The Pathology of Theology

Pathology - The science of the causes and effects of diseases, especially the branch of medicine that deals with the laboratory examination of samples of body tissue for diagnostic or forensic purposes.

This is the definition I received when I ‘Googled’ Pathology. For our purposes in this brief article I use this term as the systematic examination of a Theological Premise that exhibits abnormality or departure from historic evangelical orthodoxy and will inevitably lead to heresy or worse. What people believe, especially in the realm of Theology, is subject to a pathological examination. This applies to all. We must be precise and accountable or we will find ourselves on the short side of Truth.

I am currently privileged to have two Pastoral Interns, both Seminarians. One of them recently said to me, ‘Pastor, you are so precise in your theological statements.’ I take that as a compliment and an accurate assessment of my penchant for precision. Our culture is post-modern and deconstructionist. Vigilance is a small price to pay for precision and accuracy as we give expression to the Word of God. We must say what God has said, nothing more, but most certainly nothing less.

Ten years ago I was working with a pastor who was enamored with the ministry of Rob Bell. I cautioned that Pastor to listen carefully and thoughtfully to what Bell was saying. I was not able to identify with precision the abnormalities in Bell’s theology at that time, but his recent publication of Love Wins validated my appeal for caution.

The following quote serves as an example of this issue. T.D. Jakes has at best a questionable position on the Trinity. James McDonald’s statement that “God has existed eternally in three manifestations” is a classic example of failing to address the issue. Jakes has been characterized on this issue as a ‘modalist’ and I believe that characterization is accurate. This position is ipso facto a denial of the Trinity and simply sees God as manifesting Himself sometimes as Father, sometimes as Son etc. This is not in harmony with either the text of Scripture or historic evangelical orthodoxy. Equivocation is not precision.

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 05:25 PM PDT Reformation21 BLOG by Carl Trueman

There is an interesting statement about the Trinity by Gospel Coalition council member and regular contributor, James Macdonald, with reference to his invitation to T D Jakes to speak at a conference. I quote the relevant section:

I affirm the doctrine of the Trinity as I find it in Scripture. I believe it is clearly presented but not detailed or nuanced. I believe God is very happy with His Word as given to us and does not wish to update or clarify anything that He has purposefully left opaque. Some things are stark and immensely clear, such as the deity of Jesus Christ; others are taught but shrouded in mystery, such as the Trinity. I do not trace my beliefs to creedal statements that seek clarity on things the Bible clouds with mystery. I do not require T.D. Jakes or anyone else to define the details of Trinitarianism the way that I might. His [Jakes'] website states clearly that he believes God has existed eternally in three manifestations.

When people such as myself question such ambiguity, we are labeled ‘heresy hunters’ (by Paul Crouch) or ‘haters’ (by Stephen Furtick). My appeal is and always has been exegesis. The defense of heresy is almost always Polemic not Exegetical. I have an article I wrote on this subject titled Speaking Truth in Love. I will be happy to send this to any of my readers who make that request (info@igniteus.net).

Paul in Athens (Acts 17:21) spoke to those ‘telling or hearing something new’. The culture in which we serve is very similar. I appeal to my readers to be “Exegetical Pathologist”. Focus on issues and exegesis. We must identify personalities when they articulate ‘strange fire’ (Titus 1:9 – rebuke those who contradict sound doctrine) but we need not malign or denigrate people. Doing so diminishes our authority in speaking the Truth. Polemics are important. Accurate and compassionate Exegesis is essential and will always be the final arbiter of Truth. When my declarations harmonize accurately with Special Revelation it matters little or not at all what some proponent of a ‘new thing’ may call me. On my tomb stone will be the words "What Does The Text Say?" Sufficient!

Rise Up O Men of God!!

Every Evangelical Pastor needs to read this post on their knees. Wake up and understand the depths to which we have fallen. May God grant a mighty awakening in the church in America.

In once very Christian Holland, a “new” kind of Christianity has appeared, called “Something-ism.” A theologian in Amsterdam, says: “There must be ‘something’ between heaven and earth, but to call it ‘God’, for the majority of Dutch is a bridge too far.” A pastor of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, states that “God does not exist at all as a supernatural thing. God is…a word for human experience.” A better expression of pagan One-ism you could not find!

This pastor goes on to explain that Jesus is a man, “living out of the spirit of God he found inside himself.” This “new” Christianity “takes God out of the box” of doctrine and redefines the Faith as inner feelings and outer social action.

Though theological liberals present their latest view as “new,” it is the same old option of the worship of creation rather than the Creator. The priceless Gospel of Two-ism is under attack, just as it always has been.

Harvey Cox, a Harvard liberal theologian, in his book The Future of Faith (2009), contains a scandalously false reconstruction of “Christian” theology, to demonstrate “new” theological development. He divides church history into three parts: the Age of Faith (Jesus and his immediate disciples, with no doctrine or creeds); the Age of Belief (4th century till now, with creeds about Jesus); and the Age of the Spirit (the present). Conveniently, this third age is very similar to the first! He affirms: “Just as creeds did not exist in the first Age of Faith, so they are [fortunately] fading in importance now.” According to Cox, it is “important to eliminate the spurious use of ‘belief’ to define Christianity,” because “the spirit is moving in other religions too,” and we must learn to “appreciate the dazzling array of myths, rituals and stories in other religions.” He anticipates a future where “a religion based on subscribing to mandatory beliefs is no longer viable, [which is] a perversion you do not see in Buddhism or Hinduism, where there is no equivalent of the Nicene creed.”

The superficial character of this analysis is mind-boggling. Clearly there are creeds in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 15:3-11; Philippians 2:6-11; Colossians 1:13-20; 1 Timothy 1:15; 2:5-6; 3:16). The Gospel is a “credo” because it is the account of God’s saving action “for us.” Of course there is no Nicene Creed in Buddhism and Hinduism because there is no transcendent God and no unique act of God, from the outside, to save us.

Buddhists and Hindus—and Cox—find “god” within, in a purely One-ist occultic experience. Here is the proof: In describing the present age as “an inexorable movement of the human spirit whose hour has come,” Cox plays his hand. The spirit of which he speaks is faith in “the human spirit.” “God” is merely the event of faith in human action.

Cox is fooling many. Of this book Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary, says: “Insightful, provocative, and inspiring—I even found myself uttering a hearty evangelical ‘Amen!’” Little wonder other, less sophisticated evangelicals are saying amen, preferring “deeds to creeds.” Many Millennial Christians, taught to embrace multicultural diversity, believe that being a follower of Jesus Christ is “not about defending some statement from a church creed or theology; it is about testifying to our relationship with Christ through a life of sacrificial love for all people.” Faith in experience and social action becomes the “new” Christianity.

Lest we think that Cox is one lone voice, here are others in the multitude, teaching this One-ist theology:

• Rachel Held Evans, a successful evangelical author, declares that to reduce God’s revelation to some creed or systematic theology to which everyone is required to give assent in order to be a Christian, is to “underestimate the scope and power of God’s activity in the world.”
• Sally Morganthaler, an Emergent cohort who has lectured on leadership at many evangelical schools such as Fuller, explores “the convergence of a developmental (evolutionary) view of life and spirituality…towards holism (the both/and).” No room for creeds here, as she searches for One-ist, mystical spirituality.
• Pastor Danielle Shroyer at Journey Church (Dallas, TX), states: “I cannot say exactly what we believe except that experience is a higher authority than Scripture. I do not believe the Bible is the Word of God…”

This “spiritual” refusal of creeds and Scripture—our own form of Dutch “Something-ism”—is yet another attempt by the enemy to smash the church like a Japanese tsunami. While these One-ist lies will prove catastrophic to some forms of Millennial Evangelicalism, they can never snuff out the power of the Gospel. We rejoice because the power of God the Creator that raised Jesus from the dead has redeemed us from sin in order that we might live to His praise and glory. “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Is. 59:11