The Hidden Power of Doctrinal Differences

I was thinking recently about something that John Piper said, Faith is the true measure of the value of self (Romans 12:3) because the essence of faith is that it looks away from self to Christ and treasures Him as infinitely valuable. God assigns faith in different proportions to his people because it produces humble interdependence with all of us serving and being served, which leads to a unity in diversity that is more difficult and more beautiful and more God-glorifying than if we all had the same degree of faith.”

As I thought about this I thought about the doctrinal diversity within Christianity (all those denominations) and even more, about the diversity within my own sphere of influence, and I realized that the same principle that Piper has applied to faith applies to the doctrinal diversity within the Christian community. Divergent doctrinal perspectives (within a biblical framework) are not only acceptable, they are healthy and beneficial.

They stretch us; they teach us humility and patience; they call for us to love those who love our Lord and yet with whom we disagree. Now don’t misunderstand me. There is only one Jesus, one Gospel, and one “spirit” characterizing and defining Christianity (2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6-8) and these elemental truths must be affirmed and upheld with great fervor (Jude 3).

But beyond that there is room to disagree, perhaps even a need to disagree, and I doubt we are wise if we seek to stamp out conflicting perspectives in an supposed “spiritual” attempt to bring about some kind of “enforced” conformity or unanimity. Being a member of a Christian community where everyone agrees, or is excepted to agree, might seem like a blessing, or even a necessity. But upon reflection I suspect it isn’t.

It doesn’t allow for the development of that special kind of Christ-like acceptance and love which grows uniquely within a family of people with divergent doctrinal understandings and yet who have a common love for Christ. In a sense, doctrinal diversity reminds us of the necessity to keep focusing on the centrality of Jesus. HE is our life. HE is our righteousness, holiness and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).

It is IN HIM that are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We are "complete" in Him (Colossians 2:3; 2:10). Possessing “a unity in diversity...is more difficult and more beautiful and more God-glorifying” than if we all had identical doctrinal perspectives.

This is just a thought, but one which I think is worth reflecting upon, and if appropriate, applying in our relationships with others in God’s family with whom we might disagree. 

I Love This Poem!

My Season 

by Carol Lynn Pearson

Seeing the tree

Beneath a baptism of snow,

You may call her barren.

But is it so?

And for all your watchings

On a March night

When the twigs seem dark

And the bark

Feels cold to your hand --

Can you call her fruitless

And so leave?

She smiles,

Calm in the station

Of seasons

And in the ordination

Of sun, and sap, and spring.

As for me?

You turn away,

Impatient with the promises you've seen.

But -- inside I fill

And pulse and flow

With the urgency of green.

I've a season

Like the tree.

And all your

Faithless doubts

Will not destroy

The rising spring

In me.

FORMATION in the information age

I realized this afternoon that in a significant way most of
my life’s interactions with the Scripture have revolved
around gaining information. I have read the Bible to gain
the facts about doctrine or history or one thing or another.
I was reading Acts 25:15 tonight and my eyes kind of played
a trick on me and for some reason I saw inFORMATION and I
remembered we are not supposed to read the Bible for
information, we are to read it for FORMATION. It is a tool
to be used to shape our soul. I wonder if this reading for
information instead of reading for formation is why it is so
easy to be “ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge
of the truth?” (2 Tim 3:7)

A surprising discovery with interesting implications.

I preached a sermon series on love back when I was a pastor. It was one of the more difficult sermon series to deliver, not because of the difficulty of preparing and preaching it, but rather because its content was not well demonstrated in my own personal life. It's hard to preach to yourself in public.

One of the things I stumbled upon as I put the first sermon together was that the idea of the critical nature of love is not unique to Christianity. It is a core thought in every one of the world's major religions. I remember researching 21 different religions and finding that to be true. Here are expressions of what we call the Golden Rule in a few of the world's major religions. Many of these religions predate Christianity.

CHRISTIANITY:
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:1)

BUDDHISM:
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5,1)

CONFUCIANISM:
Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state. (Analects 12:2)

HINDUISM:
This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you. (Mahabharata 5,1517)

ISLAM:
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. (Sunnah)

JUDAISM:
What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. (Talmud, Shabbat 3id)

TAOISM:
Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.
(Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien)

ZOROASTRIANISM:
That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself. (Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5)

One of the startling things this discovery reveals is that any follower of one of these non-Christian religions who sincerely seeks to keep this tenant of their faith is at the same time sincerely seeking to follow the core expression of the Christian religion! Gal. 5:14 For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others 


What are the implications here??

Good advice from the Presbyterians to the Baptists

I am reading the history of the Presbyterians in the United States and came across a great quote that I wish I had been taught in my Baptist schooling.

The Presbyterians were split into two groups (north/south) sort of like the Baptists and were working to reunite, but they were divided over several issues which they needed to come to some kind of agreement upon. As they worked together to resolve their differences (1982-1983) they established "guidelines" for interpreting the Scripture as they sought guidance from it. These guidelines were published by the reunited PC (USA) in 1992. There were eight guidelines. Here is the one that especially caught my attention:

"While a particular text may name a subject with which we are also concerned in the present, the assumption should not be immediately made that the contemporary subject is the same as that addressed in the biblical text or that the circumstances and conditions of the biblical writer and modern interpreter are similar."

Would to God more people realized how critical that guideline is! Well meaning people have ignored or neglected it and caused such terrible errors and misunderstandings!

A Hell of a Problem

God loves diversity (i.e., snowflakes; flora, fauna, etc.) therefore it should not surprise us that Christianity is also a religion of great diversity encompassing many differing beliefs and convictions. Wikipedia says there are approximately 38,000 different Christian denominations!

I have come to believe divergent doctrinal perspectives (within a biblical framework) are not only acceptable—they are healthy and beneficial. They enable us to learn from each other and to develop richer love and stronger patience. Nevertheless, as I have grown older I have come to have serious philosophical difficulties with certain fundamental doctrines of traditional Christianity because I believe that reason is often in profound conflict with them. 

One of the most serious examples of this conflict is the doctrine of hell. As Gordon MacDonald says, Hell is “a hell of a problem.” It seems to me that most Christians have misunderstood (or ignored) the implications of a loving God sending billions of people (most of mankind?) to a place of conscious never ending torment. Reconciling the horrors of an eternal hell with the doctrine of a benevolent God is not just difficult, in my opinion, it is impossible.

The majority of Christians believe hell is a place of eternal divine retribution. As I have thought about this idea and looked at the pertinent Scripture I have come to believe a reasonable and biblically sound case can be made that hell is a temporary place designed for human (and angelic?) rehabilitation. Hell exits! It would be very wise to avoid it! But it well may not exist for the commonly accepted purpose or the usually assumed duration.

The Bible has many verses that seem to indicate that the saving work of Christ will result in the redemption of the entire cosmos. Here are just a few of them:

Rom. 5:18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.

1Cor. 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Col. 1:19-20 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus Christ) and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Phil. 2:9-11 Therefore God exalted him (Jesus Christ) to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Eph. 1:9 And he (God) made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

If these verses (and many others like them) mean what they seem to say then hell can not be a place of eternal retribution.

Now there ARE other verses which (seem) to say that hell is both retributive and eternal and most theologians interpret “my” verses in the light of “their” verses. My suggestion is that “their” verses be interpreted in the light of mine!

When it comes down to an eternal retributive or a temporary rehabilitative position on hell which position do you think…

has the strongest view of God’s love?

portrays the greatest victory over evil?

lifts the atoning work of Jesus Christ to the highest level?

makes grace the most amazing?

inspires the greatest worship and love of God?

presents the less confusing picture of God’s wrath?

inspires the most hope in the human heart?

I think the answer is obvious.

Loving as He Loved

Are you ever saddened by the shallowness of your love for some people? I am.

It seems to me that many Christians fail to love well.  Instead we judge (or even hate) because we have never made an effort to know and understand.  This is especially true when it comes to loving people who disagree with us or who live in ways we feel are unbecoming or unacceptable.  Too much Christian love is a “selective love” and an inadequate reflection of Christ's love.

In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis says, 

 If you are a poor creature--poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels--saddled, by no choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion--nagged day in and day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends--He (God) knows all about it.  You are one of the poor whom He blessed.  He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive.  Keep on.  Do what you can.  One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps sooner than that) He will fling it on the scrap heap and give you a new one.  And then you may astonish us all--not least yourself: for you have learned your driving in a hard school. 

It is far too easy for us to assign people to hell who have spent their lives trying to climb out of it because our judgments are not based on knowledge, but on ignorance and prejudice.  I have found that the more I know someone, the more difficult it is for me to judge them, and the easier it is for me to extend to them the same love and grace that God has extended to me.

Everyone fights hidden demons and needs just as much (or more) love and grace as we do. Understanding that should make it easier to keep the Lord's command.  My command is this:  love each other as I have loved you (John 13:34).