There are too many theology books out there. I've read a few, and parts of several others. Too many of those are based on the artificial demands of systematic theology. In the minds of some, if it's not systematic, it's not theology. I don't buy that. It's not as if the whole world thinks in terms of Western logic, which is where the demand for making it systematic is based. I prefer to let the Bible determine the structure, as much as possible. The Bible was written mostly in Eastern languages, produced by an Eastern culture, and proceeds on a distinctly Eastern logic. Yet we operate from Western minds, so somewhere is a place of convergence, a place of translation. Whether I've found that place for you, dear reader, I cannot say, but for me it works fine. It's very structure should reflect the emphasis expressed in the Bible as a whole. In a sense, this is not a theology, but record of one man's convictions. I won't pretend to organize what you should think, but I hope you'll find this useful.
Whether this presentation should ever become something more than my personal maunderings, I feel a burden to make a somewhat organized formulation of them. Rather than a highly structured framework, it follows more a path of consciousness. The organization could be called "organic" or perhaps "experiential" -- it's how I live, what I have experienced. I must confess this outline comes in part as a reaction to some things; it is those things which have helped expose my convictions to my conscious mind. Most often this bedrock of the spirit is exposed when the falsehoods of sin bounce off them. These are the things we cannot help but teach. This in itself is a conviction, and the beginning point of my teachings.
We start from where we are in Creation. The beginning point is the face in the mirror, because that's where we all start. We having nothing but ourselves, our desires and perceptions, with which to make sense of the world. The current state of the world, and the record of human history, should indicate how well that works -- not at all. To move away from that requires recognizing we are fallen. Away from that single truth, there is no foundation upon which to build. We cannot begin to grasp nor discuss truth until we know we cannot. Without redemption, man remains dead, held fast in the grave of sin.
Man cannot truly know God, nor the absolutes of created order. The human frame, into which our spirits are bound during this life, cannot contain the reality of God. However, man can know God well enough to serve Him. It is the paradox of human redemption we can say we know God, because He reveals Himself. Yet all we really know is the revelation. Moses was warned he could not view Jehovah directly, nor even the face of His glory, lest his frail flesh perish. There are limits to our knowledge, and even greater limits to our expressions of such knowledge. Yet God directs we should seek to know Him, and share that knowledge. Ultimate Truth is a paradox in this fallen world. It is God Himself, but also the requirement from God, yet never within human reach. Thus, we take what He puts before us.
That knowledge of God, so much as He allows, requires knowing as conviction. Convictions are miracles. One may debate with himself and others various opinions and beliefs, but convictions grip him beyond reason. It is a high and holy exercise to examine these convictions, for in such wrestling we discover the truths planted in our souls by the Lord and Savior of our souls. True, convictions may shift from time to time; that also is the work of the Holy Spirit. Convictions are given by God, branded into the soul, the very anchor from which we face this world of sin. They make sense of the perplexing mysteries beyond our reach, giving us a path to keep moving forward when all flesh screams to stop.
It would seem men are born with a certain amount of conviction. Even fallen men can do things beneficial to their fellow humans, perhaps at great cost to themselves. Though incidence of this is rather rare in the record of humanity, such a capacity indicates we were meant for such things. That is, we are all made in God's image. Whatever else that means, it includes the capacity to commune with Him. Indeed, that's the one most clearly stated purpose for human existence. We have to get from that fallen state into His grace, or we'll never know Him. The problem is, we can't do anything about it; we lack so much as the desire. Indeed, our default destiny at birth is eternal destruction. There's a period of innocence in childhood, it seems, but all too soon we stand before Him fully fallen, and doomed to Hell. That anything else might happen to us is a gift of grace. Without that grace to bring us into communion with our Creator, convictions have no roots.
I can no more choose my convictions than I could choose to enter or leave the Kingdom of God. When I first became aware of God's touch in my life, there was no choice. He claimed me; I was His -- end of story. The only time of turmoil and inner doubt was during that period between the time I sensed His real presence and the moment I realized what that insistent pressure meant. Oddly, the pressure has never left, just changed flavors. It's still there, some forty years later. You can read the details here. Since then, there have been plenty of times I sought to ignore the Presence, but it never went away. By no means am I free to go, and I can only assume it's something about Him, and the way He does things.
Given the range of experiences between seeking His face and seeking to avoid it, the latter hardly holds any good things. There is no room to write, no time to record, all the joys I can call to mind just now from serving Him. Give me longer and it grows exponentially. So does the collection of sorrows from pulling against His grip. In my right mind I could never desire release from Him. Somehow, the word "love" simply fails to cover it, as do a host of other superlatives attempting to express the grip on my heart. This is as it should be, for no other condition in this life could hope to fulfill my design. Serving Him is the thing for which I was designed, and He alone can unmake that design. No force outside Him could do so. Attempts to flee God and His demands on my life do great violence to my very own being.
His demands on my life are demands in favor of my life. They are demands in favor of His whole creation. I don't have to understand how that is, only be certain it is so. Obviously there is something in all this we give back to Him, something He has placed in our hands, and only we can do it for Him. We bless Him. When we do, He pours it back into creation, and we participate in redeeming the fallen universe. He has chosen to allow us a part in this redemption, and I am convinced the End of things is somehow tied to that. He is hardly limited by the marking of time, so it's not as if He has set some earthly date for the End, but a condition to be met. That condition is the calling on us. More than simply a soul-count of those who turn to Him -- since He alone does that -- but in the broader sense He awaits our participation in His revelation, in pointing out His glory. The key to the whole thing is Revelation: making clear to all Who and What He is by our active choice in serving Him. To join in this ongoing revelation is what my life needs more than anything else.
We do not make a new revelation, nor extend it, nor add to it in any way. We participate in it, and renew it before the eyes of all. It will not vary from the Record already established in the words of His servants, that book we call the Bible. To know Jehovah is to know His Book. To obey Him is to obey His Book. To reveal Him is to make His Book alive, for without its incarnation in us, His chosen means of revelation, it is mere ink on paper. Words alone have no power, but they must live. His Word spoken by His servants is the blade which carves away the false things in this world.
The false things come from our Enemy. This Enemy has one goal, one primary end which characterizes his every effort: to diminish, block or frustrate that revelation. It's the one unifying theme of all we face in serving God, because that service is primarily bound up in revealing. The Enemy covers; we uncover. All else is just method and means on both sides, the details of carrying it out. Jesus said our Enemy was about falseness, amplified by theft (a falseness of ownership) and destruction (a falseness of purpose).
Thus, all our service is about revealing His truth. We reveal the part of Him and His Truth we know, the part we have experienced. We won't be able to change all the world, only that part given into our hands. In truth, it is only ourselves we conquer. We seek to bring truth to bear on every aspect of our existence. This is not limited to finding certainties, but in asking the right questions, too. Tension is a necessary element, simply because we lack the authority to resolve all tensions. There will always be parts of our lives under the power of another, regardless whether they choose to pursue truth. Nor are we expected to master every issue under our authority. Failure is an option, because the Lord measures holiness by desire, not by performance of the hands. Our commitment is the revelation of His truth.
Commitment is change. The Sword of God's Mouth cannot leave us unscathed or we cannot handle it. We must be shaped by the Sword before we can wield it in our daily lives, in our conduct. Our commitment will inevitably show in how we act, with the caveat speaking is a type of action. Sadly, we do so poorly at matching our words to our actions. For all I've seen, it's words which run ahead of actions. We must either press forward our actions to match words, or restrain our words to match action. The balance will never be static; our whole lives will be spent readjusting and recalibrating each as we find new visions of truth, and gain new powers. This change comes by handling the Sword often, re-examining and exploring it constantly. Our commitment to the Lord is a commitment to being changed by His Word, which entails a commitment to studying it, then living it.
The Word can touch no two of us precisely the same. Revelation has many common elements, as one might expect, but it is nonetheless a very private experience. Somewhere between "nearly identical" and "completely foreign" is a range of variation we can accept in others. It's not as if we get to judge whether they are truly in the grip of grace, but whether we can find sufficient common ground to work together. Worshipping together is far simpler, but we can hardly form a congregation merely on common worship. We have to stand on a shared ground of understanding of the Word, of experiencing revelation. Very often the rules for inclusion and exclusion will arise from the purpose of the gathering, and certain circumstances. I wrote extensively about such things elsewhere. If we find we can work with no one at all, it's probably time for some serious introspection, for we are commanded to pull in the harness with others.
Given the reason for working together is itself a form of revelation, along with enhancing the task of revelation, we wisely seek to fit the shared harness to the need of the moment. On the one hand, organization is the enemy of the Spirit. At the same time, even the redeemed among the fallen will accomplish little without some organization. The most obvious need is preventing conflict. In organizing, we surrender a piece of freedom to each other, that we may amplify His power in us. Yet organizing is merely a tool. It is a trick of the flesh to substitute comfort with the familiar, leaving in its place a false ownership of process. We tend to place method over mission. Thus, we seem completely unable to set aside an organizational tool which has outlived the task for which it is best suited. We refuse to consider adjustments, and we make no effort to develop the talents of reorganization. Thus, pulling in the harness together changes, over time, into being chained to a long finished task.
Groups fear change to the degree they cannot trust God. A congregation is often less mature and secure than any of the individual members. For countless generations we have mistaken stasis for stability. The modern church is jealous over her members, unwilling to consider herself the breeding ground of many small missions. She no longer challenges the world to see a higher standard, but adopts the lower human pattern. She has bought wholesale the organizational theories of government and business, quenching the real power and freedom of seeking God's face without all those strictures. She invests more in real estate than in souls. There is no need for constant rebuilding from scratch, except in the training setting. There is, however, a deep need to remain open to seeking whether the method meets the mission. When her previous target audience moves away in the natural flux of human turnover and migration, she passes over the new locals, stretching a long commute to the original audience. She will not let God call her to a new mission.
We are living in days when the Lord will shake His Body. The atmosphere of life increasingly will become openly hostile to true faith in Christ. How many will leave the Body upon finding they were never part of it? How many institutional bodies will collapse for building on the sand of mere fleshly patterns and methods? The Way of Truth will become once again narrow and difficult. Yet the revelation will be the brighter light, the sharper definition, and sweeter truth.
We share the light of revelation among fellow believers, so that we may shine it into a darkened world. In a certain sense, we seek to bring everyone closer to God and His truth, whether they have tasted it or not. Nothing we can do could ever convince someone to trust Jesus. Rather, the Lord uses us to speak to empty hearts all around. This prepares the soul for His call. For everyone we consciously target, it's more likely we unknowingly succeed with several others we did not target. Revelation is the combined actions of all His Children, and each of us will reveal something. Our desire should be they see the truth, both in our failures and in our victories. It is essential we consciously stand with our brothers and sisters in revealing the glory of Our Lord.
The single word which most clearly expresses that revelation is "love." The miracle of redemption is our ability to love the unlovable, to love others when they need it most and deserve it least. Love most often appears in actions of kindness, compassion, generosity, gentleness and all the other things we call "Fruit of the Spirit." Yet wise hearts realize love can mean saying "no" at times. When forced into a corner, love might choose something painful to prevent something deadly. Yet, the result of love is always liberty. No one of us can ever claim the right to choose for another not properly under out authority, for decisions not properly ours to make. Perhaps the greatest task of God's servants is learning the limits to their authority in Him over their fellow humans. Any choice we make for others which is not rooted in love is the wrong choice -- results will not matter.
As we contend with the Enemy of Love and Light, we wisely discover our own lives are the only real battlefield. We do not conquer the Lost World, we conquer ourselves. When we conquer and occupy the vast expanse of our own souls, He has a stronger base in this world for advancing against darkness. Just so, the Enemy is a spiritual force that seeks to keep us in darkness, so we cannot shed the Lord's Light abroad. Our strife is not with other people, but the darkness within us. We do not change others; God does. We have all we can do giving Him room to change us. When we look for ways to express His love in every situation, we stand in victory.
In each of us, love creates the power for our calling, clears the way to see it in sharp relief. No two of us will hear exactly the same calling; in true loving our varied callings will not conflict. Commitment to this calling is the greatest liberty any soul can find. This fallen world seeks every means to restrict, to confine and limit. It seeks to reduce us to something less than human, less than a Child of the King. Love does not demand its privileges, simply assumes them. Love tolerates the foolishness of those serving Darkness, not carelessly, but in the sure knowledge a gracious response is victory and freedom Darkness cannot contain. Love also prepares to suffer on behalf of those less powerful, offering what rescue the Father empowers. In all this, we seek a clear mission, a unique path to revelation for the world.
Regardless of one's eternal standing before God, there are certain rights He has granted to every human born. In the largest sense, that is expressed in the ancient Golden Rule, which can be rephrased to declare everyone has the right to be left alone, to do as they please, until their actions infringe on the equal rights of others. Civil governments are accountable to God for wading through the tangle of competing rights to provide something reasonably close to justice. As we might expect, history is filled with examples where justice was subverted for any number of advantages to those in power, and for this God judged those in power. Christians must tread a fine line before the Lord in deciding whether to put their hands to breaking such powers and ending abuse. It falls under the requirement from God to protect the defenseless, just as one might violently defend his own children from attack. It is yet another form of abuse when Christian leaders and teachers demand any believer stand by and simply watch injustice without some effort to end it. Each Believer must decide for themselves what God demands in each situation. He is the Author of life who decides for us what each life we encounter requires of us.
God does not sponsor cruelty. There is a distinct difference between the value of human life and other life. Humans are the pinnacle of Creation, and in some ways human life is the sole reason for the existence of the universe. Taking life from lower creatures for food, clothing or safety is right and just, as we are His stewards of this world on behalf of His purposes. At the same time, the burden of stewardship includes no living thing merits inhumane treatment. All the more so with our fellow humans. The human mind is sacrosanct; no man can justify attempting to invade and manipulate the mind of another. The mind is free, and no thought can be a crime. Only actions can be punished, not motives. God alone reserves the right to judge a man's heart. Contempt for others is not a civil crime; habitual bad behavior is. Causing needless sorrow, fear, terror and other forms of mental stress are wrong. Torture in the slightest degree is a sin. No presumed need of the State trumps such a thing. If a man is your enemy, capture him, imprison him, even execute him; but his mind and heart remain off limits by God's Word.
Deception and coverup are also defiance of God's will. This can take many forms. Precious little of man's doings are rightly hidden from sight. Privacy from the world's nosiness is a right from God's hand. Denying an enemy too much knowledge is good battle tactics, but covering sin compounds evil. Lying propaganda is also a sin. Some forms of advertising are lying, too. Wise Believers don't look for truth to come from any government entity, nor any source which has a vested interest in the announcements made. Journalists have learned to twist truth simply in what they choose to report and what to spike. Yet Believers must be prepared to avoid answering challenges from those seeking only an excuse to oppress and stir up resentment. We do well to err on the side of revealing too much, exposing to others the truth, for openness itself is a witness of righteousness.
God requires respect for ownership of material goods. Unjust exchange of ownership is to dispute with God His sovereign disposition of blessings. Material desires are the root of much evil. War for the sake of plunder alone is evil, but taking plunder in a defensive battle is justified as a forfeit. We are obliged by the Father to maintain a civil order which keeps a careful eye on just compensation for unnecessary loss. Tribute is a dangerous and destructive necessity; taxation is evil. Beyond the bare minimum need is theft under color of authority. To support those in need must be a matter of voluntary generosity; compulsory charity is a sin.
Convictions are a miracle gift from God. They are the anchor of each man's soul. Live contrary to your own convictions and at the very least you will suffer neuroses. Examine your convictions; test their limits. Until you know them and live them, your life cannot make sense.
By Ed Hurst
17 March 2006; updated 17 March 2010
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