0409 Theological Liberalism
Many Americans who identify themselves as Christians do not have an intimate knowledge of the Biblical text. This sad fact explains why theological non-conservatives are able to get away with the public claims they make. A recent editorialist (Sentinel) provided a great example of the differences between bona-fide literal interpretation and the alternatives. The August 3rd “Bible pop quiz” offered the public information that was accurate only within the framework of alternative Christianity’s distorted understanding of literalism. Four of the “correct” answers assigned to literalism were patently false to the point of absurdity. Nine of the answers were half-true mutations of conservative scholarship. Only two of the 15 answers provided were completely accurate by authentic standards of literal interpretation but offered no context or explanation.
The issue really has to do with starting points. In classic liberal systems, miracles – direct personal interventions by God outside of natural “laws” (including perfect inspiration of written Scripture), do not happen. In this view, biblical religion is evolutionary. It “advanced” from superstition to idol worship and polytheism to a final one-god insight. Old Testament law, for example, is a culmination of cultural and spiritual development. God may have contributed behind-the-scenes help, but the idea that He gave it directly to a man (Moses) over a one year period at Mt. Sinai is considered spurious at best. This same system is applied to the rest of the Bible as well. The assumption is toward error in the text rather than integrity of the text. The goal is to weed out the corrupted oral traditions and the errant contributions of lost manuscripts. The Bible becomes a book or riddles; an ancient record permeated with misperceptions, corrupt source materials and cultural accommodations.
Other quasi-textual approaches to the Bible such as neo-orthodoxy, social issue theologies, open theologies etc., are built on much of the above foundation. In one form or another and to one degree or another, they all consider the Biblical text untrustworthy and something less than the complete Word of God in writing. Ultimately, contrary to the apostles’ principles (Paul, 1 Corinthians 2), in the name of adult faith, the wisdom of man is awarded the power to judge Scripture. He claims the right to determine which pieces are true and which are not, thus exercising the foolish intellectual “wisdom” of 1 Corinthians 1. The second greatest command, ministry (Matthew 22:39), is elevated to the place of the greatest (Matthew 22:37); thereby sliding into a different gospel of creaturely making.
Heralders of non-conservative doctrine actually try to claim a love for the Bible by attacking its written integrity! True, under their scheme, it is possible to be “Bible believing” – in the parts that are truth, but certainly not in the parts that are flawed! In an effort to justify their assumptions, they ridicule what they cannot seem to grasp. Most of the accusations against literalists would be true only of someone with kindergarten reading skills or a child’s intellect. Indictments against the Bible itself as containing mistakes and contradictions have long ago been explained or totally debunked by intricate scholarship. Yet, year after year, the same tired list of supposed problems resurfaces.
None of this would matter much if non-conservative scholars did their thing among themselves and left it at that. But they don’t. They masterfully teach that questioning must equal doubting and that doubting must rest on lifeless supernaturalism, a dismantled Bible and defrocked “assumptions” of the faith. They garner the most air time and print space in the media thereby disproportionately affecting public morality. They are in “Christian” colleges and seminaries across the country teaching our children how to, with comfortable duplicity, claim Bible beliefs and a devotion to living God’s Word while at the same time mutilating the very document upon which intelligent faith stands.
Approaching Scripture with non-conservative bias has the net result of creating of a different Christianity. Within the overall universe of things considered Christian, it allows common religious language to be used with completely uncommon meanings. Much of the time, what is heard is not what is said and what is said is not what is meant. Conservatives should not be ridiculed as “blind” or “childish” simply because their faith rests on a trust in the Scriptures as-they-stand that liberals can not (or will not) understand.