Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Warning signs of an unbalanced worldview

As I was meandering about on Youtube recently, looking to see if there were any new interesting videos posted in the areas of textual criticism and the KJV Only debate, I happened across a series of videos made by Chick Publications that reminded me of the warnings signs of a Christian organization/church that is dangerously unbalanced.  There could be many ways in which those who claim to follow Jesus become lost in warped thinking, these ones are prevalent among them:

1. The Conspiracy Theory - It doesn't matter who the villain of the theory is, although the most common choices are the Vatican (i.e. the Jesuits and Illuminati), the Jews (the Rothschilds and Zionists) and the United Nations (the New World Order is the code word for various one-world gov't theories).  If a central tenant of the belief system of the individual/organization/church is a grand conspiracy theory, this mindset will warp and twist all manner of other thoughts and attitudes and end up leading to isolation and paranoia, not good qualities upon which to minister for the Gospel.

2. The Eisegetical Scripture Citation Defense - That doesn't really work as an acronym, what it means is that the common defense of such groups is to utilize a Scripture reference as a comeback or rebuttal to any criticism instead of utilizing historically accurate facts and/or logically sound reasoning.  The primary problem with such a method is that the Scripture cited is almost invariably unrelated to the conversation at hand.  An out-of-context eisegetical (which means "reading into" the text) citation is NOT a valid argument.  For example: To cite Psalm 12:6 as a defense of KJV Onlyism is an affront to the words of David who was in no way talking in that Psalm about translations of the Bible, certainly not about English translations, and was also certainly not declaring that the KJV Bible would be a second work of inspiration for his words two thousand years later.  And yet this verse is routinely cited by KJV Only advocates as if the mere citation of Psalm 12:6 proves something for them.

When the primary defense of a position advocated by a Christian individual/group/church is to improperly cite Scripture that does not apply to their situation, it is a sure sign of lazy thinking, poor scholarship, or most likely, a very weak position in the first place.

3.  The We're the Only Ones Going to Heaven conclusion - Another common trait among groups that have lost their way and strayed from the Gospel is the firm conviction that they, and they alone, are in possession of the knowledge that will lead to eternal life, all other so-called "Christians" are at the least deluded, and in all likelihood in league with Satan.  Set aside for a moment the sad state of the Church of Jesus Christ if this were true (how weak would should a Gospel be to be misunderstood and misapplied by so many, and how ineffective would the Holy Spirit be if 99% of those who thought they were Christians were on their way to hell?), and just contemplate the megalomania required to convince yourself that everyone else is wrong, nobody else can see the Truth, only you and those like you have penetrated the lies and schemes of Satan to be saved.  Yikes!  And yet such groups exist, persistently in their bunker mentality, scorning cooperation between churches, calling Ecumenism the work of the Devil (no doubt as part of some vast Vatican conspiracy), and waiting for the sky to fall.  How can this attitude lead to an effective witness for the Gospel or effective help for those in need?

Other warnings signs could be added, these happen to crop up again and again among these individual and groups.  There are many, many churches alive and well within the Church of Jesus Christ today, places where the Gospel is being preached, where truth and facts are elevated, and where the victory that Christ has purchased for us is being realized, there is no need to buy into what they're selling.

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