Bible, Theology & Philosophy

Reprinted with permission from Faith Pulpit (July-September, 2010).

An Evaluation of the Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic

In the summer of 2007 I had the privilege of leading a group of teens from my church on a missions trip to France. A few weeks before the trip, one of the French missionaries we would be visiting (Denise Nelsen, a 1989 FBBC grad), was stateside and was able to come to our youth group to meet the missions team. Before the meeting, I asked her to greet the teens like she would greet French teens at her church—with a kiss! One by one the teens filed into youth group and were greeted by this strange woman with a holy kiss on each cheek. The shocked and surprised faces of the teens were truly a sight to behold!

Whether this humorous exercise helped prepare the teens for France or not may be debated, but it certainly awakened their understanding of the cultural differences between France and Iowa. In many respects this anecdote represents something at the heart of Biblical hermeneutics—the contextualization of Biblical truth. Contextualization is applying or appropriating Biblical truth into a contemporary setting and culture.¹

Each time we modern believers apply the Bible, we consciously or unconsciously contextualize its meaning. For example, the command to greet fellow believers with a holy kiss is found five times in the New Testament.² These five passages all contain the same direct imperative (aspasasthe), yet I know of no Bible-believing church in the United States that greets people with a kiss at the front door. Are American Christians living in disobedience? Are French Christians applying the Bible more accurately? The answer to both of these questions is “No,” because we intuitively understand that greetings change from culture to culture. The Biblical principle at stake is loving hospitality, not the cultural custom of kissing. While this example of contextualization is fairly straight forward, a multitude of controversial issues faces today’s church.

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Albert Mohler asks a “haunting question” concerning the tragic suicide of the college freshman who was the victim of a roommate’s webcast of his homosexual encounter. “Was there no one who could have stood between that boy and that bridge?”

All of us struggle with the effects of the fall. The sin nature is as universal as are the ways it manifests itself. However, the vast majority of us cannot imagine what it is like for those who struggle with same-sex attraction. Conservative churches in general, and fundamentalists in particular, have been slow to develop a biblical response towards this issue. Professor of Psychology Mark A. Yarhouse has written a book that can at least help get the conversation started. Homosexuality and the Christian: A guide for Parents, Pastors, and Friends is a must read for anyone who has found themselves conflicted over a biblical response to the ever increasing acceptance of homosexual behavior.

Chapter One asks “What does God think of Homosexuality?” Yarhouse suggests that rather “than looking at Bible verses related only to homosexuality, it is important to take a broader look at how God’s Word deals with sexuality as a whole. A Christian understanding of sex is best understood through the four stages of redemptive history in the Bible: creation, the fall, redemption, and glorification” (p. 19).

Chapter Two (“Why is Sexual Identity the Heart of the Matter?”) is the most important in the book. The key principle is that “experiencing same-sex attraction is not the same thing as having a gay identity or being gay” (p. 105). The author delineates the differences between attraction, orientation and identity (pp. 41-43). The problem as he sees it is that we have allowed homosexual advocates to hijack the discussion.

In our culture today, experiences of same-sex attraction are typically treated as synonymous with gay identity, and a gay identity carries with it many connotations; e.g., if you are attracted to the same sex, then you are gay. However, being gay means not only are you attracted to the same sex, but you are personally fulfilled through engagement in same-sex behavior (p. 48).

Introductory observations

What follows is the fruit of discussions that have been taking place among the SharperIron moderators and admins over many months, but especially the last six weeks or so. A few points might help frame it properly. First, the team is fairly diverse. We are not all Baptists. We are certainly not all Calvinists, though probably none of the non-Calvinists could be described as Arminians either. Several us are “hard” cessationists when it comes to the “sign gifts,” but some are softer cessationists and one or two aren’t sure. Several of us are, or have been, pastors—but again, not all of us. Also, though the points below reflect the beliefs of the moderators and admins, not everyone on the team is enthusiastic about publishing every one of these points in a list of distinctives—mostly out of concern about the relative importance of one point or another in the overall body of Christian doctrine. In short, probably none of us would say all of these are equally important and some would see one or two as perhaps better left unsaid.

The doctrinal assertions below are not intended to further restrict those who may participate in the forums either now or in the future, nor do we claim that they are beliefs that are essential to fundamentalist identitiy. They are nothing more and nothing less than what the moderators and admins (and most other volunteers) currently believe in some areas that are of special concern.