Finding Home, Part 4:The Perils of a Perfect Theology

Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you'" (Ezekiel 28:12-15).

Reformed theology is consistent, logical, and nearly irrefutable. True seekers find it attractive, even seductive in its intellectual beauty. And therein lies its biggest flaw: Perfection.

If Satan cannot discourage a man from believing the Scriptures, he will have him idolize them, to find them precious not as the breath of God, but as a system of logic, beautiful in itself. We might name this idol Bibliolatry.

Within the Charismatic world the Word of Faith movement has done something similar, turning "The Word" into an impersonal source of power, an idol emphasizing muscle rather than brains. "The Word says this," and "the Word says that." "The Word works." "Keep on speaking the Word." On the surface these are good statements, insights as orthodox as "Mary, Mother of God." But perception can mutate into deception. Yes, Mary bore the Son of God, but she mothered the Son of Man. Yet hundreds of millions of Roman Catholics treat her as God's equal, one fourth of a Quaternity: Father, Mother, Son, and Holy Ghost. Likewise I have heard charismatic preachers refer to "the Word" as a force in its own right, originally spoken by God, which we too can master with enough practice. "It" works, they say, depersonalizing God's Word into "The" Word.

Reformists, of course, generally are more disciplined than Charismatics in their thinking, so they don't fall into illogical quagmires so easily. But the pride of precise thinking is its own trap, spiritually analogous to the fitness addict who sculpts his body first to perfection and then to caricature. Such people are adept at defining grace, but they rarely enjoy it. They can defend the faith, but possess no heart to share it.

Jesus said, in John 4, that true worshipers worship God "in spirit and in truth," thereby drawing a distinction between the two. In other words, it is possible to attempt to worship God "in spirit," with all of one's heart, yet not offer true, i.e., acceptable, worship. A thousand forms of paganism are proof of this, as is the snake-handling fringe of Pentecostalism.

Conversely it is possible to offer false worship based on lifeless truth, to so prize theological objectivity that we objectify truth, and thus depersonalize salvation. Yet God's truth is a Person, not a set of facts. To know truth is to know (and be known by) Him, not it.

If truth were mere facts they would have to be defended. Truth as a Person, however, need not be argued, but only shared, since Christ Jesus is present in our very witness to His presence. In fact, I will go further and say that stridently arguing biblical truth reveals His absence in one's life, not His presence, much as loud preaching and raucous music often are substitutes for spiritual power rather than a demonstration of it.

I have previously confessed how we Charismatics have abused spiritual gifts--the charismata of 1 Corinthians 12--treating them as toys and merit badges, rather than using them as tools for growth and maturity. But the Reformed world commits no less a sin by variously rejecting or neglecting not merely the gifts, but the Holy Spirit Who speaks and acts by means of them. He is not the "silent," inert member of the Trinity.

God has not spun His Word off into its own impersonal existence, yet both the power-oriented Word of Faith Charismatics and the principle-oriented Reformists have veered towards this brand of idolatry. This post addresses the latter camp, not with a convincing apologetic--that would only feed the beast of intellectualism--but with a simple observation and proposition:

You have too long lived beneath your privilege, as diligent students rather than favored sons. Now it's time to come home and enjoy being the children of Truth. Because sons learn more than principles; they learn ways.

Students embrace truth; sons enjoy Truth's embrace.