Introduction
Life is about balance, it is a swinging pendulum whose extreme swinging points are lies. They have so little foundation in verifiable truth that they render the conversation irrelevant. Could we not attempt to identify these extremist theological positions that make God uncomfortable? The Church fails to address these lies and must clean it's own house. The non believer makes no claim to know God but we who do refuse to be honest.
1. SIN is SOCIAL This understanding equates our progress in spirituality to our conformity to a multiplicity of societal norms. The problem is that societies change, the variation in societal structures are in themselves extreme, how do we know what is of God or if He even has a societal norm?
2. SCIENCE is SEPARATE This understanding assumes that science has a world view that is antithetical to man’s spiritual formation within the context of the universe in which we exist. The scientific endeavor is the great Satan of the last 500 years. The churches attempt to cast it aside, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, is a lie that is rendering the church irrelevant.
3. SEX is SORDID This understanding has an even greater longevity, even to the dawn of time. In the attempt to make the natural drive toward procreation somehow fit within the divine order of things, we have reclassified it as animalistic and embarrassing. Surely God would be revolted if He knew the truth about us.
4. SALVATION is SELF-CENTERED This lie says that God’s salvation plan is all about me. All persons, somehow, travel the same road toward God, experiencing the same markers at a pace that is predictable, uniform and a reflection of me. The testimony of spiritual accomplishment becomes the unifying message and we only wink at the offensiveness to God. Salvation looks like me. An ideal experience or reflection of the divine is not the ground of future dealings with the Almighty.
Conclusion
The church has been stuck in these four lies for a very long time. All of them can be traced through the secular history books. Of late the pendulum has been swinging toward balance as the Bible is appreciated by the laity. The scriptures hold us all accountable. No more are we subject to the tyranny of the clergy. This does,however, have it's own risks and rewards.
The problem is that the traditional church, the clergy in particular, has turned to “proof reading” scripture. From a few snippet’s of the Word, our theological acumen is reduced to dogmatic barriers that prevent the church from sharing with one another as the universal Church. To be the Biblical Church, agreement is not necessary but sharing without demonizing others is a minimum dogmatic requirement.
The difficulties of establishing and communicating such a biblical theology are monumental, scholarship cowardly specializes in the details of scripture avoiding heated disagreements. WE must talk and share to approach consensus on a biblical theology. However, it is far easier to give out a simple and enthusiastically stated doctrine backed by a few snippets from the Word of God than to do the heavy lifting of a biblical theology. The guilty are the theologians, the preachers and the lazy listener’s. We all know who we are. Eventually the pendulum will stop.
G.Goslaw
September 25, 2009
