Controversy is nothing new to Christianity. The Kingdom of God exploded on earth in the midst of a world of controversy. There was controversy between the Jews about whether to try to rebel and overthrow Rome, and fight for their freedom. There was more internal controversy between the Jewish religious leaders about whether there would be a resurrection. Then Jesus enters the picture, and it gets even more controversial.
We see Jesus confront many of the false ideas about God and false leaders head on. He calls the religious leaders a “brood of vipers” (Matt. 12:34), meaning that while they are supposed to be the people leading God’s people, and the surrounding nations, to life in God, they are in fact leading them to death. Perhaps referring to Psalm 140:1-3. The interesting thing about vipers, you don’t know when they’re going to attack until it’s too late, because they move so subtly. And when they attack, it’s lethal. Jesus also confronted what the Jewish leaders had turned the temple into. It was supposed to be a “house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7), yet they had turned it into a “den of robbers” (Matt. 21: 13).
It is always a good idea to look at the example of Jesus when dealing with anything. That said, there are some important differences between Jesus and us that affect how we should confront controversial, and even heretical, ideas.
Clarifying Distinctions:
1) Jesus knew the hearts of the religious leaders, completely. We do not.
2) Jesus was perfect in all that He did and said. We are not.
3) Jesus understood and lived the gospel perfectly. We are still learning.
Given these differences, how are we to confront controversial, heretical, or simply unbiblical ideas?
Start With Humility
Though our lack of perfection should not hold us back from confronting ideas that are contrary to Scripture, it should cause us to pause and check ourselves and our beliefs before attacking other ideas. And I mean REALLY check, not just come up with a handful of verses to support our current view of a particular issue. Does the overarching premise and teaching of Scripture confirm what we believe, reject what the offending party believes, or does it reject BOTH. The last one is always an option.
Stick To Scripture
Avoid personal opinions, they are too easily influenced by everything under the sun. Use the text to support your position, and only the text. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use the implications of Scripture, but that often times when we begin confronting ideas with “I feel” or “I believe” instead of “Scripture says”, we may be interjecting more of what we think than what the Bible actually teaches. Some of it may be semantics, yes, so I wouldn’t outright dismiss anyone who uses such methods of confronting issues, but it may be a potential “best practice” to avoid such terminology. Scripture is at the very least inspired in all of its content, you and I may not always speak from Spirit-driven inspiration.
Attack The Idea, Confront The Person
Simple concept, but it’s hard to follow.There is a difference between confronting a person with the truths of Scripture, and attacking or insulting them. Perhaps the best way I can explain this is to give an example, one which prompted me to write this.
Today, Pat Robertson, probably most known for the TV show “The 700 Club”, on which he said that “a man would be morally justified to divorce his wife with Alzheimer’s disease in order to marry another woman.” because it is “a kind of death” as reported by ABC News and seen on this YouTube clip.
Yes, this is both shocking and tragic.
Russell Moore does an excellent job of confronting Robertson on his blog, and then attacking this horrible, heretical idea. He absolutely points out what Robertson said, and mentions many Christians’ attitude toward Robertson when he writes “Few Christians take Robertson all that seriously anymore. Most roll their eyes, and shake their heads when he makes another outlandish comment…“.
Beyond this, though, Moore deals directly with the idea. He uses Scripture to point out why Christians should reject this cruel, heretical statement, and does not attack Robertson personally. In mentioning Robertson’s name, Moore absolutely confronts Robertson by attributing the statement to the one who said it, verses simply saying “there are people who believe that…” and keeping it vague. There are times when this is appropriate, and times when it isn’t acceptable.
Public vs Private
Confronting people in public is a difficult task, which I don’t envy, most of the time. Most often, this occurs when a public figure says something that is clearly contrary to Scripture and the message and heart of the gospel, while intending to represent Christianity. When this happens, Christian leaders with a public following feel it necessary to confront false ideas in effort to properly shepherd and instruct those who follow them. This is why Moore addressed the issue on his blog, and why Justin Taylor shared this Moore’s response on his blog at The Gospel Coalition, as well as Ed Stetzer confronted this issue on his own blog. When reading people who confront ideas publicly, it is important to remember the heart behind why they are engaging in confrontation.
Confronting people privately is even harder. This is most likely people with whom we have a relationship, whose lives we are invested in. Hopefully, we have walked deeply with people we may need to correct for long enough for them to be receptive to correction. In these cases, it’s almost more important to make sure to confront them with Scripture, and make it emphatically clear that we and God love them, and that’s why the correction is necessary. If we are not cautious, and very prayerful, when we confront people we know for their actions or ideas, we may in fact push them further away from the truth by making them feel unloved, unintelligent, and without value. If we communicate the gospel in our confronting people we know, they will know that Jesus demonstrated His love for them on the cross, and though they may be intelligent, sin may have twisted their thinking into forming the wrong conclusion, and that they are valuable both to Christ and to the Church.
ALWAYS remember the humility factor: If it weren’t for God’s grace, we could very easily come to the same wrong conclusions that we are confronting.
If you didn’t read the posts by Ed Stetzer and Russell Moore addressing this issue, I HIGHLY recommend it.
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