Redeeming God

Liberating you from bad ideas about God

Learn the MOST ESSENTIAL truths for following Jesus.

Get FREE articles and audio teachings in my discipleship emails!


You are here: Home / Archives

Worrying About Theology

17 Comments

NT WrightI seem to have an affinity for authors whose names begin with two initials. C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton are two of my favorite authors.

The third has both confirmed and challenging my thinking for the past three years. He is N. T. Wright. Today I read his Inaugural Lecture for becoming the Chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews. The lecture is called “Imagining the Kingdom: Missions and Theology in Early Christianity.”

In this paper, he made the following statement, which is quite close to what I have been trying to say in my series on doctrinal statements:

I have come to worry about a…theology…that thinks the point is simply to ‘prove’ the divinity of Jesus, or his resurrection, or the saving nature of his death in themselves, thereby demonstrating fidelity to the Creeds or some other regula fidei. In the gospels themselves it isn’t like this. All these things matter, but they matter because this is how God is becoming king. To prove the great Creeds true, and to affirm them as such, can sadly be a diversionary exercise, designed to avoid the real challenge of the first-century gospel, the challenge of God’s becoming king in and through Jesus.

[Read more…]

We Cannot See Till We Have Faces

16 Comments

Till We Have Faces by CS LewisTill We Have Faces is my favorite novel by C. S. Lewis. He wrote that it was his favorite as well, though when the book came out, it was not well received by the public, and never gained much notoriety. Even today, few people even know that he wrote the book.

I think that part of the problem is that even among those who have read the book, few understand what it is about. I am by no means a C. S. Lewis expert, but as I try to read through other things that C. S. Lewis has written, I have stumbled across some statement by him about this book, which I think sheds some light on its meaning.

Let me attempt to share this meaning with you, without destroying the plot of the book too much.

The book tells the story of three princesses, Orual, Redival, and Psyche. As their father the King had no sons, Orual was destined to become Queen, but she was very ugly. Redival, the middle sister, was beautiful, but was also lascivious and vain. However, the third sister, Psyche, was blessed the beauty and the temperament of the gods. She was not only beautiful, but was wise and kind. I cannot really tell much else about story without ruining it, except maybe to say that after much pain, tragedy, and betrayal, Orual becomes Queen and rules for many years.

Near the end of her life, she writes a complaint against the gods. She claims that though she has done nothing but serve and honor them her entire life, they have given nothing in return but pain, grief, and destruction. She recognizes that she is powerless before them, but she feels that if there is one thing she can do against them, it is to make her complaint known by writing it in a book, and making it available for people everywhere to read. That book is the first part of C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces. 

[Read more…]

No Protection is 100% Reliable

14 Comments

Many church leaders want doctrinal statements, membership classes, sound teaching, and seminary degrees as a way to shield their church from false teaching.

Controlling leaders become cultishBut as church history and personal experience reveal,  no church can completely guard the minds and hearts of the people who attend that church from different theology and dangerous ideas. To the contrary, it seems that the more a church tries to completely control what people hear, read, and think, the more cultish they become. And one of the defining characteristics of cults is that they are full of false teaching.

So in other words, the more you try to protect against false teaching, the more likely you are to fall into it.

This doesn’t mean we should’t teach, warn, and seek to protect, but we must recognize Whose job it is to protect the minds and hearts of other believers.

The Holy Spirit Guides Us into Truth

Just as judging others is an attempt to do the job of Jesus, so also, trying to protect the minds and thoughts of others is trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit. We can and should teach, warn, admonish, correct, and even instruct, but only from the position that we ourselves can be taught, warned, admonished, corrected, and instructed.

[Read more…]

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

32 Comments

Separating the Wheat from the ChaffOne of the primary reasons churches create doctrinal statements and other boundaries so so they can better protect the members against heresy and false teaching. Churches feel they need to separate the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the wolves, the sound teacher from the false teacher, the orthodox from the heretic, and the righteous from the wicked.

I understand the concern, and believe it is a real tragedy when people hear and believe things that are false. This concern drives me to read and write and study as I do.

But there are numerous problems with thinking that doctrinal statements and membership classes can keep false teaching out of the church. I will deal with one of them here, and others in subsequent posts.

Separating Wheat and Chaff is not Our Job

I hate to sound like a union member, but the first reason we should not attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff is because it is not our job. Judging others is the task of Jesus, and when we try to take this responsibility upon ourselves, we are practicing a form of idolatry by putting ourselves in the place of Jesus. Besides, we are notoriously bad judges.

Jesus knows this, which is why He says to just let the wheat and the tares grow together, and let Him sort it all out when He comes (Matt 13:29-30).

[Read more…]

Theology of Revelation

1 Comment

Theology of the Book of RevelationIt’s a few days late and also a few days early, but this is my final post on the the book I have been reading along with several of you, The Theology of the Book of Revelation by Richard Bauckham.

It’s a few days late because I was supposed to blog about chapters 5-6 on this past Monday. It’s a few days early, because I am scheduled to post about chapter 7 on next Monday. I’m going to combine both into this one post.

Why? Because I’m sick of this book. And besides, I find it somewhat ironic that I am writing a blog post that is both late and early about a book which argues that the Book of Revelation was historically fulfilled both late and early.

Theology of the Book of Revelation

The final three chapters of the book dealt with the Holy Spirit in the book of Revelation (chap 6), what Revelation reveals about the New Jerusalem (chap 7), and how we can read, teach, and understand the book of Revelation today (chap 7).

[Read more…]

C. S. Lewis Did Not Like Church

68 Comments

CS Lewis on ChurchI have been trying to read through everything that C. S. Lewis wrote, and in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, I was surprised to discover what he thought about going to church.

It made me laugh out loud, because it so closely matched my own sentiments.

Here is what he wrote:

The idea of churchmanship was to be wholly unattractive. I was not in the least anticlerical, but I was deeply antiecclesiastical.

…But though I liked clergymen as I liked bears, I had as little wish to be in the Church as in the zoo.

It was, to begin with, a kind of collective; a wearisome “get-together” affair. I couldn’t yet see how a concern of that sort should have anything to do with one’s spiritual life. To me, religion ought to have been a matter of good men praying alone and meeting by twos and threes to talk of spiritual matters.

And then the fussy, time-wasting botheration of it all! The bells, the crowds, the umbrellas, the notices, the bustle, the perpetual arranging and organizing. Hymns were (and are) extremely disagreeable to me. Of all musical instruments I liked (and like) the organ least. I have, too, a sort of spiritual gaucherie which makes me unapt to participate in any rite.

The Perfect Bounded Set Illustration – Trust Me – You will Laugh

7 Comments

Mr Bean Goes to ChurchI have been writing about most churches operate under bounded sets, and how the written and unwritten rules of such churches keep out those who believe and behave differently.

The comments on some of these posts have gotten a little tense, so here is something to lighten the mood.

The perfect illustration of a bounded set is when Mr. Bean Goes to Church, and tries to follow along with the rules, but fails miserably. Enjoy!

Full-length unofficial version (low quality):

Shorter Official Version (High Quality):

Universalism and Centered Sets

9 Comments

Bounded vs Centered Set

In the past few posts, I have discussed Bounded Sets vs. Centered Sets, and have stated that I believe that one of the best approaches for churches in our culture and society is a Centered Set approach, where there is no “us vs. them” mentality, or trying to decide who is “in” and who is “out.” Instead, we place Jesus Christ at the center of all humanity, and then view ourselves and others in relation to our proximity to Him, and our movement either toward or away from Him. In this way, everybody is “in.” Everybody belongs. Everybody can get involved.

Some fear that a Centered Set approach leads to Universalism, that all people are “saved.”

Does Centered Set Theology Lead to Universalism?

UniversalismI don’t think a Centered Set approach leads to universalism. To the contrary, I think a Centered-Set approach best reflects biblical theology.

First, when we say that all people are “in” we don’t mean that all people are justified or have eternal life. At least, I don’t mean this.

I believe that on the cross, Jesus Christ actually paid for the sins of the entire world. Not potentially, but actually. He really did pay for the sins of the entire world. Everyone is forgiven. Every single man, woman, and child is completely forgiven for every sin, past, present, and future. (Except for the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But I am not about to get into that issue here.)

[Read more…]

Bounded vs Centered Sets

48 Comments

bounded sets vs centered sets

Yesterday I wrote a long article about Bounded Sets and Centered Sets. In an attempt to simplify and summarize that post, here is a brief chart which I pulled from page 50 of Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch.

Underneath the chart is a brief video which you might also find helpful, and following that is a quote from C. S. Lewis which, although he doesn’t speak of bounded sets or centered sets, seems to address the concept.  I have also written about this previously in my post, Belonging before Believing.

Bounded Set and Centered Set Approach

Bounded-Set Approach

Centered-Set Approach

The evangelizer is the expert who has special knowledge regarding God that the lost person must take in to be saved.

Each person is the expert on his or her own life and has the God-given ability to seek for the truth. The evangelizer respects this.

The “lost” person is viewed as flawed in character and sinful.

Each person is viewed as created in the image of God–precious, valuable, and loved by God.

Seeing people as simply lost or saved, it tries to paternally “fix up” sinners and make them like us.

Seeing people as seekers, it tries to stimulate others to ask, seek, and knock, while understanding we don’t know it all ourselves.

The goal is to get them to sign on, to profess belief, to become part of the team.

The goal is for the process of discovery of Christ and the search for truth to be furthered in the person.

A cataclysmic change occurs in people called “conversion.”

Conversion is a process that does not begin and end with the profession of faith in Christ, but begins with the Holy Spirit’s prevenient grace on the person’s life and continues through repentance for a lifetime–the Kingdom comes.

We Christians know and have the whole truth.

We don’t know everything about life or God–humility and wonder remain.

[Read more…]

Advertise or Donate

Search (and you Shall Find)

Get Books by Jeremy Myers

Books by Jeremy Myers

Schedule Jeremy for an interview

Click here to Contact Me!