Zach’s Theological Musings

  The big news these days is the church in Florida planning to burn copies of the Quran. Before being too quick to pass judgment on these guys based on media reports and whatnot I would encourage fellow brothers and sisters to at least read some of the first-hand writings of the people doing it to try to understand their motives. The church’s website itself is hard to get through to at the moment (probably being slammed from all over the world), but I was able to access some pages that Google had cached here and here.

Today I heard the folks on a popular Christian radio station saying, “Hey, Christianity is a message of love. Instead of burning Qurans, what if churches across the country all sent flowers to the local mosque and demonstrated a positive message of love instead of a message of hate or controversy! Wouldn’t that be great!”

So, which is it? Burn Qurans and pray for the oppressive spirit of Islam to be broken, or send flowers to the local mosque with a positive, loving message? To make a long story short, I think I’m inclined to support the folks on both sides. At the very least I think I can understand and appreciate the motivating drive that both camps feel.

  Matthew 19:21:

Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Luke 14:25,33:

Now great crowds accompanied [Jesus], and he turned and said to them… “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

Many who profess the name of Christ today will ask, “But that doesn’t mean that we today have to forsake everything in order to follow Jesus, does it?” This question reveals a presupposition on the part of the questioner that he views forsaking earthly possessions in order to gain Christ as a burdensome, “do I really have to” sort of thing. But Peter’s response after hearing Jesus’ call to the rich young man reveals a very different heart:

Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” (Matthew 19:27)

The rich young ruler heard Jesus say, “SELL WHAT YOU POSSESS AND GIVE TO THE POOR, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Peter, at precisely the same moment, heard Jesus say, “sell what you possess, and give to the poor, AND YOU WILL HAVE TREASURE IN HEAVEN; AND COME, FOLLOW ME!” The rich young ruler went away sad and grieved because he thought Jesus had demanded an overwhelmingly burdensome requirement of him. Peter got excited because he heard Jesus offering some overwhelmingly great blessings, and even though Jesus was not addressing him directly, Peter was eager to shove his way in and ask, “Can I get some of that?”

So, do you have to forsake all you possess in order to follow Jesus? No, in a very real sense it would not be right to say that. The followers of Jesus are those who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good… so good, in fact, that the idea of forsaking all they possess in order to be with Him and receive His heavenly treasures is not at all a “have to” sort of thing.

Luke 18:22b-23a:

`… and you shall have treasure in heaven! And come, follow Me.’ But when he heard these things, he became very sad…

Very sad!?! Did we read that right? “[Jesus offered] treasure in heaven … [and] he became very sad”?!? Now what on earth would cause a man to become sad when Jesus promises him not only treasure in heaven, but even better, companionship with Himself? If you’ve read the context, then of course you know just what on earth it was that caused this man to reject such a glorious offer direct from the hands and mouth of Jesus Himself.

“After serving for 12 years as a missionary the Lord shed His grace on Charo and saved her soul in 2004. She was hearing her husband, Paul Washer, preach on examining yourself. She came to realize, you either pass the tests in 1 John or you fail them, there is no middle ground.”

  After making a number of good observations on the matter, The Common Loon asks:

“Is there something about Reformed theology that is inherently complementarian…?“

It is a fabulous question that I wished got asked more often. The answer from this Reformed Complementarian is YES! Yes, in a very direct, powerful, beautiful, poetic, and profound way.

  To see why, try this experiment. Look squarely at the relationship between God/Christ and His people from the Reformed (i.e. Biblical) perspective. Now tilt your head 90 degrees so that the vertical axis transforms into a horizontal one and spiritual dimensions get projected down into earthly/physical ones. Now, with your neck thus bent, Rev 19 overlaps with Gen 2 (passing through 1 Cor 11 and Eph 5 on the way), the shadow of God/Jesus’ initiatory/leading role in the “divine romance” is taken up by a husband, and the particular submissiveness which adorns the church is embodied in a wife. I would argue that what you are looking at is precisely complementarianism—Calvinism turned horizontal.

  Someone who is called a Calvinist will look at someone who is called Arminian and say, “You are ascribing roles, duties, and responsibilities to humanity which are only fit, right, proper, and/or possible for God.” Now make the following replacements in the previous sentence:
Calvinist –> Complementarian
Arminian –> Egalitarian
Humanity –> Woman
God –> Man
In other words, the “Calvinistic” doctrines of grace are not merely connected or related to complementarianism via third-party doctrines and convictions, but the two are in fact one doctrine, in its ultimate/spiritual and allegorical/typological/physical presentations, respectively.

  One the modern American evangelical scene, I would probably be considered a hyper-complementarian in that, ideally, I highly favor a system of godly arranged marriages even above the current conservative fad of “courtship”. The Biblical picture of a bride that is “effectually” chosen and called by the masculine component of society, who is “wooed” by her husband after betrothal and matrimony, makes the Reformed-complementarian link that much more clear and stark to me.

  (On a related note, the qualities that make a husband’s heart flitter for his wife are precisely what God is working to bring about in His bride as well (1 Peter 3:2-6). I have often emphasized this point when writing of a yearning for revival.)

  I have not set out to “prove” or even “defend” Reformed or complemenentarian theology in this post; God willing I will do more of that at another time. But I hope to at least have shown a theologically coherency that makes it not at all surprising that the two commonly (though not universally) go together.