It perturbs me to hear someone I greatly respect teaching a religious doctrine that runs counter to what I believe the Bible teaches. Maybe perturb is too strong a word. Ill just say that it bothers me. It causes me consternation. It saddens me. Why? I suppose because I know what it means. It means that either I or the teacher I respect so much is wrong. And reason would suggest that the person with the wrong view is me, not the teacher I admire, a man who is 15 years my senior, a man who is educated and experienced far beyond me, a man who would be welcomed in virtually any Southern Baptist pulpit in America, a man who served a term as president of the SBC during the conservative resurgence. So I must be wrong, and he must be right. Right? But then theres this. Standing with me, believing the way I believe, are these people (and this is a VERY abbreviated list): Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, John Bunyan, Adoniram Judson, David Brainard, William Carey, John Newton, William Cowper, Augustus Toplady, Matthew Henry, Charles Spurgeon, James P. Boyce, Francis Schaeffer, John Piper, and John MacArthur -- not to mention most if not all of the founders of the SBC itself. And what is this matter on which the good teacher and I disagree? Well, I dont want to name it specifically, because to do so would send those who have positions on it to their respective corners and leave the rest of Christendom in the center of the ring, scratching their heads. Lets just say that it has to do with Christian soteriology, It has to do with the extent of mankinds fallenness, and therefore it touches us at our most tender spot. Most of mankind do not believe they are fallen at all, and most of those that do believe it wish to minimize the depth of their own personal fallenness. (Hey, I have my faults, but Im not all that bad.) And so I have no ending for this. Or at least I have no ending that I can lay out that will not polarize my readers. Who am I anyway? Who am I to walk onto the stage and assert what I believe are great truths? Who do I think I am? Isnt it funny how the greatest truths -- especially biblical truths -- always polarize, always cause controversy? Always call for courage to express, and therefore, we Christians tend to avoid expressing them. And yet I struggle to think of a more controversial or polarizing figure in history than Jesus of Nazareth. Is He our pattern or isnt He?
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 11:15:55 +0000
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