Friday, March 10, 2006
Building Up Or Tearing Down?
I was struck the other day by two posts on the same subject. The first was from GospelDrivenLife and it was on the source of heresy.
GDL concluded his post this way
For years I have struggled with this question - when to build up and when to tear down. There is a time for each. This is the only thing I have found for certain - I have a tendency to lean in one particular direction, and everytime I feel myself moving that way I need to stop and ask God if it is the right way for that circumstance. He defines the time for building up and the time for tearing down.
The fact that both can happen, and should happen, in different circumstances tells me that I must rely on God's wisdom, that my own is insufficient.
Related Tags: build up, tear down, heresy, wisdom
I am once again struck by the urgency of keeping the main thing the main thing. Error is infinite while truth is singular. Of the making of new distortions and emphases there is no end. Take anything that is good and elevate it to centrality and you have a new heresy. Take a text and derive principles from it, then more principles from it, then more -- and pretty soon you have a heresy.The other was by James Spurgeon, writing at Pyromaniacs, defending the study of theology and attempts to understand god, that is to say, develop an orthodoxy.
There is an orthodox teaching of Christian theology. It has been in existence for hundreds, even thousands of years. It is extant in the writings that God's gifts to the church have left behind for us. There is a body of beliefs that are uniquely Christian and those beliefs are found, not just in old dusty tomes left behind by men long gone, tomes containing sermons, devotional material, and theological arguments, but also in creeds, confessions, and catechisms. These are the documents in which God's people have defined themselves and what it means to be a Christian. We do not need to re-invent the wheel here. Affirming those creeds and confessions is not limiting God, rather it is affirming that God has revealed his truth to a people - his people - and that we are identifying themselves with that people.Now, I pretty much wholeheartedly agree with everything in both posts, but one I really liked, and one, not so much.
GDL concluded his post this way
Keeping Christ crucified and risen as the center of the Solar System of the church is a labor for the good of God's people. Only when he is properly exalted do all the planets orbit harmoniously around him.The self-proclaimed arsonist, on the other hand, concludes this way
Those who dismiss classic Christian theology proper or who deny its tenets should not masquerade as Christians. If they wish to re-define who God is, then they should be fully honest and re-label themselves also. For when they stop believing in the Christian God, they are no longer Christians.Do you see the difference? Both posts illuminate heresy, but one shows the heretic the way to restoration and the other just tells him to get out of dodge. Which approach do you think best reflects the attitude of Christ? Forget not that Christ was quite condemning of His Father's declared representatives when they got it oh-so-very wrong.
For years I have struggled with this question - when to build up and when to tear down. There is a time for each. This is the only thing I have found for certain - I have a tendency to lean in one particular direction, and everytime I feel myself moving that way I need to stop and ask God if it is the right way for that circumstance. He defines the time for building up and the time for tearing down.
The fact that both can happen, and should happen, in different circumstances tells me that I must rely on God's wisdom, that my own is insufficient.
Related Tags: build up, tear down, heresy, wisdom
