If They Missed Some Things, They May Have Missed Others

I want to approach this very, very carefully, and with great humility and respect. I also want to approach this critically and with full honesty.

I am in the business world and one thing managers hate to hear is “that is the way it has always been done”. I once heard a joke about a child asking his mother why she did what she did or something along the lines, it ended up being “well that is the way it has ALWAYS been done”.

Today I want to challenge us to rethink what we hold dear. There is no doctrine in specific but just our overall belief system. That is not to say we are to wipe the board clean of 2000 years of Christian history. This is not to downplay some of the brightest minds, nor the most committed men and women. This is not to attempt to minimize or reduce or ridiculed anything or anybody; however, again the Lord has given us His Spirit to discern His will and I have to ask if all of our history/theology often times impede such a dependency.

Here is why. Many of great theologians, those whom are praised and maybe rightfully so, got a lot of things wrong. To be more specific, lets look at slavery. Many of the great reformed evangelicals got this wrong. Not only did they not fight to stop slavery. They actually owned slaves themselves contributing greatly to the horrific slave trade. Many of my ancestors were told that this was “God’s plan for their life”. Now is God sovereign? Sure He is; however, that does not negate the fact that something is wrong. Did God use slavery to bring about His purposes and plans? Sure He did, but the same God is sovereign over abortion and homosexuality and other such things that so many reformed Christians have extreme disgust for. See the inconsistency? Men like Edwards and Whitfield owned slaves. Does that reduce their great academic works, or their missionary work? Heck no! I affirm the way they see the Good News; however, that gives me the right to look at their work critically to see if they got something else wrong.

What about the treatment of women? I think we are still a couple of years away from the women sufferage act. The same men who amazingly exegeted Galatians 3 happened to miss that the mistreatment of women (or any other people group) was wrong.  Here is a quote from one of my favorite theolgians John Calvin.

We have a special sympathy for poor women who are evilly and roughly treated by their husbands, because of the roughness and cruelty of the tyranny and captivity which is their lot. We do not find ourselves permitted by the Word of God, however, to advise a woman to leave her husband, except by force of necessity; and we do not understand this force to be operative when a husband behaves roughly and uses threats to his wife, nor even when he beats her, but when there is imminent peril to her life . We exhort her to bear with patience the cross which God has seen fit to place upon her; and meanwhile not to deviate from the duty which she has before God to please her husband, but to be faithful whatever happens

Augustine was worse so I won’t even include his quotes here. But you will get the picture quite easily that these theological “giants” were wrong in some areas, while simultaneously acknowledging that God used them tremendously.

If we go back further, we see the work of Constatinism in the “church fathers”. We wouldn’t allow a vast majority in our church today; however, we cling to many of their theological positions like a man clings to a rock while the rest of his body dangles off a cliff.  We can look at American history, English History, Greek History and for every theologian that is on a poster I can find 100’s of quotes that would cause the most abrasive to shift uncomfortably.

Now why do I say this? Plain and simple, we need to be constantly looking with fresh eyes. Much like those men were clouded by their surroundings and their culture we can too. Often times we are afraid to step outside of that box and think things through. We are afraid that someone will think ill of us. It is odd that the Reformation became an end in itself, or Puritanical theology became enshrined, or that “the ways things used to be” become the standard, especially when we have the living God indwelling us, who was to come to lead us into “all truth”.

There are a lot of things I reconsidered. I came to the conclusion that many of the living theolgians I love to listen to have been greatly influenced by men who got a lot of things wrong and because of that I respectively say they also may have some things wrong. Women in “ministry” would be one of those things. The role and function of women in the home and marriage. The function and role of pastors/elders is another. How the church should function so that she is best edified and that she worships her Lord the best would be another one. I know that many who have rethought these things are kicking against 2000 years of history, but the Reformers themselves kicked against 1500, why should we stop?