Freedom...

Much has been discussed lately about our freedom in Christ and the responsibilities that come with that freedom. When we speak of freedom in Christ, we must always be wary of using it as an excuse to simply do whatever we want in the name of liberty. Our freedom is not a freedom that simply gives us license, but it is a freedom to follow hard after Jesus as His children who love Him because He first loved us. It is the freedom to pursue Him in a personal and growing relationship unencumbered by the bonds of legalism and manmade religion. It is a freedom to give up everything for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord!

When we read Paul's writings we see what this freedom in Christ truly is. This freedom is quite the opposite of the so-called 'American Dream'. The freedom that Paul had was not a freedom to gain earthly things and pleasure and popularity for his own sake, but rather the freedom to give it all up for the glory of God and count it as gain! Our freedom is not a freedom to be burned upon our own earthly lusts, but a freedom that is consumed with glorifying God whether by life or by death. The freedom we have been given is the freedom to set our minds and affections on things above and not on things here on the earth. This is the freedom to live as life was meant to be lived -- for the glory of our sovereign, creator God. It's the freedom to give up carnal pleasures and count it as great gain, it's the freedom to suffer terribly and realize it's all working together, and it's the freedom to face the very doorway of death and know it's the threshold of paradise.

Oh, we may argue about dress, music, bible versions, etc., but none of us have the right to claim 'freedom in Christ' as an excuse to live for our own glory and pleasure. That is simply not the freedom that we have been given in Christ. We have been set free from the wrath of God, by the grace of God, for the glory of God. Let's live free from the bonds and cares of this world, and let's use that freedom given to us by Christ's sacrifice and His unmerited mercy and grace to present ourselves as living sacrifices which is our reasonable act of worship!

Related Scripture:

Philippians 1:12-30 & 3:1-10

Colossians 3:1-17

Romans 1:16-18

Romans 8

Romans 12:1-2

I Cor. 15:55-56

Trevor

About that slippery slope...

Allow me to post a follow up to Trevor’s post. As I read through his post, I appreciate what he’s saying and identify with it, yet I hear already the howls of those who will read a lot more into it than it actually says. Allow me to be the one who takes on the questions immediately formulated in the minds of those who will read and judge.

What Trevor is NOT talking about.

He’s not talking about any fundamental Doctrine of the Word of God. I believe this can be clearly seen in his article. There is NO foundational doctrine that Trevor or I have shaken off as we have gone “down the slippery slope.” In fact, those beliefs are more cherished now, and stand in stark relief from the so many other “truths” we held as their equals. When all of the filler goes away, truth is left in ALL of it’s beauty, and it’s worth dying for! So, as a response to those who will immediately howl that Trevor advocates throwing what we believe over board, that is not at all what he is saying. In essentials unity and in non-essentials liberty! Both of us currently have in our churches people who disagree with us on matters of eschatology, practice, preferences, etc. That is actually a GOOD thing! One of the signs of a healthy church is definitely the ability afforded members to be lead by the Spirit of God in areas that are not clearly specified in scripture. If anything, we are more concerned than ever about studying and knowing God’s Word. We have simply thrown off the chains of man’s litmus tests and rules and regulations. We have come to the place where we are not concerned about how other believers would judge us, but we do care very much about the honor and glory of God!

He is not talking about a license to sin. Actually, interestingly enough, in this journey there are areas in our lives in which we are much more “conservative” than we ever were before while we were simply checking off the important items on a checklist. If by “sin” you mean relaxed clothing or a Chris Tomlin worship song or enjoying a good movie at the theatre, than you’re going to call us wicked “sinners.” If, however, we define sin Biblically, there’s never been a time in our lives of more heightened awareness of the holiness and awesomeness of God! Believe me, it wasn’t the Holiness of God that kept me from taking my kids to see a movie in the theatre before, it was the fear of man-made dogmatic legalism. Freedom in Christ allows me to enjoy that movie, but it may well call me to let go of something else my heart would have held dear before, and I would have still been “ok” since my hair was cut “right” and I was wearing a tie.

What exactly are we “free” from, then? Man’s oppressive, legalistic, pietistic and hypocritical commands. We are NOT free to do as we wish! We are bound by the word (what it actually says, not some guy screaming about Sandy Fatty and Steve Grunt from the pulpit). We are bound by the Holy Spirit of God! We are free to glorify Him with everything He has given us (whether it fits the IFBX mold or not) and with everything we are! I will be the first to admit that many break “free” from legalism and replace it with “license.” This may make the individual a little less miserable, but it is very dangerous. If there is not a rock solid relationship with Christ, with a hunger to serve Him, you may well jump from the frying pan into the fire! We are NOT free to do as we wish! In fact, there is no “freedom” that I enjoy now by God’s grace, that I would not be willing to lay down in a heart-beat as the Holy Spirit prompted me. I would refrain, however, from pushing such a decision on someone else. That, sadly is what happened in many of the churches of my youth, and is still prevalent in many circles today.

So, I agree with Trevor. Once you start thinking through many of these issues, you may well see many changes very quickly in your life. Your view of the body of Christ will widen. Your judgmental spirit of others will begin to fade quickly. Your feeling of superiority based on conformity to man made lists will be shattered. You may well see many old “taboos” disappear over-night. This, I believe, is the “slippery slope” Trevor hints at. Examine your motives carefully, however! Have a clean conscience! Move only as prompted by the Holy Spirit. Be humble about the changes. Don’t look down on those who remain where you were. Honestly, this is a serious cause for concern for all of us who have moved away from some of these things! May we not show the same judgmentalism towards those still holding to certain beliefs that we fault them for having towards our liberty in Christ. Let us respect and be gracious to those whom we disagree with! You do NOT have to be where we are to be our cherished brother/sister in Christ! If you would afford us the same sentiment, Christ would most certainly be glorified! God bless you! May we be humble and meek, never rubbing our “freedom” in the face of others. I agree with Trevor's post. I hope this may answer any questions/objections.

Tony

The Slippery Slope...

In my life, I have heard many a sermon on the 'slippery slope' of so-called compromise. The idea is that once you 'compromise' on one thing, then, before you know it, you have given up on all of your 'convictions'. Therefore, you had better be careful and tow the line and you will be a good, strong 'fundamentalist'.  I'm sure you have heard the same thing.  

Since the lid has fallen off of my box of pseudo-fundamentalism (so called because the fundamentals that were taught were neither biblical nor historical such as KJV-onlyism, dress standards, and absolute pastoral authority to name a few), I have talked to others jokingly about my slide down that slippery slope. The more I look at it and think about it, those warnings were right. It didn't take but one of my stubborn, inbred presuppositions shattering to send me straight down that slippery slope. Now I guess I'm somewhere at the bottom and considered a disappointing compromiser to certain of the brethren. 

So, what is this 'slope' that they don't want you to slide down? Is it really a compromise of your 'convictions' or is it something entirely different. Oh, I believe that they are right in that you will slide down very fast once you start, but my contention is that it is a very good thing and very far from anything that will damage true biblical conviction.  

The slippery slope that they want you to avoid so that you will remain a good 'fundamentalist' is the slippery slope of hard questions and thinking.  I know it sounds too simple, but that is exactly what sends you straight down, at a good clip, that slippery slope. That is exactly what happened to me. It all started when I began to ask some questions about KJVOism and thinking biblically on the subject. Soon thereafter, I was no longer KJVO. When I realized the shallow scholarship and un-biblical reasoning for that, I began to question everything else and...voila...I'm not just sliding, but I'm in near free-fall down the slippery slope toward an intimate, vibrant, growing and real relationship with Christ with an intense desire to be truly biblical.  

I'm no longer KJVO, my wife wears pants (I feel kind of silly even saying that), I love contemporary worship music, I wear jeans when I speak, I don't go door-to-door soul-winning, I'm not pre-trib or pre-mil, and the list goes on.  Yet, I'm growing.  I'm jealous for the glory of my Jesus and my desire is to be intensely biblical in all that I do.  I can truly say that I love Jesus more today than at any other point in my life. I now realize that I don't have all the answers, but I also realize that I don't have to. I love and pray for other Christians from other denominations who don't believe just like I do. We laugh together, eat together, hang out together, talk together, cry together, pray together, and in some cases go to church together, and that's not only o.k., but it is beautiful and it is right! My life is no longer about whether someone agrees with me on every single point, but it's about glorifying God and making Him famous. I've found I have much more in common with true Christians than not in common. I've found beautiful freedom to glorify my God in my skin with my gifts and talents that He's given me. 

Oh, I'm at the bottom of slope so to speak, but it's a glorious place of questioning, thinking, talking, and loving.  It's a place of growing closer and closer to Jesus and loving His children more and more.  It's a place of unity and solidarity where people can be themselves and where they can be real. I may be down the 'slippery slope', but I've got to tell you, the view from down here is amazing!  It's no longer the four walls of the cardboard box of legalism, but it's the glorious freedom in Christ that transcends space and time. 

So, in the nearly immortal words of Bob Barker, let me invite you to 'come on down'! You'll never be the same once you begin the slide!   

Trevor

Why I am not King James Only

I grew up King James Only (KJVO from here on out), but I am no longer.  There are several reasons for my transformation.  Before I get into that let me preface everything I say with the fact that I have no problem with someone being King James preferred.  There is nothing wrong with the King James Version and I have no qualms with someone who prefers it above all others. My difficulty lies with the 'onlyist' position and I believe none of their arguments hold any water because they are coming from an assumption that the KJV is perfect. This assumption leads all their arguments into circular reasoning.  Here were some of my arguments that came crumbling down as my presupposition about the perfection of the KJV began to shatter... (this is not exhaustive, but simply a sampling of the KJVO position)

Argument #1:  The KJV is 100% inerrant, in that every word is 100% correct and since every other translation doesn't match the KJV then it/they are perversions.  

This argument fails in many ways.  If that is the case then which KJV is the correct one?  The Cambridge and Oxford KJV's differ in three different places:  

Jeremiah 34:16 - Oxford ~ 'whom ye';  Cambridge ~ 'whom he' 

2 Chron. 33:19 - Oxford ~ 'sins';  Cambridge ~ 'sin'

Nahum 3:16 - Oxford ~ 'fleeth';  Cambridge ~ 'flieth'  

I realize this seems like nothing, but if your view of 'inerrancy' is that every word has to be 100% perfect or you have a 'perversion', then either the Oxford or Cambridge is wrong and therefore not the Word of God (obviously we realize they are both very much the Word of God and small differences such as these mean very little).

Another example is the word 'Easter' found in Acts 12:4.  It is the greek word 'pascha' (transliterated) and it is found 29 times in the N.T.  It is the greek word for 'passover' and is translated so 28 times as such in the KJV.  The only place it is not is in Acts 12:4 where it is somehow translated 'Easter'.  It is simply the wrong word.  It should not be Easter it should be passover and is translated so in every other translation.  Again, I have no problem w/ the KJV, but you simply cannot ignore this and say the translation is 100% perfect.  

These are simple things, but they started me on the road to realizing the my KJV only view of God's Word was not biblical and not a reality.  

Argument #2:  God promised to preserve His Word and if he didn't do it perfectly then He wasn't telling the truth.  Since God doesn't lie then His perfect Word must be on earth and it is found in the KJV.  

Tony handled this one quite well in the above post.  The beauty of preservation isn't that God perfectly and inerrantly preserved His Word in the KJV.  This was never a promise in God's Word.  The beauty of preservation is that of all the manuscripts ever found, they agree completely 98% of the time and they never vary on major doctrine.  We can know we have the Word of God when we hold modern translations in our hands because of God's preservation of His Word.  

Argument #3:  Comparison Literature.

This is where KJVO advocates compare other versions to the KJV and then claim that Satan is using the modern 'perversions' to slowly take away the blood of Christ, or baptism, or the virgin birth, etc.  

This argument fails on many levels.  One example is the claim that the MV's are 'bloodless'. The KJV does, in Colossians 1:14 have the phrase 'through his blood' where the modern versions do not.  This certainly does not render the MV's 'bloodless', but rather seems to make them more accurate than the KJV.  This phrase cannot be found in the majority of texts from any textual family.  It neither has support from the oldest manuscripts, nor does it have support from the majority of manuscripts.  If the NIV and other MV's are bloodless, then so are the majority of manuscripts from which both the KJV and MV's are translated.  Of course it is silly and not accurate to say any MV is 'bloodless' especially when one of the main principles of our Bible study is to compare Scripture w/ Scripture.  

The 'comparison literature' argument also fails in that it automatically considers the KJV to be perfect and thus is simply a circular argument w/ no basis in fact.

Argument 4:  The KJV isn't copyrighted and thus all the MV's that are copyrighted are just an attempt to make money.  

This argument is handled well in this article.

In 400 years none of the versions we have will be copyrighted either.  This is a non-argument that has zero credibility.  

Argument 5:  The Psalm 12:6-7 argument.

This argument states the God was speaking of the KJV in Psalm 12:6-7.  Most credible KJVO's have stopped using this one because of it's absurdity, but you still see it from time to time.  

Contextually this obviously has nothing to do with God's Word, but His promise of help and rescue from earlier in the context.  I'll let you check it out for yourself.  

Argument #6:  The 'I just believe it by faith' argument.

This is often used when all debate and arguments fail.  It is the 'I just know it's right' fail-safe.  The problem is, you can know the sky is orange, but it simply doesn't change the fact that it isn't.  Faith based on something that doesn't exist is not faith, but blind followship and has no place in the life of a child of the true and living God.  

Conclusion:  These were some of my arguments, and although I had some doubts from time to time I would have never dared question the Word of God.  That all changed one day when I was on the phone with Tony and he told me he wasn't KJVO any longer.  I didn't know whether to hang up on him and never speak to him again or listen to what he had to say.  I listened and God used that conversation to help me start asking some difficult questions and start diving into a deep study of the issue.  Finally, my presuppositions began to crumble as my arguments failed to live up to what God's Word truly has to say on the issues of inspiration and preservation.  I poked my head out of the box so to speak.  

God's Word is beautifully preserved and it is found in many different translations.  Sure they differ and I have my preferences, but I can boldly claim I have the Word of God as I hold my NIV, ESV, KJV, NKJV, etc.  If you are KJVO, let this be a challenge to prove out your position Scripturally and contextually.  If you are starting to question then let this be an encouragement to begin to ask the hard questions and not simply take someone's word on something so important.  Most importantly, may we glorify our great God and Savior in how we handle this debate and His precious Word.  

Trevor

About those "Perversions..."

“How much poison would it take to make a cup of water poisonous? Just one drop, right?” I’ve heard this arguments or variants on this argument 1,000 times as an attack on the modern “perversions.” This is so simple and so clear, yet it is an absurd comparison. The assumption being made is that “wicked people” insert poison into the Bible, therefore making it a “perversion.” The opposite is true. Why do we have to get all worked up about the textual debate instead of standing back in awe and gratitude that in a supernatural way God’s word has been preserved in the body of the texts and that there is unquestioned agreement over 98% of the text? Why can’t we rejoice that the 2% that is disputed and can be debated does not change ONE single truth? There are no contradictions and no truth left out! It is an AWESOME thing that ought to be celebrated! Even if one were to come to the conclusion that one family of texts is to be preferred based on an examination of the evidence, why is there a need to turn it into an argument about “poison?’ I mean, if you were to be fully convinced that some of the readings the critical text omits should be in there, how does the absence of those passages turn the rest of God’s word into poison? Isn’t that rather close to blasphemous? This type of approach is usually done by men who simply parrot those who they have heard and “amened” by those who blindly accept what they are presented with. Never is the fact presented that there are serious debates and questions to be confronted. Does the common KJV waving fanatic have any idea about the manuscript evidence supporting the “Comma Johaneum” in the majority text? Nope. I tell you what though, a good story about poison with some frantic waving of the KJV and an amen line like “Bless Gawd, you can keep your HIV’s I’ll keep my BIIIIIIBLE,” will certainly make you feel like you’re standing for God. Is it possible that in the end you are denigrating His word and causing harm for the cause of Christ? You sure you want to burn those “perversions?”

Note: I do not mean to broad-brush all KJV advocates. I realize there is a wide range and if this does not speak to your position, please disregard it. It very specifically addresses a mentality I spent a lot of time around. If you feel from an examination of the evidence that the KJV is the best translation I have no beef with you. God bless! Please be careful however how you feel about and describe other translations of God’s word.

Tony

Baby steps away from KJV onlyism

I always had questions because I grew up reading the Bible in another language. When I heard the teaching that the KJV was "perfect" in EVERY word, and the modern versions condemned as "imperfect" and therefore "perversions" because there were different words used in translation and the KJ ones were the perfect ones, I knew I had a problem. My Spanish Reina Valera and my Italian Diodatti couldn't be "perfect" and by definition would have to be "perversions" since they at times used different words or phrases than the KJV. ( I understand now the underlying textual issues much better than I did then, but still, the NKJV was as hated if not more than the modern versions even though it came from the same textual family.) Anyway... I could never fully buy in, because to buy in would be to condemn my Bibles as perversions. I knew something was fishy. Then I had the expereince of spending my senior year in High school at a church that taught King James Regenerationalism and the heresy that the Gospel had to be presented FROM the KJV translation. It was exposure to this far right nonsense that undermined even more my ability to swallow the whole KJV pill.
It wasn't until my first year in the pastorate, when I had to weekly preach bilingualy and reconcile the texts of the Spanish Reina Valera and the KJV that I had my breakthrough. In the words of Micky Carter... "Things that are different are not the same." Week after week I would run into differences in translation. Now mind you, I'm not talking about major differences, but clear examples of different words being used in each language, bringing out different flavors from the original. Sometimes I would look at my TR and feel like the KJ had come closer to representing the text. On other occasions I would find the opposite and feel the RV was more exact. Many times, they were both bringing out a slightly different shade of the greek word (NT) and were in fact complimentary, though somewhat different.
What was I to do? Throw my Reina Valera away? Was it a "Perversion?" Or was the KJ the perversion? Or, as I already suspected in my heart, had I been fed something that simply wasn't true. I knew about translation. I'd done it all of my life! I knew you always lost SOMETHING in translation. Yet I had been asked to suspend this knowledge and accept "by faith" the perfection of the KJ when I KNEW in my gut there is no such thing as "perfect" translation!!! I realized they were both simply that... translations - period. Neither perfect, both translations. Why was that so hard to grasp?
So even before I began a 3 year study of the textual debate and came to some different conclusions from what I had been taught, I knew that the ground below my feet was shifting, and things would never be the same.
I am NOT anti - KJV. I believe it to be a very good translation (for someone living in the 1700's) of the Bible. I have found the NKJV to be a more consistent transaltion of the TR, and it is easier to understand as well. I wish there were a solid translation in English from the Majority Text. I do not believe the "Critical Text" translations to be "perversions." Though I am uncomfortable with some of the missing readings, I believe them to be the Word of God and am grateful for them.
I do NOT believe I have all of the answers. I am very thankful however to be free from equating man's work (translation) with God's -- inspiration and preservation.

Tony

Transcending Love

I posted an article on our church blog that I believe is relevant here.  It is about an interesting encounter I had and the transcending love of Christ.  Check it out here......    Transcending Love

Trevor