Bright Wings

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with Ah! Bright Wings.

July 15, 2010

Part V: Why Bother?

OK, Pastor Paul here with my next to last blog post on God’s Sovereignty.  I am in eager anticipation that the rightful owner of this domain will appear on the scene shortly, updating us on his three month tour of Europe, Scandinavia, and the Sub-Continent.

The reality is that in our day and time, even among Christians, these sorts of literary missives regarding the truth or untruth of God’s sovereignty is more likely to be met with a yawn versus a debate.  This is because we think that such arguments and discussions are obtuse, irrelevant, divisive, and disconnected from the realities of our lives.  However, nothing could be further from the truth.  As the evangelical church has increasingly embraced a lowest common denominator sort of theology over the last 40 years, there has been a corresponding increase in the church of shallowness, public scandal, false teaching, diminished influence, and a water-downed gospel that has lost its power.  I will talk next week about why embracing a fully-orbed worldview of God’s sovereignty is so crucial to holding on to missions, evangelism, prayer, assurance of salvation, and the gospel itself.  For now, let me say two things to motivate you to jump into the theological fray.

First, there might be a temptation for us to say that we need to “major on the majors and minor on the minors”, meaning that our beliefs about election and predestination are not “major” issues and thus should be benignly neglected because they aren’t affirmed by all Christians.  This is a tragic mistake, because we see election and predestination on almost every page of Scripture, from Abraham’s call to follow God from his pagan ways in Ur to Moses’ rescue as a murderer tending sheep in the wilderness to Paul’s sovereign and dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus.  Election is clearly NOT a minor doctrine in Scripture; Paul, Peter, and the other apostles write extensively about it because election is the heart of the gospel.  “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”; the gospel is the story of God seeking out and saving sinners who otherwise would have nothing to do with but by His sovereign grace. 

When we neglect pursuing a robust view of God’s sovereignty, there is something in our worldview and psyche that suffers as a result.  Over time we come to perceive of ourselves as in control of our lives, masters of our domains, autonomous, free, and pursuing our own destinies.  This works fine as long as life is good, but when life is hard, difficult, and full of suffering (which it is and will be), the worldview we have constructed for ourselves comes crashing down.  This happens to churches when they rely on powerful people or personalities to hold these things together, but when those people fail, get sick, leave, or die, which they will, there has to be a center upon which we stand, and that center better be God.  We lose that center when we lose God’s sovereignty.

The second thing that should motivate us to engage theologically regards a refrain we often hear today: we don’t need creeds, statements of faith, propositions, or anything else to know God; we just need to love Jesus.  The problem with this line of thinking is, “which Jesus?”  Who is He; what’s He like; what has He done; why should we love Him?  Here’s an illustration: if you are married, and assuming that you did not get married on a blind date, you most certainly did a careful study on your future spouse.  Think of all the things, ladies, your future man had to answer before you made that momentous decision to roll with him. You studied him: Who is this man? What is he like? What are his values? Does he have a job that makes money? These are all part of the study that takes place in the adventure of love, and it is good.

The Apostle Paul’s confidence in God comes after HIS careful study of God: He knows Him, he knows what He is like, he knows how He works, he knows what God’s highest priority and purpose is.  Paul studies him; that’s what theology IS. Josh Harris, pastor of Covenant Life Church, says that all of us are constantly doing theology.  And he asks and answers this question: do you need doctrine to know God?  “It is absolutely true that information and facts about my daughter can never take the place of actually loving her. But this doesn’t mean I should avoid knowing about her: her character, personality, likes, dislikes, details about her, her gifts, fears, dreams – all are important to me because she is important to me. Facts can never take her place, but I can’t know her without them.”  Is this not the same with Jesus and God?  Doctrine doesn’t take His place, but we can’t know God and relate to Him the right way without it.

posted by Joshua Hughes