I don’t need to read theology…
Or do I...
For my 22nd Birthday, I asked for several books from my parents. I saw them at a Christian Bookstore I used to work at, and I was certain my mom, who worked for a different Christian Bookstore could hook me up with a better deal. The series was put out by Thomas Nelson and called, “Nelson’s Royal Classics.” These books included “Practice the Presence of God,” by Brother Lawrence, “Orthodoxy” and “Heresy” by G. K. Chesterton, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” by Jonathan Edwards, and other Christian literature.
By this time, I had a basic understanding that Liz-interpretation really wasn’t proper interpretation of Scripture, and I was looking for more. I was hanging out with some Pentecostals at the time and had mentioned that I was reading, “Heresy.” Now, you really have to picture this to get the full affect. Even though I am reasonably intelligent, and I *really* try not to do this, when I get *really* excited about something and I am talking to my peers, I start out by saying, “OK, so, like.” Those three words coming from an excited blonde do not exude intelligence. And, my friends said, “Well, I don’t need to read books of theological content,” and, “You need to be really careful there, Liz, that you don’t fall into false teaching.”
My foray into Christian literature was stopped by my ITP and the subsequent large quantities of prednisone I consumed. And it really didn’t pick up until a year later, after 9-11.
I’ve mentioned several times how hard it is to begin submission to the teachings in the Book of Concord. Something I realized, but could not verbalize, is I felt it odd and kind of hypocritical that Evangelicals condemned Catholics (this is before I knew about the existence of The Book of Concord, and I really didn’t know anything about Confessional Lutheranism at the time) for basing their theology on the Catechism and the teachings of the College of Cardinals but, in the same respect, read and held to the teachings of John Piper, Max Lucado, R. C. Sproul, and I shudder to think, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Robert Schuler, and Joyce Meyers, and others.
In the introduction to The Readers Edition of the Book of Concord (Purchase here ), the editors quote Dr. C. F. W. Walther: “’After working all day, I can’t sit down and study in the evening. If I read my morning and evening devotions, that’s enough.’ No, that is not enough! The Lord doesn’t want us to remain children who are blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine…”
The reason it is important to be grounded in a doctrinal confession is so we are not easily swayed by whatever trend comes around and so we don’t fall into false teaching. And, from those of us from a politically conservative evangelicalism, this keeps us away from self-righteousness, which I will address another time.
For my 22nd Birthday, I asked for several books from my parents. I saw them at a Christian Bookstore I used to work at, and I was certain my mom, who worked for a different Christian Bookstore could hook me up with a better deal. The series was put out by Thomas Nelson and called, “Nelson’s Royal Classics.” These books included “Practice the Presence of God,” by Brother Lawrence, “Orthodoxy” and “Heresy” by G. K. Chesterton, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” by Jonathan Edwards, and other Christian literature.
By this time, I had a basic understanding that Liz-interpretation really wasn’t proper interpretation of Scripture, and I was looking for more. I was hanging out with some Pentecostals at the time and had mentioned that I was reading, “Heresy.” Now, you really have to picture this to get the full affect. Even though I am reasonably intelligent, and I *really* try not to do this, when I get *really* excited about something and I am talking to my peers, I start out by saying, “OK, so, like.” Those three words coming from an excited blonde do not exude intelligence. And, my friends said, “Well, I don’t need to read books of theological content,” and, “You need to be really careful there, Liz, that you don’t fall into false teaching.”
My foray into Christian literature was stopped by my ITP and the subsequent large quantities of prednisone I consumed. And it really didn’t pick up until a year later, after 9-11.
I’ve mentioned several times how hard it is to begin submission to the teachings in the Book of Concord. Something I realized, but could not verbalize, is I felt it odd and kind of hypocritical that Evangelicals condemned Catholics (this is before I knew about the existence of The Book of Concord, and I really didn’t know anything about Confessional Lutheranism at the time) for basing their theology on the Catechism and the teachings of the College of Cardinals but, in the same respect, read and held to the teachings of John Piper, Max Lucado, R. C. Sproul, and I shudder to think, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Robert Schuler, and Joyce Meyers, and others.
In the introduction to The Readers Edition of the Book of Concord (Purchase here ), the editors quote Dr. C. F. W. Walther: “’After working all day, I can’t sit down and study in the evening. If I read my morning and evening devotions, that’s enough.’ No, that is not enough! The Lord doesn’t want us to remain children who are blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine…”
The reason it is important to be grounded in a doctrinal confession is so we are not easily swayed by whatever trend comes around and so we don’t fall into false teaching. And, from those of us from a politically conservative evangelicalism, this keeps us away from self-righteousness, which I will address another time.
posted by Consecutive Odds @ 3:49 PM
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