Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Author’s Note: This is the last in this series of Liberal Christian Thought.

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.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

• John 14:6

“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

• John 8:58

“Hick’s most significant move from Christian orthodoxy lies in his view of the role of Christ. Traditionally Christians have held that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate, which means that he is God’s ultimate and definitive revelation, which surpasses all that has gone before (Hebrews 1.1-2) and cannot be matched by any subsequent human prophet. While such a belief does not necessarily exclude a positive attitude to other religions and to the salvation of their adherents, it does entail the uniqueness of Christ and the belief that those who are saved are saved only through him. Hick found such views unacceptable in the multi-cultural society that he encountered at Birmingham. This led him to propose his famous ‘Copernican Revolution’ in theology. Before Copernicus people believed that the earth was the centre of the universe and that the sun, moon, stars and planets revolved round the earth. Copernicus postulated that the sun lay in the centre and that the earth was simply one of the planets revolving round it. Thus Hick, in God and the Universe of faiths (1973), proposed that theology needs to place God in the centre as the ultimate reality and to see Jesus Christ and the Christian faith as merely one way of salvation for one culture. (Someone pointed out, however, that while many planets circle the sun, there is life on one only!)”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

John Hick (1922-2012) was a philosopher of religion and a theologian.  The distinction of the two terms is that while he studied his version of “Christian” thought, he also studied a variety of other religions.

What Professor Lane says about his Copernican Revolution rules out the basic understanding of Christianity.  But maybe, I am being unkind.  He may have read the book of John, but he learned little from it.  The failure with several of these Liberal Christians that Tony Lane highlights is that they misunderstand or totally reject the deity of Jesus Christ.

I love the retort, although the author does not qualify the retort with the person who said it.  If Hick relates the discovery that the sun being the center of the universe, thus Hick decides that God is the center of the spiritual universe.  That seems safe enough, but then he proposes that just about any way possible can be made to get to God.  But if “earth” in the Copernican model is analogous to Jesus in the Hick model, then through Jesus is the only method to support life into the next world.  But Jesus claimed both deity and being the only Way to the Father.

As many have said, either Jesus is what He says that He is or He is a raving lunatic, or other epithets.  Jesus Christ cannot be a good teacher, and nothing more.  Jesus cannot be a way to the Father.  Jesus Himself eliminates that option.

And to applaud Tony Lane, the author, this series draws a line for the direction of Liberal Christianity.  It starts by ignoring Jesus, limiting the power of Jesus, and questioning some of the Scriptures.  We get to the point where some of the theologians hardly mention Jesus and Jesus as part of the Trinity seems to not be in their vocabulary.  Then with Jesus diminished to the point of being some sort of revolutionary teacher, you can take or leave Jesus altogether.

When we see a part of Scripture that we find troubling, if you are a true student of Jesus Christ, born-again.  Then dig deeper.  Pray over that Scripture.  Go to various commentaries.  But never dismiss that passage.  It may take a lifetime to understand it.  It may take a lifetime plus one day.  In the presence of God, some of our confusion will be explained or it may become moot.  I feel that being in the presence of God will make most of our questions disappear.  All our denominational differences will definitely be gone, for God will fill us with the Truth, the whole Truth.

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.