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ON FISHY THEOLOGY - Roger Salter

ON FISHY THEOLOGY

By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
June 1, 2014

Dangerous deviations in doctrine and harmful heresy do not usually assail the church with heavy hammer blows. The impact awakens strong suspicion. The evil one is too subtle to arouse sensational shock among believers. His craft is wrought through gradual insinuation and over time he tweaks the truth to the point where it has become so twisted that “actual truth” and accuracy in understanding divine revelation have quietly and almost completely subsided.

Satan is the most intense of Bible students. He knows the texts by heart and his supreme occupation is to skillfully skew them so that lovers of the Word can be more easily led by the nose into error.

The perpetrators of his permanently pursued project crave a reputation for originality through a display of their singularly capable acumen in producing novelty to counter a tradition of theology that to them has become dull and denying of their native powers of wit and stunning speculation. They “do” theology to amaze and mesmerize their audience and to glamorize their public image. Audiences love to have their sense of specialness flattered. It gives them a sense of equality with the specialist to whom they are paying attention - ah, we are worthy of such an instructor! John Calvin warns, “It is too common a fault that men desire to be taught in an ingenious and witty style . . . . We must always take care that the wisdom of God be not polluted with any borrowed and profane lustre”.

The apostles caught on to these tactics very briskly and warned about them in serious tones. Paul is strong in his condemnation of perverters of the truth, and John, the apostle of love, so the story goes, would not enter a public bath when Cerinthus, a notorious heretic, was also in attendance. When the foe of redemptive facts wishes to penetrate to the heart of Christian faith to corrupt it he bypasses the forces that are crude and vulgar (he employs that crew in other ways) and enlists agents with sophisticated appeal and the smooth tongue. Paul’s earnest and honest character in ministry was belittled by the competitive “super-apostles’ who oozed charm and dubious erudition. The harmless doves of Christ are sometimes lacking in the wisdom of discernment and an effete church can lack its necessary defenses.

Essential saving truth is not complicated even though theology yields its complexities, for we are encountering the infinite and exquisite mind of God in our contemplations. The seeker for salvation is not blinded by science; until grace is operative the anxious soul is blinded by his sin. But the gospel is plain and clear in principle: So that a runner may read it (Habakkuk 2:2).

Theology that obfuscates the vision and way of salvation is obnoxious and deadly. There are current fashions in Christian thought that appeal to minds busy with a craving for the excitement of the new and elevation to the intellectual elite. There is a plethora of academic and semi-popular waffle that confuses the straight forward divine method of being put right with God and gaining the assurance of acceptance by him. There is a widespread trend in thought that misuses the Scriptures, the fathers, and the Reformation to break down, yes, the bastions of Protestantism and Anglican orthodoxy. It chips away at the foundations of our most holy and soul saving, soul satisfying, faith.

It mocks system in theology as confining rather than what it is intended to be - clarifying and cultivating of consistent thought in a manly and rational way enabled by the Spirit. It is murky and obscure in meaning. It manipulates traditional language to masquerade as something invitingly adventurous and yet sound. It appeals to our inattentive culture. Truth has its mysteries, although the term “mystery” is often a cop out for shoddy thought that does not wish to discover truth or be found out by truth.

Courtesy in controversy is desirable but one feels that sometimes orthodoxy is too kind to heterodoxy because its proponents are “so nice” and talented and eminent of reputation.

If we note that certain views are elusive as to meaning, evasive, shifty, and construed in ways that are endlessly given to abstruse, inscrutable, and amorphous explanation, then we are on to something fishy however pleasing it is to certain egos as relayers or receivers.

The way is being leveled for an indefinite form of theology in preparation for a merging of traditions that are essentially incompatible in the light of Scripture. Error and human invention will pour through the floodgates. Fantasy will override fact. Vagueness will become a virtue. The church, possessed of such a rich heritage from the past, is dropping its guard. Our stronghold is being eroded by carelessness and apathy and a disposition just to let things be. We do not work at our faith, its simplicity, and its supporting intellectual framework.

For some background to current erosive influences some acquaintance with the thought of John Williamson Nevin might help. Nevin (1803-1886) received his theological education at Princeton under Charles Hodge but eventually became a member of the German Reformed Church and taught at that denomination’s seminary at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. His convictions developed strongly in the direction of sacramentalism, somewhat akin to Anglo-Catholicism, and which finds its echoes sounded within the ranks of those who promote the vague and impenetrable theology of the Federal Vision, wordy but wonderfully baffling in what it affirms, but muddies with myriad qualifications. True theology does not entangle us in such a way, nor lead us through a mystifying maze where we must habitually withdraw from so many irrational culs-de-sac, contradictions of Scripture, and denials of Reformational orthodoxy which embraces all that was true and of value prior to the 16th century, in spite of many wild allegations to the contrary.

The Federal Vision, often allied to the new perspective on Paul, requires the maintenance of an ongoing strong Protestant witness, for what is essentially at stake in our watchfulness with regard to Roman Catholicism, Anglo-Catholicism, and the creeping Catholicism of “Federal Vision plus New Perspective”, is a clear and unambiguous enunciation of justification by faith alone, entirely free of baptismal justification and the mangled version of the theology of the Reformers, and especially of the faith of the English Reformed Church, so well served by Thomas Cranmer and his colleagues who ensured that our liturgy and confession maintain so, so plainly and incontrovertibly, that which authentic Protestantism regards as the heart of the gospel of grace - immediate union with Christ through faith alone made possible by supernatural regeneration. “If the exclusive term, only, is disliked, let them erase the Apostle’s corresponding terms, freely, and without works” (Melancthon).

The “general necessity” of the sacraments inheres in their gracious power to seal and sustain our life in a state of salvation - not to secure it. In natural birth we are born without personal contribution but it is necessary that our lives received without our co-operation be preserved by all means ordained for their welfare. Sacraments, among various means of grace, supply confirmation of the Word (He chose to give us birth through the word of truth - James 1:18), and involvement “in the Word”, through the senses, thus increasing the impact of the Word already exerted upon us via the intellect. Possession of the promises saves us.

‘Dost thou believe that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ? Go to, then, and, whilst thy soul abideth in thee, put all thy confidence in this death alone - place thy trust in no other thing, - commit thyself wholly to this death, -cover thyself wholly with this alone, - cast thyself wholly on this death, - wrap thyself wholly in this death. And if God would judge you, say, “Lord! I place the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and Thy judgment: otherwise I will not contend, or enter into judgment, with Thee.” And if He shall say unto thee, that thou art a sinner, say unto Him, “I place the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my sins.” If He shall say unto thee, that thou hast deserved damnation, say, “Lord! I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between Thee and all my sins; I offer His merits for my own, which I should have, and have not.” If He say, that He is angry with thee, say, Lord! I place the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and Thy anger.”‘ Anselm

The Rev. Roger Salter is an ordained Church of England minister where he had parishes in the dioceses of Bristol and Portsmouth before coming to Birmingham, Alabama to serve as Rector of St. Matthew's Anglican Church

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