Every weeknight, the fighting is viewed by thousands. Using rhetoric skills honed after years of study and debate, these fine-polished, well-clothed political guru's go at it in front of a couple cameras in a TV studio. I can't stand watching this, but my family members love political television, so I am forced almost every night to sit with my mouth shut and my spirit anguished.
Indeed, take your pick of any political talk show, be it CNN, Fox News,or MSNBC, and there you will find the depraved human heart at its best. I am not saying that all politicians or talk show hosts are corrupt; however, I have to laugh when I see grown men and women fighting like 12 year olds. They are all screaming loudly, trying to be heard over the next guy. Do they really think that what they have to say is the end all of truth? Have they captured what our country has been missing for hundreds of years? Do they have the answers that will solve our problems? They believe so. The only problem is that the guy across the table adamantly disagrees, arrogantly holding to his own version of truth which will solve the world's problems.
Lately I have been reading different Christian authors who act the same way. One theologian will write, "This is who God is." And then the next one will come along and write, "Well, this theologian is actually a moron. This is who God is." Repeat these 2 steps ad infinitum, and you have a pretty acurate history of the Church.
Ok, it's really not that simple, but I think that our history is not really as clean cut as we would like it to be. Does each one really think they have stumbled upon the answers that the Church has been missing for thousands of years?
But it still happens today.
In many ways, this rhetoric style conversation between Christians is a good thing. Serving as a means of accountability, Christian thinking and debating keeps us on our toes, and keeps us in line with Scripture.
Indeed, revelation is a communal happening. No one individual has the corner on truth.
Which is exactly why our arrogant rhetoric is so out of line. When did Christians ever get the audacity to make such confident remarks concerning Church government or the character of God? I am not saying that we must be spineless human beings who do not possess any real belief; indeed, we must hold to the gospel with conviction.
Yet when it comes to transcendent issues, we must realize the gravity of the matters of which we speak. We must speak in humility- the type of humility one exercises when disarming an explosive, acting with steadiness and confidence, yet realizing the seriousness of any given mistake. God used to kill false prophets.
If Christian theologians and philosophers were handling bombs rather than the Word of God, the world would have been blown to smitherines by now.
Handle Scripture gently.
Stop debating.
Stop fighting.
Listen.
Others have answers we are missing.
Truth is found communally, not individually.
At the end of the day, who was right and wrong will fade away. We will forget such trivial matters as we are enthralled by the glory of the LORD.
We pray that God's will would be done on earth as it is done in heaven, and yet we continue fighting.
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