1102 Evangelicals Need Not Serve
If ever there was an opportunity too good to pass up, it is now. January’s opinion piece dared to make the claim that Americans are generally ignorant of basic Christian theology and that it matters. The blame for this fall from knowledge was laid at the feet of theological liberalism and ineffective evangelicalism.
Locally, reactions to the column immediately began proving its claims. Some critics seemed mystified by the idea that Christian theology would be dictated by the Bible. Others lifted holy writ out of its original historical/cultural settings and abandoned normal rules of written language. Such slight-of-hand is the only way in a Judeo-Christian culture to justify environmental and social justice mythologies or to rip Jesus Christ out of His written revelation in order to transform Him into a revolutionary, salvation-seeking, enlightened mystic.
Nationally, almost as if on cue, Alabama’s new governor also helped prove the point. Just after being sworn in, Governor Bentley, speaking in a church, said, “Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want you to be my brother.” Reaction was swift from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Birmingham Islamic Society. The ADL wanted an apology and the Birmingham Islamic Society (BIS) wanted him to change his convictions or come to the realization that evangelical politicians were unwanted.
The governor’s problem was not in what came out of his mouth nor when or where he spoke. His problem was in the public who mistakenly thought they were listening. To borrow a concept Jesus used, they had ears but weren’t hearing.
Rather than lying about his heart to protect it, which used to be considered a character flaw, or tickling the ears of the theologically ignorant in order to continue politics as usual, he spoke one of the most clearly taught, most fundamental, most profound facts of biblical theology. The plain text of the Old Testament clearly divides the world between those in the family of Israel and those who were not. The plain text of the New Testament just as clearly proclaims the completion of that same system as applying to those adopted into Christ’s family and those who are not.
Like it or not, those are the textual facts. The Bible teaches no brotherhood of man based simply on being fellow homo-sapiens. The ADL, BIS, liberal theologians and skeptics are free to question it, dislike it, deny it or ignore it but their ignorance of basic Scriptural concepts does not create the right or authority to demand that any person apologize for it or deny it, no matter what position of government service he may hold.
As it turns out, Governor Bentley is in famous company. John Quincy Adams: “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” President Jimmy Carter: “We believe that the first time we’re born, as children, it’s human life given to us; and when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it’s a new life. That’s what ‘born again’ means.” Theodore Roosevelt: “Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally impossible for us to figure ourselves what that life would be if these standards were removed.”