Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

As stated a few weeks ago, this is the same introduction for all “Liberal Christian” essays.  If you have read this opening before, you can skip to the Scripture immediately before the pink highlighted quotation.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

• Romans 12:2

“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you.

• Ezekiel 5:7

And you will know that I am the Lord, for you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you.”

• Ezekiel 11:12

“Liberalism is a thorough-going adaptation of Christian theology to the modern world. Liberals are prepared to sacrifice many elements of traditional Christian orthodoxy in their search for contemporary relevance. The same sacrifice has also been made by others who would not call themselves Liberals in the classical sense.”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

“Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason bad philosophy must be answered.”

• C. S. Lewis

Editor’s Note: The Romans 12 and Ezekiel quotes are followed by a preface to the section on modern Liberalism within Christian thought.  In no other sections of his book does he give such a “warning” of sorts, although maybe a few should have had such warnings.  The author considered skipping this section of the book as being a waste of time, but then the C. S. Lewis quote kept calling.  Apologies for not identifying the source by book.  I am thinking either Mere Christianity or God in the Docks.  Due to the liberal idea of only accepting the parts of the Bible that match their way of thinking, R. C. Sproul said in one of his Bible study series that “Liberal Christian” was an oxymoron.  Once you carve through the Bible, accepting what you like and discarding what you do not like, you have created your own God.  Calling the God that you created “Jesus” does not make him the Jesus of the Bible.  These posts are only provided due to Lewis’ assertion that good philosophy must exist if for no other reason to answer to bad philosophy.

You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

• 2 Timothy 3:10-17

“ ‘A theological system is supposed to satisfy two basic needs: the statement of the truth of the Christian message and the interpretation of this truth for every new generation. Theology moves back and forth between two poles, the eternal truth of its foundation and the temporal situation in which the eternal truth must be received. (Systematic Theology 1.3)”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

Paul Tillich (1886-1965) was an existentialist philosopher.  He earned the Iron Cross as an army chaplain in World War I, but then he was removed from his professorship by the Nazi party in 1933, the first non-Jew to be singled out.  He could not accept this rejection trying to fight against the Nazi party for his job back for about six months.  He escaped to the USA, but even then requested is job back to no avail due to making some side remarks against the Nazis.

In trying to find out more about Tillich than what was in the referenced book above, I found articles that talked about his theology of doubt, like Voltaire’s Philosophy of Doubt, but Voltaire was not among those listed as a Tillich influencer.  Some articles went as far as to state that Tillich was the unbelieving theologist.  Yet, some of his deep systematic theological points have been praised by other theologians, but is that a case of a blind squirrel occasionally finding a nut?

He admitted that he believed that God was a being, maybe a higher being, but not the being who created all things and life itself.

And the statement made above is, in my view, contrary to Romans 12:2 and the root of the liberal Christian problem.  While the battle is on-going within theological circles and indeed within each person’s soul, we are commanded to not be conformed to this world.  Therefore, any theological offshoot to conform to this world is heresy.  We have the Truth and we have this world.  It may not be a popular thought, but the popular thought in ancient Israel rejected God for the more popular false gods of the region and the people were eventually sent into exile.

God will address this false truth (which is an oxymoron, in that a false truth is not truth at all, but a lie), and the world will be reckoned with.  Yet, God is merciful.  The End may not come for many generations to come.  There may even be a revival and a return to God that may postpone that end.  Look at how Solomon had messed up.  The house of Jacob became divided.  Then Judah had a few bad kings then a couple of good kings.  Each revival with a good king worshipping God postponed the eventual exile.  That could be what is happening today.

But the quote above is one of the root causes of our downfall, in that we open the front door of our church to heresy in order to become more popular with the secular world.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.