The New Phariseeical Movement

This is a gut checking blog to write, due to the fact that I too once was on the New Pharisee team. The truth be told the majority of us have a little Pharisee within us, and it is not all that bad. My pastor Dhati Lewis always says “it is better to err on legalism than sin”. So for those of us who struggle with the tension of holiness and sanctification we are always dancing on thin ice. My problem isn’t so much with personal legalism because as Paul says in Romans 14 “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin”. So, once again, this is not an attack on the conscious of others, but a response to an ongoing epidemic of a different kind of legalism.

The legalism that I am addressing is doctrinal legalism. It is a growing epidemic among us and especially in the blogosphere. There are many blogs, whose entire premise or existence is to police the doctrine of others. I am all for correct doctrine, and for the most part, I think I have a pretty good grasp on some points, but in other areas I am “Semper Reformanda” (or always reforming). I hold to a reformed and New Covenant (sort of) perspective and for the most part I think I am right; however, others do not and they, as I do, believe themselves to be correct. I think these things can be debated, but as I always say “the end goal is edification”. When it gets to the point where harsh words, strawman assumptions, and self-righteousness takes precedent of mutual edification, the line has officially been crossed and sin has begun to take root. The problem is that most can’t recognize that this type of Doctrinal Witch Hunt is SIN. The other problem lies, in the fact, that most people (especially bloggers) don’t want to establish a relationship, they just want you to believe like they believe and then they are off to the next person to “correct” their theology. What happens in the process, is that feelings our hurt, people get upset, and those who practice such “Doctrinal Elitism” are wreaking more havoc than they know.

Think of this scenario. Just say a world class physician, decides he wants to go and help cure diseases in Sub-Sahara Africa. There is a disease that is killing 20-25% of these villages and this doctor has found the cure. So he goes to the villages enthused that he has the cure and eager to help cure their epidemic. So he goes from village to village treating everybody and not only that he has the anti-bodies to prevent others from getting it. Everyone is excited, he is on CNN, FOX News, Dr. Phil, Oprah, and gets a key to every city he visits. The problem is 1 year later all the people in that area have died. There is uproar, the doctor is confused. He checks his medicine everything looks good, the anti-bodies and medicine has been approved by FDA and is on the market in the U.S and everyone is taking the vaccination. They found one last person who has escaped the death but he is about to die also, doctors rush to find out what has caused the deaths, and they found out, that is a common cold! So the doctor, though he helped one epidemic caused even greater fatality by a common cold! This is what is going on today, in many churches, and by many bloggers. We fixed the doctrinal epidemic but we are killing people with our arrogance, self-righteousness, and lack of desire to establish significant relationships, all in the name “correcting theology”

Though, I said this was new, it really isn’t new at all. I just thought the title was catchy. This is a problem that has existed for over 2000 years. Let’s see what happened in Jesus’ day:

 Matthew 1515:1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”  6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” 10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” 

We all know the story. The Pharisees spent there time trying to find some crack in Jesus’ theology. This is how Luke puts it in Luke 11:

53 As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

I see the same attitude and desire in many of blogs today and blog searchers. They wait “to catch” someone in doctrinal error. This should not be our goal. I have come to the conclusion that the only person I totally agree with on every point of doctrine, is myself, and I have corrected myself many of times. Things that I said three years ago, I wouldn’t dare say today. Positions that I held to as stone have become like sand between my fingers. Things I would debate with great passion, are now the same truths I embrace with like passion. We make mistakes, we say dumb things, and other times we just don’t know what the heck we are talking about. The problem is WE ALL have been that way. But the same grace Jesus has extended us in progressively revealing His word to us, we refuse to extend to others. There were things that I rejected that I now fully embrace and Jesus was merciful to me. He sent people into my life, that built relationships with me (B.J, Shannon, Calvin Clark, Dhati, Keynon) and helped me through my error. They weren’t rough or hard, and they even let me have the last word. It wasn’t “believe this today” they understood my hang ups and when I was ready to accept it, they taught me again, like I never heard it before.

 

That isn’t the goal today for many. They can find everything wrong and nothing right. Just as the Pharisses only agreed with their “traditions” so many of us, put greater emphasis on doctrinal truth rather than a passion for the Glory of Jesus Christ, this shouldn’t be. You see, if we get the correct perspective of grace, the cross, and redemption, these other truths will follow closely behind. If we are more concerned with “our doctrinal truth” than we are God’s glory, we have lost the meaning of redemption. Listen closely. GOD DOES NOT TREAT US THIS WAY. He takes us, all jacked up and slowly conforms us to the image of His Son. Christ or the Holy Spirit, does not wait with a bat in Their hands ready to beat us, because we don’t fully understand soteriology, pnuematology, eschatology, trinitarianism, bibliology, hamartiology, ecclesiology, or even Christology. What God does is “demonstrates, His love towards us, while we were yet sinners”. God is patient with our progression and conformity and guess why, because He is the one who conforms us!

 

If you are reading this and this seems like you, impatient, unkind, always finding fault, you may want to evaluate your own progression. How long did you sit under “bad theology”? How long was it before you were convinced on truths you now hold as gold? What about certain sin areas? How long did you struggle with lust, envy, unforgiveness, or impatience before you got it right. Paul penned it beautifully in 2 Corinthians 13 when he said “examine YOURSELVES”. It is funny that Paul didn’t say examine others. Paul also says “who are you to pass judgment on another man’s servant” in Romans 14.

 

Finally we must ask, what is the goal of my correction of others? Is it to help them have a better understanding of the truth of the gospel, or the win an argument? Is it to establish a relationship with someone in order to help them be conformed to the image of Christ? People use Paul as an example, but as my good friend Gabriel always points out is “Paul had a relationship with the majority of the people he wrote”. These were responses to churches he had planted, and you can tell by the fatherly love he permeates by his letters. The Pharisees, only wanted to put yokes of bondage on their followers. Jesus says “my yoke is easy”. What a contrast of yokes. You must examine your motives and if the end goal isn’t that of Christ, what you are doing is sinning against your brother.