People of the Book: Which Book?
Bobby Howell’s piece yesterday suggested to me an article I wrote last fall, “Why Are the Politicians I Like So Disappointing?” In that article, I observed (from listening to conservative political podcasts) how dependent conservative politicians are on Natural Law. Natural Law is almost a synonym for General Revelation, that is, God’s revelation of himself through creation. Pastor Howell picks up on Geerhardus Vos’ term “revelation as a divine activity.”1 When God does or says something, He communicates truth. When God said, “Let there be light,” the presence of light, with all its properties, immediately began communicating to any observer truths about God. When God said through his prophet, “Thus saith the Lord,” immediately specific truth again began communicating.
Some call this the “two books” of revelation: the written and the unwritten; special and general revelation.
Pastor Howell rightly calls us to pay more attention to special revelation, that is, to Bible reading, study, and obedience. I am all for that. Our churches need that. My church needs that. I need that!
However, let us consider the state of conservative churches in general today. Let’s define “conservative” as churches in a spectrum from the very conservative fundamentalists to conservative evangelicals to a more general sort of evangelical. Though there are differences, these Christians all stand in stark contrast to the “mainline” liberal churches. They all hold to a similar worldview. Christians from churches of these types will subscribe to the gospel (salvation by faith in Christ alone) and they will tend to support conservative political and social causes.
On average, in churches like these, what would you say is the state of biblical literacy? In some churches, there may be a significant number of individuals who know the Bible well, seek to live by it, and disciple others in the way of the Master. That goes without saying! But I want to think about the average, the general state across the broad spectrum of more-or-less conservative Christianity.
How many “conservativish” Christians have only a superficial understanding of the Bible? In my October article, I pointed out that conservative politicians resonate with conservative Christians because they both read from the same book (general revelation, Natural Law) and thus come to common political viewpoints. We often find surprising common ground politically because we share a common source of truth, general revelation. Some of these same conservative politicians shock us with their values, lifestyles, personal practices – yet they seem so right on all the right issues of our times. We “hold our noses” and vote for them. Lately, it seems, Christians are wholeheartedly embracing politicians whose moral testimony is beyond the pale from a Special Revelation perspective (i.e. the Bible).
“Conservativish” Christians these days seem far more energized about conservative political causes than they do about the mission of their local churches. You will find them posting memes and retweeting messages espousing conservative political views (rooted in natural law and reason), more often than you will find them busy in evangelism or discipleship ministries. You will find many of them speaking of political causes (or, dare I say it, a particular politician) in almost messianic tones. It seems that many Christians today see salvation in terms of the American dream and triumphing at the ballot box.
What is the reason for this?
Does it come from spending too much time in the one book of General Revelation and not enough time in the book of Special Revelation? Are we so concerned about this world that we’ve lost sight of the next?
I am not arguing that Christians should decide not to engage in politics or civic life. We all have a role to play in our society and if we can influence some changes for the good, I am all for it. However, shouldn’t we be thinking about the most important things and how to achieve them?
Mt 28.19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Are we as busy about this business as we are about conservative politics? Remember, we need to read the truth God has for us in both general and special revelation, but general revelation gives us no imperatives, it only gives information about God. Special revelation (the Bible) tells us how to live.
I suspect that one of the major problems with the modern church is that Christians are mostly reading one book, and it’s the wrong one. It will lead us as far as the world can go, reading the same book, but it won’t make any difference in the world.
What would happen if the Christians in our world gave themselves wholeheartedly to living by the Word of God?
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Photo by César Abner Martínez Aguilar on Unsplash
- Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, reprint 2017), 5. [↩]