Truth by Committee

Have you had one of those experiences when you read the title of a blog entry and you do a little dance of joy? I had one of those last night when I checked David Sliker's blog. The entry was The Dangers of Consensus and it pulled together a lot of thoughts that have been running through my head.

Our world decides truth by consensus. Whatever the most people think is what has to be true. For example, global warming. It's on all of our televisions, it must be the most important issue. If most people don't have a problem with abortion, why shouldn't we allow it? All of politics seems to revolve around influencing public opinion to allow politicians to do what they want.

The dangers of this are a whole other blog (how do you establish universal human rights in a moral vacuum? by majority opinion? by the rule of the world superpowers?).

My real concern is this as an issue in the church. The people who are supposed to believe in absolute truth now seem obsessed with the rule of the majority. Our meetings are by congregational vote. We make our decisions by consensus.

Now, I'm not advocating a human dictatorship (absolute power corrupts absolutely), but I don't see anywhere in the Bible where we have a right to air our opinions or that we each have a right to an equal voice in decisions. In fact, in the Beatitudes I see a lifestyle of walking away from your rights and letting God fight for you. Throughout Acts I see a community that valued God's guidance and followed the teachings of those annointed by God. I see no public opinion polls. And before the arrival of the Holy Spirit they used lots, believing that God would control the outcome of the lots.

The thing is that we have the truth. Why do we still stumble around in the dark as if we don't know how to find the truth? Why do we act as if God's leading is just one option in our decision making process? Why do we have to hurry along God's leading by deciding by consensus? If we aren't getting leading, why aren't why looking in to why not? Why are we working on back up plans for God?

I've got this on my brain this week after this week's class in the Omega study where we learned about the final 7 years of the earch and how as the anti-christ brings a false peace and prosperity to the earth. The church will take a stand that will be unpopular and even within the church, the stand against the anti-christ will be unpopular, to take tough stands. If we don't believe in the truth internally, how can we stand for it in the world? If we're more worried about our rights in the church, how can we demonstrate a Sermon on the Mount lifestyle to the outside world? If we don't stand for anything solid now, how will we stand when the heat is on?

Quote of the Day

I'm reading a really great book called "Awakening Cry" by Pete Greig (yes, it's the same guy who wrote Red Moon Rising). This book was written before the start of the 24/7 prayer movement and the subtitle pretty much explains it "Once again God is commissioning reivivalists, reformers and rebels for the ultimate cause". It goes through the history of past revivals (including many in New England, which was cool to read) and talks about what needs to be in place for revival. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone - I think you have to be in the right place to read it.

I was reading the chapter on Radical Holiness and was really challenged by the high standard that we're called to. He talked about experiences of others in this area, his own experiences and the example of Jesus. Out of that comes this fantastic quote:

Holiness, it should be noted, is rarely synonymous with respectability.

Think about that for a few minutes...... What we think of as holy is often not all that holy. Radical holiness may be a call outside what is "church acceptable".

This cuts particularly close to home after the study I did from May to November on the Sermon on the Mount. All that looks holy isn't.

What do you think about the quote? Does it push you? Make you mad? Make you nod in agreement?

Storms

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain cam down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

~ Matthew 7:24-25

My small group has been studying the Sermon on the Mount for the last couple of months. Last night we got to the "Wise and the Foolish Builder" section. It's something that I've heard over and over since I was a kid, but had never studied in the context of the whole Sermon on the Mount.

There were a bunch of things that stood out to me.

I had always heard it as "if you're a Christian, you're building your house on the rock, if you're not, you're building your house on the sand". I don't think it's that simple. Why? The passage doesn't say "everyone who hears these words of mine and believes them....", it say "everyone who heard these words of mine and puts them into practice". Is it possible to be a Christian and not put the Sermon on the Mount into practice? I think this comes down to Dallas Willard's discussion of becoming a disciple of Christ. This putting in to practice is an active thing - a learning from the teacher and then living it out. Myth #1 destroyed.

Maybe it's myth #2 or maybe it's just the logical conclusion to myth #1, but I now believe that it's entirely possible to be a Christian and building your house on the sand. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus isn't addressing the perils of a hedonistic pagan lifestyle, He's addressing the perils of a life built on religion. Building a house on sand can be as easily building a life on religion as it is on the partying lifestyle I learned growing up. (clarification - I learned that the partying lifestyle was building my house on the sand, not that I learned the partying lifestyle growing up - stop hyperventilating Mom)

The second new perspective I had on this passage was that this time I'm reading it from the middle of a storm. Looking at how your foundation is built is one thing during the clear days, but in the middle of the storm you have to rely on what you've already built and hang on for dear life.

My storm started a couple of weeks ago. Every time I think things are easing up I get hit again with something new. From the middle of this storm all I can see is the storm raging around me. I simply can't check the foundation, let alone continuing to build.

From where I'm standing now, it's feeling a lot like things are ready to crash down at any moment. I don't know if this is a product of a shaky foundation, or if this is how it's always going to feel during any storm and it's hindsight that shows how strong the foundation is. At this point do I just have faith in my foundation and weather the storm?

It's an interesting new way to look at this passage. Is it a challenge? Is it a promise? Can it be both?