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Bad Theology
Posted: Monday, September 6, 2010 by Morgan in
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I've been increasingly disappointed with the theology at George Fox. It seems to become less and less biblically sound every time I go to chapel or a spiritual life event.
GFU is fairly liberal for a Christian school, and unfortunately their theology follows the same lines. The university pastor is a woman, which isn't necessarily unbiblical, but in this context it does seem to violate the biblical principle of male leadership. Each time I have heard her pray she addresses the Holy Spirit rather than God the Father or Jesus, which also isn't necessarily unbiblical but a little concerning. She also called us Sons of Christ rather than Sons of God (which is straight up biblically incorrect. See Romans 8:16-17 if you're skeptical).
But that's the least of my worries.
To open chapel today, the pastor read from Matthew 13:31-46, which contains Jesus' parables about the kingdom of heaven. She talked about the mystery of God and the difficulty of understanding Him (the verse she used was 1 Corinthians 13:12 from The Message translation, the veracity of which is questionable. See What kind of message is The Message?).
"I'm sure you've had lots of conversations about the mystery of God and at some point in the conversation you're having this big theological discussion and at some point someone says, 'Well I think we should believe the Bible.' Well what do you say to that? 'I don't think we should believe the Bible?' All of a sudden it's like throwing that trump card in that says, 'Well if you just read it right here it gets really clear.' Well, actually what they mean is that you should read their version of how they think about the Bible because they're the ones that have the exact unparadoxical unmysterious knowledge and they're able to just tell you exactly what it says. But instead we find a God that has wide open space and that we can come in at different angles into God and experience all that God has for us. There's so much paradox in God...
Here's what I get from that: Don't read the Bible because people misinterpret it. Just experience God. Either that or that understanding God is relative.
Later she said this: "The bible is full of questions, …. So to be in a place of asking questions to determine who God is and what God is about is the very heart of the gospel message because Christianity doesn't just have a lot of paradoxes, it's paradoxical…." (emphasis added).
Here's my question:
WHERE DO YOU GO FOR ANSWERS IF NOT TO THE BIBLE?!
You can't ask questions and hope the answers will just come to you in a vision. Seriously, God wrote the bible for a reason. He gives us ALL we need to know in it. It's not just a decent source of knowledge about God, it's THE source of knowledge about God. The bible is "able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 3:14-17).
During the message, she shared a story about a pool that she bought on a whim against the better judgment of her husband. She said, and I quote: "I kind of thought that perhaps some of the regulations about the pool were more suggestions." So she set it up right next to her house without leveling the ground and dumped bleach into the water instead of using the filter. (It seems she treats the bible much the same way as these directions.) Guess what happened? It turned out badly. The pool turned into a mosquito breeding ground and they had a terrible time emptying it because they set it up right next to the house. If that isn't an illustration on the merits of male leadership and the consequences of disregarding God's perfect, well thought-out design for our lives, I don't know what is.
Here is a caption from a powerpoint slide she used (it is also the GFU Spiritual Life Twitter account status, so it must have been a fairly important quote): "when you are immersed in God, you find that the paradoxes of Christianity don't drown you, but give your faith buoyancy." She expanded on this by saying that we can only really begin to understand the mystery of God unless we "get in the water." These paradoxes and mysteries can only be understood in the context of immersion in God.
Again I ask:
HOW DO YOU IMMERSE YOURSELF IN GOD WITHOUT GOING TO THE BIBLE?!
Perhaps most concerning is the misinterpretation of scripture at the end of chapel. The pastor used the parable of the merchant to illustrate the fact that, not only is does the treasure represent the kingdom of heaven for us, but that MORE IMPORTANTLY we are the treasure for Jesus. Almost like He needs us. Which is not true. God is triune and perfect, not needing anything or anyone but Himself. He gave us the opportunity to spend eternity with Him not because He needed to give it to us, but because of who He is, because he is both loving and just. Here's a real paradox: He punishes sin and grants mercy at the same time through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus Christ, who is the perfect sacrifice that was made for all sin (Hebrews 10, 1 Corinthians 15, Romans 5, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). That's just the gospel, plain and simple.
I am saddened by the prevalence of this sketchy theology in a Christian university. The college age is one of the most important for development of ideology, character, belief systems, etc., and I don't think I can sit idly by and let this flawed teaching wash over the better part of 2000 young men and women who will go out into the world and be witnesses for Christ. I want to do something about it. I want to change chapel for the better. I want to be taught from the scriptures, not from stories about pools or cleverly organized curricula based on the word "mystery."
Teach me the Bible, please. That's all I need.
"All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16-17
