Twenty Five Theses
- 17 December 2023
…Against the Contemporary Evangelical Churches. In its original design these scribblings were modelled on Martin Luther’s famous Ninety Five Theses pinned to the cathedral door in Wittenberg in 1517. I sought to identify a couple of dozen indictments each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. Some work better than others – I hope you find them more memorable on account of the attempted alliterations!
I have noticed I have written other similar indictments against ‘the Church’ in recent years. My own daughter, who is a pillar within her own local Fellowship, bemoans my expressions of discontent. She tires of my criticisms and has told me so several times. Maybe once she was more open to the possibility that my concerns were warranted. Opposition to my assessment arises however, even closer to home. My own dear wife likewise tires of noticing my countenance fall after visiting a ‘place of worship’. She privately shudders with fright that I might say something ‘negative’ or else express myself ‘indiscreetly’ thereby treading on yet more toes and ruffling the feathers of new acquaintances. I want to acknowledge that both my dear wife & daughters are themselves in many respects full of godly virtue. Their concerns are not my own. Theirs are more pragmatic and closer to home – the maintenance of good relationships, the keeping of peaceful harmony & formal unity in the Fellowship. They understandably dislike any ‘rocking of the boat’. They dislike confrontation and are much inclined to suppose that minority expressions of disquiet need to be subjected to democratic analysis. “Who is this Lone Ranger, disconnected from the mainstream and unwilling to make himself accountable to those in formal leadership within the Church?”
Alas, my misgivings of contemporary ‘Churchianity’ have been fomenting for decades. I really want this to be my final tour de force in getting it off my chest. So here goes. First, I want to acknowledge that I am making a great many sweeping generalisations. But that shouldn’t dissuade you, my reader, from pondering the substance of my perspective. It is at times necessary to make such generalisations.
The prevalence of significant diversity (both of doctrine and practice) within the constituency of Evangelicals ought to be immediately alarming to any thoughtful reader. Just what form (or forms!) of Christianity are they anxious to defend from criticism? I shall return to this consideration in due course. But for now, notice that Reformed, Protestant Conservative Christianity (my own designation!) is fatally sunk. It is a sectarian wreck beneath the waves; it is unnoticeable & irrelevant to anything of real importance taking place culturally. I want to raise it, to refurbish it, to untangle it from the knotted rigging that pins it down to the ocean floor. Moreover, I want to remind it of its original raison-d’etre and its Great Commission as the Herald of God’s righteous kingdom.
May God equip me to articulate these twenty-six (or so) concerns with clarity, forcefulness, kindness and relevance in such a way that the true Bride of Christ might recognise in what I write the voice of the Master Shepherd calling home His lost and wandering sheep.
I wish to dedicate this work to my own nearest and dearest family who have had to bear and forbear with my too frequent complaints over years. The Lord knows how very much I love them all dearly and desperately desire to be at peace with all men – especially those of my own household!
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Moreover, you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord: Why has this people slidden back, Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. I listened and heard, but they do not speak aright. No man repented of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his own course, as the horse rushes into the battle.
Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the Lord” (Jer 8:1-7).
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“From the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, nor did they know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall; in the time of their punishment, they shall be cast down,” says the Lord. “I will surely consume them,” says the Lord. “No grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things I have given them shall pass away from them” (Jer 8:10-13)
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“Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images — with foreign idols?”
‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved! Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?’ (Jer 8:19-22)
