Coming out of the Cage

I would say that I've aligned myself with reformed theology for about 4 years now. In other words, it roughly coincides with my time at Setting Captives Free. What does that mean? It means that I embrace the 5 solas of the Reformation, for example. It also means that I embrace the Doctrines of Grace or "TULIP" if you like acronyms. The good news is that it is considered hip in some circles to be young and reformed thanks to the internet. We used to have to sit quietly while we listened to preaching about God's sovereignty in one breath, but then about how God has nothing to do with a Katrina or a 9/11. There are ways to reconcile these things in the context of a good God, but I won't get into that here. Go here if you're interested in reading a great treatment of this from a Biblical mindset.

Few people really embrace the Doctrines of Grace when they first become believers. After all, chances are that they didn't hear anything about them when they were evangelized. They probably heard something like the 4 Spiritual Laws, which I think fail a little bit because they are man-centered rather than God-centered. We come to Christ patting ourselves on the back for being smart enough to purchase some eternal fire insurance. Or we hope that we can find out what God's plan is for our life so that we can escape the misery we find ourselves in.

However, if we spend some time in Scripture we often find that the focus changes. This is especially true if we read any of the Puritans or someone like John Piper. We begin to see that at least the first sentence of The Purpose-Driven Life is accurate -- it's not about us. It's about God and His glory. Then we come across a passage like Ephesians 1 and our prideful socks get knocked off. As we continually reread the Bible we begin to see God's glory in places like Psalm 23 where we see that He guides us in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. We begin to realize that it's all about God's sovereign plan. We hopefully guard ourselves against hyper-Calvinism and as we gain knowledge we become excited about sharing what we've learned.

The problem is that we often turn into obnoxious heretic-hunters. I can remember listening to messages at my church straining to hear any traces of what I would consider wrong teaching. Of course, we are to be like the Berean church that tested everything according to the Scriptures. I rejoice that my pastor encourages us to do so. However, I'm finding that life is better since I learned to relax a little bit. I know a person in Atlanta who used to be a good friend. Unfortunately, I alienated him with my doctrine, though I was trying to help him and share the gospel with him. His wife grew up in a Methodist church. Since he grew up in a Mormon church and hates religion, I figure that the best chance he has for hearing the gospel is to attend that Methodist church. I had to come to the conclusion that, despite my zeal for the Doctrines of Grace, I'd rather he attend a Methodist church than no church at all, assuming that there is some presentation of the gospel there.

In other words, I think I'm ready to be let out of my cage. I'd appreciate any feedback from those of you who interact with me regularly. How obnoxious am I about my faith? Do you know what I believe? If you disagree with me I hope that you are at least challenged by my convictions. If you choose to disagree that is between you and God. I want to share the truth in a loving way and not get in the way of the gospel being presented.

I also hope that anyone reading this from a Reformed perspective will consider whether or not they need to be kept in a cage for a while. Don't feel badly if you do -- most of us go through this and it becomes something over which we must repent.