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The Body of Christ: Difference between revisions
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:''But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, '''he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior''', so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Tt 3:4–7.</ref> | :''But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, '''he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior''', so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Tt 3:4–7.</ref> | ||
=Two-tiered Christianity is not new= | |||
At various times in the history of the church Christians have attempted to divide the church into two categories of believers. But two-tiered Christianity is a false teaching as we will see below. | |||
==Jews vs. Gentiles== | |||
In the first century church there was a dangerous tendency, which Paul spoke against, to develop a two-tiered sense of Christianity, especially between Jews and Gentiles. The two classes were Jews and Gentiles. Jews, because they followed the Old Testament law in many ways, were seen as more favorable before God, and Gentiles, because they didn’t, almost felt like second-class Christians at many points.<ref>David Platt, “Freed through Faith,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2008), 1753.</ref> | |||
==Gnosticism== | |||
Gnosticism had a two-tiered system of Christianity. The gnostics were a heretical movements that promoted a secret ''gnosis'', or knowledge, that was reserved for their elite members. God alone can communicate truth about himself, and this can only be conveyed in enigmas, symbols, allegories, metaphors, and in similar figures. Thus, Scripture is thoroughly like a parable and neither prophecy nor the Savior himself announced the divine mysteries simply so as to be easily understood by everyone, but expressed them in parables. The holy mysteries are preserved for chosen men, selected for knowledge because of their faith; for the style of the Scriptures is that of a parable. The truths of God were transparent and bright to the gnostics but they are dark to the multitude. Thus, a two-tiered system of Christians was erected, with spiritual believers being able to understand the mysteries of Scripture that simple believers could not appreciate.<ref>Gregg R. Allison, Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 122–123.</ref> | |||
==Montanism== | |||
In AD 160, a gathering of the church condemned a teacher named Montanus. Hailing from the region of Phrygia (modern-day Turkey), which was known for being a hotbed of eccentricity, Montanus looked at the church in his day and decided that it was not ready for the return of Jesus. He sought to recover a particular view of the gifts of prophecy and tongues in the church. In so doing, he developed unorthodox teachings about the Holy Spirit: Montanus believed that he himself was the Holy Spirit incarnate. He also led a group of people known for their extreme asceticism and gibbering chants. Appropriately enough, this movement is known as Montanism. | |||
The Montanists believed that true Christianity depended on a mystical experience with the Spirit, and they taught a two-tiered division of believers, distinguishing between ordinary believers and the ''pneumatakoi'', or “spirit-filled” Christians. The ''pneumatakoi'' were the “more advanced” group that received a special indwelling (a “baptism”) of the Holy Spirit after conversion. According to the Montanists, a life of true holiness or godliness was not possible if you were not numbered among the ''pneumatakoi''. | |||
Such teaching, the church quickly recognized, flies in the face of the uniform testimony of Scripture that there is but one faith and one baptism (Eph. 4:4–6). God’s Word knows nothing of a Christian who does not possess the Holy Spirit.<ref>Tabletalk Magazine, January 2009: Resolved to Press on toward the Goal (Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2009), 52.</ref> | |||
==Medieval monasticism== | |||
One of the distinctive characteristics of the Reformation lies in the way it revalued the activities of daily life over and against the works of the monastic communities. In the late Middle Ages the Christian life was often split into two tiers so that there existed “average” Christians and “super” Christians. The former were called carnali, or carnal Christians. They could attempt to live according to the Ten Commandments like others, but this would only enable them to climb the ladder so far up to God. In order to climb all the way up, one had to move on to the so-called evangelical counsels—the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. In this way one could move toward the sanctified life. These were called the perfecti, or the sanctified ones. Luther’s recovery of the gospel knocked the legs out of this way of thinking. It enabled one to come back to earth and embrace this earthly life as God’s created form even for Christians. Rather than seeking to escape this world, one could embrace it in all of its fullness.<ref>Christopher John Donato et al., Perspectives on the Sabbath (Nashville: B&H, 2011).</ref> | |||
==[[Let go and let God]]== | |||
Two-tiered Christianity again showed its ugly head in the Keswick movement or the "[[Let go and let God]]" theology. Keswick theology was one of the most significant strands of '''second-blessing theology'''. It assumes that Christians experience two “blessings.” The '''first is getting “saved,” and the second is getting serious.''' The change is dramatic: from a defeated life to a victorious life; from a lower life to a higher life; from a shallow life to a deeper life; from a fruitless life to a more abundant life; from being “carnal” to being “spiritual”; and from merely having Jesus as your Savior to making Jesus your Master. People experience this second blessing through surrender and faith: “Let go and let God.” | |||
Keswick theology, however, is not biblically sound. Here are just a few of the reasons why: | |||
#DISJUNCTION: It creates two categories of Christians. This is the fundamental, linchpin issue. | |||
#PERFECTIONISM: It portrays a shallow and incomplete view of sin in the Christian life. | |||
#QUIETISM: It tends to emphasize passivity, not activity. | |||
#PELAGIANISM: It tends to portray the Christian’s free will as autonomously starting and stopping sanctification. | |||
#METHODOLOGY: It tends to use superficial formulas for instantaneous sanctification. | |||
#IMPOSSIBILITY: It tends to result in disillusionment and frustration for the “have-nots.” | |||
#SPIN: It tends to misinterpret personal experiences.<ref>Andrew D. Naselli, “For the Church: Why ‘Let Go and Let God’ Is a Bad Idea,” Tabletalk Magazine, August 2011: Theological Reflections on Classic Literature (Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2011), 75.</ref> | |||
B.B. Warfield boiled it down to three major contentions: | |||
1. Warfield argues that the adherents to the victorious life movement build a high wall of separation between justification and sanctification. This split between entering the Christian life and living the Christian life put asunder what Warfield argues must be kept unified. “We cannot divide Jesus,” Warfield states, “and have Him as our righteousness while not at the same time having Him as our sanctification”<ref>The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, vol. 8, p. 475</ref>. This division, Warfield tells us, stems from a '''deficient view of Christ and the cross'''. | |||
2. In reference to Christ when we receive Him at salvation, we receive both His person and His benefits, and, Warfield adds, “when we have Him we have all”. The victorious life movement teaches that at salvation we do not receive all, but that we need to wait until the second blessing or wait for some later time of empowerment in order to live fully the Christian life. Further, perfectionism promotes a deficient view of what Christ accomplished on the cross. In the victorious life teaching, Christ’s death is looked upon as merely saving us from the guilt of sin; the salvation from the corruption of sin comes later. Warfield responds this way: “It is a fatally inadequate conception of salvation which so focuses attention on deliverance from the penalty of sin and from continued acts of sin, as to permit to fall out of sight deliverance from sin itself—that corruption of heart which makes us sinners” <ref>The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, vol. 8, p. 579</ref> | |||
3. The Christian, saved from the guilt and corruption of sin, does not then proceed to sin no more. Yet, Warfield advocated a view of sanctification that looked quite different from his victorious-life protagonists. In their view, there are two classes of Christians, some on the higher plane experiencing victory in Jesus and another class wallowing below. This teaching frustrated Warfield as he saw it undermining Christ’s cross-work, not to mention the role of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life. In Warfield’s view, such classes do not exist. All those in Christ have all that they need to live the Christian life, to strive after holiness.<ref>Tabletalk Magazine, April 2005: Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005), 17–18.</ref> | |||
==Pentecostalism== | |||
The Pentecostal doctrine of baptism in the Holy Spirit divides the world into Christians and non-Christians, and then puts Christians into two categories, ordinary believers and Spirit-baptized believers. | |||
But as we saw above, such a division of Christians into two categories is not a unique understanding that is found only in Pentecostal teaching in the twentieth century. In fact, much Pentecostal teaching came out of earlier holiness groups that had taught that Christians could either be ordinary believers or “sanctified” believers. Other groups have divided Christians using different categories, such as ordinary believers and those who are “Spirit filled,” or ordinary believers and those who are “disciples,” or “carnal” and “spiritual” Christians. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church has long had not two but three categories: ordinary believers, priests, and saints. | |||
What is the problem with viewing Christians as existing in two categories like this? The problem is that it contributes to a “we-they” mentality in churches, and leads to jealousy, pride, and divisiveness. No matter how much these people who have received this special empowering of the Holy Spirit try to be thoughtful and considerate of those who have not, if they genuinely love their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and if this has been a very helpful experience in their own Christian lives, they cannot help but give the impression that they would like others to share this experience as well. Even if they are not proud in their hearts (and it seems to me that most are not) with respect to this experience, such a conviction that there is a second category of Christians will inevitably give an impression of pride or spiritual superiority. Yet there will very likely be a sense of jealousy on the part of those who have not had such an experience. In this way, a view of two groups within the church is fostered, and the repeated charge of divisiveness that is made against the charismatic movement is given some credibility. In fact, divisions often do occur in churches. | |||
The major objection to this position is that the New Testament itself teaches no such two-level or two-class Christianity. Nowhere in the Epistles do we read of Paul or Peter telling a church that is having problems, “You all need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.” Nowhere do we hear of the risen Lord Jesus speaking to the troubled and weak churches in Revelation 2–3, “Ask me to baptize you in the Holy Spirit.” It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the two-level or two-class view taught by all of these groups throughout history does not have a solid foundation in the New Testament itself.<ref>Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 777.</ref> | |||
==Conclusion== | ==Conclusion== | ||
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:''...but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ga 1:7–8.</ref> | :''...but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ga 1:7–8.</ref> | ||
Equality in status among God’s people is also emphasized by Paul in Galatians: “''For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus''” (Gal. 3:27–28). Paul is here underlining the fact that no class of people, such as the Jewish people who had come from Abraham by physical descent, or the freedmen who had greater economic and legal power, could claim special status or privilege in the church. Slaves should not think themselves inferior to free men or women, nor should the free think themselves superior to slaves. Jews should not think themselves superior to Greeks, nor should Greeks think themselves inferior to Jews. | |||
Similarly, Paul wants to insure that men will not adopt some of the attitudes of the surrounding culture, or even some of the attitudes of first-century Judaism, and think that they have greater importance than women or are of superior value before God. Nor should women think themselves inferior or less important in the church. Both men and women, Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, are equal in importance and value to God and equal in membership in Christ’s body, the church, for all eternity. | |||
In practical terms, we must never think that there are any second-class citizens in the church. Whether someone is a man or woman, employer or employee, Jew or Gentile, black or white, rich or poor, healthy or ill, strong or weak, attractive or unattractive, extremely intelligent or slow to learn, all are equally valuable to God and should be equally valuable to one another as well. This equality is an amazing and wonderful element of the Christian faith and sets Christianity apart from almost all religions and societies and cultures. The true dignity of godly manhood and womanhood can be fully realized only in obedience to God’s redeeming wisdom as found in Scripture.<ref>Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004), 458–459.</ref> | |||
=Quotes by William Branham= | =Quotes by William Branham= | ||