Around the Horn, April 15th, 2008
A functional view of belief assumes or “brackets” the question of whether the beliefs are true. One who holds to a purely functionalist view of religious conviction is not concerned with the truthfulness of these beliefs, but only with the effects the beliefs have on the believer, both privately and in social contexts.
Al Mohler takes a look at the recent media attention surrounding some critical comments Obama made. He takes it through a Christian-lens and examines how political motivations fictionalizes religion. I think it is something that all Christians should be aware of. Scripture proclaims truth, not functional ideas.
Today New Testament believers know that the blood of bulls and goats is not enough to take away sin. But I think that we can often just take for granted Jesus’ death in our place. We don’t think about his innocent blood draining away because we can’t conceptualize it. We don’t always appropriate the idea of substitute because we’ve never seen a living object die in our place. But our loss can be this: sin is easy because forgiveness (we think) is cheap.
There is a video released showing people sacrificing a lamb. (I have not seen the video yet, I doubt it is proper to view it at the workplace.) Aside from all the controversy surrounding this, it is a sobering reminder for the Worthy Lamb who was slain in our place. If you think about the gruesomeness of how a lamb was slain for a “couple sins”, how much more gruesomeness did our perfect Savior endure to take away all our sins.
That guy will go in life pushing and pushing aside the gospel not wanting to hear it, not wanting to think about it and have nothing to do with it. He’s going to wave that hand every instant the cross is presented and that will harden his heart even more every time.
How much love do you have for the gospel? Do you recognize God’s sovereignty no matter how the person responds? It is very interesting to read of the experience David Ko had with sharing the gospel.
The idea of doctrine and theology, and especially systematic theology, are head in great suspicion in the church today. “Christianity is a life, not a doctrine,” say the critics. They may think this is something that is greatly original, but in reality this was a phrase coined by nineteenth century liberals. If we are to remain faithful to the message of Scripture we need to remain Christians who love the systematic theology of Scripture.
How important is doctrine in your life? Do you see the fruition of doctrine applied in your life? Or do we simply shrug off doctrine as something “unattainable”, “left for the leaders of the church”, or “something our minds cannot understand”?
