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Thursday, April 17, 2014

Pastoral Ponderings ~ Words that Divide and the Word that Unites

          One of the perplexing characteristics of the Christian Church is why so many groups and denominations all claim to live by the Bible, and yet think it says so many contradictory things. Whether it is Calvinists and Arminians arguing over issues of God’s freedom of will, Protestants and Seventh Day Adventists arguing over which day of the week is the Christian Sabbath, or Baptists and Pentecostals arguing over spiritual gifts, the Bible simply couldn’t be given by divine inspiration and still be open to so many variations of interpretation. That, of course, does not mean there is a problem with the divine inspiration of the Scriptures!

          In this post, I would like to identify some of the reasons we have so many disagreements. It has to do with how we are “handling the word of truth”.[1] Since Paul and the other apostles were already dealing with the mishandling of God’s word in the first century, it is no surprise that we are still facing such things today.        Here are a few illustrations of the wrong ways to handle God’s word, followed by a couple of illustrations of the right way of thinking of God’s word.

Domino Theology

          Domino theology is a way of thinking of those doctrines that are based on one premise leading to another. If the first thing is true, then this is true, and if that was true, than this next thing is true, and eventually there is a grand conclusion that comes out of all these things that are true because the previous thing is true. However, in domino theology, the conclusion is wrong because the premise was wrong, or some of the earliest information in the series was wrong.

          Many of the end-times prophecy schemes rely on this domino method. If they can convince us that a first belief is true, it can then mean a whole bunch of other things are true, even though none of them are stated in Scripture. Issues of immorality can be changed to morality approved by God simply by changing the meaning of Genesis 1. By the time the last domino falls, David and Jonathan are homosexuals, Ruth and Naomi are lesbians, and God relied on random evolutionary forces to come up with the amazingly complex world we see today.

          Thankfully, we don’t need to believe something that appears to be in the Bible only if we believe a premise that is not declared by the Bible. God’s word speaks for itself, and it speaks much clearer than domino theologians want us to believe.

Mosaic Theology

          By this I do not mean the theology of Moses, but a theology that is illustrated by creating a mosaic picture. Mosaics are made by taking broken pieces of glass, or tile, organizing them into colors and patterns that make a picture that was never contained in any of the original glasses or tiles.

          The mosaic theology method of false teaching begins and ends with Scripture. However, it is not Scripture left in its context, accepting the message it was giving as originally revealed. It is Scripture taken out of context, one Scripture from here, another from there, joined together in themes and ideas that sound or look good together. The result is a “picture” that is made of Scripture, but Scripture broken into bits and pieces to communicate something quite different from what the Scriptures say in context

          Doctrinal positions like the prosperity gospel, or observing select portions of Old Testament law, do use Scripture to build their statements of belief. However, these are like breaking Scripture up into little bits and pieces that, when put together in a brand new way, a way that contradicts specific teachings of the new covenant, it still looks like a “scriptural” way of handling Scripture.

          Thankfully, we are not called to follow positions that can only be seen when Scripture is divided up and reorganized into manmade pictures. The flow of Scripture from beginning to end answers the false teachings that come about through treating Scripture as though it is nothing more than a mosaic-kit handed to the church to organize in whatever patterns and designs meet our fancy.

Ransom Note Theology

          To avoid detection based on handwriting, a kidnapper will take a pile of newspapers and cut out the words that can be pasted on a piece of paper to create a ransom note. They can take words out of articles that have nothing to do with kidnapping, ransoms, or money, and organize those words into a terrifying message that someone’s loved one has been kidnapped, and will only be returned alive if the right amount of money is paid in the right kind of way.

          While mosaic theology focuses on how people come up with the big pictures of things like the prosperity gospel, or cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Ransom Note theology refers more to those little quips and statements that people throw out there that just don’t line up with Scripture, even though the person may have basically sound doctrine in the larger scheme of things.

          When people do this with their beliefs about God, they end up with things like, “God helps those who help themselves,” or, “God will never give me more than I can handle.” None of these are true, but all those words can be cut out of the Bible and pasted into those sentences.

          Thankfully, looking up the Scriptures in question, and reading them in context, will clarify the way these words of God have been reorganized to give people a distorted understanding of what he said.

          Now, on the positive side of things, here are a couple of illustrations of how we can properly handle the word of God.

Jig-saw Puzzle Theology

          This theology follows Paul’s admonition to Titus that we “teach what accords with sound doctrine”.[2] In a sense, we could say that Scripture is the picture on the front of the box, showing us what our theology must look like. The puzzle pieces are the life experiences we encounter where we must come to a right understanding of how to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.[3] We cannot organize the pieces into a mosaic so that we have created a picture that uses all the pieces, but ends up looking quite different from what is on the front of the box. Neither can we make a long row of pieces organized after the colors of the spectrum flowing from one to the next, or organized from lightest to darkest, or how all the pieces would flow between the primary colors.

          Instead, if believers would gather together with a determination to see the picture that is in God’s word, and put whatever pieces of the puzzle we are dealing with in their proper places, throwing off any ideas that do not match the picture, we would find that we are able to come to far more unity than other methods allow.

Plumbline Theology

          This Theology is based on the desire to have every doctrine of belief measured by the whole counsel of God so that it is pure and undefiled by man’s reasoning. While this means fewer doctrinal positions than others come up with, there is the assurance that faith is based on the Scriptures, in their context, measuring every thought by the whole counsel of God, keeping everything in its place, and letting our beliefs come out of the way God has put his word together.

          It is this plumbline theology that would enable Paul to reach the end of his life with the declaration: “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.[4]

          This is important for us to understand because Paul had once thought that he excelled in his theology, believing that there was no way that this Jesus of Nazareth qualified as the Messiah, hence he went around pumping up his own righteousness by persecuting the Church. However, once Jesus confronted him, converted him, and commissioned him to preach this gospel of the kingdom, Paul finished his life declaring “the whole counsel of God.” He did not teach about God from the old covenant alone, but taught about how Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, gave us a righteousness that was by faith in his name, and commissioned the church to grow and flourish throughout the world, and throughout the generations of this last hour.

          While these are only illustrations to help us see what divides the church, and what would unite us, my challenge to all believers is to humble ourselves and let the Holy Spirit examine us, test us, and purify us in our doctrine. The reason that there are so many differences among professing Christians includes this problem of too many ways of treating the Scriptures.

          I present these insights in line with Paul’s exhortation to pastors: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”[5] I pray that those who are more concerned about “rightly handling the word of truth” than winning a debate over man-centered opinions on doctrine, will band together in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace,[6] seeking to be those worshipers who worship in both “spirit and truth”,[7] and so obey the Scripture (in context) that we are to “speak the truth in love”,[8] and so build up the body of Christ.

          While I cannot prove that this post is written in love, I present it in the hope that it will lead us to a purified understanding of the truth, that must be covered with love in order to be true!

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)


[1] II Timothy 2:15
[2] Titus 2:1
[3] Matthew 4:4
[4] Acts 20:26-27
[5] II Timothy 2:15
[6] Ephesians 4:3
[7] John 4:23-24
[8] Ephesians 4:15

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