Christianity is Not a Team-Sport

The Lord’s Day should not be like the pep rally before the big game in which each team gathers in their home gymnasium in order to stir themselves up to fight the rival high school. The Calvinist Cougars prepare to claw the Baptist Bears. The Anglican Eagles soar high above the Lutheran Llamas. The Greek Orthodox insist that all of the other teams are ineligible to play in the league, being schismatics, the Roman Catholics claim their head coach is actually the head coach for all the other teams too, and the Divided Methodists and Lesbyterians show their ecumenical solidarity by joint displays of biodegradable Pride flags while shaking paper, climate-friendly pom-poms.

The fact is, the current state of the Lord’s Church is a mess. The Westminster Confession’s description of “more or less visible” doesn’t tell half the story. When you see what is going on in the Name of Jesus in some of these “churches,” you begin to think maybe the orcs really did descend from elves, as impossible as that seems.

I shared an elevator with a Lutheran this week. It was obvious he was making a pastoral visit, though I suspect he was not actually a pastor but a deacon, staff member, or volunteer. He saw my shirt advertising the Ezra Institute and its mission of “Informing Faith, Reforming Culture.” I saw the large silver cross around his neck. When I asked which synod he was with, he replied his church belonged to the ELCA. If the Lutheran team is the Llamas, the ELCA would be the ones on the roster with neurological disease and equine herpes. (Who knew that llamas could have neurological disease and equine herpes virus? You’re welcome.)

It occurred to me that we were two ministers riding an elevator at Children’s Hospital who have a lot in common and almost nothing in common. Both of us, presumably, have been baptized in the Name of the Triune God; we are covenantally Christian. We identify with Christian symbols and ideas. We visit hospitals in order to minister to the sick and afflicted. But the things that separate us almost seem to nullify all of the above, and I don’t mean our differences on confessional subscription, predestination, and the nature of baptismal regeneration. I’m referring to our almost certain disagreements on things like: the nature of the Triune God, the deity of Christ and his historical resurrection, the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, the historicity of Bible narratives and miracles, the exclusivity of salvation, and the necessity of a biblical ethic. The ELCA, as a general rule, doesn’t affirm any of those things. In fact, in most cases, they explicitly and proudly deny them. I think it is safe to say that I have far more in common with Martin Luther than any Lutheran who remains affiliated today with the ELCA.

The conclusion many fundamentalists and evangelicals reach is that the baptized Lutheran on the elevator is not a Christian. But, of course, he is a Christian, and that is the problem. He has been united to Christ in baptism. The fact that a husband acts like a whore does not mean that he isn’t a husband. It’s worse than that. It would be better if he were not married. But he is. That makes his whoring even more egregious. Fornication outside of marriage is a sin. Fornication inside of and against marriage is an abomination. It would be better to be an unbaptized Hindu on the day of judgment than to be a baptized Christian who insists sodomy is a moral and social good.

The Israelites in the northern kingdom were not Canaanites. They were worse. They were Israelites who acted like Canaanites. They worshiped false gods, persecuted the prophets, and broke covenant with God in every imaginable way, and in a few that Yahweh said even he had not imagined (cf. Jer. 19:5; 32:35, in fairness this was said about Judah!). Eventually the Lord divorced his covenant-breaking people, but he did not utterly forsake them. On the contrary, the promise of the prophets, the hope of the covenant God had made, was that one day Israel would be resurrected and restored, not merely to political existence, but to spiritual and covenantal life with their Lord.

What is the destiny of Christ’s Church? At the moment, she seems to have developed a multiple personality disorder and an addiction to substance abuse and self-harm. Will she continue to divide and devour herself until the Bridegroom returns? Will he come back to find a bride clothed in righteous beauty, or will he bring papers to annul the marriage before the honeymoon is over? The answer, of course, will depend on your eschatology and view of several biblical passages. My purpose is not to exegete or argue those verses here. This is a Lord’s Day devotional, not a speech in a theological debate. But to ask the question is, in some ways, to answer it. Yes, the Church will be winnowed, purified by suffering and trials. No, not every person (or denomination) visibly connected to Christ will remain until the last day. Unfruitful and diseased branches will be cut off and burned. The Lord of the vineyard will clean up his garden and make it healthy and beautiful, and that is the point here.

My sanctification is incomplete. It is easy for me to look down on the mainline Lutherans. Who wants to be a llama anyway? But there are places in my heart that are in even worse shape than their communion, because I have less excuse for my lack of holiness. I belong to a church that teaches the Bible. I know better. The only catechizing some of our mainline brethren have received is from Pastor Wolf in his rainbow colored sheepskin coat. Will the Lord abandon me because of my lingering sinfulness? No, and he will not abandon his Bride either. She needs a new diet, a gym membership, and some strong antibiotics, but she still belongs to him, and he will not allow Rev. Wormtongue and Deacon Grishnakh to have her.

There should be no pride that we are Presbyterians (or Baptists, or fill in the blank) when we gather on the Lord’s Day. If anyone boasts, let him boast in the Lord. I  am grateful for my Reformed identity and heritage, unashamedly so. I am Reformed because I believe it is the best, most faithful, most biblical expression of the religion of Christ. I am happy to discuss, debate, and defend its basic convictions and distinctions as the correct interpretation of Scripture. But there is a big difference between being Reformed because we think it is biblical and being Reformed because we think it is cooler to be a Raptor than a member of the Pentecostal Peanuts team.

The scale of identity and priority ought to be Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, and so on. It should not start with our narrowest distinctives but our broadest ones. We should see ourselves, first and foremost, in relation to Christ as members of his Body. The mainline church down the street may be so compromised as to have lost their lampstand, and Pastor Jezebel is liable to be struck down at any moment, but the baptizands in the pews are still my brothers and sisters, and some of them will be redeemed and sanctified, just as the Lord still promises to do with me and with you.

I am Reformed, paedobaptist, presbyterian, postmillennial, and theonomic, but none of those are merit badges on my robe when we gather to worship. They are not the colors of my “team,” only conclusions I have reached as I continue to study Scripture. Some of those convictions may be wrong. Even if none of those are, it is inevitable that I am in error on something else I confidently believe. But I am not saved by having all of the right answers. I am not saved because I worship in the right church in the right way as I teach and believe the right things. We are saved by Christ and by his grace alone.

When the Church assembles on the Lord’s Day, she does not meet on opposite sides of the playing field, wearing different color jerseys and rooting for sectarian success on gameday. She stands before the Maker’s throne, clothed in white. Her skin is still marred, she’s limping badly, and there are a few tumors that will have to be removed. The Lord is not finished with her yet, but one day he will be, and then we will finally be able to see how beautiful she is and always was in God’s mind. That is the Body that gathers, the Body to which we are connected. That is the Church of the risen Christ and the living God: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, forever. --JME

Anti-Social Media

It seems as if the visible Church, and the conservative, evangelical, and Reformed world in particular, is determined to tear itself apart. We should not judge the state or health of the nation or Church from posts and interaction on social media, but if one was to do so, he might begin to think the Lord had changed his mind about that promise in Matthew 16:18. Things are said regularly and openly online that would be the basis for ecclesiastical discipline if said in person. Digital media provides a platform for misinformation, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, or outright lies about people and situations. This is not only a factor in our national politics. It is a major factor in the growing division within the visible Church.

Social media can be a great blessing and provide access to news, information, and communication that can inform, enlighten, and edify. But there should be no question it also has negative effects. Social media coarsens speech, promotes incivility, weakens accountability, and allows knuckleheads to live inside echo chambers, exacerbating their knuckleheadedness. If your social interaction is mostly limited to those you know and engage with in-person on a weekly basis, you will be forced to deal with perspectives and arguments contrary to your own. This promotes self-awareness, humility, and a greater ability to dialogue charitably. But with a social media account, you can connect with the seven other people on a planet of seven billion who are just as stupid and stubborn as you. You can then follow each other on Tritter, Facegram, and Instabook, and like, love, re-post, and atta-boy/-girl/-it to your proud heart’s content. You and your seven new best friends can characterize the opposition however you want. You are in control of the platform. And since none of you actually live alongside or drink coffee on a regular basis with your opponents, it isn’t long until you have convinced each other that they all are fools, tools, and villains. You know it based on the evidence of a meme.

It would be foolish to think this is the first or worst time the visible Church has been divided and full of hate for brothers. So far as I know, no Catholics, Protestants, or Anabaptists have been killed with the sword, burned at the stake, or drowned in any of the recent spats online. But if memes and slander could kill, the last decade would have been a bloodbath. It might be time to remember that God esteems hatred for a brother as murder (1Jn. 3:15) and that there will be Hell to pay for some of the lies and slander that have been spoken (Rev. 21:8).

You might imagine this is a plea for all Christians to sing Kumbaya or to ask rhetorically, “Can’t we all just get along?” But I’m neither that naive nor so inclined. The visible Church includes sheep, goats, and wolves. Goats need to be identified and either converted through the gospel or cut out of the flock. Wolves must be identified and shot in the head. (Metaphorically, of course. I’m not the one who suggested the wolf metaphor, cf. Mt. 7:15-20.) I think much of the critical interaction online involves issues that Christians, elders, and congregations need to seriously and biblically address. We’re not going to be able to simply agree to disagree about some of these things, and orthodoxy and biblical fidelity will demand that faithful Christians stand up, speak out, and be counted, whatever the cost.

Controversies and divisions are inevitable and necessary (1Cor. 11:19). They reveal who is true and who is not. But we must be careful of how we engage in such battles. It should not be at the expense of physical, face-to-face relationships with our families and in the local church. If you find yourself continually stirred up by what you see on Tritter, maybe it is time to remove the app from your phone (or the platform from your life) and have coffee with a brother while looking at his face, not a profile pic. Be cautious in how you engage. Everyone who has ever posted on social media has had the experience of inadvertently sharing incorrect information. Be swift to hear, slow to tweet, slow to become angry. Don’t trust your own heart; you know it is still tainted with sin. Don’t trust uncritically your favorite Christian leaders and celebrities. They can be wrong too. Stop virtue signalling to everyone that you are on the right side with your reposts and atta-boy/-girl/-it comments that are adding nothing except noise and opportunities for arrogance. Spend more time reading your Bible than you do reading anything online. Spend more time in prayer than on social media feeds. Spend more time face-to-face with family, friends, and brethren than you do with a screen.

I’ve been off social media for a number of years, but that doesn’t mean I do not see many of the things being said, posted, and shared on those platforms. They have given a voice to many people who are unqualified for Church leadership, some of whom have set themselves up as an authority on what is right and good. These platforms have also sometimes corrupted our assessment and response to such dangers. Lord, have mercy. Fight manfully, but do so honorably. Be careful lest in the digital arena you confuse a friend for an enemy, or visa versa. --JME

Believing More Strongly

I once heard an older preacher, who was a friend of mine, say that as he grew older there were fewer things he believed in strongly but that the things he believed he believed more strongly than ever before. You have to think about that one for a minute so as not to misunderstand his point. He was not becoming a relativist. Far from it. But he was observing that many of us are more willing to participate in fights in our youth than when we are mature. When we are young, everything seems desperately important. I don’t know what those issues might have been for you. My list was largely defined by the religious circles I grew up in. If you wanted to debate instrumental music, baptism, whether denominationalists were Christians or not, the use of a headcovering in prayer, or a dozen other topics, I was your man. Admittedly, the sect I grew up in was more contentious than most. We had a lot of hills we were willing to die on. I was a fundamentalist’s fundamentalist. I was not only dismayed if you were wrong on any of these questions, and either believed or strongly suspected you were unsaved, but I would be appalled if you did not consider them first-tier issues. After all, we are supposed to “contend earnestly for the faith,” are we not?

I was an arrogant, contentious, stupid person, but as God is my witness, I thought I was doing what was right. It was the only way I knew to be. I was convinced Scripture taught my convictions on each of those issues. And I was convinced your salvation, and mine, depended on my attempting to convince you I was right. Years later when the Lord graciously broke my spiritual back, knocked me into the dirt, and allowed me to see the harm I had caused by my error, I thought about what my friend had said. I didn’t stop believing in God, Christ, or the authority of the Bible. Far from it. I believed in these things more strongly because I came to understand them in the context of grace.

It does not always work out that way. I have seen men who once had a spiritual backbone seem to lose all their convictions as they aged. They may say they mellowed, but it looked more like unbelief to me. There has to be a balance. To say that not every hill is a hill to die on does not mean there are not any hills we ought to die on. To say that we can live and work in fellowship with brothers and sisters with whom we disagree on many issues does not mean there are not some issues about which we cannot disagree. If a man says, “I trust in Christ but prefer to sing only the psalms,” I say, “Welcome, brother!” If a man says, “I am a Christian but prefer to think of the resurrection as metaphorical and not historical,” I say, “Can we sit down and talk about the gospel?”

We must learn to distinguish primary, secondary, and tertiary issues. Romans, Galatians, and First Corinthians are very helpful in learning this paradigm and helping us practice theological triage in categorizing topics. We should refuse to divide over tertiary disagreements, be slow to separate and quick to love one another despite secondary differences, but be willing to plant our feet and plead for souls when it comes to primary issues. This requires a clear understanding of the gospel, a willingness to sit down with open Bibles, and an unwavering devotion to the Lordship of Christ no matter the cost or consequence.

Some of us start out in life willing to fight about anything. We need to learn humility, wisdom, and which fights are actually important. Some start out unwilling to fight about anything. They need to learn conviction, boldness, and which issues serve as the foundation for faith and life. I hope what my friend said is increasingly true of me and of you: there may be fewer things we believe in strongly, but may we believe more strongly what we ought to believe. --JME

Pursuing Holiness and Peace

“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14)

Holiness and the pursuit of peace are not optional. Both will remain imperfect in this life. God’s people continue to sin and “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and no matter how greatly we desire and work for peace, actual peace requires agreement between two parties, one of whom we cannot control (Rom. 12:18). Nevertheless, we are called to work for peace and to pursue holiness, and if we do not, we will not see the Lord. God’s people must be peacemakers, and they must endeavor to be holy as the Lord is holy.

Holiness and peace may often seem at odds with one another. How can we ever have peace if we enforce standards to which some will never agree? But how can we have holiness if we fail to enforce those standards revealed by God in His word? James reminds us “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable” (Jas. 3:17). There is a logical order and priority. Holiness must come first, but we must not neglect the pursuit of peace. We cannot compromise God’s standards in order to have peace, but we cannot disregard the mandate to pursue peace in our desire to be holy. God commands us to strive for both.

Working for holiness and peace requires us to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). We must speak the truth, God’s truth, all of it, not turning aside to the right or left, not adding to or taking from it. But we must speak it in love, with gentleness and humility, with a teachable spirit, with an attitude of grace and a sincere desire to edify others.

Too often one virtue is compromised in the name of the other. People insist on love and peace at the expense of truth and holiness, or they insist on truth and holiness at the expense of love and peace. But these are not items on a menu from which we are free to choose. They are divine mandates. Woe to us if we disregard or neglect either. Holiness and peace are both the byproducts of divine grace. We will not attain either without the inward and effectual work of God. So let us pray and labor for both and trust the God of grace to provide. -JME

A Parable of Church Unity (?)

A friend of mine shared this on his blog recently. I have adapted it, with his permission, for my own religious heritage. The names may change, but the sectarian attitudes which contaminate many churches today remains the same. -JME


A Parable of Church Unity

I was walking across a bridge recently. I spied this fellow who looked like he was ready to jump off. So, I thought I’d try to stall him until the authorities showed up. “Don’t jump!” I said. “Why not?” he said. “Nobody loves me.”

“God loves you.” I said. “You believe in God, don’t you?”

“Yes, I believe in God,” he said.

“Good,” I said, “Are you Christian or Jewish?”

“Christian,” he said.

“Me, too!” I said, “Protestant or Catholic?”

“Neither,” he said.

“What then?” I said.

“Church of Christ,” he said.

“Me, too!” I said. “Non-Institutional Church of Christ or Mainline Church of Christ?”

“Non-Institutional Church of Christ,” he said.

“Me, too! Liberal, Florida College-loving, Non-Institutional Church of Christ or Conservative, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ?”

“Conservative, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ,” he said.

“Me, too!” I said. “Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ or Digressive Congregational Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ?”

“Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ,” he said.

“Me, too!” I said. “Morning and Evening Services Every Sunday, Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ or One Extended Service on Sundays, Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ?”

“Morning and Evening Services Every Sunday, Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ,” he said.

“Me too!” I said. “Unashamed Fundamentalist Against Women Wearing Slacks, Morning and Evening Services Every Sunday, Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ or Compromising Fundamentalist Not Against Women Wearing Slacks, Morning and Evening Services Every Sunday, Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ.”

“Unashamed Fundamentalist Against Women Wearing Slacks, Morning and Evening Services Every Sunday, Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ,” he said.

“Me, too!” I said. “One-Cup, No Bible Class, Unashamed Fundamentalist Against Women Wearing Slacks, Morning and Evening Services Every Sunday, Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ or Multiple Cups, Separated Bible Classes, Unashamed Fundamentalist Against Women Wearing Slacks, Morning and Evening Services Every Sunday, Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ?”

“Multiple Cups, Separated Bible Classes, Unashamed Fundamentalist Against Women Wearing Slacks, Morning and Evening Services Every Sunday, Men’s Business Meetings, Anti-FC, Non-Institutional Church of Christ” he said.

“Auugghh!! You Heretic! What is this world coming to?” I said. And then I pushed him over.