This day of Grace 1654; From about half past ten at night, to about half after midnight, Fire.
-Pascal
It struck me after writing two entries on "Decadence and the Word" that I never summarized or attempted to give antidotes for Abstraction and Divisiveness. Of the members of the Christian quadrilateral (see "Let 'em Eat Cake"), the Renewalists could very well have the best answers. This entry deals with Abstraction.
The antidote to legalism or the abstraction of Scripture is a deep relationship with the Person of God himself. Any use of the Scripture outside relationship is misleading. Scripture reveals a Person, calls us to a Person, and is often a conduit through which He speaks and we speak back. The Person of the Trinity that indwells human beings and reveals the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. Therefore a major antidote to the abstraction of Holy Scripture is the Baptism and habitual filling of the Holy Spirit.
How strongly I wish that other portions of the church would not react to that last sentence. In fact, the reaction seems to be a recent thing, perhaps brought on by an arrogant attitude among Renewalists themselves, who often seem to believe they have some kind of special hold on the Holy Ghost. The fact is that there have been Charismatic-Liturgicals in history, from the Catholic Apostolic Church (Irvinites) of the 1800's to the Charismatic Episcopal church of today. There is also a renewed interest in social justice among younger Charismatics.
Conservatives (Evangelicals) would perhaps react the most strongly to my statement. I believe this is a classic case of throwing out the baby with the Charismatic bath water. Evangelicals had among them leaders who stressed being filled with the Spirit before there were any such thing as modern Renewalists: Torrey, Murray, Oswald Chambers, and more recently, Martin Lloyd-Jones (see Joy Unspeakable). Lloyd-Jones tells great stories about (would you believe?) Puritans who had subjective experiences with the Holy Spirit (including Jonathan Edwards). Church history would bear out that such experiences have been common. Evangelicals need to get over their fear of being thought "one of them" and embrace their own history. Renewalists need to recognize the place of the Holy Spirit outside their own traditions. One can hope that at the center of emergence the divisions get hazy anyway.
The church of the coming decades will go through a struggle over the nature of authority. At present our best guess is a combination of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and the consensus of the local believing community. This is not possible without an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the individuals involved.
(Picture: Antigua, Atlantic coast, 2009)
I am reading TF Torrance's "The Trinitarian Faith," and he opens with an extensive summary of the Council of Nicea. He emphasizes how the Fathers deeply connect faith and godliness. "Faith itself is an act of godliness in humble worship of God through faith which gives a distinctive slant to the mind and moulds life and thought in accordance with the 'word and truth of the Gospel.'" At heart, he is getting to the point of this experiential religion living in submission to Jesus through the faith handed down from the Apostles. Also, makes me think of Von Balthasar, but that's for later. Blessings!
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