I know better than God. Evidently not

So you have an opinion that disagrees with something stated plainly in scripture? You thus reason that your education, culture, (post)modern refinement, or evolved sensibility has given you a higher, more tolerant, loving perspective? Evidently not!

Thus is one of the simplest statements of Sola Scripture I’ve read recently at Pryomaniacs Blog by Dan Phillips. “Sola” not “solo”. Sola Scripture doesn’t mean the Bible is the only authority – it means it is the highest and final – God has the last word not me and mine. But enough rambling… read on this reproduced post from Dan on the matter.

Our family has homeschooled for many years. My dear wife and I both always have carried differing classes. At first, I did most of the teaching; for years now, that’s been her ministry, with me picking up other classes such as English and Bible. But when I’m taking on a new course, I always ask that Valerie get the teacher’s guide to the course. Primarily I need it because it’s a big time-saver. They aren’t inerrant, of course; sometimes I have to correct their answers. But on balance it is a huge help.

You know right where I’m going with this: in the Bible, we have the Teacher’s Guide. Literally. Is it not so?

• Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! (Psalm 119:12)
• When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! (Psalm 119:26)
• Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! (Psalm119:29)
• The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. (Psalm 119:160)
• So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)
• Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17)
• All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

There are countless ramifications of this, literally countless. But I want to stay at the universal level, the level of principle.

We’ve been handed the Teacher’s Guide, so to speak. What this means is that Christianity isn’t the conclusion of a series of deductions leading to open conclusions, per se. It isn’t the conclusion of a syllogism. It is revelation, and the Christian starts his thinking with that revelation. If it isn’t covered by the revelation (“Wonder what the trout are biting on today?”), he works it out. But if it is (“Wonder if I should cheat on my wife today?”), then he knows what’s in the Teacher’s Guide.

That means that, if I’m working on a dandy, shiny, impressive, lovely theory or hypothesis, and then get T-boned by the clear teaching of Scripture, I bail on my theory. No matter how much I loved it, what admiration it would earn me, what applause and kudo’s — I bail on it. No matter how much the world would prefer it to the old Christian answer — I bail on it. No matter how much better-feeling sense it made to me that the Biblical position — I bail on it.

What’s so bemusing is when a man or woman professes to be a Christian — which is to say, someone who agrees with Jesus that the Bible is the Teacher’s Guide — approaches issues like a non-Christian.

You have an idea or attitude about something, but you find the Bible doesn’t reflect it. What you shoulddo is say “Rats, I see the answer’s different than mine. I must have worked it through wrong. Better start over.”

All but two of you are nodding. You’re thinking of safe things, and you’re right. For instance, if a professed Christian says, “Because of X, Y and Z, I just don’t see why women can’t be pastors.”

So here’s where Christian thinking — the thinking of a disciple (= student), of a slave — would note the answer in the teacher’s guide: they can’t. And here is where Christian thinking would say, “Evidently not. I must have done the math wrong. Start over.” And a Christian would work it through until his answer matched the answer in the Teacher’s Guide, knowing that in this case the TG is in fact inerrant.

Ditto homosexuality. Ditto the moral imperative of wives to subordinate themselves to their husbands, of children to their parents; of parents to love, train, discipline their children. Ditto church-attendance. Ditto the Gospel. Ditto eschatology. Ditto ecclesiology, anthropology, geohistory, abortion, and on and on.

Before we close in prayer, though: don’t feel too safe about this. Again and again on this blog we’ve had commenters, confronted with some Biblical teaching they don’t like, say “Because of ABC, I think Blort.” To which the Christian answer would be, “Evidently not.” With such intelligent reasons, often it’s “Because of ABCDEFGHIJ, I think Ba-zink.” Still, the answer should be, “Evidently not.”

Take the thread I linked above. I am absolutely positive that, reading this, many folks’ reaction was, “Because of [my very complicated theories of Christian living], I think we shouldn’t talk about slavery and obedience to commands and such.” One fellow left a church I pastored for that very reason: his theory of Christian living did not allow for apostolic commands being apostolic commands which God expects us to obey.

So, rather than revising his position to match the one in the Teacher’s Guide, he ran off to find another church.

Confronted with a Biblical phenomenon that doesn’t match our theory, the Christian response should be, “Evidently not.” That is, in this case — as I pointed out in that post and many other times — clearly God the Holy Spirit has no problem whatever moving apostles to issue commands to Christians, and calling Christians to obey. That’s in the Teacher’s Guide.

So if a Christian sees that phenomenon, and sees it clashes with his theories of Christian living, he should say, “Evidently I did the math wrong. Start over!” And he should re-work it until his answer matches the Teacher’s Guide.

So in closing I say: do that.

Failing by Faith

The concluding article in the Psalm 119 series …

It took me 8 attempts to get my driver’s license.  My Learner permit expired many times, and I had to go back and re-do the test. I failed once because I just didn’t bother reading the handbook and thought it would be a simple multiple choice. I failed the practical driving test at least twice (that I can remember) – both times I committed “immediate fail” violations. I ran the Stop sign outside the RTA car park and on another I sped through a School Zone – Each time the instructor told me even if I hadn’t committed the violations, my score was too low to have passed anyway. The end result: I was over 30 years old and did not have a full drivers license. I was a failure.

Most of my high school peers had their Learners in Year 12 and many had their Provisional license by the end of the year. I never even bothered taking my Learners exam until my second year of tertiary. I was heading to Sydney to live and couldn’t afford a car anyway so it wasn’t important to me… until I met a young lady to whom I later became engaged, who coincidently had a full license AND her own car! But even that didn’t motivate me. I drove away from our wedding reception in a car covered in cream, confetti, streamers and “L” plates. FAIL!

After considerable trial and much error, I managed to pass all the requisite exams and tests and was provided a driver’s license. Clearly this experience does not illustrate the  success of victorious Christian living. Does it? After all, if I had prayed before doing the tests, I would have passed. Wouldn’t I? God certainly wouldn’t want a junior pastor traveling around Sydney without his own car or a driver’s license. Would he? If your measurement or definition of spirituality or holiness involves, achievement, success and possessions than I was the most vile of all sinners. For that matter, so were several other prominent characters of scripture and history.

The Apostle Paul struggled with sin, was beaten up and lost at sea and then died in prison. John the Baptist, lost all of his disciples, was thrown into gaol and Jesus didn’t help him, then he was killed. Jesus, didn’t own a house, didn’t have an income during his ministry and had every single disciple forsake him before his crucifixion.

A Christian is not dependent on trial and error. Receiving God’s forgiveness is not subject to determination of an assessor who awards my merit or penalises my violations. Salvation in Christ is completely apart from my own efforts and abilities. We become presumptuous about our abilities, achievements, material success, wealth, possessions and health that as soon as any of these are threatened or shown to be uncertain, our theology crumbles. We reason that loss of these things must be God’s punishment. This is precisely how Job’s friends saw his predicament. They didn’t realise that God was proving the extent of his grace through the temporary suffering of his servant. They missed the chance to bless him and lift him up. Instead of seeing Job’s loss as an opportunity for them to be generous they saw it as an occasion to boast, attack and criticise.

Job friends, and many like them, don’t fully appreciate that Salvation now, is from the guilt of sin. Salvation later, is from the final penalty, power and presence of sin. Until then – expect to fall flat on your face to glory of God! This is what the Psalmist is concluding in his tome on the Word of God. Without the continual grace of God at work in my life, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the scriptures, I will always fail. Everything I do, that is good, comes from God not me. Everything I have, that is good, comes from God not my abilities or effort, and God is good, all the time!

I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands. Psalm 119:176 (NIV)

As Giddy as

Continuing my series of articles from Psalm 119 …

We all have heroes. People that inspire us. Individuals, who, through performance or personality capture our attention, enthrall, entertain, and enthuse us. In an age when celebrity is more about an ability to generate commercial gain for corporate sponsors than achievement or contribution to society, heroes are usually actors, comedians or stage performers of some kind or another. In Australia, sport is the national religion, so sporting prowess is regarded more highly than statesmanship, more valuable than scientific discovery, and more respected than sacrificial service of the armed services, police, ambulance and fire fighters. That, as a nation, we vest disproportionate honour in boys and girls who make a fortune chasing a ball around on a piece of grass is evident in the public shame, horror and disgust felt towards several rugby league players that fell from grace in the last year due to a combination of charges and allegations of violence, drug use and public misbehavior. More recently the news of Tiger Woods’ infidelity has caused many to cry in angst and disappointment as another hero is revealed to be a less than perfect role model.

As a teenage boy growing up in Queensland I was no less enraptured in this mindset. In year 11 when Wally Lewis came to my High School to promote Rugby League he gave a talk about the sport during lunch time to an assembly hall full to the brim of teenage boys, me included, giggling like giddy school girls about getting the chance to see one of our heroes in the flesh. A couple of years later, whilst in Sydney one night serving in a City outreach street mission I saw Wally near the George Street cinemas and got to shake his hand. I was still the giddy school boy

My dad was a Labor man. He actually “whooped” when Bob Hawke became Prime Minister in 1983. So when I was working in an executive Security job in 1993 and noticed a “Mr Robert Hawke” on the list of guests to visit the CEO one day I was a little curious. Then, in walked former Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was so excited I rang my wife and tried to whisper down the phone that I had just met Bob Hawke (hoping he wouldn’t hear me, because he was sitting about 2 or 3 meters away in the reception lounge). I was, once again, unwittingly overcome by the giddiness and excitement of celebrity fever.

In 1996, while in the city to see a movie one afternoon, my wife and I accidently got involved as spectators to the Grand Opening of the Planet Hollywood Restaurant (now called The Star Bar). We stood against the barriers of the red carpet for endless hours cheering madly while the likes of Bruce Willis, Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude van Damme, Charlie Sheen, Danny Glover, Bill Paxton, Sylvester Stallone and a swag of Australian TV personalities swaggered  down the aisle.

How is it that we get so easily caught up in the excitement of just seeing people who have little to do with our daily lives and have next to no regard for us personally – aside from the income we generate for them by purchasing their books, movies, DVD’s and CD’s or attending their concerts (where they don’t even pay us the respect of singing live!)? It is not wrong to revere our heroes if they, through their influence, teaching or example lead us to grow and develop the gifts we have for the glory of God and extension of the gospel. But when we literally quake to the point of having our knees knock together and our stomach do weird nausea causing gyrations, we reveal our regard and respect for scripture, God’s very Word, is less than what we have for complete strangers – who do little more than prance on a stage or chase balls around on the grass. We need to repent and tremble before Him who is able to cast our body and soul into hell. His opinion counts!

Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at your word. Psalm 119:161 (NIV)