Tuesday, January 22, 2008
By Faith... the Judges, Part 62 of 62
TEXT: "What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets" (Hebrews 11:32).
IDEA: A strong faith with a poor theology can be dangerous.
PURPOSE: To help listeners see that faith based on a poor theology can be harmful.
In our last conversation we made the point that God will overlook ignorance but will honor belief.
I often hear people say that you need to have a heart faith and not a head faith.
- What do you think they mean by that?
- Are the two opposites?
I. A strong faith with poor theology can be dangerous.
Have you ever heard a preacher or Christian leader say, “Of course, I’m not a theologian”? How do you respond to that kind of person?
Suppose you go to a physician and you’re suffering some deep pain. How do you feel about the doctor who, after you’ve explained your sickness, says to you, “I’m not much good at medicine, but I want to help you. Why don’t we open you up and see what we can see?”
What is the danger of faith without theology? It easily leads to superficiality, sentimentality, and sometimes to personal tragedy.
II. Although God will overlook ignorance, not unbelief, zeal with ignorance can cause great harm.
What you believe about God is the most important thing about you, and the more zealous you are, the more important it is because you are more likely to act on what you believe.
William Temple: “If your conception of God is radically false, then the more devout you are, the worse it will be for you. You’re opening your soul to be molded by something base. You might much better be an atheist.”
III. What is the relationship between our faith and the doctrines that describe the faith?
C. S. Lewis in “Beyond Personality” wanted to show the importance of theology to faith. He was lecturing to a group of men and women in the Royal Air Force. An old officer stood up and interrupted him, announcing that he had no use for theology. “I believe in God,” he said, “because I felt God when I was alone in the desert at night. Once you’ve felt God, you have no need for all this talk about God.” Lewis went on to say that in a sense he quite agreed with that man, that the sergeant probably had a real experience from God in the desert. When he turned from that experience of God to the Christian creeds, he was turning from something more real to something less real. In the same way that a man who has once looked at the Atlantic Ocean from a beach and then goes to his office and looks at a map of the Atlantic will be turning from something more real to something less real, turning from the waves and the wind and the salt air to a map on colored paper. But here is the point. The map is only colored paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. First, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. People better qualified to talk about the ocean than you are. While yours is only an isolated glimpse of the ocean, the map fits all of the experiences of the ocean together. Second, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you’re content with walks on the beach, your experiences are far more fun than studying a map. But the map is going to be of more use than walks on the beach if you want to go to New York from Great Britain. Theology is like that map.
Conclusion:
Great trust must be based on great truth or it can lead to great tragedy.
