"The right to be wrong in matters of religious belief must be accorded, otherwise we produce hypocrites instead of persons with an enlightened belief that is fully their own. If the truth be might and God all-powerful, His children need not fear that disaster will follow freedom of thought."-- Francois De Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambrai.
One of the most interesting letters in that treasure chest which is popularly referred to as the New Testament, is the one designated as 2 Peter. Written by the impetuous fisherman who was called from his occupation by Jesus, the letter is robust and challenging, filled with stirring thoughts and emphatic language. It is from this depository of revelation that I have chosen the statement which will form the theme of this little volume and provide its title.
Near the close of his communication the apostle urges his readers to exert every effort to be found at peace with God and to remain unblemished and above reproach in his sight. He reminds them that God's patience exercised in our behalf will result in our salvation, and mentions that Paul also endorsed this thought when he wrote to the same people.
Bear in mind that our Lord's patience with us is our salvation, as our beloved brother Paul wrote to you, out of the wisdom he had received, speaking of this matter as he does in all of his letters, some of which contain certain difficult and obscure statements, which those who are untaught and unstable, distort as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:15,16).
There is no message, divine or human, which is proof against distortion by men who are ignorant or unscrupulous. But while such wresting of a communication given by men may not evoke consequences of a serious nature, destruction may result from misinterpreting or misapplying God's revelation. In this volume I am going to concern myself with the use of scripture to divide and fragment the family of God, and to excuse and justify the very schism which the Word deplores and condemns. But first let us look at the rendering of our passage in two other versions.
As indeed our beloved brother Paul has written to you, out of the wisdom vouchsafed to him, speaking of this as he has done in all his letters--letters containing some knotty points, which ignorant and unsteady souls twist (as they do the rest of the scriptures) to their own destruction. (Moffatt)
Our beloved brother, Paul, from the wisdom that God gave him, also wrote to you about this. In his letter to you, as in all his letters, he speaks of these things. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, that is true, and there are people lacking knowledge and steadfastness who twist his words to their own destruction, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures. (The Simplified New Testament--Norlie).
The scriptures can be twisted, distorted and slanted. When this happens they may be used to undo the very purpose of God who gave them. When the written word is so wrested as to defeat the purpose, plan and prayer of the Living Word, something is indeed seriously wrong.
I do not think that we must infer from the statement of Peter that every person who wrests a scripture from its context is wilfully ignorant or purposely unsteady. No doubt men can do this while innocent of any evil motive and with a firm persuasion that their application is the will of God. If they are ignorant, it is involuntary, and not deliberate. Such men, when shown a more excellent way, will at once amend their thinking. It is because of my firm conviction that the good and honest heart will receive the seed of the Word, and not reject it, that I address myself to those of my brethren who are shivering the kingdom of heaven into fragments under the delusion that by so doing they best serve the interests of our King.
Perhaps it would be well for us to contemplate some of the ways in which the scriptures may be twisted. Immediately, most of us will think of the practice of lifting a passage out of its context or setting, and interpreting it in isolation and detachment. This is always a malpractice, but it is even more grievous when the purpose is to justify or defend a presupposition or arbitrary position.
Our word "text" is from the Latin textus, to construct or weave. It is found in such words as textile and texture. It is related to technical, which was originally applied to the art or skill of constructing or weaving. Thus context refers to the discourse or writing produced by the weaving together of words in language, and specifically to "the part or parts of a written or spoken passage preceding or following a particular word or group of words, and so intimately associated with them as to throw light upon their meaning."
The sacred scriptures occur in three contexts--time, place and revelation. If properly understood, they must be studied in the light of all of these. The word of God was not delivered neatly packaged and tied with a ribbon. It was the divine response to human situation. It did not create needs and then proceed to meet them, but circumstances existed and the will of heaven was revealed to relate to them. We are obligated to determine as nearly as we can the situation which gave rise to the revelation, and study it in the light of the circumstances.
As we prosecute our search for meaning it will become evident that strife and division have actually been promoted by ignoring the immediate purpose for which a thing was written. In anticipation, let me refer to 2 John 9,10, where the aged apostle warned.
If any man come and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed, for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
Factional proponents have made the term "this doctrine" refer to every traditional teaching around which a party has rallied. We shall learn that John was writing to combat Gnosticism, one of the most dangerous philosophies to threaten the Way in all of its history. It was an attack upon the very foundation of the faith. To apply a statement designed to preserve and protect the faith against an invidious doctrine which would cut the very heart out of it, to every minor divergent view and opinion, is as absurd as directing cobalt rays intended to check the spread of grave malignancy against every pimple or welt induced by a bee sting.
When we study Amos 3:3, where the King James Version has the prophet asking, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" we will see how failure to consider the immediate and remote context has trapped men into taking a position which would make all fellowship impossible and cooperation a futile gesture. It will also become apparent that any contention which must depend for its validity upon the rendering of a single and specific translation, and which is not sustained by other versions, must always be under suspicion.
Another way by which the scriptures can be twisted is by assigning an acquired meaning to a word and then proceeding as if this was the meaning accredited to it when used by the Spirit. In order to communicate the divine will to mankind in understandable fashion, God employed the method used by men in communicating with one another. And the highest form of such communication is through language.
This may appear in oral or written form. In spoken form language makes use of certain sounds, and to these, singularly or in combination, assigned and understandable values are attached, so that concepts or images may be transferred from one mind to another. In written form, certain characters are used for the various sounds and the eye serves to flash the message to the brain as the ear does in audible discourse.
Words are not ideas. At best they are symbols of ideas. Simple people require but few words and all of these originally have a confined or limited usage. But as those who use them develop new skills and multiply their relationships to the world around them their words take on new connotations. Words are like those who use them, they acquire new breadth and significance. The currency of thought is like the coin of the realm. It becomes polished through usage in the marketplace. Sometimes it is a difficult thing to determine the value of a coin which has passed through many hands. And the same thing holds true with words.
The revelation of God through the Spirit was given some two thousand years ago, in a land foreign to this and in a tongue alien to the one with which I am conversant. It was first announced by a voice and then written down. But since the time when the envoys of Christ lived and spoke, their words have been subjected to all of the changing fortunes of history. Too, they have been submitted to the shock of translation, in which the ideas they sought to convey have been fitted into new outer garments, some of which were borrowed and others tailored for the occasion.
The result is that many of the words we read in our translations of the scriptures no longer convey to the popular mind the ideas with which they were originally invested. It is not an exaggeration to say that almost every word in the English versions of the Bible has been hammered and pummeled by theological and ecclesiastical usage until it no longer communicates the will of God as at the beginning.
It is not our purpose here to deal at length with this phase of distortion, but a few examples may serve to illustrate the point I wish to make. Take, for instance, the word "minister." As used in the sacred scriptures it meant "servant" and any service rendered to the community of saints or its members was recognized as ministry. In our day the term has taken on a specialized and professional meaning, and a majority of the saints would disclaim that they were ministers. They use the word rather as a title to be bestowed upon a certain class of functionaries. This caused Alexander Campbell to write:
But in this appropriation of the title, the ministers of Christ, there is a variety of error, and of arrogance. The term diakonos,in Greek; minister, in Latin; and servant, in English, are expressive of the same character or standing, are titles of the same import. The term minister, a general or unappropriated title, designates any servant, and belongs to every obedient disciple of Jesus Christ. In the general sense of the term, it belongs to sister Phoebe, as well as to any apostle or bishop. And indeed, the widow who cast in her two mites, was a much greater minister or servant of God, than any of the Westminster clergy, who were servants of God and the long parliament. To call the clergy the ministers of Christ, is, therefore, a pious robbery of the obedient disciples of Christ, who are ministers of God as well as they, to speak in the most humble terms. (The Christian Baptist, 2, page 193).
Or, consider the word "sanctuary," which comes from sanctus, holy, and is used to designate a holy place. Professed followers of Jesus often use it to label the place for the general gathering of the saints to engage in corporate expressions of praise, as opposed to Sunday School rooms, educational wings, or social halls. This demonstrates a kind of ignorance wholly unbecoming to those who aspire to be "a guide of the blind, and a light of them which are in darkness."
Jesus came to do away with such distinctions, and with a concept of worship dependent upon being within a "sacred confine," marked out by ceremony and dedicatory exercises. All such belonged to the adolescent age of Judaism, and had no place at all in the life of mature sons of God. In Christ there are no holy places, no holy days, and no holy things. There are only holy people. The Most High does not dwell in temples made by the hands of men. He is not worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything. The only sanctuary God has upon earth today is the consecrated heart of the follower of Jesus. This is the temple of God. It is the place where he dwells through the Spirit.
Now all of this is taken lightly by many in our day. Even in the seminaries where men seek to prepare themselves to instruct less enlightened followers in the will of God, it is tossed aside as of no particular consequence. It becomes a matter for levity and is made the butt of jokes. And the result is, that those who claim to teach the revealed will of God actually perpetuate the errors of the past and ignorantly pass them on to another generation to become a part of an unwarranted tradition, further obscuring the truth of heaven.
Although I feel very deeply about this matter, and am thoroughly convinced that we will never accomplish the will of God on earth until we recapture and restore the vocabulary of the Holy Spirit, I am going to allow another to say what I feel needs to be said. I am reluctant to present this lengthy quotation, for experience has taught me that we have produced many superficial readers and shallow thinkers in our day. There is a tendency to skip over quotations as a dragonfly skims over a body of water, scarcely getting the gossamer wings wet. In this instance, however, I implore my readers to give consideration to every sentence of the following rather lengthy statement. I have chosen to share with you these words of Alexander Campbell because they express my sentiments far more forcibly than I could enunciate them in my own words.
There must be, and there shall be an abandonment of the new and corrupt nomenclature, and a restoration of the inspired one. In other words there must be an abandonment of the Babylonish or corrupt phraseology of the dark ages and of modern discoveries, in the fixed style of the Christian vocabulary. This is a matter of greater importance than may, at first sight, appear to all. Words and names long consecrated, and sanctified by long prescription, have a very imposing influence upon the human understanding. We think as well as speak by means of words. It is just as impossible for an adult to think as to speak without words. Let him that doubts make the experiment.
Now as all correct ideas of God and things invisible are supernatural ideas, no other terms can so suitably express them as the terms adopted by the Holy Spirit, in adapting those supernatural truths to our apprehension. He that taught man to speak, would doubtless adopt the most suitable terms in his language to reveal himself to his understanding. To disparage those terms, by adopting others in preference, is presumptuous and insolent on the part of man. Besides when men adopt terms to express supernatural truths, it is not the truths themselves, but their ideas of them they communicate. They select such terms as suit their apprehensions of revealed truth, and hence the terms they use are expressive only of their conceptions of divine things and must just be as imperfect as their conceptions are. It is impossible for any man, unless by accident, to express accurately that which he apprehends imperfectly.
From this source spring most of our doctrinal controversies. Men's opinions, expressed in their own terms, are often called Bible truths. In order then to a full restoration of the ancient order of things there must "a pure speech" restored. And I think the Lord once said, in order to a restoration, that he would restore to the people "a pure speech." We know that the ancient order of things amongst the Jews, could not be restored, after their captivity in Babylon, until the law of the Lord, containing the primitive institutions of the Jews' religion, was read and understood by the people, and the dialect of Babylon abandoned as far as it corrupted the primitive simplicity of that religion. Hence the scribes read them the law from morning to evening, gave them the sense and made them understand the reading. This became necessary because of the corrupt dialect they had learned in Babylon, on account of which their religion was unintelligible to them until the language of Canaan was purged from the phraseology of Ashdod. It will, we apprehend, be found precisely similar in the antitype, or in the return of the people of God from the captivity of Babylon the great, the mother of abominations" (The Christian Baptist, Volume 2, pages 222,223).
The problem with which we are dealing arises from lack of respect for the authority of the sacred scriptures. Nothing is clearer than the fact that we are enjoined by the written word to live in harmony with the brethren. From a positive standpoint we are commanded to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This command is not to be made the basis of cavilling or casuistry. It demands obedience and compliance.
Its requirement is reinforced by other passages which encourage togetherness among the saints and forbid them to divide or to engage in strife. "We who are strong ought to bear with the feelings of the weak and not to please ourselves" (Romans 15:1). We are told to "welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God," and this is specifically said to be for the purpose of encouraging harmony with one another, accord with Christ Jesus, and glorification of God with one voice.
We are not to "set at nought" a brother, that is, pass judgment upon him, or declare him unworthy because of his opinions, scruples or rationalizations. Quarreling and jealousy are in a list of things which are said to be unbecoming (Romans 13:13), and anger, selfishness, dissension, and the party spirit, are works of the flesh (Galatians 5:20). Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Not one time is division in the family of God ever recommended as a means of resolving differences or doctrinal disagreements. Every time division of God's children is mentioned it is condemned. Division is the work of the unspiritual and not of those who are led by the Holy Spirit. Speaking of scoffers, Jude writes, "It is these who set up divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."
It is ridiculous to quote the scriptures to justify factionalism when they were given to forbid it. No honest opinion, no sincerely held doctrinal view, can ever be made the ground for rejection of one of God's children. It would be absurd for God to warn that the party spirit would debar from inheritance of the kingdom, and then make provision for the party spirit and enjoin it upon us. Strife and division are the characteristics of those who are carnal and immature (1 Corinthians 3:1-4).
Unity in Christ is not conformity but community. We are one because we share a common faith, and not because we hold the same opinions. The only passage which declares there is one faith informs us that in our calling we must live "with patience, forbearing one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2). Patience and forbearance are not qualities of robots, but of thinking men and women. God made us to differ mentally as we differ physically. We can no more all think alike than we can all look alike.
We are not in the fellowship because we see everything alike, or because we like everything we see. We are together because God has called us all, and received us all when we responded to his call. God did not call angels, but men! We are human before we are called and we are human after we are called. We are not changed into the perfect image at once, but "we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Being human, there is only one type of unity possible for us, and that is unity in diversity. If we do not accept this form of unity there is no other for us. Fellowship results from a mutual sonship; brotherhood from a common Fatherhood. We are not one because we have all attained to the same degree of spiritual growth, but because we are all in the same family. We are not one in opinion, but one in Christ Jesus. To interpret the word of God to fragment those who are in the Son of God, and thus to justify their carnality and immaturity, is to do despite to the Spirit of grace.
The living Word was made flesh to bring us together in the Lord. His was the task of reconciliation and recovery. The written word is the account of how He accomplished this magnificent and divine purpose, and is provided so that we may know how to enter into it and become a part of it. It is cruel to turn the sword of the Spirit against those who have been born of the Spirit. It is insane to take the weapon given us to battle the forces of darkness and use it to spill the blood of the soldiers of light.
It will be our task in the chapters which lie ahead to show how a misunderstanding and misapplication of the written word has been the means of sowing discord among brethren. We shall seek to recover the spirit of God's revelation in the revelation of God's Spirit. The prayer of Jesus for the unity of the believers will be our watchword as we attempt to untwist the scriptures and place them in proper order and context. Ours will be an honest attempt to let the word of God speak for the God of the word!