Here is a very basic question. Have we with our theological compartmentalization complicated the simplicity of reading and obeying? Here is what I mean. We have attached theological terms to the scriptures in order to convey the work of God in Christ. However with this has come a slew of theological camps such as: Dispensationalist, Covenant Theology, New Covenant Theology, Paedo Baptist, Credo Baptist, Calvinism, Arminianism, and every other ology and ism that someone can think of. With this has risen the schisms that Paul argues against in 1 Corinthians Chapter 1:
10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I am not anti-theology as you can easily see in my writings; however, I wonder if these things have so complicated the scriptures that now only academic or the reading of academia can now interpret the scriptures? Here is what Paul says in Colossians 4:
16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.
My conviction is this. I believe the letters were simply to be read then obeyed. Am I being to simplistic or am I being too naive? I have taken the approach to simply read the epistles and then pray that God gives me the strength to simply obey. I don’t know if Romans 11 was meant to spend 3 months in. I don’t believe the early church would have taken such an approach. I don’t know if they spent much time philosophizing and theoreticalizing the word of God. I believe they simply took them as instruction and then applied it to there daily lives to live out the truth of what was being communicated. This approach turned the Roman empire upside down. Men, women and children simply lived what was written.
We now need Eschatology conferences, evangelism conferences, Calvinism or Arminian conferences, conferences on authors of books. Books interpreting books (not talking about commentaries on the bible). It is funny that we have a wealth more of information and we obey much less. It is funny that the simplicity of living out what had been done in their hearts were their goal. They met to encourage and to strengthen and to send out, and to admonish and it seems that we meet much differently. I am not saying that we aren’t to take the bible in bits and pieces but it seems that we may do this a bit much and obey a bunch less.
This would be extremely foreign to our brothers and sisters in the first few hundred years of the Church. I am not promoting a romantic view of the early church, but one thing I am convinced about is that they were a much more united front than we are and their unity was on the Word and the gathering (Acts 2:42). And our division is on the Word and the gathering (“a church building every half mile”). How that works I have no clue.
Simply put the scripture were written that the Church may understand how to worship her God in daily life. I was encouraged to read this in Colossians and then again at the end of 1 Thessolonians. Read it then obey is what I hear in both of those places. I am encouraged again that there are many who are attempting to do this. Many are seminarians and professors, who aren’t in glass castles, but are travel abroad on their own dime, visit nursing homes, who aren’t chasing the next great conference but simply have a heart to obey the words of Jesus “Go and make”. And for that I am encouraged. There are many who have gotten fed up with the program driven nature of the gathering, and desire to meet on more simple ground. A living room, some bibles and transparent lives, in order to apply what they read to each others lives. So again this isn’t a negative post, but I do want to admonish us. We are to read the bible and put it into practice, this starts with treating it as the genre it primarily is. That is instruction and all instructions are to be followed not philosophized I remember Daniel over at “Like a Muster Seed asked in all other words “why are using theological jargon that only complicates and divides”. I have wrestled with that every since and am thankful for his boldness.
I pray that God will continue to put people into my life who are challenging me with this. Who have no other purpose but simply obey the God that redeemed them and to assist others in getting to know him. Regardless of what theological camp they fall in God’s glory is all they desire and for that I am encouraged.
Thought provoking.
Yes Indeed ! A Thought Provoking essay!
great post. As we were leaving service, I went the pastor and thanked him for beign fatihful to the reading and application of the scripture. He does not go through the theological loops bells and whistles but simply allows the author of the scripture, God, through Paul or the other Apostles and Prophets to instruct us as they intended.
The church was founded on the prophets and the apostles doctrine given to them by Christ the Cheif cornerstone. Superficial statements don’t enhance our understanding but creates wedges between the pews and the pultpits. We have to make things simple and ready to obey for growth and sanctification by the word. Again thanks for the words.
Lionel,
You always come up with new challenges for your readers. This is a worthy cause indeed. For you’re helping us to rethink about God, the Bible, God’s interaction with us in the pages of Scriptures, and how we interact with each other as a community of believers.
I think these theological language including concepts, terms, and expressions, you mentioned, aim to establish a common dialogue between those who are trained to function in this manner. Don’t get me wrong? In fact, it is the seminary’s language. In some fashion, in seminary, you are taught to think like that. The sad thing is that many seminary students cannot sustain a productive conversation with another Christian or a lost person about the Bible apart from using this kind of language you referenced.
Interestingly, in my own experience (when I was attending seminary) I’ve seen students of theology divided over issues of eschatology, ecclesiology, Calvinism and Arminianism, etc. Let’s say with students in different schools such as music, Christian education or missions. So the ball continues to roll….
I reckon with you my dear brother these concepts do not do the church any good historically speaking or make Scriptures more intelligible to its readers. All they do is systematizing, conceptualizing, and compartmentalizing the Word of God in human discourse. In addition, they create small theological camps and partisans. They’re a culture in themselves in the Christian academic guild. Personally, I struggle on a daily basis to avoid those terms when speaking to people about Christ and the Bible.
On the other hand, I reason in the following way: human beings function within language and understand each other efficiently through the use of language discourse. Words in themselves are vehicles of communication. We cannot live without them. Our speech makes sense only through words. These particular theological words and concepts may not be “the problem” in themselves. It is, rather, our driven motif when employing them. For example, do we talk about “Christology” to exhibit how theologically informed and astute we are? Or do we employ the concept to assist another person grasping some complex truths about Christ such as Christ’s divine and human nature, his sinless life, incarnation, virgin conception, and his death as our substitionary atonement?
Lionel, if I were a president of a Bible school, I would hire you to teach Applied Theology. Too bad you will not be hired any time soon . I really enjoy how you see the application of Scripture in the Christian community.
CJ,
Man you really said it. Our problem is definitely not orthodoxy but orthopraxy. See, even saying it sounds complicated. Our problem is living out what we profess to believe in an effectual manner. Right on!
You hit this one clean out of the stadium. I truly think this is one of the biggest issues with modern Christianity. We have taken a simple message and made it far too hard to understand.
RC,
That is third good thing (at least I think) you have said to me! Getting soft? LOL!!!
CJ,
I am not for punting all theological terms. Things such as the Hypostatic Union, Biblical Theology, the Trinity, and all the bible terms should be used (this wasn’t exhausite) and preached. We should use the terms the Spirit used to communicate and if so we give word pictures in order for others to undestand. I am saying that sometimes we can conjure up words not for the sake of clarification but for categorization and the latter is usually in the name of establishing a camp to align ourselves with. While simultaneously we don’t obey the simplicity of the scriptures. So we can come up with a term that divides us while ignoring the clear teaching that unites us.
I also would like to say I am humbled by your gracious statement. I am scrub dude! I promise. Just trying to live for Jesus and help others along the way.
LC,
That is sweet words to my ears (or eyes). We just did a study on Worship today and John 4:24 was the verse. Our pastor killed it bro. He coined a phrase that was simple but profound. He said “From the Mountain to the Messiah”. And went on to work through the text it was lovely and convicting and rested on the person and work of Christ.
BLD,
Why do we desire Orthodoxy more than praxy? As if God is more concerned with the former? I belive they are one in the same. What about you? How did the rest of the Birthday work out for you homie?
Man this is hitting on something I have been thinking about lately. I have all of this knowledge, ideas, etc, and struggle sometimes to live out all that I know. For example, I know that homosexuality is sin, yet when the homosexual comes to my door asking for help with his needs, am I going to shut my door? How am I going to act? Am I going to run and get John MacArthur Study Bible and read this person a good verse. No. I should already know from the scriptures, what to clearly do. Awesome post.
Karsten Miller
Your topics make me consider the beam in MY eye Bro Lionel!!!
(Matt 7:3)
Good post! I sometimes observe that basic Bible preaching bears more evangelistic and discipleship “fruit” in congregations than some of my theologically precise systematizers that exegete one verse for two months trying to be like D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones. (don’t get me wrong, I benefit greatly from reading the “Dr.”)
Good food for thought.
Hey SB,
I just don’t think the way we do it they did it. My opinion.
The bible warns us especially in the latter days to take heed so that we are not deceived. The bible also warns people not to add or subtract from the word. Unfornately, this seems to be the case in many of our various translations. Therefore, as the bible also commands, we must study to show ourselves approved, rightly divided (discerning) the Word so that we are not ashamed and so that we can avoid the many deceptions. Unfornately, many as the bible speaks of have indeed been decieved by false teachers and all sorts of false doctrine. Like I have said in many other post:
PLEASE TAKE HEED THAT NOONE DECEIVES YOU!!! WE READ FROM ENGLISH TRANSLATED BIBLES!!! IF YOU DO SOME COMPARISONS BETWEEN SOME OF THE MORE COMMON TRANSLATIONS YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THAT THEY CONTRADICT IN SOME MINOR AND SOME NOT SO MINOR WORD TRANSLATIONS. WE MUST STUDY AND NOT JUST TAKE OUR TRANSLATIONS AT FACE VALUE ALONE!!
And of course we must continue to act out on what we are convicted on. As the bible clearly states that everyone must be convinced in their own minds. -Rom 14
Jon Paden
One fnal thought from my last post. Remember Paul says that he did not cease warning the brethren day and night for 3 yrs of the coming false teachers/doctrines that were entering into the churches during His time and afterward. And this was at a time when they had the original manuscripts and read and understood the language in which it was given. Now here we are approx. 2000 yrs later with probably hundreds of different translations and with hundreds of thousands of false teachers infiltrating many of the church gatherings. Were we not also at one time deceived on several topics before. The more we apply ourselves to study through prayer the more we are able to dicern God’s truth from men’s traditions.
Jon Paden
One thing that makes our God so amazing is that He is simple enough to be understood by those of us at the lowest levels of intelligence. Even people with severe downs syndrome can know to trust Him. God is also complex enough to keep the most intelligent among us astonished with infinite levels of beautiful detail. He’s like a Mandelbrot fractal in this way. You can back way out and see the gingerbread man. You can zoom in infinitely and see incredible patterns along the edges. The problem with many of us gifted with great intelligence is that that we tend to become haughty and dismiss the simple and place too much weight on the complex. Another metaphor is that of the circle. too many of us stand at the edge of the circle debating over what is in the circle and what is out of the circle instead of leaving the edge and seeking the heart of God at the center of the circle.