Wednesday, July 27, 2005
TOP 10 DUMB DOCTRINES
(According to Deutero Q)
I realize that some of you may disagree (perhaps quite strongly!) with the following list. If you find yourself disagreeing with--and offended by--what you read, please ask yourself why that is. Is it because your beliefs are the result of a careful and honest study of Scripture? Or are they perhaps influenced by unbiblical presuppositions and man-made traditions? Christians are exhorted to watch their life and doctrine carefully (1 Timothy 4:16).
If the doctrines below are not consonant with Scripture, we do well to let them go. By the way, unbiblical doctrines are not the exclusive domain of any one segment of the Church; false doctrines abound in Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Now might be a good time to evaluate our cherished teachings and traditions to see if they line up with Scripture. Okay, here we go!
#10. No musical instruments in worship--There is a segment of Protestantism that forbids the use of musical instruments in worship services because the New Testament says nothing about them. Sorry, but it is not very convincing to argue from silence! The NT says little or nothing about many things, but you can't build a very solid argument from what the Bible does not say. Moreover, isn't it odd that those who do not allow musical instruments will allow the use of microphones, hymnbooks and song leaders ... yet the New Testament says nothing about these things.
#9. Cessationism--This is the belief that much of the miraculous ministry of the Holy Spirit has ceased. According to cessationists, God does not speak apart from the Bible or give certain spiritual gifts anymore. (I would hasten to add that while I believe God does speak apart from the Bible, He will never, ever speak in contradiction to the Bible.) Does the Bible teach that God would stop doing the miraculous once the canon of Scripture was closed? In a word, no.
#9. Cessationism--This is the belief that much of the miraculous ministry of the Holy Spirit has ceased. According to cessationists, God does not speak apart from the Bible or give certain spiritual gifts anymore. (I would hasten to add that while I believe God does speak apart from the Bible, He will never, ever speak in contradiction to the Bible.) Does the Bible teach that God would stop doing the miraculous once the canon of Scripture was closed? In a word, no.
Cessationism, it seems to me, is often driven by a reaction against bad theology or flaky behavior. It can also be fueled by personal prejudice and/or lack of personal experience. By the way, it strikes me as peculiar that cessationists will limit God but not the devil; the "apostate angel" (to use John Milton's fitting designation for the devil) is still doing all the things he used to do but God is not, according to cessationists. Let's be honest folks: the cessationist case is built more on theological bias and prejudice than on sound biblical exegesis. Oh, and by the way, I am a former cessationist!
#8. The Prosperity Gospel--The belief that God wants every Christian financially prosperous. Those who believe this way are quite fond of Bible verses that speak of the blessings of God. However, prosperity proponents say comparatively little or nothing about the life of self denial and cross bearing. While I certainly believe that God does prosper His people, it is absurd to make blanket statements that God wants every Christian to be financially wealthy. Equally absurd is the idea that believers are out of God's will if they are not financially prosperous.
#8. The Prosperity Gospel--The belief that God wants every Christian financially prosperous. Those who believe this way are quite fond of Bible verses that speak of the blessings of God. However, prosperity proponents say comparatively little or nothing about the life of self denial and cross bearing. While I certainly believe that God does prosper His people, it is absurd to make blanket statements that God wants every Christian to be financially wealthy. Equally absurd is the idea that believers are out of God's will if they are not financially prosperous.
What I find especially interesting about this whole teaching is what is left unsaid. One does not hear much talk in prosperity circles about Jesus becoming poor for our sakes (2 Corinthians 8:9); nor does one hear much reference to the many Bible passages that speak of servanthood and sacrifice. Is not Jesus the Christian's model for life and ministry? Prosperity theology seems terribly out of balance. By the way, my favorite sermon title from a prosperity preacher says it all: "Money, Come to Me."
#7. Mary as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate; as Immaculately Conceived; Bodily Assumed to Heaven; etc.--It is alarming how many beliefs about the Virgin Mary have no basis in Scripture. Even as I say that, please know that I believe wholeheartedly in honoring and cherishing Mary (she is, after all, the mother of our Lord). But exalting her to the point where she is now regarded as almost the fourth Person of the Godhead is extremely disturbing, and just plain wrong. In this regard, consider the following observation by Mark Twain in his book The Innocents Abroad:
#7. Mary as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate; as Immaculately Conceived; Bodily Assumed to Heaven; etc.--It is alarming how many beliefs about the Virgin Mary have no basis in Scripture. Even as I say that, please know that I believe wholeheartedly in honoring and cherishing Mary (she is, after all, the mother of our Lord). But exalting her to the point where she is now regarded as almost the fourth Person of the Godhead is extremely disturbing, and just plain wrong. In this regard, consider the following observation by Mark Twain in his book The Innocents Abroad:
"In all seriousness--without meaning to be frivolous--without meaning to be irreverent, and more than all, without meaning to be blasphemous--I state as my simple deduction from the things that I have heard that the Holy Personages rank thus in Rome:
- First: 'The Mother of God'--otherwise the Virgin Mary
- Second: The Deity
- Third: Peter
- Fourth: Some twelve or fifteen canonized popes and martyrs
- Fifth: Jesus Christ the Saviour (but always as an infant in arms)"
I don't know about Rome (I've never been there), but I do know a little about life on the Texas/Mexico border. Down here, Mary receives a lot of attention. I mean a whole lot of attention. Purported Marian apparitions are commonplace. But even more commonplace is the amount of prominence and reverence she is given ... often even more than Her Son. And that is downright unbiblical and just plain wrong.
#6. Little God Theology--Though not as prevalent today, there was a belief going around a while back in some Pentecostal and charismatic circles that went something like this: just as dogs have puppies and cats have kittens, so God has little gods. This dumb and heretical doctrine is clearly more indebted to aberrant Mormon theology than to the Bible. Where the Bible is cited, "little god" adherents totally mishandle Psalm 82:6 and other similar verses. We do well to keep in mind Isaiah 46:9: "Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me."
#5. King James Onlyism--The belief that the King James Version of the Bible (1611) is the only true Bible. (Did someone actually once say, "If the King James Version was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me"?!) While personally fond of the King James Version, I also recognize that we do not live in 17th-century England. Indeed, many 17th-century English words are now archaic or obsolete. Furthermore, Bible translators have available today many manuscripts that earlier translators did not have. We can be thankful for the many excellent and faithful translations available to us in our time. The New International Version (NIV) and the New American Standard Bible (NASB) are two that come to mind. Would that we actually read our Bibles--whether KJV, NIV, NASB, etc!
#4. Racial Superiority--I first encountered a bizarre teaching years ago by someone trying to justify racial separation and white race superiority by appealing to texts such as Genesis 1:4 (where God separates light from darkness). Such a mishandling of Scripture goes beyond dumb into the realm of lunacy.
#3. Modalism--The ancient heresy of modalism or Sabellianism (named after a third century churchman who denied the eternal distinctions in the Godhead) is anti-Trinitarian, affirming instead that the Father is the Son is the Holy Spirit. Modalism is alive and well in Oneness Pentecostalism and "Jesus only" Pentecostals and is embraced by such popular speakers as T.D. Jakes. The denial of such an essential Christian doctrine as the Trinity is troubling indeed and raises all kinds of related issues about the incarnation, the two natures of Jesus, salvation, etc. By the way, Mr. Modalist, how do you explain the Word becoming flesh, coming from the Father (John 1:14)? And to whom did Jesus direct His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane? My goodness, if someone is wrong about the very nature of God (and modalism, in its rejection of the triune nature of God, is terribly wrong) then that person's other beliefs about God and His ways are going to be way out of balance as well.
#2. Transubstantiation--Oh my, this really is a troubling doctrine, basically amounting to Christian cannibalism. Not only does the Bible not teach that "wafer and wine" are changed into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, it also does not teach that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice. (Yes, the Roman Catholic Church actually teaches that the offering of Christ upon the altar by the priest is a continuation of the sacrifice of Calvary.) The primary passage used to justify transubstantiation is John 6:53-57. However, the eating of Jesus' flesh and the drinking of His blood in John 6 is, in context, clearly synonymous with believing in Christ/being in union with Him through faith.
We must interpret the Bible literally wherever possible. But taking what is clearly figurative language in a literal manner can lead to absurd conclusions. When the Lord referred to Himself as the true vine, did He mean that we could pluck grapes off His Body? Or when He said that He was the gate, did He mean He had a literal gate latch on His Person? Of course not. Contextual understanding is critically important if we are going to rightly interpret God's Word.
And what about the belief that Christ is continually sacrificed upon the altar during the Mass? Hebrews 9 and 10 clearly teach that the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross was a one-time complete sacrifice. And yet, compare the clear teaching of Scripture with these horrendous words from the The Council of Trent:
"And since in this divine sacrifice, which is celebrated in the Mass, that same Christ is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner, who on the altar of the cross 'once offered himself' in a bloody manner (Hebrews 9:27), the holy Synod teaches that this is truly propitiatory ... For it is one and the same victim, the same one now offering by the ministry of the priests as he who then offered himself on the cross, the manner of offering alone being different."
Unsound doctrine does not get much worse than that. Enough said.
#1.The world sets the agenda for the church. This was the motto of the liberal World Council of Churches back in the 1960s and has been taken over by much of the evangelical church in our time. Maybe I am just old-fashioned, but is not Jesus Christ alone the Head of the Church, and has He not given us His agenda for His Church in the Word of God? Whether seeker sensitivity or the fad-driven and entertainment-oriented nonsense so prevalent today, much of contemporary church life has been seduced and captured by culture.
Accommodation of church to culture is seen in denominational and non-denominational settings. For instance, many mainline Protestants have obviously embraced the spirit of the age in their affirmation of abortion (even the horror of partial birth abortion), homosexuality and same-sex marriages. The worldly spirit is also mirrored in many conservative-evangelical settings (see my earlier blog entries in this regard). I can do no better than refer you at this point to the excellent July 26 blog entry by Phil Johnson over at Pyromaniac http://phillipjohnson.blogspot.com/
A final quotation here is worthy of careful consideration: "The church that is married to the spirit of the age will be a widow in the next."
Whether you agree or disagree with my Top 10 list, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to send a comment to the link below!
