BOOK REVIEW - "THE THRILL OF ORTHODOXY: REDISCOVERING THE ADVENTURE OF CHRISTIAN FAITH" BY TREVIN WAX

 

The author of Hebrews warns us against drifting (Hebrews 2:1-4). Jesus tells the Ephesian church of losing their first love (Revelation 2:4). But how do we maintain that first love? How do we keep from drifting, especially when we may drift unaware? 

In "The Thrill of Orthodoxy: Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith," Trevin Wax (Vice president of Research and Resource Development of the Southern Baptist Convention) deals with things that distract us from joyfully serving the Lord and how to stand firm in our faith.

First, what is meant by Orthodoxy? One reviewer thought it might refer to the Orthodox Church, in contrast to Roman Catholic, Baptist, etc. No, it goes back to the meaning of the word, which is "right belief." Sometimes, it's compared to Orthopraxy ("right practice"). 

This book mentions various ways of drifting. Wax maintains that it's not orthodoxy that is narrow-minded but rather heresy (false teaching). He points out that our beliefs - whether correct or not - have an impact on our life. Towards the end, he mentions two mindsets believers may have that takes away from the thrill of a right relationship with God: "The Faithful Few," who see themselves as defending the truth from an overwhelming opponent, and "The Always Adapting," who alter their teaching and emphasis to fit the culture even if it changes the meaning of Scripture.

I highly recommend this book. It is deep and not a quick read. However, it's one I will read again.

HOW CAN YOU SPOT A HERETIC? (PART 1 OF 2)

Northeast Church of Christ, Cookeville, TN

 Both Testaments warn against false prophets and false teachers. But is it as easy to beware them as it looks? 

Let me divide two different groups of false teachers to start with. One is an apostate, which means one who has fallen away. This refers to one who has departed the faith. The Bible warns of those who will fall away (e.g. 2 Thessalonians 2:3).

The second is a word I hear more often: heresy (referring to the teaching) or heretic (referring to the teacher). The dictionary describes heresy as an unorthodox opinion or doctrine. The word "heresy" appears four times in the New Testament, and "heretic" once. The Greek words are respectively hairesis and hairetikos; the former word is also translated as "sect" in several places in Acts. 

In The Complete Word Study Dictionary, Dr. Spiros Zodhiates points out that the Greek word is relating to choosing and taking for yourself. He distinguishes heresy from schism, which involves a tearing away. A heretic can be part of the church, even though he has divergent beliefs.

In typical usage, there is a negative connotation to heresies and heretics. There are many heretics who take a view contrary to the Bible, such as Marcion who tries to take away the Jewishness and humanity of Christ or Arius who took the opposite error of denying Jesus' Deity. Many would put the prosperity gospel in that category.

However, a minority are branded heretics by the majority when in truth the majority are the ones who have drifted from the truth and the "heretics" are the ones who search the Scripture daily as the Bereans were applauded for doing (Acts 17:11). In Acts 24, when Paul is accused by the Jews before Felix, the Jews call Paul the ringleader of the Nazarene sect, and Paul responds that his belief, called a heresy by the Jews, is the truth. (I italicized "sect" and "heresy" to point out that in the Greek text, it's the same word.) I had a Bible College teacher say he's proud to be called a heretic by the real heretics.

This leads me to another point. Heretical views have a lot of overlap with Biblical ones. In fact, often a heresy is formed by focusing on one Biblical concept and giving it undue importance while minimizing the due importance of the other side of the coin. One example is in the Calvinist/Arminian debate. Some on both sides correctly realize they're both part the body of Christ, but others on both sides brand their opposition as heretics teaching a false Gospel. Could it be that it's not the accused but the accusers that are the heretics? 

One other thing about heretics is that they commit the abomination of sowing discord among the brethren (Prov. 6:16-19). First off, heretics don't hold their views quietly; rather, they are quick to promote it. They will go to certain passages trying to get you in a corner, and of course those Scriptures are taken out of context. Should you challenge them and point out they're in error, will they ever show godly humility by admitting their wrong? No, they won't concede any error on their part; they'll find another route to attack. And they will keep attacking until either they convince you their error is truth or until you become weary and let them have the last deceptive word.

Allow me to close this point - if you see someone standing up for Biblcal truth, please encourage him! Often in these discussions, I feel alone. Those standing for Biblical truth deserve to have their brothers and sisters to hold their hands up and if not go on the offensive to join in refuting the erroneous troublemaker, then thanking and complimenting the warrior for orthodoxy. 

By the way, I'll be dealing more with this topic in a couple of days.  

IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO START A NEW YEAR THAN WITH THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS? (PART 1 OF 14)

 

Statue of Junipero Sera, Mission San Juan Capristrano, by Bernard Gagnon, Wikipedia Commons

 Let me start the New Year out with a look at the Church Fathers. I am writing this blog series as I'm preparing to facilitate a men's Bible study group going through the book Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction by Bryan Litfin. If you've been reading this blog, the name will ring some bells. I had done a book review on this volume, and before that did another review comparing this with another book dealing with Church leaders from history.

First, before you read on, make a list of twelve church fathers. Don't scroll down until you finish your list. Finished? Okay, how many were able to come up with twelve names? Oh, you struggled after half a dozen? Don't give yourself a hard time - a lot of Christians aren't aware of history. Here's a list that you can compare with:

1. Martin Luther
2. John Calvin
3. John Wesley
4. Charles Spurgeon
5. Jonathan Edwards
6. Billy Graham
7. St. Francis of Assissi
8. Dwight L. Moody
9. C. S. Lewis
10. Dr. J. Vernon McGee
11. James Dobson
12. Fanny Crosby

How many of you had any of these names on your list? If you did, mark those answers wrong. If I gave the correct list, my guess is that most of you would recognize one name and some more theologically informed may recognize a second. If you know more than that, I'm impressed. Having church history in college and reading the text-book cover to cover, I recognized 9 of the 12 names, and could give a complete sentence answer about who they were to seven of them. But I'm not giving the list now, so you'll either have to read Litfin's book or continue the next two weeks to get the names.

But what is a church father? Of course, different people may have different theories. In my opinion, ten of the twelve people listed deserve the title, while the other two do  not. That is because there are people in church history (as well as contemporary people) are inspirational ans some are influential. The former is admired as a hero/heroine, while the latter has an impact on how you think and what you believe. I would consider a church father to the the influencer. Most of these were active writers and their writings have impacted the direction the church went.

As we have different definitions for what a Church Father is, some of those definitions may be based on misconceptions. Litfin gives three of those misconceptions:

1. The church fathers are not biblical. Actually, if you collected the church fathers writings and cut out their quotations from the New Testament, you might be a few verses short of a complete manuscript. The church fathers were very familiar with Scripture.
2. The church fathers were Roman Catholic. Well, since the modern Roman Catholic Church didn't exist in their days, not really. The creeds talk about a catholic church, but what does the word "catholic" mean? If you guessed "Universal", you're right on the money; if you think it's a person who is addicted to sharing photos of felines on Facebook... sorry. You may notice I talked about a "catholic" church with a small "c" - we all belong to the small c catholic church of true believers.
3. The church fathers represent the fall of Christianity. When I started Bible College, the professor for "Baptist History and Distinctives" held that view, that there were Christians who were never a part of the Catholic church or its offspring (the Orthodox Church or the Reformation Protestant Churches). Later, the school hired a history teacher (the former one was focused on Pastoral studies) who disagreed. The reality is there is no clear point to say the church went astray. My belief is that every denomination/group/theology has both wheat and tares, both sheep and goats. Also, the tendency of mankind is to drift from the truth, so we need people at least every generation calling for reformation.

But why study the early church fathers? Shouldn't our focus be on following Jesus? Yes, but how do we follow Jesus? Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:1 "Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ." Dr. Mark Bailey in a Bible College class on Biblical Discipleship taught you can learn how to follow Christ by observing how others follow Him. 

I'd like to close today's installment a pair of questions (influenced by Litfin):

1. What role do the cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1) have in our lives as believers? Would the church fathers be in that cloud?
2. Can one claim to follow Christ and not hold to historical/orthodox Christianity? Can you think of someone like that? Are there any ways your views differ from typical Christian belief?
   

 

 

BOOK REVIEWS: GETTING TO KNOW THE CHURCH FATHERS & SHAPERS OF CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY

 

Today is All Saints Day (and this year, falls on the same day as International Day Of Prayer for the Persecuted Church , and I thought it would fit to use the Medieval Sharp font for this blog.

On this occasion, I will review not one but two books for what I consider Early Church History 101 and 201.

The first one I'll review is Getting To Know The Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction by Bryan Litfin. In the first edition, he looks at ten Christian leaders from the first five centuries of Christianity: Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Perpetua, Origen, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Augustine, and Cyril. He added Ephrem the Syrian and Patrick of Ireland to the second edition.

I can argue calling his collection to be church fathers. Most of them, I would agree. However, I consider Perpetua and Patrick to be heroic examples of the faith but not having the impact on the development of Christianity the others have.

One item I like is that Litfin ends each chapter with five or six questions helping us to understand the Church leaders mentioned and how this relates to us today.

After you read this book, you're ready for Shapers of Christian Orthodoxy: Engaging with Early and Medieval Theologians, edited by Bradley Green. This book looks at eight individuals (technically, ten, but the three Cappodocians are included in a chapter together).

There is a lot of overlap between the two books. Both include Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Athanasius, and Augustine. (Litfin's chapter on Athanasius also briefly mentions the Cappodocians.) This goes further into history by including Anselm and Thomas Aquinas.

The reason I recommend the other first is this one is deeper. The fact that each chapter has its own author is one indicator. (By the way, Litfin wrote the chapter on Origen.) The authors go deeper into the theology of the church leaders covered. 

I would recommend Getting To Know The Church Fathers for anybody. This is a great book to get a group of friends together to read and then discuss the questions. Anybody active in ministry also should have Shapers of Christian Orthodoxy on their bookshelf as well.