(Actually, for me, the problem is that I never know how far back to find the beginning of the topics that interest me on BHT. By the time I finish skimming backwards I’m so confused!! hehe)

Thanks for posting it, Michael.

Thanks for posting this. I don’t read BHT very often because it’s sometimes hard to track the discussion of single topics. (Plus it’s career-limiting for me to try to stay current with it. It’s nice to have an exchange like this available in forward-chronological topic-edited format.

Yes, CSL did use the theology-as-map metaphor in MC, comparing the Christian life to a crossing of the Atlantic– good luck to you, he says, if you try without a chart! I’m afraid I can’t quote chapter and verse, though.

Nothing else to add, other than “Yeah, what Tim and iMonk said!”. And also a thanks for your writing and podcast. Good stuff, keep ‘em coming.

- Greg

Now I am part of a group within a church that is trying to navigate using that church’s map. And we are finding that the places we feel our Lord is leading us are forbidden zones on that map, which makes for some interesting discussions.

Tim’s comment on our response to art being art was great. “…preaching is exactly art in response to art.”

Good stuff, gentlemen, good stuff.
Love wins.

We are not propositioned in the Bible to know and understand all, but to both believe in and believe Jesus. This entails both the known and the unknown.

I think Christians react the same way. When we are talking about confessions and creeds and doctrines we are fine being vague. But when morality slips, will be fine being so vague? There is the inevitable link between doctrine and morality. Paul always uses doctrine to prop up morality in the epistles.

William Wilburforce attributed the rise of the slave trade in England with the decline of the Puritan doctrines. When people no longer used the Puritan “map”, the maps they used allowed slave trade in the name of “spreading civilisation to the heathen so they might be evangelised”.

Whether or not the Puritan map is correct, our behavior is usually tied to our confessions. We can say like our SBC nest does “no creed but the NT” “I’m a biblicist” but we know those two statements are shaded by our map. The BFM is probably the most vague map there is, but there is an unwritten map surrounding it. You know that, I know that. I am not subscribing that we follow in step with the SBC, I’ve got my issues with them. But the basic pillars of Protestantism (most of it) is what I’m mainly advocating. Justification by faith in a forensic sense, progressive sanctification by grace of the same virtue that regenerates, priesthood of all believers, etc.

When we relegate the big central doctrines of Protestantism to fuzziness, we will begin to see morality decline in the church. Both have already happened in most denominations.

For that matter, we follow a fuzzy gospel that promises to let sinners off the hook, preached by a Fuzzy Evangelist who had no patience for the “faithful” of his day, but hung out with whores, drunkards and sinners, and promulgated by a fuzzy band of ex-fisherman and a myopic tent-maker with a serious attitude problem.

We don’t have the foggiest idea who we believe in until we believe in Him, and when we do, the lies of modern church are obvious. Our marriages collapse, our children get hooked on drugs and have babies out of wedlock, our business partners run off with the company’s assets, our pastors and priests molest kids while our churches cover for them and shift them from job to job to avoid prosecution. If God was hoping to make friends, He needs to start treating the ones He has better.

Let me steal a cue from “George Will”: Talk to me about confessional purity, about absolutes, about the basics of doctrinal purity. Go ahead. I’ll smile quietly, and if I like you, I’ll introduce you to my friend Chip. He’s 18 years old, and has profound impairment due to cerebral palsy. He loves Jesus, and sings his heart out on Sunday mornings. He holds my hand sometimes through the whole service. His electric wheelchair blocks the aisle during communion, and he’s run over more than a few toes on his way up to receive the elements.

Nobody is really sure how much Chip understands of the gospel, or whether he understands it at all, but I’ll tell you this: If Chip isn’t going to be in heaven, I DON’T WANT TO GO. I can worship a God who would let my marriage fail, send me through hell on earth, and let my children suffer the horrible wounding they have in the past two years – at least, I can some of the time. But I can’t worship a god who requires that Chip understand the basics of the WCF or the Shorter Catechism or even understand as much as “Jesus Loves Me” before he can enter the Kingdom. That’s no god worthy of our worship.

I am frequently ashamed of being called an evangelical. It is one thing to become fools for Christs sake, but quite another to make a fool of Christ. Fundamentalists and Evangelicals have become very adept at this. I have read some of the arguments used by the “King James Only” group which are absolutely foolish. I have cross reffed all of Rick Warren’s Scripture passages in “The Purpose Driven Life”, of which at least half are used out of context. What we need is genuine Christian scholarship that is faithful to Christ and His Word, and yet honest. I have heard a pastor suggest that the author of the book of Jonah is the historical Jonah of whom it speaks, and with his second breath claim that the book was written sometime between 200 and 600 B.C. That is logically impossible! Others, who believe in the literal intepretation of Scripture seem to spiritualize the Bible, especially the Song of Solomon on par with Bernhard of Clairvioux.

To those who believe in the integrety of The Word, please also practice integrety in the process of interpretation. An accurate map is useless if one fails to interpret it properly.