Liberalism’s Defective Doctrine of the Church
By Dr. Riley Case
Along with its many other inadequacies, theological liberalism never has had much of a doctrine of the Church. Not that there is an orthodox doctrine of the Church, but the various evangelical and catholic theologies at least hold in common that the people of God are gathered into the body of Christ which is called the Church, and distinctions are made between the saved and the lost, or between the redeemed and the unredeemed. Orthodox theologies hold in some form there is no salvation outside the Church.
But theological liberalism never has gone for ideas that emphasize redeemed as over against unredeemed, or which speak of heaven and hell, or saved and unsaved. Theological liberalism tends to deconstruct the whole idea of salvation so that it is interpreted basically as this-worldly and connected with ideas like wholeness and justice. And if the idea of salvation is deconstructed and redefined then the doctrine of the Church must be deconstructed and redefined as well.
Persons like Borden Parker Bowne (1847-1910) from Boston, who did as much as anyone to introduce modernism into Methodism, scarcely spoke or wrote about such words as “redeemed” and “unredeemed.” For him the purpose of religion was to understand the nature of things (more like philosophy than theology) and to use spiritual forces to bring enlightenment and progress to the world. His battles were waged not against sin but against ignorance and superstition, and he believed that superstition was found in the Church as much as elsewhere (even among bishops). Consequently, neither Bowne nor other liberals and progressives wrote much about the Church except as an institution which was in the business of helping to bring about higher civilization and a new social order (called theKingdomofGod).
Fast forward to more recent progressive theology. Progressives today speak of the Church as being a truly inclusive community which models the kind of world God intends for all nations. In their view, the Church is not primarily about redemption but about acceptance and affirming all diversity. From this perspective the UM Church’s advertising slogan, “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors,” means the church does not ask embarrassing questions about whether a person has had a salvation experience, and believes the doctrines and teachings of the church, and intends to live a life consistent with the gospel. All who want to be members should be welcomed. There is no place for gatekeepers (such as pastors) in the progressive understanding of the Church. Open hearts and open minds and open doors means in the end there are no standards. Membership vows do not stand in the way because the prospective members can interpret them to mean whatever they want them to mean.
John Wesley, we submit, would not be amused. John and Charles Wesley, for sure, believed that the invitation to the gospel was for all (and in that sense is inclusive). In the seventeen-verse version of “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” (UM Hymnal, #58), a song about redemption, the altar call takes six verses. The appeal is made to the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the nations, harlots, publicans, and thieves, murderers and “all the hellish crew.” The appeal is not that persons understand they are acceptable as they are (the Wesleys invitations were addressed to “sinners’), but that they believe in the Savior and feel their sins forgiven and experience redeeming and life-changing love.
Perhaps John Wesley’s best statement on the Church is in the sermon, “Of the Church.” In this sermon he deals with Ephesians 4:1-4 and also with the statement in the Articles of Religion on the Church (which is similar to our own UM statement). The sermon is about the Church universal and Wesley is broad-minded enough to include Roman Catholics as part of the great church body.
But if Wesley is broad-minded about other denominations and groups (as in his sermon “The Catholic Spirit”), he is dogmatic about the necessity of living a redeemed life. His view of who should be members of the Church is hardly summarized by “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.”
How clear is this! If the Church, as to the very essence of it, is a body of believers, no man that is not a Christian believer can be a member of it. If this whole body be animated by one spirit, and endued with one faith, and one hope of their calling; then he who has not that spirit, and faith, and hope, is no member of this body. It follows, that not only no common swearer, no Sabbath-breaker, no drunkard, no whoremonger, no thief, no liar, none that lives in any outward sin, but none that is under the power of anger or pride, no lover of the world, in a word, none that is dead to God, can be a member of his Church. (“Of the Church” #74)
It is a good thing Wesley is not a pastor today in theUnitedMethodistChurchinAmerica. He would be considered exclusivistic, dogmatic, judgmental, and unloving. In some conferences, especially where the conference culture holds that the essence of United Methodism is inclusivism, and that a pastor is obligated to accept all persons regardless of beliefs or moral behavior, he would probably lose his pulpit (as pastor Ed Johnson did inVirginia).
To be a church member in theUnitedMethodistChurchshould mean something. It has been that way historically, mainly because of a high view of the doctrine of the Church. But that view of the Church is under fire today. The General Conference of 2012 will deal with a number of petitions that would seek either to maintain a high view of the Church or to undermine it.
Social Networks:
6 Comments
by Rich Buckley
On September 3, 2011
Rich Buckley Commentary On Dr. Case’s Comments:
Dr. Case writes:
“John Wesley, we submit, would not be amused. John and Charles Wesley, for sure, believed that the invitation to the gospel was for all (and in that sense is inclusive).”
John Wesley also required orthodox interpretation of biblical verses. There was never tolerance for scriptural interpretations in variance with Wesley.
None of the 30-plus ancient Codexes had yet been discovered in Wesley’s time. A learned man like Wesley and his brother Charles were beyond the impact of a lay person’s testimony to influence. He carried the imprimatur of authority in an unacknowledged Pope-like respect granted to this good and learned man who never knew the gnostic message of later archaeological discovery. Had he read it, learned it, felt it, and experienced it, the church would be far different today.
Under Wesley’s imprimatur of authority, the community was closed minded and close hearted to those who believed they held a Christ experience directly through direct personal spiritual awakening.
It was only after the discovery of many other revealing ancient Codexes after Wesley, that it became apparent there existed other broadly recognized interpretations of each Biblical text.
Their discovery revealed that only orthodox views were tolerated under the great mischievous purge. All other views we harshly suppressed throughout the Middle Ages starting all the way back with the powerful Roman Bishop from France, Bishop Ireneus in 188 AD. The historic evidence is now available to scholars showing that other interpretations of scripture did not fade away from lack of interest, but were brutally, harshly, rigorously suppressed. Hundreds of Cathars burned at the stake. gnostics run down and killed across Europe.
These same brutal, harsh and suppressing forces or on the move again today in the forms of the new movement of “Christian Dominionism.” Dr. Case innocent himself, dangerously dances with the release of these forces yet again. Ordinary people like me, mere laymen, stand firm to keep the good Dr. Case’s of the world tied to open mindedness, tolerance, and love and most importantly the distilling truth of personal experience in religion. Laity is gaining its own foothold in this process to effect the outcome and become the agent of change.
I don’t know what the false profit(s) will look like but I know I will likely as not be tricked by its representatives as I do believe they will somehow pervert the Christ experience and his message in such a way that I will likely be taken in through my own weaknesses. Dominionism seems to step across the boundary of love and into the nether regions of exile and exclusion when they can not convert you.
I have come to believe the Gnostic message is the message of the God experience that was Christ’s core message of love that has been suppressed for 1800 years and is our next big energy driving religion’s next wave. Christ’s message of love was sent to us by the Good God and is universal, not specific, to any one religion.
Other movements share in the moral equivalency of this love intended in Christianity, even as they go by other names. Some movements pervert the term “love” to fit their own grand power plays. In this regard I resist what little I have learned in the most powerful new movement in America, “Dominionism”:http://tiny.cc/c0kip This movement seems to be the action figures for the next great-judgmental inquisition of humanity ultimately not really different from the Great Inquisition of the Middle Ages, or the aggressive intolerance of the Nazi, leading tens of thousands to sacrifice for the preservation of an Old Testament God of Law and vengeance, while calling themselves the true path. The purification they wish to render upon humanity, ranks right up there with all runaway purges that fail to seek balance, restraint, love, and tolerance. Join us or parish is their cause of action, a messianic call for epic confrontation they relish as the end times choices. Well bro’, no thank you.
Wesley had no way to gain the perspective of history we now hold. It is unfair to drag Wesley forward in time and proclaim how Wesley would act and respond today. Yes you have a legal right to create your own rules for your own church. I think Wesley would have risen to the challenge of the times to provide guidance tempered to the needs of our new era. I think Wesley too would modify his tactics to the known new experiences being reported the world over. Personal experiences are an important distiller of reality: http://tiny.cc/h4iq3 Be fearless, be humble, be loving seek truth.
by Faith
On September 19, 2011
The Bible and Archaeology, Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, former director and principal librarian of the British Museum, stated about the New Testament:
“The interval, then, between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact, negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”
New Testament, there are over 24,000 handwritten copies or portions thereof from antiquity now extant. This is far more than other ancient books. For example, the second most available ancient manuscripts are from Homer’s Iliad, for which there are 643 manuscript copies, while most ancient documents have fewer than 25 existing copies.
by Grant Robertson
On September 24, 2011
Mr. Buckley,
It was proper for the early church fathers to purge gnosticism from the true Christian faith. Our discoveries of the gnostic literature is the same literature the church fathers had access to. John and Charles Wesley would never approve of gnosticism alongside universal redemption because they are both incompatible. A cosmological paradigm of two opposing forces, good and evil, and a secret knowledge as a means to salvation is the opposite of the Christian message. Your historical reconstruction is sad and superficial. Your complete lack of wisdom is apparent in your statement regarding Nazism as a product of Christianity. Have you ever read Friedrich Nietszche? Have you ever learned of Darwinism? German nationalism? Ever read Adolf Hitler? Surely these ideas were anti-Christian and the result was terrible. The Confessing church in Germany during WWII was opposed to the violence and ideology of the Nazi. Churchill refused to bow to Nazism despite Hitler’s romantic love for the English people, fellow Nordic descendants and adventurers.
I am very happy of the work of the Confessing Movement. They are fighting to restore the faith of ‘agape’ love rather than ‘autos’ love.
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20 (NASB)
Grant
by Rich Buckley
On October 21, 2011
“A cosmological paradigm of two opposing forces, good and evil, and a secret knowledge as a means to salvation is the opposite of the Christian message. Your historical reconstruction is sad and superficial.”… All these things you say of me are true. I am an ignorant, 68-year old layman and life long Methodist.
But have you ever experienced a gnostic experience in your own life? When you do, please describe how it changes your perspective on the interpretation of the scriptures.
What my limited layman reading on theology (http://tinyurl.com/2av9q9w) has brought to my attention among other things is that there seems to be clearly more than one interpretation of scriptures. Being “orthodox” is not a scientific proof for being right. Whatever we evolve into, the mainstream Christian church will continue to call it Christianity as it always does.
If you believe we are not spiritually evolving as a society, try going to your lovely wives and ask them to give up meditation, personal mantras, and breathing exorcises.
Personal experiences and observations of tens of thousands of us has to distill our perception of reality.
You are right about my ignorance.
Think kind thoughts. Be Fearless; be humble; be loving, seek truth.
Respectfully
Rich Buckley
by Rich Buckley
On October 22, 2011
Also, I should like to congratulate Confessing Movement in modernizing their website symbolically incorporating a new inviting appearance of fun, nature, balance, alternative. Blue color tones are very appropriate for use in a forum dedicated to tolerant, civil communications. I actually prefer your alternative rendering to the official main site. I started pressing for some design changes the moment I first landed in this community.
by Dr. Riley Case
On November 1, 2011
Thanks to our friend Rich Buckley for his resposes. Here is a person, even though he may not agree with us on all points, whoi is willing to read the articles and make comments.