The Dangers of Legalism

A reading of the life and story of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, reveals a number of encounters with the religious leaders of his day. Jesus was continually being questioned and challenged by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Scribes. The game played by these religious leaders is called challenge-riposte. David deSilva says, The challenge-riposte is essentially an attempt to gain honor at someone else’s expense by publicly posing a challenge that cannot be answered. The religious leaders of Jesus day were continually engaged in this behavior. They came to Christ, tempting him repeatedly and challenging his teachings. Their goal was to discredit Christ before the people. They wanted to destroy his credibility so that they could put a stop to his influence. It is in these challenges that a picture of the legalistic and hypocritical attitude of the religious leaders because obvious.

What is legalism? How dangerous is legalism? How can we know that we have moved from sound biblical discernment into a legalistic attitude? These are important questions, because, as long as men have walked the earth, we have been prone to legalism. Unfortunately, there remains a lot of confusion in the church today surrounding the question of legalism. Some have adopted antinomianism, regrettably, they have swung to the opposite extreme of legalism to open the flood gates to all sorts of ungodly behavior. For instance, to inform a brother that sex outside of married is actually viewed as judging and legalistic by some professing Christians. If it is clearly condemned by Scripture, it cannot be legalistic to judge the behavior as wrong and call those engaged in it to repentance. In fact, it is unloving not to do so. Antinomianism is an unloving attitude. But so too is legalism. They are both different manifestations of pride, of arrogance. In both cases, we are replacing divine law with our own standards, our own criteria for how others ought to conduct themselves. In some cases, it is really quite subtle. But in others, it is flagrant.

When I know a brother is cheating on his wife or on his taxes and I do nothing to help him recover himself from such sin in the name of not judging him or in the name of not being legalistic, or in the name of grace, or in the name of loving him, I am flagrantly embracing an antinomian attitude. I am arrogantly replying to God that I will NOT confront my brother even though God has demanded that I do so. That is a flagrant antinomian attitude. When I do not confront because I see myself as a sinner too and I really do not think my brother’s behavior is my business, this is a subtler adoption of antinomianism. Both forms are ungodly.

When I set up a rule in my life that I wish to live by as a matter of preference, such as no alcohol, that is fine. There is nothing wrong with someone not drinking alcohol. There is nothing wrong with someone not watching movies or TV. This is not legalism. It is not even subtle legalism. But if I adopt the view that God prefers my practices, even slightly, over the practices of others for whatever reason, now I have stepped into a subtle legalism. Without realizing it, I think my rules make me a better Christian, more devoted, a better judge of deeds and acts than those who do not follow my system. Without realizing, I am subtly judging others hearts or their ability to make sound biblical judgments about these issues that I have deemed to be significant. But when I say that, for example, watching a Harry Potter movie is celebrating witchcraft and is in the same category as viewing pornography, I have shifted from a clandestine, subtle legalism to a blatant legalism and as a result, I am in immediate danger of succumbing to a self-righteous attitude. The entire scenario calls for a pause on my part. I should stop dead in my tracks and back the train up on this one immediately. The last thing I should do is double-down on my thinking.

Recently, a friend expressed concern about Christians practicing Yoga. He told me that Yoga was designed originally as prayers to false gods. And because of this, Christians should avoid doing Yoga. Each Yoga position is a prayer to a demon, or false god, or an idol. What my friend refuses to acknowledge, even though I pointed it out to him repeatedly, is that sin springs from the human heart. A pose, regardless of what someone 10,000 miles away and 4,000 years ago used it to accomplish, is merely a pose. I can use a pose to worship a false god, a demon, an angel, name it. It is how I am using the pose that makes that pose ungodly. The sin is located in the intent of the heart. I practice Jiu Jitsu. On occasion, we will warm up doing a number of these Yoga movements. They are really very good for the muscles and joints, especially for an old guy like me. Should I avoid these movements because some other individual uses them to worship demons? To claim that Christians who engage in Yoga are deficient in their discernment is not only legalistic, it is arrogant and self-righteous. Why? Scripture does not speak to this issue. The best we can do is deduce principles for how we should think about these things. And any time we are a few steps removed from the clear instructions of Scripture, humility should certainly be our closest guide.

The argument goes like this:

Yoga poses were created to worship false gods. I use Yoga poses only for their physical benefit. Therefore, I am worshiping a false god. In any valid argument, the conclusion must follow necessarily from the premises. As we can see here, this argument is not a valid argument. The reason is because the conclusion, I am worshiping a false god, does not necessarily follow from the premises. Guns were created to murder innocent humans. I use guns only for recreational purposes. Therefore, I must be a murderer of or intend to murder, innocent human beings. Can you see how these two arguments parallel one another and yet, neither of them are valid arguments. We could walk it back a bit. Christians should avoid Yoga poses because they are used by some people to worship false gods. Is this good logic? It depends. If I am in a culture where Yoga is used predominantly for religious purposes, I probably would want to avoid the poses so as not to send the message that I am worshipping their false gods with them. But it is the context that determines my behavior. I am calling on Romans 14 here to make my decision on when it might be unwise for me to engage in certain practices. But this principle applies to numerous behaviors, not just Yoga. Some cultures show the bottom of their feet as a sign of insult. When in those cultures, it is a good idea to understand these practices so as not to inadvertently offend people or place a stumbling block in their way.

To imply that Christians who do Yoga lack discernment, and those who watch a Harry Potter movie are celebrating witchcraft, and may as well be watching or reading porn is a serious charge. It isn’t the product of biblical exegesis. It is the product of certain conclusions about what the Scripture teaches and then the logical extrapolation of those interpretations with specific principles applied based on one’s own rules and personal preferences. This is how legalism finds a place in one’s system and if left unchecked, will eventually threaten to ruin our soul. At a minimum, if you have been told that you are antinomian or on the other hand, moving down a path of legalism, you should slam on the brakes and evaluate your position more carefully. It is one thing to say I prefer not to do Yoga and I prefer not to watch certain things on TV, or to listen to certain music. But that’s me. It is an entirely different matter when you actually think that someone is not measuring up, regardless of what that measuring up looks like on the basis that they have not embraced your personal position on these issues.

Millennials and Confessions

In an article that appeared in 1:1 Answers Update, Ken Ham calls our attention to some very disturbing trends among twenty-something-year-olds, or as they are called, Millennials. Over 40% say they are not born again. 35% declare the Bible has errors or they don’t know if it has errors. 45% say that Sunday School did not teach them how to defend their faith. 45% say homosexual behavior is not a sin, or they don’t know if it is a sin. 40% believe “gay couples” should be allowed to marry and have legal rights. 20% say there are books (other than the Bible) that are inspired by God. 65% believe that if you are a good person, you will go to heaven. What is shocking about this demographic group is that they are regular church attenders (at least 3x month). Ham points out that these Millennials are going to fundamentally change the church and the culture if these beliefs hold.

Now we know why so many people are leaving the Church. They were never really part of her to begin with. I suspect it has always been this way whether people are visibly leaving the Church or choosing to remain in the community for other reasons. I am not alarmed by the trends. Actually, in a way, I celebrate what I see as a necessary purging. What alarms me is not the people that leave the church. What alarms me more than anything else are those who remain in the community. If you believe that all it takes to go to heaven is being good, then either your belief must change or I really, really, really want you to leave my church. There are far too many unregenerate, secular thinking members present in the church. Those of us who know Christ ought to have the love and decency as Christians to discipline them out of the body or bring them to repentance in Christ.

The second question Ham wonders about is why there are so many people still in the body of Christ who are so entrenched in secular thinking. We downgrade sin, soften divine justice, cheapen grace, and open the floodgates to worldly thinking from our homes to our business right down to our Sunday school classes. People cannot find basic doctrine with both hands and we are busy convincing them they can discern the hidden will of God if they pray long enough, hard enough, and just in the right way. Why do we think War Room was so incredibly popular? It feeds off poor thinking about issues like prayer and the Christians daily struggle with sin. Millennials have adopted autonomous human reason as their sole authority for how they live and think. They place Scripture in the dock and God along with it and issue their judgments. Genesis 1-3 cannot be accurate because science says so. Women can lead because modern minds understand better than the authors of Scripture God’s true design for the sexes. Homosexual prohibitions in Scripture are the product of cultural bias against the practice. Modern minds are more informed, more enlightened, and yes, more loving. Once Scripture goes, anything goes.

Finally, why is the Church not reaching the culture with biblical truths the way the Church once did? While I am not convinced the slippage here is as great as some think it is, it would be silly to deny any slippage at all. The gospel includes repentance from dead works and rebellion. The modern message rarely includes this. The law and the justice of God have been stripped out of the gospel. The gospel used to be good news for the undeserving and the helpless. Now, the gospel is good news for those who want a better life, a happy marriage, a healthy family, and a solid career. In modern western culture, it seems the Christian life is little more than a shallow embrace of what appears to be Christian morality coupled with some religious activities on the weekend and perhaps some social causes sprinkled in here and there. That is to say that western Christianity is not unlike its religious counterparts. The decision to become a “Christian” is either the result of a rationalistic exercise based on an examination of logical arguments and scientific evidence or it is simply the holding to family tradition in many, many cases. The Millennials appear to believe that being a Christian means being a good person, exercising your own opinions about the most basic of Christian doctrine, and not hurting anyone. Essentially, the final authority in the Millennial Christians’ mind is the Millennial himself. Traditional worship has been set by a huge majority of Millennials, not for exegetical reasons, but simply because it’s old, outdated, or because it belongs to someone else.

Millennials want their own cake and eat it to. This is why they insist on a new version of Christianity, a Christianity not inherited by 2,000 years of Church history, but one that they can put their fingerprints on. This is why Millennials reject Genesis in the name of science and the enlightened mind. It is why they challenge the Church’s teachings on Scripture. It is also the reason that Millennials are more likely to question or accept homosexuality as an acceptable sexual expression even in the Church. They want their Christianity, their music, their sermons, their theology, their way! Nothing less will do.

The Millennial phenomenon points us in the direction of the ancient biblical practice of confessional Christianity. Modern Millennials tend to look down on old music, old worship, old creeds and confessions. But they have very shallow reasons for doing so. Most of them simply have not bothered to educate themselves to form an opinion either way. There are exceptions of course, but for the most part, the thought of engaging in such a dry, emotionless project is painful to say the least. If you can’t give it to the Millennial in a short Facebook post or a Tweet, then forget it.

Paul wrote to Timothy that he had made “the good confession” in the presence of many witnesses. What is “the good confession?” The Greek word homolegeo, contrary to what modern culture thinks, does not simply mean to say something out loud. Far too many people understand that confessing Christ is merely saying they want to follow Christ. “I am a Christian” has truly become a claim that carries very little meaning. For the Koine audience of Paul’s day, the word carried a sense of agreement. It meant to agree with someone. It meant to agree to do something. “The legal connotation is common and poss. dominant. A person agrees with another’s statement, concedes or confesses something (such as guilt before a judge), agrees to something (e.g., someone else’s wish). This agreement expresses itself in an act of commitment, promise, or confession in a court or legal contract. The noun ὁμολογία plays a role in philosophical discourse: it does not merely indicate “theoretical agreement” but “implies consent to some thing felt to be valid, and in such a way that it is followed by definite resolve and action, by ready attachment to a cause. The religious use of the words may have derived primarily from the language of treaties and law courts. A legal agreement that involved binding oneself by an oath implied an obligation to the deity. A solemn admission of wrongdoing before a court of law could naturally have been transferred to the confession of sin in a religious setting. These concepts were found esp. in the oriental cults, as may be seen from Lydian and Phrygian expiatory inscriptions.” (NIDNTTE)

The Christian Confession is far more rich and more meaningful in ancient Christianity that it is today. Today, lip-service is given by many false Christians as they sit in Church week after week, hearing the sermon but rejecting the authority from which it comes. They meet with the pastor, who is all too eager to bring them into the fold because it makes him feel and look good, go through the motions of signing a card and agreeing to a covenant, all the while having no clue what it means to follow Christ.

Ken Ham’s article should serve as a bit of a wake-up call to us. What are we to do with these young Millennials who want to claim our Christianity all the while rejecting our Christ. They claim to love God but reject God’s commandments in many areas. They claim the Bible but only those parts that do not contain errors. They say that music should not be an issue but insist on changing it. The irony is embarrassing. What are we to do with these individuals. First, keep an eye out for them. They are not our friends. They are not friends of Christ. Those who call Scripture into question have to be confronted, rebuked, and if they prove obstinate, they must be removed from the congregation. A little leaven leavens the entire lump. They who question such basics as the Christian sexual ethic must be dealt with harshly. This is not a game. Intolerance is the order of the day for those young biblically inept Millennials who are so arrogant that they think they don’t have to study Scripture to formulate their opinions. They can come with their pre-made opinions and then make Scripture support them one way or another. There is no room in the body for people who have not truly made “the good confession.” What do we say about these Millennials who dare question Scripture at such basic areas like sexuality, creation, and the authority of Scripture itself? We remind one another of Jude’s ominous words:

But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

The American Way

There is no question that America, as a nation, has changed and is undergoing rapid change at a pace that is nothing short of remarkable. The amount of time it took for the aggressive gay movement in partnership with the media to sway American opinion on the subject of gay marriage is astonishing. In addition, when we compare opinions about Christianity and the Bible for example from say 20 or even 10 years ago, the shift is dramatic. The shift is no less true for American Christianity than it is for American culture. The nation has lost her way because she has deliberately abandoned her roots. The same holds for American Christianity.

American Christianity has displaced Scripture with autonomous human reason, science, and purportedly a more enlightened mindset than the authors of Scripture. For instance, gay relationships were allegedly unknown to the biblical authors and even to Jesus. If they had known of that possibility, it is said, they would have written differently about that subject. The same is true for the creation account, the resurrection, and divinity of Christ, and an assortment of other basic Christian doctrines. Today, not only do we feel the inherent right to reinterpret Scripture in light of modern thought, but we also subject the very nature of the Word of God to our own imperfect, fallible, and sinful judgment.

One of the single greatest contributors to this rise in a weak Christianity is due to the abandonment of excommunication and shunning in the Christian community. The American notion of radical human liberty, and an unbridled autonomy, namely, that everyone can be whatever they want to be, even a Christian has led to unsurpassed arrogance among young uninformed or misinformed, and inexperience pastors, leaders, authors, and bloggers in matters concerning Christian dogma. When we add to this the fact that most professing Christians have bought into the postmodern nonsense of the outright rejection of objective truth and the thorough rejection of authority and tradition, the results are nothing short of dismal.

Christians are sinners too, all of us. And we need to remind ourselves and to be continually reminded that we have an inherent proclivity to redefine God, Christ, and everything Christianity teaches so that it fits neatly into our own sinful ideal. The triune God is self-defining, Christian Scripture is self-authenticating, and the only person that could define it, Jesus Christ, has already defined Christianity.

Christians are now in a position to have to begin to make some very hard decisions. Will we continue in the Christian life and prove the genuineness of our Christianity or will we demonstrate that our faith was nothing more than the product of finite human reason. Christians would have an easier time with some of these issues if we had been doing what we should have been doing all along.

In Matthew 18:15-18, Jesus Christ Himself laid down the imperative rule for dealing with unrepentant professors to the Christian faith. The process would include confrontation in private all the way to public confrontation by the local assembly. If the individual refused to repent of the sin, they would be cut off from fellowship in that community. When we witness Christians living a lifestyle that is unworthy of the gospel, we must act in love, but we must act and we must act swiftly as if the reputation of Christ means something to us.

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul instructs the Corinthian Church to remove a couple that had become entangled in a serious sexual scandal. It seems that a young man had decided to marry his former stepmother. Rather than react with revulsion, the Corinthian Christians rejoiced in their supposedly liberty. Paul found the situation morally repulsive. He referred to this man as leaven, an impurity in the community that must be purged. Paul then issued the order that Christians are NOT to fellowship with supposed Christians who are living in immorality. In other words, they were to cut them off. Christians do not have the luxury or option of ignoring the lifestyles of professing Christians in the name of being non-judgmental.

Paul informed the Thessalonians that they were not to eat with those who were busybodies and who refused to work with their own hands. He also instructed the Thessalonians not to associate with people who refused to obey the words of his letter. The Christians at Thessalonica were not given the option to do otherwise.

John informs his audience that those bringing false teachings to the church were to be shunned as well. They were not only to refuse to have fellowship with such people, but Christians were told not to receive them into their homes. In addition, they were not even allowed to extend a greeting to such people. These people are enemies of the faith, despisers of the cross of Christ and enemies of God to the core.

To the church at Thyatira, Jesus issued a stern rebuke, not because she was necessarily immoral, but because she tolerated immorality. The modern American way is not a way of tolerance for differing opinions although that sounds nice. Rather, it is the way of the coward. Christians are not willing to confront sin and sinners and hypocrites and skeptics any longer because we are cowards. We are concerned that we will be ostracized or that we might not be able to answer a challenge. We are either cowards or we are prideful. We care way too much about what men think of us and no where near enough about what God thinks of us. We don’t want to say we believe something because the Bible teaches it and that, because we agree silently that we should have more reason for believing something than that. After all, who believes something simply because the bible teaches it? How silly! How gullible! How incredibly naïve and embarrassing! This is the mindset of most modern Christians even though most would surely deny it.

We must put a stop to this nonsense. We must learn to lovingly, but firmly proclaim God’s truth to everyone we can. We must be willing to excommunicate the young couple that thinks they can live together outside of marriage and still be true Christians. We must continue to stand for God’s design for marriage and reject the nonsense of the homosexual movement. We must take God at His word and follow the way of Christ. It is surely true that the American way is not exactly the godly way at this point. The truth of the gospel does not depend on how many people accept it. Christian theism is a despised religion and will continue to be the most despised religion. God loves the world, but if we read that passage closely, we also realize that the world that God loves also stands in clear condemnation for its acts of wickedness and ungodliness. If that were not the case, grace would not be so very amazing after all.