A Pattern for Apostasy

It is worthy to note that those brethren among us who ridicule the conviction that there is a pattern for the church to follow as found in the New Testament; they themselves are imitating a pattern for digression that can be found in the history of the Restoration Movement during the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century. The problem dealing with the Missionary Society, instrumental music, open fellowship, the use of women in the leadership of the worship assemblies, fellowship with denominations, open membership, baptism becoming less important, considering the church of the Lord as being a denomination and a more liberal attitude toward the Word of God, etc. were all present then and the same issues are contributing to a division in the body of Christ today. We have often heard the expression that history repeats itself and how true this is concerning the church of Jesus Christ. A more liberal attitude toward the Word of God is a breeding ground for more innovations to be introduced among brethren. And the introduction of multiple innovations is a breeding ground for a more liberal attitude toward the Word of God. This circle continues even until this day. The extreme can be found in a sermon preached by R.C. Cave in the latter part of 1889 in the Central Church in St. Louis. “Cave asserted that Abraham and Moses were grossly ignorant of the true character of God, and denied both the virgin birth of Jesus and the bodily resurrection of Christ. He described the Bible as an evolution, not a revelation of Christ, and declared there was no such thing as a divinely-given “plan of salvation.” Added to this was his affirmation that water baptism was not found in the great commission. Cave declared: “He who brings himself, according to his measure of knowledge and ability, into obedience to the will of Christ and into oneness of life and character with Christ, is a Christian and entitled to all Christian privileges, among which is membership in the church. To this I invite men.” This is just one example of a preacher possessing pure liberalism among brethren in the 19th century. If you listen carefully you will hear similar sounds in the brotherhood today. There are some brethren who feel more freely to cast doubt on the integrity of the Holy Scriptures presently mainly because of the liberal atmosphere in which we find ourselves. When we begin to chip away at the inspiration of the Scriptures we are doing immeasurable harm to the faith of others, especially our young people. Here are a couple of examples of preachers among us who are influencing others regarding the integrity of the Bible.

At the Emergent Tulsa Cohort last week, I passed out a handout adapted from a post Scot McKnight made several months ago about the way we view the Bible. Our assumptions about what the Bible is and how it works will have a huge impact on the way we read it. That’s sort of what we talked about at the meeting. Here’s what was on the handout.

Your View of Scripture?Adapted from Scot McKnight

Sacramental: the Scripture leads us to the Beyond as we read it; heavily shaped by community; not always true. (Marcus Borg) Clarification: “true” in this statement refers to historical accuracy.

Inerrant/Infallible: the Bible is never wrong about anything (science, too); always true.

True: you simply confess the Bible to be true and don’t care to say any more than that.

True Christian story, still ongoing: you see Scripture as Story, and it is God’s true Story, and the Scripture prompts the re-use of that Story in our world today in various ways. (N. T. Wright)

True in matters of faith and practice: the Bible is true on these issues, but can be wrong about science or history or other matters.

Scripture is infallible; God’s Word, but it is in need of authorized interpretation and the Church’s Tradition is the work of God.

Historical origins: you see the Bible to be the historical foundation of the Church; it is simply historical; not inspired in the traditional sense that it lifts it out of the norm of writing; Scripture is as human as anything we experience, even if God uses it to lead the Church today.

So what is your view of Scripture? You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.

Then the brother states his personal view of the Scriptures:

Based on the categories in the post below, here’s how my journey with scripture has unfolded up to this point.

Like most who grew up in a conservative church, I started with an “Inerrant/Infallible” view of scripture that might be best described as “The Bible is magic book.” God wrote it and it was perfect and true and special in every way.

Once I got to college and started reading books with footnotes and Greek and German words interspersed throughout the text, the supernatural cover fell off of my Bible. The “historical origins” category best described my view at this point. Once I learned to pick the Bible apart, it started to look very human. Even though I felt quite guilty about it, this was my view of scripture throughout my early to mid-twenties.

Since then I’ve come to read the Bible more as the “True Christian Story: still ongoing.” I love the idea of reading scripture as the first four acts of a play and seeing the ongoing life of the church as the fifth act which must be faithfully improvised in the spirit of the first four.

I’ve also come to read the Bible in more of a sacramental way. Scripture, when actually read and dwelt upon, mediates the presence of God in the midst of the community. In this way, the Bible has sort of become a magic book for me again, but not in the same way as when I was a kid.

Please observe the change in this brother’s attitude toward the Scriptures over the years from accepting the Bible as being “inerrant/Infallible” to a more “sacramental way” and a “True Christian Story: still ongoing”. It is very important that you read again the meaning of “Sacramental” and “True Christian Story: still ongoing” as given previously in order to understand this brother’s view of the Word of God. This brother is the preacher for a very influential congregation where an annual workshop is conducted and is attended by thousands of our members. It is very disturbing to observe that when he got to college he began “to pick the Bible apart”. This might be understandable in a state school but he attended one of our largest Christian universities.

Another influential preacher/educator among us has stated his view toward the writings of the gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I first read a similar statement many years ago in the periodical ‘Mission Magazine’.

Frankly, not everything in the Bible is quite as smooth as I used to imagine. There are jars and clashes. Was Jesus’ Nazareth sermon early in his ministry (Luke) or much later (Matthew, Mark)? Was Jairus’s daughter dead (Matthew) or nearly dead (Mark — maybe this falls into the Princess Bride’s category of “mostly dead”) when Jairus found Jesus? Did the cursing of the fig tree happen before (Mark) or after (Matthew) Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem? Was it one demon-possessed man (Mark, Luke) or two (Matthew)? And was it at Gerasenes, Gergesenes, or Gadarenes — or are those the same place? For a while I tried forcing explanations so that there were no problems, but I eventually had to admit (with some encouragement from my professors) that this was disingenuous.

And this is just the beginning. Clashes and jars. When we labor under our Western assumptions of HOW THE BIBLE OUGHT TO BE, that’s extremely problematic.


Before I proceed I must inform you that this brother stated in this article that he does believe the writers of the Bible were guided by God and inspired in some manner by the Holy Spirit. However when he uses the terms “clashes” and “jars” regarding the authors of the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John what does he mean? The definition that Webster gives of “jars” in the light of the context previously mentioned is “to clash, disagree, or quarrel sharply”. He also defines “Clashes” to mean “to come into conflict; disagree sharply”…"to fail to harmonize”…”a sharp disagreement; conflict”…”lack of harmony”. It is very disturbing to read from this brother’s article the sentence, “And this is just the beginning.” If you attended one of our universities or preacher schools you most likely took a class called ‘A Harmony of the Gospels’ wherein the instructor guided you in your understanding how that there was complete agreement between the writers even though they presented the life of Christ from different perspectives. But there is a real and serious problem when you say that there were disagreements and even conflicts between the writers. The men who wrote these books were not the actual authors; rather, the Holy Spirit guided them in giving an account of the life and death of Jesus Christ (John 14:26; 16:13). Are we willing to say that the Holy Spirit contradicted Himself? Just imagine for a moment the adverse effect such teaching would have on a college student who is ‘sitting at the feet’ of a professor who teaches that there are “jars” and “clashes” in the gospels. Can we not see how this belief and understanding of a student in the Holy Scriptures would affect his/her acceptance of the Bible as being the ‘inerrant/infallible’ Word of God? When you do research of the apostasy that took place in the 19th century and in the early part of the 20th century you will learn that it was the liberal brethren who took control of our universities.

Many are the farmers who will inform you that they often experience the problem of erosion on their land. Acres of fertile ground can become useless if this problem is not solved early. The thing about erosion is that it happens so slowly that one person might not easily detect it before it has caused considerable lost of productive soil. And in like manner apostasy often occurs so gradually that one generation of believers might not notice the damage being done to the body of our Lord. Warnings might be given but not heeded. When you begin to cast doubt on the inerrancy and infallibility of the Holy Scriptures you may be causing erosion in the faith that others have in the Bible. There is a great need in our brotherhood to emphasize that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (God breathed) and this “one faith” “which was once for delivered to the saints” is our sole guide in matters religiously (II Timothy 3:16, 17; Ephesians 4:5: Jude 3).

THE PRECIOUS BOOK DIVINE
“How precious is the Book divine, By inspiration give’n!
Bright as a lamp its precepts shine, To guide my soul to heav’n
It sweetly cheers my drooping heart, In this dark vale of tears;
Light to my life it still imparts, And quells my rising fears.
This lamp, thro’ all the tedious night Of life, shall guide my way,
Till I behold the clearer light Of an eternal day.
Holy Book Divine! Precious treasure mine!
Lamp to my feet and a light to my way To guide me safely home.”

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