a theology that isn't shaped by circumstances
I was deeply challenged today listening to one of my favorite preachers, Dan Mohler, speak about the recent death of his mother after a 40 year battle with MS. (see link below) Here is a man who regularly sees the sick healed, including having seen MS healed, but lost his mother to an untimely death.
I have watched many Christians radically change their theologies when circumstances challenge their convictions. Years ago some friends of ours became hyper-Calvinists when their teenage son went of the rails. It somehow in a twisted way became God's will! A leading Christian leader in the U.K. changed his position on homosexuality after years of "experience" with Christians struggling with same sex attraction. Just recently a Christian politician in the U.S. changed his position on gay marriage because his son has come out as being gay. Circumstances changing people's theology and convictions - it seems to happen all the time.
This never seems to be truer than when it comes to healing the sick. We all know that Jesus healed everyone who ever came to Him and asked. It is an argument from silence to say that there were those He didn't heal (but that argument is made all the time). And yet, a heart-breaking loss of a loved one to cancer or some other disease and people often will begin to allow life and circumstances to shape their theology - it is often subtle, it is often long-term but it for many seems inevitable.
Then there are the world-changers who don't allow adversity and loss to deflate them, or stop them as they contend for the fullness of God's Kingdom to be manifested in and through them. Lost battles, diseases that aren't healed, deaths that are clearly untimely don't derail these types - they compel them towards greater faith, and an attitude that says "Next time we aren't going to lose this same battle".
There are so few who are like this - so many of our popular pastors, teachers and theologians have made their names by essentially growing into greater and greater unbelief in their respective journeys of faith and they call it "balance"! I would just prefer honesty. It is their experience that has dictated their theological conclusions and not the life and ministry of Jesus as our example. I don't have to name names because it is essentially every single one.
Thank the Lord for men like Dan Mohler who won't sell-out to experiences of life that would lead him to compromise the clear teaching of God's Word. He is truly one of those world-changer, revolutionaries who isn't allowing loss to cripple his future into a disillusioned, cynical place of the kind of unbelief that the Bible demands we repent of!
You can find the message at this link - http://www.jesusgarage.com
I have watched many Christians radically change their theologies when circumstances challenge their convictions. Years ago some friends of ours became hyper-Calvinists when their teenage son went of the rails. It somehow in a twisted way became God's will! A leading Christian leader in the U.K. changed his position on homosexuality after years of "experience" with Christians struggling with same sex attraction. Just recently a Christian politician in the U.S. changed his position on gay marriage because his son has come out as being gay. Circumstances changing people's theology and convictions - it seems to happen all the time.
This never seems to be truer than when it comes to healing the sick. We all know that Jesus healed everyone who ever came to Him and asked. It is an argument from silence to say that there were those He didn't heal (but that argument is made all the time). And yet, a heart-breaking loss of a loved one to cancer or some other disease and people often will begin to allow life and circumstances to shape their theology - it is often subtle, it is often long-term but it for many seems inevitable.
Then there are the world-changers who don't allow adversity and loss to deflate them, or stop them as they contend for the fullness of God's Kingdom to be manifested in and through them. Lost battles, diseases that aren't healed, deaths that are clearly untimely don't derail these types - they compel them towards greater faith, and an attitude that says "Next time we aren't going to lose this same battle".
There are so few who are like this - so many of our popular pastors, teachers and theologians have made their names by essentially growing into greater and greater unbelief in their respective journeys of faith and they call it "balance"! I would just prefer honesty. It is their experience that has dictated their theological conclusions and not the life and ministry of Jesus as our example. I don't have to name names because it is essentially every single one.
Thank the Lord for men like Dan Mohler who won't sell-out to experiences of life that would lead him to compromise the clear teaching of God's Word. He is truly one of those world-changer, revolutionaries who isn't allowing loss to cripple his future into a disillusioned, cynical place of the kind of unbelief that the Bible demands we repent of!
You can find the message at this link - http://www.jesusgarage.com
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