Monday, November 30, 2009

The Biblical View Of Marriage According To Nickelodeon

Recent personal events have renewed thoughts about an issue that’s pervasive in the religious world of the church, at least in the way that most people understand the term “church” these days. Despite an out of balance focus on teaching in the form of the typical Sunday sermon, biblical illiteracy is rampant among those who refer to themselves as Christians. While we may be quite capable of regurgitating what a mere man said from behind a pulpit, we seem to lack a basic understanding of what God has actually said through his word. Ironically, many who believe in their capability to utilize verses to accentuate a perceived theological point lack the comprehensive understanding of God’s character through which to filter those same verses. Unfortunately, even a significant number of pastors, who have the incredible responsibility of shepherding their flocks, also seem to lack this broad-based understanding. 


The New Testament writers repeatedly warn of the abundance of false prophets in the last days (as an aside, we’ve been in the last days ever since the resurrection--an idea much to the chagrin of those searching for impending signs of the apocalypse). Most of us tend to view a false prophet as someone who distorts the truth of the gospel by denying such foundational principles as the resurrection of Christ, or his divinity.  However, I wonder if those who bend the truth in much more subtle ways aren’t false prophets as well. Could a pastor of a megachurch who inaccurately portrays the character of God to a congregation, or who slightly misuses scripture to develop a theology of works, be considered a false prophet? If so, the “church” in America seems to sport a high number of false prophets these days. A great deal of modern preaching seems to be done by people who appear to be convinced of their own rightness and their perceived god-given position of authority. I am perplexed by pastors sermonizing before an assembly, basically standing in for God as his privileged representative, who don’t do so with a high degree of reverential fear. Perhaps the warnings about false prophets in the New Testament are repeated so many times for good reason.

A video passed my way recently showing a pastor in the Northwest pontificating about what a “real” man is according to his understanding of the Bible. This particular pastor attracts a large number of people to his building each week, many of whom are twenty-something males enamored by a severely regimented, highly structured, and inflexibly rigid philosophy of a black and white world. By human standards, he seems to be quite successful. Among other things, he ranted on the video about God’s unalterable plan, in which every man should be out in the world working while his wife is at home raising children--no exceptions, at least not for any male wanting to be a “real” man. While there is absolutely no problem for couples who choose this lifestyle, insisting that all couples must fit into this tiny box in order to be in the will of God is utterly ridiculous and shameful. To insist that God can only honor one way for a couple to live out a marriage is an unjust slap in the face to many husbands and wives, as well as their creator.

In a classic misuse of scripture, part of his discourse included the passage in 1st Peter 3:7 regarding the relationship between wives and husbands: You husbands likewise, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. The argument this pastor attempted to justify in this passage was that if a husband wasn’t being a “real” man then his prayers would be hindered and God wouldn’t hear them, or at least he wouldn’t honor them. Much like the rampant false notion that when believers sin they separate themselves from God until repentance/forgiveness is made, this idea is ass backward. God, as an omnipotent being, is not hindered in the hearing or the acting upon our prayers based on our behavior, rather we hinder our own desire to pray when we live outside of his parameters. 

A simple study of the passage in 1st Peter in context reveals some significant truths about relationships. Prior to verse 7, Paul lays out the obligations of wives to their husbands and then reverses his focus to the obligations of husbands to wives, revealing that a marriage must be based on reciprocal obligations--not an unequal arrangement that benefits one partner over the other. As for husbands, they must be understanding toward their wives, treating them with consideration and sensitivity. Husbands should also be gracious and courteous to their wives “as the weaker vessel.” And husbands should recognize wives as being equal spiritual partners. Nowhere in this passage, or anywhere else in scripture, is the plan that a husband and wife need to be Ward and June Cleaver, or Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. (My hunch is if Christian couples were to mutually follow the example set forth in 1st Peter, there’d be a lot less marital discord and fewer divorces, but that’s a subject for another time.)

Unfortunately, too many so-called leaders spout highly questionable doctrine these days that the masses seem to readily accept without question, either out of sheer ignorance, or out of a blind acceptance of human tradition.  Simply relying on the words out of a man’s (or woman’s) mouth for thirty to forty-five minutes on a Sunday each week can easily lead someone down a highly questionable path. Listening to sermonizers pulling verses or passages out of the Bible to validate their own personal agenda is equally harmful, no matter how well intentioned. 

A friend who had worked in the banking business once told me about how they trained tellers to identify counterfeit money. Rather than exposing them to all sorts of counterfeit bills, the tellers handled real money exclusively, becoming so familiar with it that counterfeits would eventually be easily recognizable. In the book of Acts (17:11), the writer, Luke, singles out the Bereans as being noble-minded because they searched the scriptures daily to determine the veracity of what Paul and Silas were proclaiming to them about God. In the age of so many false prophets, the approach of the Bereans, much like training tellers to spot counterfeits, is the best way to avoid wrong thinking in regard to biblical truths.  

Mike
Reno, NV

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