Suppose you were
to contract a potentially serious medical condition and went
to see a doctor. Upon asking him details about the diagnosis
and medical consequences you found out that he does not take
medical literature literally. In addition, he has not kept
up on the latest medical research and has been out of
medical school for several decades. He prefers to make his
patients happy and comfortable rather than to force them to
confront the truth about their health condition. Would you
see such a doctor? Neither would I. Such a doctor eventually
could be found guilty of malpractice.
But consider
this: The doctor who treats a body is dealing with something
that is merely temporal. In a lesser-to-greater argument
Jesus said,
"Do not
fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the
soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both
soul and body in hell" (Matthew
10:28).
If,
as the Scriptures assure us, our souls are more important
than our bodies, why do people look to premier
doctors to diagnose and treat their physical conditions but
select a pastor who sidesteps truth
when it comes to
their eternal souls? That makes no sense. Apparently
many do not truly believe that the condition of their souls
is that important.
I thought about
this after a recent trip to California, when I was able to
speak to a member of Rick Warren's Saddleback Church. The
man was very angry with me for having written a book
critical of Warren, and he explained that I had sinned by
writing such a book. Rebutting his premise in an attempt to
reason with him, I took him to the chapter in my book where
I dealt with the
mistreatment of Scripture. I pointed to the
quote of Genesis 6:8 and asked if, as Warren states,
he really believed that the passage was about how we can
make God smile like
Noah supposedly did.1
In the book I
claim that Genesis 6:8 states that Noah received grace from
God, not that Noah gave God something. The man's response?
"Rick Warren is not always careful about how he uses the
Scripture."
I failed to
convince the man of my position but raised an important
issue: how can some Christians think that what the Bible
actually says is of such little importance that a pastor
who misuses it is deemed to be doing what God wants, while
another pastor who
corrects the misuse is sinning? Clearly
something is amiss.
I have assumed
in Warren's case that he indeed has the tools to perform
sound exegesis. ... Never before in our history have we
possessed better "diagnostic tools" to help us study the
Bible. For example, the Logos Bible Software makes it
possible for any English-speaking person to dig deeply into
the meaning of Biblical passages. Why aren't more pastors
using these "tools"?
We can easily
lay the blame at the feet of the seeker movement, whose main
premise is that Christianity must be presented in such a way
that potential seekers will see it as beneficial in terms
of meeting their felt needs. Many important passages of
the Bible, interpreted correctly, are not useful to attract
seekers. In The Purpose Driven Church, Rick Warren
explains:
"You cannot
switch back and forth between targeting seekers and
believers in the same services. For example, don't
follow up a series on 'Managing Stress' with 'Expository
Gems from Leviticus' or follow a series on 'What God
Thinks About Sex' with 'Unmasking the Beast in
Revelation.' You'll create schizophrenic members, and no
one will know when it's safe to bring unchurched
friends."2
But this creates
a noteworthy temptation to downplay the importance of
expounding Scripture accurately. Seekers (i.e., those
who are lost) have no hunger for the "pure milk of the Word"
because they are not "newborn babes" and cannot "grow in
respect to salvation" because they are, in fact, lost (see
1 Peter 2:2). This means that the seeker-sensitive pastor
has to "file down" the rough edges of Scripture for these
seekers in order to make it appear to teach human wisdom
about how to make life better. Thus Noah "makes God smile"
rather than finds the grace to escape the horrible sin in
which his world was caught up (according to the
seeker-sensitive telling of the story).
We are living in
days like those of Noah (Matthew 24:37, 38), meaning
that people are facing certain and unexpected
judgment.
Only pastors who know and
preach the Bible accurately
have the means to
warn them and help them find how to
escape
God's wrath.
Pastor Warren
may be correct that you cannot do both—expound important
Biblical topics and
appear attractive to seekers at the same
time. But I disagree completely with the idea that we must
appear attractive to lost sinners. We need to preach Christ
to lost sinners so that they can know the
terms of the
gospel. That is the only valid "diagnosis" that will do them
any good. In the book of Acts this was done up front, and
not through a back door after presenting an alternative that
would seem attractive to people in their lost state.
The Bible does
not give pastors the liberty to handle the Bible in a sloppy
manner. Consider this passage: "Let the elders who rule
well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who
labor in the word
and doctrine" (1Timothy 5:17
NKJV). We must grant that people have various levels of
skill. But every teacher of the Bible must labor to
understand the passage under consideration. No amount of
skill will make up for a lack of motivation.
The issue of
motivation to develop the skills and use the tools to
perform Biblical exegesis also has reached seminaries.
Because of a growing lethargy concerning Biblical
interpretation and sound doctrine, many have turned to such
sidetracks as "marriage and family therapy" or deceptive
mysticism such as "spiritual
formation." Young people from around the country have
written us stating that they want to go into the ministry
but cannot find a school where they can gain a solid
theological education without being subjected to
postmodernism, mysticism, the therapeutic gospel, or church
growth theory.
If many churches
are not looking for those who "labor in word and doctrine,"
seminaries have little market to train people to do just
that. So we find ourselves in the lamentable situation where
young people who want to be godly pastors trained with the
tools to accurately handle the Bible have difficulty finding
a place to be educated, and those who actually do find such
an education have difficulty finding churches that want
them.
As a result, our evangelical movement has grown
accustomed to
pastoral malpractice as though it were the
norm. Many seminaries are producing professional "people
handlers" rather than theologians, and many churches like it
that way. This is analogous to the situation in Jeremiah's
day: "The
prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule
on
their own authority; And My people love it so! But what
will you do at the end of it?" (Jeremiah 5:31)
The standards
are strict and generally well observed for those who treat
our bodies and cure our physical ailments. But the standards
for those who care for our souls have fallen woefully short.
That this is so illustrates what little concern the visible
church of the 21st century has for
eternity. The Bible says,
"Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing
that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment" (James
3:1).
There will be malpractice lawsuits against
pastors, just as there are against doctors. But pastoral
malpractice will be dealt with in eternity, making it even
more serious. In the meantime, pray that God will raise up
pastors who will take seriously their sacred duty to
interpret and apply the Bible accurately—and pray for
churches that want such pastors to lead them.3
End Notes
- I deal with that in
Redefining Christianity; page 123-125.
- Rick Warren, The
Purpose Driven Church; (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1995) 301.
- I understand well that
elders and pastors are the same persons in the New
Testament and that local churches need elders, and not
just a “pastor.” But as Paul told Timothy, those who
labor in word and doctrine are to be given special
honor.
Copyright © 1992-2005 Twin City
Fellowship
Critical Issues Commentary
P.O. Box 26127
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
pastorbob@twincityfellowship.com
Source
message:
http://www.cicministry.org/commentary/worldview0036.htm
Other articles by Bob DeWaay:
Redefining the Church
Faulty Premises
of the Church Growth Movement
“Church Health
Award” from Rick Warren or Jesus Christ?
Bob DeWaay is
the Pastor of
Twin City Fellowship, a
non-denominational evangelical Church in Minneapolis, MN:
"We are a
body of believers who attempt to live our Christian
faith according to Acts 2:42 by devoting ourselves to
prayer, fellowship, searching the Scriptures, and the
Lord’s Supper. Our mission is to equip the saints for the work of
ministry and to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. We do this through expository preaching, study
of the Scriptures, publications, our website and
neighborhood outreaches."