Against the Flow

“For me the dynamic of a commitment to Scripture is not “we believe the Bible, so there is no more to be learned,” but rather “we believe the Bible, so we had better discover all the things in it to which our traditions, including our ‘protestant’ or ‘evangelical’ traditions, which have supposed themselves to be ‘biblical’ but are sometimes demonstrably not, have made us blind.”

N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus, pg 17

How arrogant are we to think we control the market on “Truth?”
Many un-believers ask Christians the same question I now ask you. Many deny Christ because they (sometimes rightly) see the hypocrisy of our arrogance and the infighting that ensues. Just the same many Christians have gotten angry reading these recent posts. Forgive me, but so be it. However, it is not my purpose to divide, rather to gather.

Lately I have used the term ‘heretic’ rather flippantly. For that, excuse me. I merely wish to point out that in leaving tradition unquestioned we have often used “doctrine,” not as a guide, but as a heavy wooden cricket bat against those who don’t hold our same views. Watchman Nee said that denominations cause sin by division in the Oneness we inherited in Christ. I wholeheartedly agree and therefore claim none nor denounce any. (1)

Causing division is a terrible sin! Father, forgive me for how many times I have birthed it myself! Christ said as He and the Father are One, we are to be One. The world will know us by our love for one another; we are to abide, along side one another, in Him, not in tradition, nor doctrine. How silly are we to abide in doctrine? History points clearly to the division our own hard, scaly pride causes in the guise of “doctrine.”(2) Many claim to have the truth and the light, persecuting those who don’t agree. Watchman Nee responded to those minds, “You may well have light and truth, but knowledge alone will benefit you nothing.”(3) It is Christ Himself that we long for and to Him we put our trust, not laws, traditions, doctrines nor deeds. Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, alone saves.

Protestants argue with Catholics that the Bible must take precedence over Tradition, but when it comes to Protestants’ own tradition, we label it “common grace” or whatnot. Christians claiming to “do it by the Bible” protest against those who do not, yet much of what is practiced is nowhere to be found in the Good Book. Let us not care so much for legality – that is what it is, after all – but for the One whom it points.

Granted, there are wrong beliefs. To those who think otherwise, friends you may be, but Mormons, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, even Christians claiming homosexuality to be “ok,” I must simply say, sorry, the Bible says otherwise and leave it at that. Argue you might, but we must end in the Word. I love you either way, but God’s Word must be sufficient and I trust that it is.

It is not for us to proclaim what is right or wrong; we simply point to the Bible for that, we are to discern according to the Word. That is why we have it. “Then it becomes subject to interpretation,” you say. No, I would argue that interpretation becomes subject to pride. I can look anywhere for a verse to justify what I do. In fact, Satan does that all the time. Indeed it is usually his first tactic. What did Satan say to Eve in the garden but to begin by quoting God? “Did God really say…?” Then of course he hits us with what we really want to hear, “You will become like God…!”

It wasn’t merely that we broke God’s command, but that we chose to decide what is right and wrong wholly apart from our relationship to God. We take upon ourselves daily what is rightfully His; we make ourselves judge, king of our own realm and master of our own destinies. We were made for relationship, communion, instead we chose to stand alone. [0]

Horribly, we repeat this every time we declare our knowledge or version of it superior to someone else’s. In claiming ‘our way right,’ or ‘your interpretation wrong,’ we are claiming our works or our thoughts or doctrine as the saving factor, yet it is Christ alone.

Christ said He comes not to condemn but to save. The Word He has spoken will be the Judge. We are to live in a holy relationship with Him, let His love shine among the nations and call those that He would call. The rest, we must leave to Him and Trust in His Judgment. We are not to argue about doctrines nor laws, or did the book of Romans get thrown out? These do not save you. Christ does.

So, because the word ‘heresy’ gets thrown around by so many people claiming right doctrine, I must ask, how proud are we to think that we are the only ones to hold the Truth? Christ is the Mystery of God. We don’t hold the Truth, It holds us, He holds us! Bathe in Him, dive deep into the Mystery and Wonder that is the Lord God! No wonder un-believers sneer as they watch us wrestle with each other to grasp what even the infinite universe cannot contain. In calling on God and declaring one’s own version of truth the ‘God-approved one,’ don’t we break the commandment, “Thou shalt not make wrongful use of My Name?”

Let’s be very careful then by what measure we shout “heretic.”

(1) Therefore I agree with Watchman Nee, but disagree with his pupil Witness Lee who denounced denominations, Catholics and Protestants as the harlot of Babylon. Yet another wooden bat.
(2) Hearing that we are proud is hard medicine. It’s easy reading in the Word because it seems distant, subtracted from reality, but almost impossible to hear an actual person say it. Why? We are all proud and no one likes the pot calling the kettle black. But it is true, nonetheless.
(3) Watchman Nee was often criticized and persecuted for his teachings against denominations, that division is sin. But the things to which many attributed him were simply not true. He once said in response, “The Watchman Nee portrayed by them I would also condemn.”