It is true enough that by and large the evangelical church is not known for intellectual rigor. We’re not considered the sharpest knives in the drawer. It is true as well that we are called to love God with all of our minds, that we of all people have the blessing of studying not just the wonders of the cosmos, but the wonders of the One who spoke the cosmos into existence. We are called to make diligent use of every gift He has given us that we might more clearly see and delight in the Giver of those gifts. That said, there is within the evangelical church, usually found in the Reformed corner, a cadre of soldiers fighting the good fight for robust doctrine, careful thought, theological precision. For that I give thanks, and a warning.
When I was a younger man I struggled with my ambition. Jesus warned us that the first would be last, that we ought not to be jockeying for position. I brought my struggle to a wise man, my father, and he told me, “Son, it is not a bad thing to want to do great things for the kingdom.” As per usual, he was right. The danger, however, is that there is the thinnest and faintest of lines between wanting to do great things for the kingdom and wanting to be great in the kingdom. In like manner there is a rather thin line between wanting to think great thoughts and being thought great.
There are multiple scandals of the evangelical mind. First, we are intellectually lazy. But second, we long to be thought intellectually respectable. To the outside world we are considered troglodytes, to mix a metaphor, knuckle dragging intellectual backwaters. Because of our pride, that stings. We then, rather than embracing the scandal of the cross, which is at the root of our reputation with the world, seek to cover the scandal, and recoup our reputations. We baptize our pride by reasoning that in order to have a hearing for the gospel we must first attain standing, establish our intellectual bona fides.
It is, according to the Word of God, however, the unbelieving world that is populated by fools (Psalm 14:1). They have built a fantasy world on a fantasy foundation that begins with the denial of the world and its foundation. Their holy creed, their most sacred truth is that there is no truth. They may reign, but they are naked. And we are fools if we think we will gain a hearing by taking off our own clothes. The cross is foolishness to the Greeks. What fools we are to think we can jettison our reputation for folly while holding on to the cross.
The gospel requires of us that we sacrifice our reputations, both moral and intellectual. We enter in confessing we were so wicked, and so foolish that we were dead. He made us alive. His Spirit gave us sight. We brought nothing to the table except our own cadavers. Having been made alive, we return to death when we boast of our attainments. The great scandal of the evangelical mind isn’t that we aren’t smart. The great scandal is that we think being thought smart matters a lick. We began in humility, not about His truth, but about ourselves. So let us continue.
We’re unable to start our new study Lord, Teach Us to Pray tonight. We’ll keep you apprised about next week. Thank you.
“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
So Luther, October 31, 1517 began the Reformation, with the first of his 95 Theses. So we end this series, acknowledging this same wisdom for our day. God gives grace to the humble.
Paul encourages us in his letter to the Philippians, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” As Ben Gutierrez argues in his book The Mind of Christ, the antecedent “this” points backward to what Paul was describing more than forward to what he would describe, how Christ Himself exhibited these qualities. That is, Christ making Himself of no reputation is the example; being of one mind, being humble and self-less is the thing itself, the mindset we are called to.
Like so much of the practical side of living the Christian faith, our challenge is less understanding what we are called to, more doing what we clearly know. Our eyes run over these qualities, ascertain quickly that they are easy to understand and then assume that as such we needn’t pay them much mind. As if Adam and Eve’s problem was they couldn’t quite grasp what God meant when He said, “That tree right there- don’t eat its fruit.”
What defines the mind of Christ is not its level of intelligence. Paul is not calling us here to aspire to grow ever closer to omniscience. A high IQ is not next to godliness. Instead the mind of Christ is defined by its focus away from itself. It was, I believe, Lewis of Chesterton (it usually is either Lewis or Chesterton) who said “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself less.” It is, for instance, a shocking enough thing that the Lord of Glory would stoop so low as to wash the feet of the disciples. How much more that He would do so on the very night in which He was betrayed, the night His passion began.
We, however, are ever much like our first parents. Jesus Himself, the very one we turn to for our salvation told us that if we would gain our lives we must lose them. That’s about as clear as the very first command. We too don’t trust our Lord. Who, we wonder, will look after our needs, our wants, if we are focusing on the needs of others? How will we get the accolades that mean so much to us if we don’t at the least let others know what we’re up to? How will my interests be protected if not by me?
If we want the mind of Christ we must pursue the heart of Christ. Jesus is a man who trusts His heavenly Father, who believes every word from His lips. He is a man who knows that His heavenly Father will look after His needs. He is a man who trusts His heavenly Father to glorify Him. He is a man who trusts His heavenly Father to protect Him. All we have to do to have this is to die. Last, when we die we will see Him as He is and be like Him. First, as we die to self in the here and now the better we reflect what we will be in the then and there.
We’ve all heard the horror stories. First there was the church that offered visitors a free oil change during the “service” if you would come. Then we heard of simple cash rewards. More recently a church raffled off a new Harley Davidson motorcycle. You couldn’t buy raffle tickets; you could only earn them either by visiting or bringing visitors in. Tetzel is spinning in his grave, but only because he is appalled that he never got this sophisticated.
We have our standard ways of measuring the worldliness of the church. We can note that the divorce rate within the evangelical church is roughly equal to the rate among the lost. In one mammoth evangelical denomination, the rate is actually higher. We can look at it ideologically and note that over half those polled who consider themselves evangelical also affirm that there is no such thing as objective truth.
Or, we can see the fruit of that affirmation. In a time of philosophical crisis in ancient Greece, when two competing schools of thought found themselves in a Mexican standoff, a new school arose. The Sophists did not take a side in the titanic struggle between Heraclitus and Parmenides, between the many and the one. Instead they argued that arguing was a waste of time. This school was interested in persuasion, not proof. In fact, like modern relativists, they believed that proof was impossible.
In the modern, or perhaps postmodern West, we are sophists once again. We have added this Western twist — pragmatism. Now persuasion is no longer in the pursuit of rhetorical laurels, but is in the service of selling things. Indeed we live in such a sophisticated age that we are told that the key to success is selling even ourselves. And once again the church has fallen prey to the wisdom of the world. We think that our pathway to success lies in selling ourselves, in presenting ourselves not just as a product, but as a superior product. What was once the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church has become now Oakmont Family Worship Center. The trouble is that there are no oaks, no mountains, few families (that is, the families all split and go their separate ways as soon as they enter), no worship, and precious little center.
What Oakmont Family Worship Center offers instead is a series of bulletpoint benefits that fit the demographics of the area. They have a gym, a wide array of twelve-step programs, youth groups, women’s groups, men’s groups, singles groups, and, of course, their own coffee bar right in the narthex, I mean, the “greeting center.” Which in turn means that not only are there no oaks, mountains, families, worship or center, but neither is it one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
It is not one because, unlike the true church, its being isn’t centered on the work of Christ. It spits on the liturgy, on the music, even on the convictions of our fathers. It is the first church of what’s happening now, and thus is untethered from the church in history.
Neither, of course, is the church holy. It not only is not set apart, but labors diligently to mimic the world. It is unholy on purpose, because its reason for being is pleasing the lost, rather than the One who finds the lost. It moves from embracing the wisdom of this world in embracing a sophist agenda, which, in turn, leads it into embracing the wisdom of the world, because that’s what attracts the world. The church begins with the assumption that it can be whatever it wishes and concludes by wishing to be just like the world.
The prototypical Oakmont is not catholic either. Not only does it begin with a marketing strategy, but that marketing strategy is to reach a particular niche (virtually always yuppies, not coincidentally). “Oakmont” is focused on bringing in upwardly mobile professionals. Its vision of the church extends only as broadly as the demographic it is seeking. When we affirm the catholicity of the church we are not only affirming that the church encompasses every tongue and tribe, but that it unites every tongue and tribe. And, as noted above, it transcends time, uniting this century and the last, and the one before that, all the way back to the Garden.
Worst of all, Oakmont is not apostolic. It rejects not only the faith once delivered unto the saints, but likewise it rejects the messengers who delivered that faith. It takes its cues from modern-day church growth gurus, who, in turn, take their cues from the madmen of Madison Avenue. Oakmont isn’t concerned with what the apostles said because they make their decisions based on what the market says. And one thing the market cannot bear is sound, old, demanding doctrine. When demographics divide, that’s good marketing. But when doctrine divides, that’s bad marketing.
Sophistry in the church, then, not only guts the church of her defining marks but gives her a new identity. Now she is no longer the bride of Christ, but a painted lady. When the church hustles the world, it becomes a worldly hustler. In short, like Israel before her, when the church cavorts with the world, she finds her lamp stand removed, she finds herself divorced and alone. The world is a cruel lover, but more important, God is a jealous God. When the church plays to consumers, she will find herself consumed by the One who is a consuming fire. Praise God, however, that the church itself, the true church, will never fall. For her Groom has promised, despite her wandering eye, to remove every blot and blemish. And all His promises are yea and amen.
