The Contemporary Church is P – Pietistic
- 17 December 2023
Christian faith has been privatised. Just how this occurred would make for an interesting sociological study, but that it has happened is indisputable. Britain has been a ‘Christian’ nation for centuries. The prevailing worldview has been Christianity with either the Papal Church exercising public authority (for a thousand years or so) or else the Bible providing the source of civic authority as Protestantism gradually overturned legacy Romish superstitions. Merle d’Aubigne[1] wonderfully describes how the English Reformation gradually brought to light Scriptural Truth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The light began to shine brightly in Church, family and state as great intellectuals (e.g., Erasmus, Wycliffe, Tyndale) laboured – often at great personal cost to themselves – to expound the Word of God for people of all rank in society. The turbulent reign of Henry VIII marked the dawn of this cultural transition.
But today, Tony Blair & Alistair Campbell, as new secular high priests, have forthrightly declared in their determination to exclude God from public discourse. The outcry was minimal from even within the Church, for that perspective prevails which elevates public truth as ‘spiritually neutral’ above what Francis Schaeffer noticed fifty years ago as ‘spiritual truth’ to be held privately – i.e. individually!
By way of illustration let me recall a conversation I had with an presbyterian Church leader. This friend expressed strong disquiet that I should think it right to rehearse a Biblically informed perspective on things like (i) public healthcare (ii) politics in general and (iii) present cultural trends etc,. His own training and experience had led him to conclude that members of his own congregation actually hold a spectrum of opinions about such topics. Why? Because, he opined, they were of peripheral concern. His own priorities (i.e. the primary focus of ‘Christianity’) were perennially upon matters such as justification by faith alone, the virgin birth of Jesus, His deity, His sinless perfection, the infallibility of Scripture, etc. Unwittingly, he had cultivated a worldview would apply Scripture to Church concerns, leaving other (most!) considerations to the arbitrary whim of personal opinion.
Returning briefly to Henry VIII it is noteworthy that he was no theological recluse. For although he was England’s primary civil authority, he published tracts and commentaries on various topics and began to formally acknowledge Scriptural hegemony over and above that supplied by Papal Rome. It is highly significant that as the English civil war loomed, eventually, 17th century politics would become overshadowed by the ‘Puritan’ parliament of Oliver Cromwell whose theological allies (and advisors) included great luminaries such as Samuel Rutherford, John Owen & Jeremiah White, etc.
Nancy Pearcey[2] traces a key historical turning point to the itinerant ministries of the eighteenth century primitive Methodists – Whitfield and Wesley. Their understandable (& legitimate!) concern was the conversion of the masses through regeneration. Their opportunities were fleeting, their pulpits were makeshift platforms in open fields and their audiences were mostly unlearned folk, etc. The authentic full-orbed Scriptural message of cosmic redemption (Jn 3:16), over time, was gradually reduced to a personal lifestyle choice in which ‘Jesus is Lord of ALL’ came to be interpreted as ‘LORD of ALL OF MY HEART!’
Accordingly, the only really valid business of Churches today is personal evangelism or, as they now prefer to designate their task, ‘Church planting.’ Alas, their blindness to what God has actually charged them with (Matt 28:18ff) is plain as a pikestaff once you see it. I am just one of a handful who, like the proverbial little boy, have dared to cry out, ‘the king is wearing no clothes!’ Let me illustrate – today my own Bible readings (I try to read through the Bible annually) were drawn from Genesis 23-24, Psalm 7, Proverbs 3 & Matt 7. I’ve no doubt my fellow pietists could salvage useful parts to promote their own limited agenda (personal soul salvation). What they should ALSO be nurturing within themselves and especially their congregation is a comprehensive Biblically informed worldview informing ALL their choices and the APPLICATION of Scripture to every human enterprise! Here’s (superficially!) what I found those passages addressing (i) from Genesis 23: attenuated historical human longevity (v1); proper mourning for and disposal of the dead (vs 2-4); inheritance (vs 17-20); monetary value (v16); godly oaths (vs 2-9); choice of spouse (v4); providence & prosperity (vs 12-20, 35); (ii) from Genesis 24: female beauty (v16); jewellery (vs 22,47&53); social courtesy (vs 22-32); angels (v40); candour in speech (vs 49-50); obedience to God (vs 51,58); private worship (v52); prophecy (v60); meditation (v63); propriety in marriage (vs 65-67); from Ps 7: persecution of the righteous (v1); sincerity & integrity of Christian service (vs 2-5); from Proverbs 3: danger of pride (v7); from Matt 7: false religious authorities (v3); miracles (v8); false piety (v11); fasting (v14ff); proper OT/NT relationship (vs 16,17).
Here’s the bottom line: the Scriptures address the whole of life. There’s a God-glorifying way to do everything! God’s law is to be esteemed by being applied to every conceivable human enterprise (Deut 6; 1Cor 10:31). St Paul tells us the scope of application in these famous words: ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work’ (2Tim 3:16). Is teaching Geology a good work? Is medicine a good work? What about civil engineering, astronomy, jurisprudence, psychology, history & forestry, etc? Yes, of course they all are! As a scientist, I learned all of this decades ago when I embraced ‘Creation Science’ which taught that true earth history ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE necessarily invoked a paradigm of interpreting the facts which included (i) recent divine supernatural creation (ex nihilo) by God (Gen 1v1); (ii) the Fall (Gen 3:15ff); (iii) worldwide catastrophic Flood (Gen 6ff); (iv) abrupt creation of various language groups & nations (Gen 10&11); (v) loss of human longevity, etc. Creation scientists are not anti-science, rather they reconstruct their hypotheses in accordance with their presuppositional lenses which require the ‘facts’ to comport with God’s infallible Word (Is 8:20). What is needed is simply consistency. All human enterprise must be similarly reconstructed!
Which is to say, there is no neutrality in any arena. ‘For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2Cor 10:6).
[1] The Reformation in England (1853)
[2] Total Truth (2006)
