Theological Liberalism

Revelation 2:18-29

 

            I studied music in college. I was a saxophone player, and my ambition was to play jazz professionally. For four years I practiced between six and eight hours a day six days a week, and a large part of the practice was devoted to playing scales. For two hours each day I played scales over and over again. I literally knew hundreds of them because they were imperative to what I was trying to accomplish. When a jazz musician performs a solo they are seldom playing something that is written. Most of the time they are improvising. To do this they must understand the chords that are being played by the piano and bass. They must also know what scales go with those chords, and use those scales as the chords change to play something that fits that particular song. Many believe it to be easy to improvise like this because it does not require the musician to read music, but it is very difficult to do it well.

            I attended high school with a friend who was a very good saxophone player. His dream was much like mine: to be a musician. He was encouraged to go to college to study music, but he always responded in the same way, “I don’t need to study scales and theory to make a saxophone sound good.” The summer after my first year of college we got together with some friends to play one afternoon. We played for only a short time before one thing became very apparent. He did need those scales to sound good. He needed them because it is that knowledge that frees the instrumentalist to express himself. A musician could conceivably play whatever they want to play, but unless it fits into the framework of the song it is just not right. We must play within the guidelines and rules.

            In some ways, our study and application of the Bible is like music. God has given us freedom to express our love to Him, and to serve Him. But these things must be done within a specific context. These things take place as we live our lives within the boundaries of what we learn in Scripture. This is the issue faced by the early Christians of Thyatira. They had knowledge of what it meant to live their lives in fellowship with Jesus Christ, but they allowed a teacher in their midst to go beyond the boundaries that Scripture puts in place. They allowed this woman – referred to here as Jezebel – to mislead the people of God, and follow teaching that was beyond the purview of the Bible. What they faced was an early form what we would consider theological liberalism, and the statement that Jesus made against them was not because it existed, but because they tolerated it.

            Theopedia defines theological liberalism in this way: “Liberalism tends to emphasize ethics over doctrine and experience over Scriptural authority…It has often been relativistic, pluralistic, and non-doctrinal.” It can also be defined as “a movement in modern Protestantism that rejects biblical authority.” The movement in Thyatira was to redefine the truth that God had revealed. This teacher sought to reinterpret Scripture so that it fit the ever-changing whims of a sinful society. Though we are separated from Thyatira by nearly two millennia, we continue to face the same desire within Christendom.

            Just as the would-be musician convinces himself that he does not need the discipline and boundaries provided many Christians refuse to place their lives under the full authority of God’s Word. We redefine the truth until it becomes something that is palatable to those who are lost in sin. We turn away from the depth of the Word, and settle for the equivalent of spiritual milk so that we can live in a way that requires less sacrifice on our part. We live in a day that is very similar to those of Thyatira. The greatest danger to the church is not the world around it. The greatest danger comes from within. When liberalism takes hold of God’s people, and they begin to look to their own reason and knowledge the church has set herself on the path to apostasy. Lillie McCutcheon explained, “Truth is ever the same. Inward foes of evil cause decay and death more rapidly than outward foes of persecution. The longest letter of the seven is written to this church with the least outward danger.” Consider the dangers of our attempts to remove Scriptural authority over our lives.

 

Liberalism Focuses Only on Immediate Circumstances

 

            This “prophetess” in Thyatira taught the people of the church to join those of the world in their corruption. The sinful paganism of man continually encroached on the early church, and the easiest way to deal would have been to tolerate it. That’s exactly what this Jezebel taught God’s people to do. Thyatira was known for some of the earliest trade guilds. If the people were to earn a living, they needed employment. Many times this employment required them to take part in the pagan rituals that initiated them into the trade guilds of their time. The false teaching of “Jezebel” taught the church to accept the worldliness that ran rampant around them. She taught them to commit sexual immorality and eat food that had been sacrificed as part of heathen worship. This loose view of the standards of God’s Word destroyed the distinction between God’s church and the world, and the church was reprimanded for tolerating it.

            We allow a lot of things to happen in the modern church in the name of tolerance. It seems to have been elevated to the status of “virtue” and is often more celebrated than the truth itself. We revel in the idea that we will accept everything, and openness has become something that we seek above all else. Many spiritual conversations are ended with the statement, “You’re just narrow-minded.” However, Jesus told the church of Thyatira that when it comes to the Word that God has inspired, narrow is not so bad. We might even look back to statements that tell us, narrow is the way that leads to life….

            There are times when it becomes evident that the church has endeavored to serve as editors of the gospel. They want the world to believe them to be tolerant, so the bar of God’s standard is lowered to include things that were previously considered sin. I’m not talking about things that Scripture doesn’t address, or things that we’ve added, but clear statements about sin. We don’t want to tell anyone that what they are promoting is wrong, so we ignore what Scripture teaches so that we can just “get along.” But we have forgotten that almost every New Testament epistle warns us against false teaching. In fact, John warned us against those who bring another doctrine and told us, he who greets him shares in his wicked work. Whether we want to admit it or not, there are some things that the church should just not tolerate. David Ravenhill explained, “The sin for which this church was being corrected was having tolerance for what should not have been tolerated. If we consider what the Spirit is saying to us today through this letter, it is this: We, too, err when tolerance takes priority over holiness.” How many Christians have come to that point today? How many are more interested in tolerance than holiness? We claim that we are free to pursue any doctrinal idea that pleases us while forgetting that a doctrinal standard does not confine us, but frees us to carry out God’s work. As Os Guinness wrote, “There can be no liberty for a community that lacks the means by which to detect lies.”

            Our desire for tolerance betrays the focus of the church. We show a great concern for our immediate circumstances while ignoring our eternal circumstances. In many ways, this modern liberalism is nothing more than a return to ancient paganism. Its pluralistic views teach compromise with sin rather than the purity of holiness. We have spent decades trying to gain the favor and acceptance of the world, and yet the church still finds herself powerless. How can this be?

            Our perceived need to find acceptance leaves us no choice but to squeeze the gospel into the mold of worldliness. We do everything we can to look and act like the world so that they will believe that we’re “not so bad.” We plan our services and activities to be sensitive to those who do not know God, and do so assuming that God will work through whatever we do. We believe that as long as we say a prayer (and sometimes we don’t even do that) God is obligated to work through us because we call ourselves His church. But we’ve forgotten that God is not beholden to us, and WILL NOT be manipulated by us. We turn our attention inward as we pursue our ideas and schemes unaware that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways higher than our ways, and when our plans do not work we become discouraged and even more desperate. “When we discover that God is not producing according to our plans, we try to manipulate other forces – gods – to get what we want. All along this dreary way, our commitment to what is right is growing more fuzzy until ‘what is right’ becomes indistinguishable from what we want.” We have turned our covenant with Christ into something that is little more than a pantheistic ritual used to force God to carry out His work in spite of our unwillingness to live up to His standard of holiness. Walther Eichrodt likened that to the Pharisees of Jesus’ day when he wrote, “This legalistic distortion of the covenant relationship into a commercial arrangement between parties of equal status before the law rendered all intercourse with the deity lifeless and trained men in an irreverent calculation of divine obligations, which made any attitude of trustful surrender impossible.” While we claim that liberalism is freeing, at its root, the tolerance that it promotes is carried to the point of intolerance and it becomes a form of legalism in itself. It does not add to God’s standard, but becomes legalistic about eliminating it.

            The tolerance preached by modern liberalism is all about our current standing with the world. It has little to do with our future standing in eternity. It teaches us that we can serve God and still gain acceptance with a sinful world in spite of the fact that Jesus said, Woe to you when all men speak well of you for so did their fathers of the FALSE PROPHETS. By pursuing modern liberalism we have exchanged the gospel’s promise of eternity for temporary security here and now. Liberalism looks no further than that.

 

Liberalism Must Stand on Worldliness

 

            The teaching of the false prophetess of Thyatira stands in direct opposition to the power of the gospel proclaimed by the apostles of Jesus Christ. There is no difference in the compromise of Scriptural truth that is taught today. We find that it is not only short-sighted in its scope, but does not have the power to transform and change lives. In fact, it cannot even stand on its own.

            Revelation provides contrasts for us between God’s church and the world. We see a contrast drawn between the Lamb of God and the beasts of the world; a contrast between Babylon and the New Jerusalem; and a contrast between the purity of the church, and her counterfeit: a harlot seated on a great beast.

            The church is represented by a woman in the heavens in chapter 12. And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.  This woman is clothed in the light of Christ, and shows the church standing in purity. Notice the difference between this woman and the one revealed to John in chapter 17: And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names…The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. We know that this woman is a contrast to the one in chapter 12, and represents a false church. She has compromised the holy standards of God’s Word and has sought after the riches and security of the world. She has even become drunk with the blood of the saints.

            The specifics of the women are not as important to our purposes as where they are found. The first woman stands with her feet upon the moon. She stands on her own, clothed in God’s light. Look where we find the second woman: seated on a beast! What is the beast? It is something that has been created by man. Daniel has a vision of beasts that represent political institutions. So must these beasts of Revelation. Revelation 13 tells us that the beast comes from the sea. And Revelation 17 tells us, The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. This harlot, who has lowered the standards of God in favor of worldliness rides on the back of a structure created by man. What’s the point? LIBERALISM IN OUR THEOLOGY CANNOT STAND ON ITS OWN! Look at the denominations around us that are most liberal. Aren’t many of them the ones that have the most man-made structure?  Kenneth Jones wrote, “It is not truly helpful to think of the church as an institution, but rather dangerous. It puts the focus on obedience to the human leaders, and detracts from concentration on the relationship with the triune God.”

            When the Word of God is preached in the power of God by the people of God there are not enough demons in hell to stop its power. But when we compromise the world in the name of “tolerance” we find that we no longer have a gospel that will stand on its own. We need to find ways to carry this false doctrine into the world, and we add to what God has given us in His Word so that we can subtract that which will offend from His Word. The harlot has no power of her own to carry her message. When we decide that we must have a large man-made organization to carry the message, it may be time to reconsider our message. The Word of God is powerful, it does not need our help, it need only be proclaimed. The same cannot be said for the liberal gospel of our day. It lowers our idea of the church to that of a worldly organization that lacks the supernatural power of the Gospel. Consider the words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones: “Those people whom God has used throughout the centuries have had a great and glorious conception of the Christian church. She is not just a human institution. She is a spiritual society, a church of the firstborn. And it grieves their hearts to see her in rags and in worldliness and in utter confusion. Do we have this concern for the honor and the name of the Christian church? And do we long to see her functioning as a church, uttering no uncertain sound but the certain sound of the gospel and clothed with might and power and glory?” It is only the Gospel preached in purity that has the power to bring glory to God.

 

Liberalism Confines Us to Immaturity

 

            The rejection of Biblical authority leaves the church without power, and the Christian without maturity. It is God’s word that nourishes our spirit and provides us what is necessary to grow in our relationship with God. By eliminating the truth we find our relationship with God hindered by sin and impurity. We find that we struggle through this life hoping in vain for something to draw us closer to God, but our view of His holiness is obscured by our view of Scripture. Liberalism looks at the Bible as something that is subject to our preferences. This confines us to only the most basic principles and places us with the Hebrews, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. We nourish ourselves, not with the meat of Scripture, but only with those things that allow us to continue in the lives we live without a change. We look around us and see a world filled with Christians who have never grown to maturity in their spiritual life. They believe that the purpose of the church is to please them and meet all of their felt needs, and the church is ever-willing to promote this mentality. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

            By pursuing the philosophies of the world we have limited what was intended to be an unlimited power. We have replaced the power of God, which originates from the throne of heaven with the ideas of fallen man. It is not, nor has it ever been, our place to redefine the gospel. It is not subject to our own opinions or those of the scholars in whom we trust.  It is for God alone to determine the message that represents His people. “The scholar has a vitally important task to perform within a carefully prescribed precinct. His task is to guarantee the purity of the text, to get as close as possible to the Word as originally given. He may compare Scripture with Scripture until he has discovered the true meaning of the text. But right there his authority ends. He must never sit in judgment upon what is written. He dare not bring the meaning of the Word before the bar of his reason. He dare not commend or condemn the word as reasonable or unreasonable, scientific or unscientific. After the meaning is discovered, that meaning judges him; never does he judge it.” The liberal commitment to liberalism in our modern theology obscures our view of the Living Word. When Jesus does the preaching, the fullness of His Word is in view. We mature is it impacts our lives and explodes in our hearts. The Word reveals Him to us, and empowers His work.

 

Liberalism Sets Us at Odds With Jesus

 

            By obscuring the Word which is embodied by Christ, liberalism works to redefine Him. It focuses on select characteristics while leaving out others. There are many who want to talk about the love of Jesus, and the miracles He performed. But we find that there are few who will discuss the character that caused Him to clear the temple and warn us of false teaching.

            Modern liberalism projects our ideas onto Jesus. It projects onto Him our views of “fairness” rather than God’s characteristic of justice. We look at the world through the lens of what we believe should be as opposed to what Scripture teaches God’s ideal to be. Never does a day go by when we don’t hear the talking heads on television telling us what should be done in the name of fairness. Many even appeal to Jesus to accomplish this. But Jesus Christ did not come to establish fairness, He came to reveal a God who is defined by justice.

            When we redefine the character of Jesus, we have redefined – and set ourselves at odds with His work. Consider the things we are told we must emphasize today in the church. Many of them are simply not emphasized by Jesus to the extent we stress them. “The fact of the matter is, if you read through the instructions to the New Testament churches you will find few explicit commands that tell us to take care of the needy in our communities and no explicit commands to do creation care, but there are dozens and dozens of verses that enjoin us, in one way or another, to be holy as God is holy.” The liberalism of our day has turned the work of Jesus into social activism. It teaches us to “play nice together” rather than to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The focus of many liberals in our day is to make the world a better place, but not necessarily a more Christ-like place. We attempt to bring people together in communities that lift up our ideas of what is fair, teach them to live in “tolerance” of diversity, and hope for the best. We have turned Jesus into little more than a first-century community organizer. But all of our human niceties mean nothing without the power of the unedited, unadulterated gospel. It is only this gospel that has the power to transform depraved humanity into the church of God.

           

            The prophetess, Jezebel, of Thyatira taught the people to do what would be accepted by the world, but did not teach them the discipline that is necessary to walk with God. She taught them tolerance and fairness, but not holiness. The only thing that will save the church today is the only thing that would have saved the church of Thyatira: Revival! A move of God’s Spirit, through His Word in the hearts of believers. We have tried for decades to use the methods and means of man to carry out God’s Work. We have amended the gospel, redefined its subject, and reinvented its purpose to make it palatable to the world, and what has it produced? It has produced a worldly, impotent church. Jesus called the people of Thyatira out of their liberalism, and back to a disciplined pursuit of the truth of God’s Word. He continues to call us to this end today. Will we pursue this call?