Your Brother Daniel
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Unity
at the Cost of Theology
We are overflowing with
words, ideas, arguments, worldviews, verbal self-revelations, and i-messages,
and yet theology has become a dirty word. This disdain takes many forms, even
among Christians. Here’s one Facebook example:
· I'm done debating theology… I trust in the mercy
of The Lord, that he knows I call His name. I can't get caught up in the
minutiae of everyone's different theology - everyone tugging in different
directions. I have to go with what makes the most sense to me, where I see the
most unity and continuity and what speaks to my soul.
This “theology” reflects
the thoughts and feelings of many, and their disdain for theology. Okay,
theology requires work and much of it is become culturally unacceptable.
Besides, Christians disagree, but so do scientists, but nobody uses this as a
rationale to reject science. Instead, it should be a reason to do more hard
work!
Even more important than
this, theology – the truths about God - are not optional. Jesus explained to a
Samaritan woman He had encountered at a well that worship had to entail truth:
· “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is
coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do
know, [and because of this] salvation is from the Jews [- the distinctive
revelation given to them]. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true
worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the
kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must
worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21-24)
Truth (theology) is a
necessary ingredient of salvation and worship. We are not at liberty to conjure
up any understanding of God that might feel right to us. I can’t even do this
with my wife. She wants to be loved and appreciated for who she is! If I love her because she
reminds me of my first flame, our “relationship” is in jeopardy. Instead, love
and relationship must be built upon a
foundation of truth.
Paul had a similar
concern about the Galatians. They were straying away from the truth of the
Gospel:
· I am astonished that you are so quickly
deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning
to a different gospel— which is really
no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are
trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven
should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under
God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is
preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s
curse! (Gal. 1:6-9)
Today, a growing number
of people believe that they can have Jesus without the Gospel or theology of
Jesus. However, Paul passionately argued against such an idea. Turning to a
different Gospel is also turning to a different hope and Savior. If we turn to
a different gospel, we turn to a different “Jesus” – one that cannot save.
Therefore, to embrace Jesus was also a matter of embracing His Gospel – His theology (teachings).
We care about how others
regard us. God too cares profoundly about our thought-life regarding Him. In a
dream, He warned King Nebuchadnezzar how he had to think about God. The Prophet
Daniel interpreted his dream:
· “This is the interpretation, Your Majesty, and
this is the decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king: You will be driven away from people and will
live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with
the dew of heaven. Seven times [or “years”] will pass by for you until you
acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth
and gives them to anyone he wishes.” (Daniel 4:24-25)
Evidently, the King
didn’t take this warning to heart. After all, it was just a matter of theology!
A year later, while standing on top of his palace overlooking Babylon, the King
exulted:
· “Is not this the great Babylon I have
built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my
majesty?” (Dan. 4:30)
He was immediately
struck down with insanity, and for the next seven years he thought he was a
cow, until his mind was restored. Then Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged the very
theology that God had revealed to Him and was restored to power.
To reject the
knowledge/theology of God is to reject God Himself. Therefore, Paul warned that
when Jesus returns:
· He will punish those who do not know God and do
not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thess. 1:8)
If we have rejected His
Gospel, we have also rejected Him. We cannot separate the salvation of God from
the truth of God; nor can I separate the love of my wife from knowing about my
wife. As I have come to better know about
her, our relationship has deepened.
Although we live in an
age that pours forth words and communications of various sorts, it is also an
anti-intellectual age. The immediacy of experience has trumped the
contemplation and acquisition of wisdom and knowledge. In our postmodern age,
what is “true” for me might not be “true” for you, but there is a high value
placed on self-fulfilling experience – immediate gratification that doesn’t
interfere with your lifestyle as doctrine would. Therefore, Peter’s words sound
unbelievable to this generation:
· Grace and peace be yours in abundance through
the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given
us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of
him. (2 Peter 1:2-3)
This is troubling for
another reason. Knowledge makes demands and even issues personal rebukes (Prov.
1:29-30). Wisdom also requires work (Psalm 1) and it raises uncomfortable
questions about “unity.”
While unity is something
that is required (Eph. 4:1-5; John 17:20-23), we cannot create unity where none
exists. Even the most skilled midwife cannot bring forth a baby where there is
none! Fr. Tony Palmer is an Anglican Bishop, but he is also an official member
of the Roman Catholic Ecumenical
Delegation for Christian Unity and Reconciliation. In his work to bring
about unity – a return to the RCC – he equates the Protestant emphasis on doctrine
with “spiritual racism” that “divides what Christ had united.” In a UTube
video, he condemned any “doctrine” that would cause division, claiming that in
doing this, “we elevate doctrine higher than the cross itself.”
Palmer attempts to
separate theology from the cross, as if they are two distinct things. However,
the cross is doctrine/theology. When
we embrace the cross, we do not embrace a literal tree but instead, the teachings of the cross – the Gospel.
Besides, Scripture often
teaches division instead of unity, where there is no Gospel-basis for unity.
Paul argued against being “unevenly yoked” and the need to be “separate” (2
Cor. 6:14-18).
Admittedly, Paul didn’t
teach separation from other Christians (except in cases of church discipline),
but it’s just hard to know where and how deeply to draw the line. Who are the
true believers? Should we embrace all who claim Christ as Savior – the New Age
Jesus, the mystical Jesus, the Prosperity Ministry, the Televangelists, the
Mormons, the Jehovah Witnesses, the Catholics, the Postmodern, Emergent,
Agnostic Church? Should we separate completely?
When does their Jesus become another
“Jesus” and another “gospel?” How do
we know where there is a “unity” worth preserving and presenting to the world?
These can be perplexing
questions. However, rather than allowing the quest for unity to reduce theology
to the lowest common denominator, we have a Scriptural mandate to be faithful
to what we already understand about God:
· So whatever you believe about these things keep
between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by
what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because
their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is
sin. (Rom. 14:22-23)
We must remain faithful
to our theological beliefs. If we compromise them for the sake of “unity,” we
sin. But we must also grow into the doctrines of the Bible, and God gave us
teachers and pastors to provide us a theological foundation:
· Until we all reach unity in the faith and
in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole
measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed
back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching
and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect
the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. (Eph. 4:13-15)
According to Paul, unity
and stability could only be achieved through growth in “the knowledge of the Son of God.”
Consequently, we are not at liberty to throw away doctrine and theology for the
hope of “unity.” Instead, these are the foundations
of unity.
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