Monday, October 6, 2008

A Renewing of My Mind

(I composed this a few months ago and haven't updated my blog due to limited internet access...fyi I have been in back in B-town for 2 1/2 months now and am already getting ready to head off again, this time to Huntington, WV)

In the past few weeks I have been embarking on a journey to rework my understanding of life in Christ and reinterpret my life experiences in light of scripture, which by necessity includes the proper use of Bible words. In one sense I have been on this journey for years, but recently it has been a very conscious, heart and mind-wrenching experience. I suppose it started with me surrounding myself with people (Grace Community Church) who seem to have a prominent concern with whether or not I'm a Calvinist, and then wondering how in the world a church full of Presbyterians and Baptists (and a "third wheel" of a pastor with a Vineyard background) could even remain standing, let alone how I found myself in such a thing (I am of course referring to Church of the Good Shepherd).

On one hand, it has been very exhausting not only to have these conversations, but also sit under sermons where at least half of the time was focused specifically on aspects of Reformed doctrine (which for the past month has been the case). To be honest, I have avoided having the "I'm not Reformed" conversation, because the prospect alone wears me out right now. So why do I keep going back? Well, I know they love Christ, they love the souls under their care, and they handle God's word seriously, even if we reach different conclusions about some doctrines. For the same reason, I will never attend another church in Bloomington other than CGS. They truly love one another and do things rightly. I will always be with people like this, as opposed to finding a church where I "agree" with their "doctrine" but is absolutely dead.

The good thing about all this frustration is that it has caused me to reconsider my understanding and use of words and biblical terminology. In my studying, I came across a discussion mainly between two brothers over at sermonindex.net regarding the distinction between Baptism in the Holy Spirit and fillings with the Holy Spirit. Ron Bailey, both in this discussion and in his teaching series "Having begun in the Spirit" makes mention that Bible words don't have definitions, but histories, and we must track these histories to understand the words. God was very specific in His choosing of words, and used two very detailed languages (unlike English) to express what He wanted to convey to us.

The Bible has very few true synonyms. At its simplest, in any language, if two words meant the exact same thing, there wouldn't be two words for the thing. Even if two words essentially mean the same thing, they often have quite different etymologies, so they bring different emphasis. Add to this that this is God's word, so we must pay close attention to how He uses words. Some may call me a little too pedantic, but in this day of evangelical muck-soup, maybe a little pedantry is what we need.

In college, while involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, I was taught, as literally millions have been since the late 1950s, that one gets "saved" simply by praying a magical prayer. 4 simple laws to agree to, then after a 10 second regurgitation of a written prayer...WHAM! congratulations! Now you can be assured that you are going to heaven! No more worries! While this whole "method" (as well as most of the teaching contained in the little booklet) is completely baseless and unscriptural, I think a lot of the problem is our concept and use of the word "saved." It's so shallow. The Bible use of this word is not to describe a one time event in the life of an individual whereby beforehand he was not saved (which is sloppily equated to "not in heaven") and now he is (which is sloppily equated to "in heaven"). Rather, a person goes through many "salvations", is continuing to progress in salvation, and will eventually have a salvation not yet seen. Salvation is a very broad term with many applications (may I direct you to Paris Reidhead's sermon So Great Salvation for some great insights regarding this concept) leading to one Great Application. Salvation is so much more glorious than the concept most of us have been taught. It encompasses things like conviction, repentance, justification, regeneration, sanctification, glorification...which are all very distinct workings of God in the life of the Christian resulting in conformation to the image of His Son.

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