Subtleties..., but they go a long way either to the far right or the far WRONG. Serious Christian theologians need to check and audit their theological tenets by looking at the resulting behavior, values and/or the mindset of the one believing it. I, for one, require that we stretch any belief to it's theological extreme and see where it leads us, whether we move to the far-right or the far-WRONG!
Let us look at three theological pursuits:
1. The Chief End of Man
Not SO Biblical: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever".
Maybe, this has done more good than harm since it inception but not in the present century. I have seen it do more harm than good.
Firstly, it is not at all biblical. It just seems to be a derivations of the Hyper-Calvinists as written in either the Heidelberg Cathecism or the Westminster Confession. There is almost absolutely nothing in Scripture that even hints that this is man's main pursuit in life.
Secondly, glorifying God is such a vague concept. We know that God needs to be exalted and glorified in worship, but worship is normally a small fraction of normal human activity. Matthew 5:16 says that God is glorified when men see our good works. John 15 says that God is glorified when we bear much fruit. 1 Corinthians 10:31 clearly declares tha there is no way we can really glorify God except by what we do as Kingdom people. Hence, our goal should not even be to glorify God but to do good works and bear fruit. This is why glorifying God as a main pursuit is such a vague concept.
Thirdly, glorifying God is such an impersonal pursuit. It has nothing to do with normal give-and-take relationships which is the ONLY formula for healthy relationships for that matter. I would not be surprised if anyone who makes this his main pursuit is questionable when it comes to actual relationships with other kingdom children.
Biblical: The Chief End of Man is The Great Commandment: "Love God will all your heart, soul, mind, strength and your neighbor as you love yourself"
2. What is heaven?
Not SO Biblical: Streets of Gold, Tree of Life, New Jerusalem, "mansions", no more tears, etc.
Why the almost obsessive preoccupation of what the place looks like and what we will be doing? This betrays our materialistic values. With this kind of mindset, only those with terminal illness would look forward to heaven. The rest of us will not be that excited to get there. In fact, most Christians are still afraid to die even if they believed that they will go to heaven! Such an irony.
Biblical: Heaven is Living in the very tangible Presence of Jesus every moment. We have everything when we have Christ. So we can experience true heaven now in this life and we are practicing to enjoy heaven in the next life.
3. The pursuit of God's perfect will for our individual lives.
Not SO Biblical: There is only one perfect will and we might miss it.
Biblical: We must be perfect to get what is perfect for us. The perfect will never come to the imperfect recipient.
While our salvation is undeserved, the Bible clearly shows that God's will and clear direction is only manifested to those who are deserving of it. God will not even hear the prayers of his people when they are in sin as demonstrated in Joshua's experience with Ai, Jonathan's violation of Saul's oath regardless of whether it was reasonable or not, Psalm 66:18!
Let us look at three theological pursuits:
1. The Chief End of Man
Not SO Biblical: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever".
Maybe, this has done more good than harm since it inception but not in the present century. I have seen it do more harm than good.
Firstly, it is not at all biblical. It just seems to be a derivations of the Hyper-Calvinists as written in either the Heidelberg Cathecism or the Westminster Confession. There is almost absolutely nothing in Scripture that even hints that this is man's main pursuit in life.
Secondly, glorifying God is such a vague concept. We know that God needs to be exalted and glorified in worship, but worship is normally a small fraction of normal human activity. Matthew 5:16 says that God is glorified when men see our good works. John 15 says that God is glorified when we bear much fruit. 1 Corinthians 10:31 clearly declares tha there is no way we can really glorify God except by what we do as Kingdom people. Hence, our goal should not even be to glorify God but to do good works and bear fruit. This is why glorifying God as a main pursuit is such a vague concept.
Thirdly, glorifying God is such an impersonal pursuit. It has nothing to do with normal give-and-take relationships which is the ONLY formula for healthy relationships for that matter. I would not be surprised if anyone who makes this his main pursuit is questionable when it comes to actual relationships with other kingdom children.
Biblical: The Chief End of Man is The Great Commandment: "Love God will all your heart, soul, mind, strength and your neighbor as you love yourself"
2. What is heaven?
Not SO Biblical: Streets of Gold, Tree of Life, New Jerusalem, "mansions", no more tears, etc.
Why the almost obsessive preoccupation of what the place looks like and what we will be doing? This betrays our materialistic values. With this kind of mindset, only those with terminal illness would look forward to heaven. The rest of us will not be that excited to get there. In fact, most Christians are still afraid to die even if they believed that they will go to heaven! Such an irony.
Biblical: Heaven is Living in the very tangible Presence of Jesus every moment. We have everything when we have Christ. So we can experience true heaven now in this life and we are practicing to enjoy heaven in the next life.
3. The pursuit of God's perfect will for our individual lives.
Not SO Biblical: There is only one perfect will and we might miss it.
Biblical: We must be perfect to get what is perfect for us. The perfect will never come to the imperfect recipient.
While our salvation is undeserved, the Bible clearly shows that God's will and clear direction is only manifested to those who are deserving of it. God will not even hear the prayers of his people when they are in sin as demonstrated in Joshua's experience with Ai, Jonathan's violation of Saul's oath regardless of whether it was reasonable or not, Psalm 66:18!
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