We work hard at being Christians.  Maybe too hard. See the column below ... Blessings, Bob

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Labels: 2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV, concepts, dispensationalism, Dwight Moody, Genesis 1, John 1, popular theology, simplicity

Spirituality Column #874

August 15, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Excess Baggage

By Bob Walters

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV

Our Christian vocation is to believe, share, promote, trust, and I daresay, defend, the Word of God: The Logos, Son of God, our Creator, Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ.

If for a moment you thought “Word” meant the Bible … well, yeah, that too.  Living a life immersed in biblical truth, knowing the peace and truth of scripture, relying on its wonderful text as our North Star and key truth navigational aid hearkens life’s intellectual richness and divine perspective available only with faith in Christ.

Following the purpose and plan of the One who created us to begin with should be life’s most simple, natural, inarguable track and secure way forward.  Many of us err and instead follow the ways of man, dismissing a God we don’t understand. 

But man didn’t create humanity – or life, or Creation, or cosmically much of anything else – God did. Perhaps you have noticed that science never says “where life came from.” Theories abound – complex theories, fantastic theories – but nothing as direct as Genesis 1, or even John 1 – “In the beginning was the Word … the Word was God … without Him was nothing made.” Simple: It’s Jesus.

Our focus today is on “simplicity,” which is why we took the rare translational path (here) of a King James Version citation from the New Testament, where Second Corinthians 11:3, reads “simplicity,” not the “sincere and pure devotion” phrase of the NIV, ESV, and NASB. The Greek word, in fact, is “simplicity” (haplotetos).

I like “simplicity” better, though “sincere and pure” aren’t bad.  But throughout Christian history, especially in the last 200 years, haven’t we made a life in Christ, the study of the Bible, and “going to church” a far more burdensome exercise than necessary?  You may not realize it, but we have.  The excess baggage is crushing.

Rather than holding a personal, laser focus on the freeing, joyous, God-affirming, and life-affirming relationship with the King of Glory, humans, scholars, preachers, and prophets add endless academic baggage or church practice attendant to endlessly defining, dividing, and delineating the Bible’s every phrase, nuance, and idea.  We must remind ourselves to love with the person of Jesus Christ, not prattle over concepts.

What concepts?  Millennialism. The Kingdom of Heaven / rewards. Spiritual Gifts. Prophesy. Zionism. End Times. Imminent Rapture (Up we go!). The now mostly-defunct craziness of “Dispensationalism,” which presumes God in the Bible divides up “ages” of judgement.  If you’ve ever read a “Left Behind” book you have been exposed, unawares probably, to this idea.  Dispensationalism, fyi, was the theology of Dwight Moody.

It’s the most popular and commercially successful theology of the last 150 years (think radio, TV, books, movies, many megachurches), overly defining scripture in a packaged transaction of definitive systems, i.e., “Do this, and God will give you this.”   Man continually introduces another “program” to find/define Jesus. Whither love?

I often wonder if this spiritual merchandising template is more about control (Behave!), or funding (God wants me to be rich!), or Satan (distract me from Jesus).

The simplest thing for a Christian is to focus on Jesus. ‘Works every time.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) read Dan Hummel’s book on Dispensationalism.