Language - Purity of Thought, Purity of Word: III

This morning (February 19, 2012), I read the following:

“When we become passive, we lose our freedom. Freedom is something active and alive. And it means standing up and opposing the fads and fashions that would sweep us away. As Chesterton says, “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” [Common Sense 101 – Lessons from G.K. Chesterton, by Dale Ahlquist, Ignatius].

One of the “streams” that is disturbing to me is the manipulation of the Biblical text by professing-Christian leaders and teachers. It’s one thing to work with a text, to do your best to submit yourself to it, and to come out someplace other than where the author intended; it is another to superimpose yourself on the text and to perform plastic surgery on it so that no one looking for the text can recognize it.

A friend recently asked me about a popular book (it’s become a franchise) for men that’s been around for a few years; I told him it was heresy. That’s not a word I often use. There are many doctrines that I disagree with, some of which have little Biblical foundation, that I do not call heresy; but this particular book (actually a series of books – I think they have “his” and “her” books now) – I consider heresy because of the way it treats the Biblical text. It is one thing to arrive at a wrong doctrine or understanding even though you work through the text as best you can; it is another to wrongly use the Bible. The Biblical story used in this “franchise” of books and conferences does not correspond with the Biblical text; and since the franchise begins with creation and with Adam in an unbiblical storyline – it can go nowhere but astray.

My problem is that the franchise is not only unfaithful to the Biblical account; it is that it teaches its adherents to disregard the text of Scripture in favor of a storyline that sounds new, exciting, and (apparently) plausible. Were the franchise not popular I wouldn’t care, nor would I have read the franchise’s cornerstone book; but it is popular and I must care when people I shepherd and have relationships with are exposed to the manipulation of Scripture and endorse and emulate the manipulation.

People passively read, when they do read; they passively listen (if you can call such a thing listening); and they tend to accept whatever they’re told as long as the presentation is not offensive. Give me a man or woman engaged in the text of Scripture over the course of a lifetime, who approaches the Bible in reverent submission to Christ, and I’ll show you a person who can go down a few rabbit trails in life and eventually return to the main highway – because God is faithful and the Bible provides a center of gravity when we allow the Word to speak to us and transform us – rather than attempting to transform the Word into our image.

There is a popular series of DVDs that I have the same issue with – the presenter of these DVDs is fast and loose with the message of the Bible – but no matter, the ambiance of the DVDs and “production values” are seductive to the point that why would a viewer take the time to actually filter the message through the Biblical text? A seductive presenter will seduce a passive listener just about every time.

The sad thing about the above is that many pastors don’t care whether a book or series of books is faithful to the Biblical text, or whether a series of DVDs is Biblical. Does their preaching and teaching reflect this low view of Scripture? Of course, they’d be the first to say that they have a high view of Scripture, for I’m referring to folks who consider themselves well within the pale of Evangelical Christianity; I don’t understand this.

The response I usually get when I question them is: “Well, look at all the good this book does.” The pragmatic is never warrant for unfaithfulness to the Word of God, to the text of Scripture. 

I’m not advocating a preoccupation with heretical teaching; I am advocating constant teaching and modeling of what it means to be faithful to the text of the Bible – and using popular books and DVDs, books and DVDs which many parishioners are exposed to, to demonstrate what unfaithfulness to the text and Gospel of Christ looks like is a shepherding method as old at the Bible. We profane the Biblical text when we recreate it in our own image; it is analogous to ancient Israel placing idols in the Temple; Israel profaned the sanctuary, we profane the text.