beliefs about scripture have divided us and that focusing on them will only produce more division?  A number of years ago I organized a meeting of several local pastors to discuss the necessity of church wide repentance and reformation.  At one of those gatherings a pastor said, “If these meetings are about discussing doctrine then I will not be a part of them.”  Here’s the problem.  The word doctrine has become a push button term blamed for so much of the disunity in the church.  It’s almost like crying fire in a crowded building.  The word creates a frenzy.  But “doctrine” is not the problem.  As will be shown later, it is a central part of the solution.  The word “doctrine” is not an ugly creature from the black lagoon.  In the New Testament it simply meant teaching.  It defines our beliefs.  The fault of division doesn’t lie with an innocent term.  It lies with our attitudes toward it.  The apostle Paul exhorted Timothy, “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation and doctrine.” (I Tim. 4:13) and to Titus he wrote, “But as for you speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). How is it that the doctrinal beliefs of the New Testament Church were so central to their amazing unity, while today beliefs are looked on as such a threat.  Let me repeat that, How is it that the doctrinal beliefs of the New Testament Church were so central to their amazing unity, while today beliefs (doctrines) are looked on as such a threat?  Perhaps it would help if today’s church would spend a little more time in scripture studying the building blocks of church unity before sounding off about the deficits of emphasizing our beliefs.  Three things are important when it comes to the role of beliefs in unity – Attitude, Attitude, Attitude and not necessarily in that order! Beliefs cause division for one reason and one reason only.  People are either to arrogant and closed minded to admit they might be wrong, or they simply do not understand what they are doing.  Well, of course I prefer to believe the latter.  But the fact is we have propagated a church system that thrives on independence and we don’t want to jeopardize it by dealing with the schismatic attitudes that promote it.  It’s far easier and a lot less embarrassing to go after our favorite whipping boy “doctrinal beliefs”, than to face the rotten attitudes that cause what is innocent to suffer for what is guilty.  Dealing with beliefs does not promote division.  People promote division by failing to deal with the schismatic attitudes behind their beliefs.  This whole thing is really a no brainer.  You can’t take a people divided into a variety of different sects, all of whom are convinced they’re right and expect them to act as though they are one.  Truth is not sectarian.  It doesn’t contradict itself.  There is no possible way to divide biblical truth into opposing view points and still say they all represent the truth.  If Unity is going to happen then our differences have got to be brought to the table of discussion in what Paul calls “the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:1-2).  The peace of the current church system is nothing more than “détente.”  A spiritual cold war that smolders with animosity.  We need to rise above all our petty sectarian politics and recognize that walls, names, creeds and numbers games do not spell unity to the general public and definitely don’t spell unity in the courtroom of heaven.  More next article..

Luther Canon

Sola Scriptura