Generous Orthodoxy Leads to Loss of Mission

Read this article tonight:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/tim-suttle/will-evangelicalism-last_b_2727883.html

Two troubling paragraphs:

"Mission fosters the capacious orthodoxy necessary for us to stick together. Mission allows for the generous diversity of thought which is essential to a healthy evangelical gene pool. Biologists teach us the less diverse the gene pool, the more at-risk the species. The more homogeneous our beliefs become the less likely evangelicals are to survive. We need a rich, diverse orthodoxy. As the evangelical truth-police work to silence all minority reports, they are actually working against the overall health of the tribe.

Those who wish to functionally excommunicate Rob Bell and others like him are alienating the very Christians who promise to provide the kind of theological diversity essential to our healthy future. We should be welcoming Bell's voice, not silencing it. If evangelicals have a future together, it will not be the way of those who cry "heresy" and let slip the dogs of war. It will be with those who unite around mission and prefer a rich theological landscape."

The Bible and orthodoxy are not something that needs a diversity. It is not acceptable or compatible to say that 'everyone gets into heaven' as Bell does, and what Jesus says in John 6:37-40: "³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. ³⁸ ForI have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Jesus is quite exclusive. He only permits into heaven, those He has called.

His biodiversity argument doesn't make any sense at all. God spent the entire Old Testament calling out his people to separate them from the diverse orthodoxy around them. Jesus carried that torch further in His ministry showing how the religious elite had perverted God's message of grace.

The second paragraph doesn't make any sense compared to Jesus and Paul's in the New Testament. Both of them fought for orthodoxy continuously. Jesus didn't 'generously diversify' His message to include the religious elite's view of works and hereditary based salvation. Paul opposed Peter in front of a group of church leaders in Galatia when Peter tried to act like a Judizer and put salvific value in circumcision. 

Both of these paragraphs highlight what my own church so often promotes: "Let's spend our energies helping God restore the earth. This is our most important goal." I would argue, the Bible describe's God's most important goal as giving Him glory and enjoying Him forever. We do this best when we do as His Son called us to do, and that's to make disciples from here to the nations. Disciples who individually dedicate themselves to Christ as Lord of their life, and then influence the area around them with His light to draw others to saving faith. 

Daily Bible Reading 1/2/2012

Some friends and I are trying to read through the Bible this year. I'll be posting comments I make on the passages I'm reading as I read them. I'm following the One Year Bible Reading Plan where you jump around and get a passage of OT, NT, Psalms, and Proverbs.

Gen. 3 always catches me.

1) Eve makes up her own religion in Gen. 3:3. She add's a prohibition of touching to God's command in Gen. 2:16-17 not to eat. We are the same way, at least I am. I produce new rules to relate to God in an effort to 'protect' myself from wrong doing. When I add to God's law, I change what He, in His perfection, has laid forth, and it leads me to eventual ruin like it did Eve.

2) Eve sort of works her way up to the sin in Gen. 3:6. She sees its good for food, that it looks good, and that it will make her wise, and then she dives in. Aren't we the same way? Don't we see a sin and justify it to ourselves slowly but surly to assuage the pain of the sin we our flesh desires us to commit?

3) Adam does nothing to defend his Wife from sin in Gen 3:6. Do I do anything to help my wife? I mean I try to set a good example, but it's not that great. And how do I defend her without being over-bearing and nagging? We don't do any Bible study together or pray together. I'm sure I drop the ball in many other relationships as well in helping to protect my loved ones from sin.

4) God is so merciful to them in Gen. 3:9-24. God promised in Gen. 2, that He would kill them if they ate of the tree. And yet he mercifully doesn't kill them, and instead talks to them. He of course lays out consequences for their actions, but even in the laying of consequences He provides the 'proto-evangelion', the first prophecy of Christ. There is an implied slaying of an animal in Gen 3:21 to make skins to cover their nakedness which does a much better job than the fig leaves they had made for themselves in Gen. 3:7. Another fore-taste of Christ's infinitely better covering of our sins. And He prevents us from living forever in a tainted sinful flesh. I couldn't bear permanent life associated with Sin. He is so kind to us despite ours and our forebears complete lack of deserving. (english major's toss some help to a nerd's poor english on that last phrase...)

Matt. 3:1-6 is a striking display of the call to repent and its affect on people. Such that the call would drive them into the wilderness to be cleansed. Do I have the strength to call people to repent, and help lead them to Christ?

Psalm 2 is such a scary warning of false belief. I pray those who have made new years resolutions have not resolved to oppose God. It will not go well with them.

Prov. 1:7. Being in Afghanistan was a big maturation change for me. I realized while I was there, that if I wanted to become a leader it was time to pick up that mantle and stop messing around. Actually it was John Snow who taught me to 'put the boy aside'. Given that charge, I want to be a wise leader. And to do so, I must fear the Lord above all.

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 8

1 Peter 1: 22 - 25 -- Lastly as a result of the Gospel and our salvation, we are to serve others. Why? Because if the point of salvation was merely to redeem us, then God would take us home as soon as we are saved. Instead it is our role to share the gospel with others who don’t know Him. How do we get ourselves heard? By serving them. Just as our Lord did. He did miracles and served even those who were outside of His normal community, so that their hearts would be softened to His message of grace. We shouldn’t be serving out of a desire merely to elevate someone’s socioeconomic status. Our goal in service is to preach the good news of new birth. We must tell people that they, like us, are sinners and desperately need the blood of Christ to pay off the debt that we owe to God as a result of that sin. We must tell them that they not only have to intellectually understand this information, but they must repent and believe it so that they can be born again. This is the good news. This is the greatest news ever heard by man. Praise to our Lord for providing this amazing news to us.

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 7

1 Peter 1:20 - 21 -- We are believers in Christ because not only did He die for us, but His sacrifice was ruled acceptable to the Father. How do we know it was acceptable? That it was an effective payment for the debt owed? Because Christ was raised from the dead. Death could not hold Him! What amazing wonderful good news. We can inherit that same perpetual life, raised from the dead as it were, ourselves because of the work of Christ. Look at the evidence of the empty tomb. Believe that it’s barren status is the receipt that proves Christ’s redeeming work was and still is effective. And the best part is that we get to give glory to God as a result of His work. We don’t have to have any focus on ourselves, but instead get to spend eternity praising Him and lifting Him up. What a privilege that the creator God of time and space would permit our eternal praise to Him. What great glorious news!!!

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 6

1 Peter 1:17 - 19 -- Remember to fear the Lord God who knows what you have done. It’s not like you can hide your sin from Him. Seek Him and His forgiveness. If you are already saved, don’t forget that your salvation applies to your sins even after your conversion. It’s so common to forget who we are and our new lives and to turn back to our works-righteous ways. Remember that we were redeemed with something so much more precious than mere silver or gold. We were redeemed or bought back to the Lord’s family by the most precious blood of Christ Himself. We are not redeemed by the futile way of works righteousness that our man- made religion has set before us as supposedly effective. Don’t turn back to that old way. Don’t just follow your fathers’ ways blindly. Don’t return to that body of death. Remember it was with
precious blood. From the lamb, unblemished and spotless. The perfect God-Man sacrifice that perfectly represents us and propitiates the Father’s wrath. This blood of the ever living Christ.

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 5

1 Peter 1:13-16 -- Holiness is the call for those who have been saved. This is part of our response to the offer of grace. This is the repentance part of ‘repent and believe’ that Christ calls us to in response to His offer of His Lordship and the gospel. We are not to try and be perfect prior to our salvation. Nor are we to work our way into His good graces. Instead, after we are saved we are to be Holy as He is Holy. This is a great test to see if you are saved/born again or not. If you don’t have a desire to be Holy because of the Spirit’s residence in you, then you probably don’t have the Spirit and are not born again. If you’re not born again, then please today seek the Lord and believe in the effectiveness of Christ’s sacrifice for your sins, which you have committed in treason against God who rightly judges you guilty of those sins.

1 Peter 1 Gospel Moment 4

1 Peter 1:10 - 12 -- Even the prophets in the Old Testament prophesied of the grace that was to come to us. This grace is unmerited favor, or put another way it’s a free gift. I mean we’re talking about the most precious substance in the universe, the blood of Jesus, poured out for us. Just think the 5 liters of blood in Christ’s human body was sufficient to cover over the sins of all who have been saved before and after His death. What a small volume to cover such a large number of people. This blood that God set out to spend on us for the propitiation of His wrath has to be supremely valuable and powerful to satiate the terrible wrath of the Father that we all have earned. And yet for all its power and value, we get the benefits of it for free!!!

But a free gift doesn’t do anything for the one who would receive it if he never gets it. This is why Peter goes out of his way to mention that his audience heard of the gospel from others. This is our responsibility, if we have already learned the gospel. We must share it with others. Not because we are required to, though we are, but because it should burst out of us because of how good the news is.