Apr 24 2008
how to spot a heresy - Lordship
I have been asked to review several secular books lately by well-meaning and sincere Christians who are wondering if the book is consistent with Christian teaching. Even more troubling, I occasionally have godly people recommended books to me that are in many ways significantly opposed to scripture. This has demonstrated to me that many Christians lack skills of discernment to distinguish truth from error. Certainly the most important way to develop such skills is through frequent biblical study in the context of a wise Christian community. However there are some particular questions that form an arsenal of sorts to help Christians confidently asses most texts. I hope to explore these issues in a series of posts. Perhaps these ideas will help you read with more wisdom.
Before I get to my first test, I want to clarify. I certainly read plenty of books that are not written by Christians. In fact books that are written on clearly secular topics or books that are clearly opposed to scripture are rarely problematic in this regard. In these cases the contrast is so obvious that subtle discernment is rarely needed. The kinds of books that give us trouble are those that are trying to teach us how to live : Leadership books, Self-help books, and a host of other that offer advice about who we are as humans and how we ought to live. It is for these books that we must exercise great discernment. We shouldn’t be bitter of course. Why would we expect books by non-Christians to have a Christian view. The problem is when we miss the fact that they have a non-Christian view and we let their view influence our thinking.
So let’s get to it.
The first test is Lordship.
According to scripture, Jesus is Lord. We recall this in our confession of faith: “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and I accept him as my Lord and Savior.” This is major theme of the book of Colossians. In there case the most significant claim to be a counter Lord was the Roman Empire. This theological counter to nationalism is still important in our culture but the claim of Lordship that is in this text is much stronger than that. Here is an example.
[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. Colossians 1:15-18
So if I read a book that either directly suggests that Jesus is one of many gods that is a pretty obvious sign. If a self-help book suggests that meeting my inner needs is the most important thing or that making money is the most important things or that financial security is the most important thing those books are teaching heresy. Any book that does anything do diminish the Lordship of Christ is a book that we should handle with care.
Now of course we may still learn other things from these books. For instance, most financial planning books have a non-Christian view of wealth because they simple aren’t aware that for a Christian, all we have is given over to God and therefore we should use our money for God’s purposes. But just because they have a view of wealth that ignores Christ’s Lordship that doesn’t mean that we can’t get all kinds of good advice about the difference between leasing and buying. But we must be careful while we are learning about small-cap funds that we are not also absorbing the underlying ideas.
Because the Christian view on this issue is so extreme, this is a pretty important test. Scripture teaches is the supreme Lord of everything, so we should question anything that encourages us to serve any other Lord or devalues to Jesus to one among equals. Since this series was in part prompted by the surprising interest that some Christians have had in Tolle’s book The New Earth, I decided that I would take a look at it and see how far I had to read before the Lordship test was flagged. So I looked on Amazon and they allow you to read the first chapter as a sample. I only had to read two pages. On the second page he writes, “Jesus tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from them how to live. The Buddha is said to have given a “silent sermon” during which he held up a flower and gazed at it.” Now if those two sentences were from a paper in a college comparative religions class on the ways that flowers were referenced in world religions, they would be fine. But it isn’t. These sentences are part of argument of some sort and what I immediately noticed is that Jesus and Buddha get equal showing. I no longer have to wonder if this book is compatible with Christianity or not. Our claims are extreme and this is not. If you have any doubt, go read that quote above from Colossians.
So that is the first test. Lordship. If it suggests that anything else is an equal Lord to Christ or is a greater Lord well then that book ain’t Christian. There are more tests to come, but this one is pretty useful.
Lordship
on the walk
-Ethan
Excellent. The title gave me the heebie-jeebies.
Talk to me about ‘my name is Earl’ and the heresy of Karma. I love the show but the theology is insidious.
-kire
I will mention Karma in a later post for sure.
Bono has a great quote on Karma that I wish I could remember but the gist of it was, “The whole world works on Karma with one exception: Jesus.” I’ll try to track it down for the heresy test of grace which is coming in a few days.
I agree however that apart from the underlying theology, it is great show.
i dont think this is the quote you are looking for but there is another great line in U2’s song Grace that says “grace travels outside karma”, which is an awesome song and line.
the Lordship test is an excellent one to think of not only in relation to comparisons to Budah and the like but it also makes me think about how many books put focus on self.
what self can do to improve self. i know this is probably not the gist of the lordship test, but it is a danger for all us good christians who are trying so hard to do all the right things and suceeding sometimes and often time that is by our own power, not intentionally leaving christ out, but doing it anyway.
the point at which we really recognize christ as lord is that point when we give up and realize we cannot do it. it is a special moment, one that CS Lewis (Mere Christianity) says you cannot understand til you get to it. Till you’ve tried so hard and flat out failed. Jesus is Lord of failure.
Hey SWolf,
I totally think that Lordship test can apply that way. In fact when it is rightly understood, the Lordship test is so powerful that we probably don’t need any other tests. But since I am trying to work out a series of posts, I can’t use everything as once.
But definitely one of the strong implications of this test is that if anything other than Christ (and that includes self) is in that number one spot, we need to be careful.
I had everyone I practically knew praying for me during the second From Busy to a Beautiful Life class that we had at Mountain a couple of weeks ago - God was telling me to hit the whole “New Earth” issue straight on. The lesson was about wisdom and specifically obtaining wisdom from God’s Word. The premise was that when we know the Bible and its teachings, we will be better able to discern the other voices that are telling us their version of the “truth.”
I was apprehensive that night because this class has every level of maturity in it that one could imagine - some opening the Bible for the first time. Because of prayer, I have never felt God’s presence more palpably in a room. The message was well received even though there were a few who raised their hands and said, “I read the New Earth, didn’t see anything wrong. It helped me spiritually.”
I’m concerned when Christians don’t see anything wrong, but I understand when they say it helped them spiritually. I think one reason for that is that the New Earth teaches some Biblical truth. For example, (I haven’t read the book yet, but I heard the guy say this) the author says that our thinking affects our feelings which dictates our actions. . . .this is true. That is why we have verses like Phil 4:8 in the Bible and why our thoughts are indicative of what is going on in our hearts etc and there is so much in the Bible on that. I believe God is really concerned about our thought-life. Am I correct? This is what I told the woman who said it.
I also mentioned the whole Jesus is equal to Buddha thing and that is a “litmus” test for false doctrine. I guess what I continue to walk away from any dialogues about New Age philosophies is still this - be wise and know what real truth is. Real truth is first and foremost found in the Word of God.
Hey Linda,
That sounds like great stuff. I have an upcoming post in this series about the danger of assuming that the presence of a little bit of truth reliably indicates that the whole thing is trust-worthy. God is certainly concerned with our thought-life. We will talk more about how to avoid being fooled by a little bit of truth mixed in with a lot of foolishness.
Ethan
Looking forward to reading this prior to our chat about The Shack. Thanks for taking a moment to talk with me tonight. I’m so grateful for your direction.
Deb Lembach
Hey Deb,
Thanks for reading. You will probably be interested in the whole series. You can follow the series by using the category tabs.