Scott McKnight

The church should be offering a counter narrative to individualism instead of reflecting individualism back to the culture.

God hates Cretans

As part of our series on learning to love the Bible for what it is, not what we want it to be, we’re working our way through Christian Smith’s book, The Bible Made Impossible, In it, Smith tackles the problem of  “biblicism,” which he defines as “a theory about the Bible that emphasizes together its exclusive authority, infallibility, perspicuity, self-sufficiency, internal consistency, self-evident meaning, and universal applicability.”  Biblicism falls apart, Smith says, because of the “the problem of pervasive interpretive pluralism.” (p. viii)

While Smith does not question the inspiration and authority of Scripture, he questions attempts to reduce the Bible to a “blueprint for living” with a simplistic attitude that begins with, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” Instead, Smith argues that “Jesus Christ is the true and final Word of God, in relation to whom scripture is God’s secondary, written word of witness and testimony.”  (More on that next week.)

Last week, we talked about the way in which the word “biblical” gets tossed around so carelessly these days—“biblical” politics, “biblical” courtship, “biblical” economics, “biblical” manhood, “biblical” womanhood—and how any claim to a biblical lifestyle or perspective is inherently selective.

This week, I want to highlight some of Smith’s observations in Chapter 4, where he writes about “subsidiary problems with Biblicism.” For Smith, these include: 1) blatantly ignored teachings, 2) arbitrary determinations of cultural relativism, 3) strange passages, 4) populist and ‘expert’ practices that deviate from Biblicist theory, 5) lack of Biblicist self-attestation, 6) the genuine need for extra-biblical theological concepts, 7) the dubious genealogy of the Bible-only tradition,8) lack of a Biblicist social ethic, and 9) setting up youth for unnecessary crises of faith.

Let’s focus on those blatantly ignored biblical teachings that challenge the simplistic, blueprint approach to reading the Bible.

According to Smith, “Biblicists very often engage in what we might call ‘uneven and capricious selective literalism.’ Sometimes the Bible says what it says and must be obeyed. Other times the obvious meaning of the passage is relativized by historical and cultural considerations.” (p. 70)

Smith provides dozens of examples. These are some that caught my attention:

• In five different instances in five New Testament epistles, the Bible contains the directive to “greet one another with a holy kiss” (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Peter 5:24). Very few  evangelical pastors urge their congregations to put these instructions into practice, “yet it is hard to see based on Biblicist standards how ignoring the instruction is not blatant disobedience to a clear biblical teaching. Holy-kiss greetings would not be hard to practice. But the biblical command simply goes in one ear and out the other, as if it had simply not been taught in Scripture.” (p. 68)

• 1 Corinthians 14:34 says that women should remain silent in the churches. “Many Biblicists appeal to this verse to make claims about women, authority, marriage, and church life—most of which turn out to have little if anything to do with the actual content of the passage,” Smith observes, “But no Biblicist actually obeys what this verse clearly says. I know of no church, Biblicist or otherwise, in which women are actually  not permitted to speak. If Biblicism were correct, it is not clear why Biblicists do not follow this teaching.” (p. 68-69)

• In Titus 1:12-13 Paul writes of the Cretans that “Even one of their own prophets has said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true.” Writes Smith, “Paul is here endorsing something like a racist stereotype—perhaps more accurately, an ethnic prejudice—an apparently common slur against the entire nation of Cretans generally.” (p. 72) If the biblicists are right, if the Bible simply means what it says and should be applied as universally prescriptive, then perhaps Christians need to be making signs that say “God Hates Cretans”! (or at the very least warning fellow Christians against stopping by the island of Crete on their Mediterranean cruises!)

Of course, these are just three of many passages of Scripture that are overlooked or ignored, even by those who claim to interpret and apply the Bible literally.

Writes Smith:“May God’s people never eat rabbit or pork (Lev. 11:6-7)? May a man never have sex with his wife during her monthly period (Lev. 11:6-7) or wear clothes woven of two kinds of materials (Leviticus 19:19)?…Should Christians encourage the suffering and poor to drink beer and wine in order to forget their misery (Proverbs 31:6-7)?…May Christians never swear oaths (Matthew 5:33-37)? Should we never call anyone on earth ‘father’ (Matthew 23:9)? Should Christ’s followers wear sandals when they evangelize but bring no food or money or extra clothes (Mark 6:8-9)? Should Christians be exercising demons, handling snakes, and drinking deadly poison (Mark 16:15-18)? Are people who divorce their spouses and remarry always committing adultery (Luke 16:18)? Ought Christians to share their material goods in common (Acts 2:44-45)?…Is it wrong for men to cover their heads (1 Corinthians 11:4) or a disgrace of nature for men to have long hair (1 Corinthians 11:14)? …Ought all Christian slaves always simply submit to their masters (reminder: slavery still exists today) (1 Peter 2:18-21)? Must Christian women not wear braided hair, gold jewelry, and fine clothes (1 Timothy 2:9, 1 Peter 3:3)?…” (p. 70-71)

Obviously the list could go on and on.

Why do we hear sermon after sermon about Paul’s instructions that “I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over man” while never hearing a peep about Paul’s declaration that “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons”?  Why is “wives submit to your husbands” considered by many Christian to be a timeless divine mandate, when in every New Testament occurrence, that phrase is either preceded or followed by instructions that “slaves obey your masters,” at least once with the phrase “in the same way” between them?! (I write a lot more about these passages and their context in “A Year of Biblical Womanhood.”)

The point of this whole discussion, as far as I’m concerned, is that we are ALL selective in our interpretation and application of Scripture. It will not do to spend our theological debates accusing one another of “picking and choosing” from Scripture when selectivity is something in which we all engage. 

The better questions, I believe, are 1) “why do we pick and choose the way that we do?”  and 2) “how should we pick and choose?”

Why do we pick and choose the way that we do?

The truth is, how we “pick and choose” from Scripture often says as much about us as it says about the Bible. So, in a sense, our selective habits can serve an important instructive function in the life of followers of Jesus. What do our selective readings say about ourselves and what we want to read into Scripture? Are we reading with what Peter Rollins calls a “prejudice of love” or are we reading with prejudices of judgment, power, hatred, and fear? What do our hermeneutial impulses say about ourselves? When we approach Scripture, what are we looking for?

 How should we pick and choose?

Smith, and many others, have argued that reading Scripture with the “prejudice of love” means reading it with a “Christocentric hermeneutic,” that “the purpose, center, and interpretive key to scripture is Jesus Christ.”

This will be our topic for next week.

Rachel Held Evans Quote on Mark Driscol and the Reformed Celebrities

Control is not the end of the story. Power is not the end of the story. Violence is not the end of the story. Inequality is not the end of the story. Jesus is.

2 Reasons Mark Driscoll’s popularity doesn’t discourage me

So I spent the last four days in Tempe, Arizona, hanging out with the good folks from the Arizona Foundation for Contemporary Theology, Tempe First United Methodist Church, and Christians for Biblical Equality. I even got to try an In-And-Out burger while I was there!  (It was good and all, but I confess I did not have the religious experience for which so many In-And-Out fans had prepared me.)

What surprised me on this trip was that at every single event, one or two people would pull me aside and ask how I kept from getting discouraged by those big numbers that Mark Driscoll, and pastors like him, are always bragging about—the 10 million downloads, the enormous church planting network, the packed-out services, the hundreds of thousands of blog visitors.  

“Do you feel sometimes like we are losing,” they asked, “like the voices that belittle women, glorify hierarchy, and demand that ‘real men’  look and act like Mark Driscoll are louder than those advocating for equality, servant leadership, and humility?”

One young woman asked me this question with tears streaming down her face, for she had been made to feel small and worthless by churches like these, and she lived in fear that thousands upon thousands of women were experiencing the same thing and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

In brainstorming with the members of the Arizona chapter of Christians for Biblical Equality, I saw frustration in their faces as they talked about the seemingly insurmountable popularity of organizations like the Gospel Coalition and Acts 29.

And at one event, during the question and answer time, one man pointed out that if I had been Mark Driscoll, there would not have been enough room in the church building to accommodate the throngs of people eager to hear his message about how real men can beat up their enemies, real men make fun of effeminate guys, real men would never attend a church in which women are allowed to speak, real men always lead, and real women always follow.

“And yet you seem so positive,” he said. “Doesn’t this discourage you?”

I told him that I do get discouraged from time to time, that there are moments when I compare my blog stats to those of Mark Driscoll and Tim Challies and John Piper and Justin Taylor and I just want to slam my head against the table in despair.  But, usually, after an assuring talk with Dan and a few moments of centering prayer, I remind myself of these two things:

1. Those of us who advocate servant leadership instead of hierarchal leadership are less likely to produce “evangelical celebrities.” It may seem like Christians who advocate power, hierarchy, and narrowly defined gender roles are winning the day, but just because these voices are often the loudest doesn’t mean that they are the most effective, or even the most popular. When you build your church and your culture around hierarchy and power, you are naturally going to be 1) highly-organized, and 2) personality focused. But when you build your church and your culture around humility and service, you are naturally going to be 1) organic, growing at the grassroots level, and 2)  less dependent on one or two flashy personalities and more dependent on the daily faithfulness of regular people.

Don’t forget that egalitarians have many, many pastors who support the equality and dignity of women.  (Some—like John Ortberg and Greg Boyd, for example—are well-known, but they conduct themselves with a measure of maturity that keeps the focus off of them and on Jesus Christ.) The Mark Driscolls of this world pull in (and publicize) the big numbers because that is how they measure success. But while these few powerful leaders draw in the big crowds, there are countless servant leaders out there drawing in smaller, (perhaps less cool) crowds that are being transformed by Jesus Christ, who served, who sacrificed, and who—at least by the world’s standards—failed. The Kingdom was never meant to grow through power or might, but by the Spirit. And in my travels, I see it growing everywhere, in the lives of people whose names may never grace the cover of a book or the marquee of a church sign. And it is growing in the developing world, far from the celebrity-obsessed American culture, through the faithful work of both men and women who are committed to yielding to this Spirit of grace.

2. We know the end of the story.

Most of the time, when I am discouraged about the state of Christianity, it’s because I have forgotten the end of the story.

We are part of a living, growing Kingdom in which the last will be first and the first will be last, in which the peacemakers and the merciful and the meek will be blessed, in which the tiny seeds we plant today will grow into great trees where the birds of the air will nest, in which a crucified savior is King, and in which all things will be reconciled to God in love. Control is not the end of the story. Power is not the end of the story. Violence is not the end of the story. Inequality is not the end of the story. Jesus is. Those who preach the gospel of power will come and go; they will flourish and then fade.

Living as those who know the end of the story means living with a degree of righteous anger, yes, but also living with unexplainable hope, optimism, and love. So when I get discouraged, I read the Beatitudes—and instead of fretting about the lack of these qualities in others, I focus on the lack of these qualities within me. I am responsible only for following Jesus in my life, whether that brings popularity or obscurity. And I can do this with joy and with peace because I know how the story ends.

These words may be of little comfort for the young woman who still struggles to believe that her feminine qualities are valuable to God, or to the young man who has been made to feel shame because he’d rather visit an art museum than watch a cage fight. But perhaps, if we continually offer to one another words of hope and encouragement rather than despair, we will start to believe them again.

 

Rachel Held Evans

Question of the week

This being the week we celebrate Martin Luther King, a Baptist minister who fought for civil rights for minorities, do you think Christians should still mix politics and religion?

Julia Cameron Quote

“You do not need to work to become spiritual. You are spiritual; you need only to remember that fact. Spirit is within you. God is within you.”
(God is No Laughing Matter: Observations and Objections on the Spiritual Path)

Brennan Manning “Did you believe that I loved you?”

Mother Theresa Quote

We can’t all do great things, be we all can do small things with great love.

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Called to Be a Pastor?

The Strategy to Pursue

Paul encourages Timothy to “practice these things; devote yourself to them.” In context, “these things” includes both growth in godliness and devotion to preaching and teaching.

Hopefully the emphasis on godliness is obvious to you. The road to landing in a particular pastoral ministry must include being increasingly conformed to the likeness of Christ (1 Tim. 4:10, 2 Cor. 3:18). Journal. Fast. Pray. Grow in grace. Here I heartily recommend The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges.

Along with growing in godliness, Paul also tells Timothy to sharpen his skills in handling the Word. “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13).

Specifically, if you believe God is calling you to pastoral ministry, you might:

(1) Memorize Scripture. By God’s grace, when I was preparing for ministry, there was a period of several years where I tried to memorize one verse per day. Twenty years later I continue to review those verses. This is not nearly so difficult as it sounds. It only requires a system and a few minutes a day.

 

If you need more convincing of the value of Scripture memory, listen to John Piper share his testimony. Nothing can be more strategic in being actually called to the pastorate of a Word-centered church than memorizing Scripture.

(2) Complete all the formal training you can. I understand that Spurgeon didn’t go to seminary. I know that too much weight can be assigned to the value of a master of divinity. But if you have the opportunity, take advantage of a seminary curriculum designed to give broad preparation for the pastorate. It is worth living in a 500-square-foot apartment or working at UPS if you can learn from godly professors.

(3) Preach and teach every chance you get. It may be that sometime in the next couple of months Tim Keller will give you a shout and ask you to fill the pulpit for him while he is on vacation.

Then again, maybe not.

Chances are that your early opportunities to preach will be more like mine. The first sermon I preached was at an assisted living center. My wife sang a solo before I preached. About five minutes into the sermon one elderly lady, who was speaking far louder than she realized, said to another, “I wish his wife had just sang another solo.”

Looking back, I understand her pain. The sermon was awful, but it was my chance to give myself wholly to preaching and teaching. Years later, I am comforted knowing that many I preached for were hard of hearing.

Teaching opportunities should also be seized. Much of the time I was in seminary I taught two Sunday school classes. The first was at 8 a.m. and sparsely attended. Although there was no way I could have known it at the time, my diligence in teaching was a vital part of having my first pastoral opportunity.

(4) Endure as many humbling critiques as possible. If you’re going to get better, sparks need to fly (Prov. 27:17). Find someone who truly understands homiletics and teaching to help you grind off the rough edges.

 

If you find the right person to critique you, it’s sure to be humbling. I vividly recall the first time I preached in front of Haddon Robinson. I didn’t necessarily expect him to be converted under my preaching. But I thought perhaps he would nod in approval. It wasn’t happening. He just turned to the others in my doctoral class and said, “I just don’t think it worked. Did any of you think it did?” No one rushed to my defense. Indeed, my cohorts solemnly agreed with Haddon.

Fortunately, what I also remember is Haddon explaining why my sermon didn’t work. His input continues to help my preaching every week. As I have recounted in vivid detail, my first attempt at writing theology met with an even more epic failure: “D-.” I still cringe. Oh the humanity! But I made much progress in giving myself wholly to preparation for pastoral ministry.

Become a student of what constitutes biblical preaching. One of my goals with the book When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search was to equip pastoral search committees to evaluate preaching. Perhaps you could ask one of the elders in your church to read through the chapters on what to look for in biblical preaching and use the evaluation form to critique one of your sermons or lessons. If you get an “A” he was probably too nice. Find someone else.

 

From Gospel Coalition