“Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to suit the vision. Progress does mean (just now) that we are always changing the vision.” —GK Chesterton
;)
"There's glory for you!"
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,' " Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't—till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!' "
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,' " Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
"The question is, " said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."—Lewis Carroll
Church history has taught us that heresies come and go. They blow in one era and out the other.
It seems to me that no matter what the century may be, all heresies have one thing in common: they always reject the orthodox idea that the Bible is God-breathed revelation1 to man, fundamental, fixed and authoritative.
Essentially, heresies are the shifting sands of recycled “philosophies of man”. Today’s current crop of heresies are certainly no exception. They swirl around the religion and philosophy departments of academia until they are peer-reviewed, stamped with approval and dropped...(in true 'Humpty-Dumpty' fashion)...into the culture to be popularized….like a fad diet or a hip and trendy new TV show2.
Today, we live in a veritable “Wonderland” of deconstructed, heretical philosophies posing as “Christianity”. The philosophies are legion. They are as vague and permeable as they are “muddy”. They are characteristically pre-packaged in feel-good, obscurities . They are philosophical emotion-pleasers designed to tickle both fancy and ear3 whereby truth is either distorted, perverted, re-imagined or…simply…redefined to suit one’s personal vision. We are, in essence, invited to privatize our feelings about God and God’s Word. In the process, truth is relativized,… or worse,… simply mocked, scorned4 and "deconstructively" dismissed.
;)
The current batch of egghead, “Christian” unorthodoxies comes in many shapes, sizes and colors: Process Theology, Panentheism, finite godism, Emergent Church-ism…and the list goes on and on. We are confronted with a dazzling, post-modern smorgasbord of earthly, philosophical delights, delights by which man is either promoted to sinless divine status or God is demoted to finite groveling. In either case, man is invited to imagine himself to “be like God”5.
Have-It-Your-Way-Religion.
Welcome to Dumptyville... East of Eden6.
;)
“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
—(2Timothy 4:2-4)
Diving Into Humpty’s Dumpster
Humpty sez that Man's the Master,
Perched on iv’ry towered walls…
Proudly seated in his “glory”,
Eggheads who deny The Fall.
Master Dumpty, tell the truth7, sir!
Tell us what you see up there!
Help us understand the Word now…
Teach us what you think is “fair”!
Flux and flowy, trendy-blendy,
God needs help to find his way!
God’s not quite sure where he’s going…
Humpty-Dumpty! Save the day!
God’s now “open” to suggestion,
God… (like man)... is locked in time!
God is searching, growing, learning…
Calling us to “Redefine!”
God needs help to know the future.
That, my friend’s, where we come in…
“Dialogue”! …Then change the meaning!
That way we’ll dispense with “sin”!
God and Man are Co-Emergents!
No more Ten Commandments here!
What a burden all those “laws” were…
Now we’re feeling free and clear!
Creeds and Doctrine?....Lord, who needs ‘em?!
They’re so “yesterday”, my friend.
They belong in Humpty’s Dumpster…
Where they simply can’t offend.
Prophecy? …Please, don’t be foolish!
“Hell”?...My word!..... That’s crazy, man!
Talk like that’s just unproductive,
Here in Deconstruction –Land.
Don’t you see?…God’s still in process…
God needs our philosophies!
Taking notes from New Age Gurus:
Dr. Dumpty PhD’s.
;)
Here we go, Lord,…Same ol’ story…
Same song, this time different verse.
Father God, remove the blindness,
Help us clearly see the curse.
Find us here, Lord, East of Eden,
Show us what we’ve all denied.
Holy Spirit, give us wisdom…
Help us recognize the Pride.
Give us Grace to hear the Truth, Lord…
We’re not “Master”…. neither “ Boss”.
May we hear the call of Calv’ry,
Humble us before The Cross.
;)
“The Heretics have obscured the truth. They have distracted us, they have won us over with lies. The first lie is that truth doesn’t matter.”—Dale Ahlquist
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me….If you love me, you will obey what I command.”—John 14: 6…15