Theological Pride

Theological pride is not limited to the Scribes and the Pharisees from two thousand years ago. It’s alive and well thank you, all around me.

I recently had a difference of opinion with a few friends who have the capacity to handle theological issues much better than me. I like these guys because they can wrestle with the complex details of scripture for me, because I don’t live in that part of the world very much.

I am not wired for debating doctrinal details, so I rely on people like these guys to sort the details amongst themselves. When they all agree, I then process their thoughts and determine reality for myself. Until they do agree, I park the issues myself, and just watch and wait, and think, and pray. It’s not that I don’t actually think the issues for myself, it’s more that they like to dig into the details and I’m a big picture guy, that gets stressed out poking around inside the “ifs-buts-and-maybes”.

My mates are out to change the world. Good on them, I say. Go for it and make the world a better place, if you can. I will support you and encourage you as you do good for your fellow journeymen on this planet earth. Some of my relatives care about the political goings on in Tibet, and preserving the environment and they go on at me about saving a rare species of flaura or fauna. Look, I’m really sorry guys (and gals) - when I see a tree I see firewood, timber and a challenge, and I got excited as a child reading about the Maori hunters capturing delicious, succulent native pigeons for a feed of . . . - well you get the idea.

Others around me work hard to minimize their carbon footprint and interfere in business that is not theirs - even to the point of causing me marital discord by constantly turning off my wife’s heated shower-rail, so that I get the blame.

The globalists have the politicians up their sleeves and have been twisting our minds to believe that 10% of the population are naturally homosexuals from birth (it’s a deliberate lie - it’s less than one percent that have a homosexual “tendency”); that the other guys are always the “baddies” and therefore need to be killed; that the world is overcrowded and needs to be limited in numbers; that there is a shortage of oil that means they make more profit and gain greater global influence; and thousands of other apparently well-meaning causes, philosophies and so on.

I find a lot of Christians are the same - zealous to change everybody, to sort others out with what is right and wrong, good and bad. Some of them attack the spiritually dead with threats of eternal damnation. Others go for the “opposition” and take on every evil they see with a vengeance calling upon every power in the heavens to take on every power from the dark side at their own behest. Others take aim at their own brothers and sisters in faith and end up shooting those they meant to correct.

I have no beef with their passion. Half the time the cause is a good one, and their desire is often only to help, but even if there is one live round in a whole magazine of blanks it can still kill the subject.

I’ll admit it - I hate getting things wrong. I get embarrassed and am a proud guy that doesn’t like finding myself in a pickle having to back down and eat humble pie. So a big breakthrough came for me a few years ago when I stopped pretending that I always had the right answer and the right viewpoint and the right theology. My theological pride was shattered enough for me to “grow up” and confess that I didn’t always know everything.

The result was that I stopped eating theological pie for the last time (I hope) when I gave up trying to mind everybody else’s business and I just spoke about what I did know that affected my immediate environment. While I didn’t suddenly just agree with everybody, and I didn’t stop seeking to know things as they really were, the sharp edge to my theological perspectives came off and I could relate to more people where they were.

Crazy as it may seem, I also found that some of my friend’s less acceptable ideas started to make sense and were actually proved right to my satisfaction. I also came to see that some of my other friend’s ideas that initially appeared to have validity actually had some credibility issues.

Traditional thinking in much of Christianity is that good doctrine is the foundation of right Christian living, and of course salvation. It’s true that good doctrine is important, but 99% is NOT worthy of a fight or a relationship breakdown. The fear is that opening ourselves up to letting others do or think differently is tantamount to encouraging apostasy. It’s not. It’s simply being sensitive. The world will still continue to rotate and the sun will still come up tomorrow even if we do not agree on everything.

There’s always a place for theological banter, for correcting another, for sharing our perspectives, but only a place for it. Only theological pride tells us that it has to be the focus of a Christian walk. Jesus demonstrated His love for mankind first and taught the theological issues in the process of loving the world around Him. He got the order right according to my read of it.

You’ve heard it said that “pride comes before a fall”. That saying is right out of the bible. It’s from within Proverbs to be precise:

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18:

Sure, nobody’s perfect, but it’s interesting that all my friends at one time or another have backed off, apologized or altered their previously strong opinions at some stage in some area of theology or in the outworking of their theology.

While it’s great that they are humble enough to do this, that’s actually indicative of the very problem with trying to be right all the time. When we use the phrase; “God says this”, or “God thinks that” we open ourselves up to ridicule, deep embarrassment or shame when we do get it wrong.

If you think that you have it all worked out, and you have a desire to change the world around you, would you please kindly befriend me and demonstrate true Christian love to me and my fellow travelers first, before you sort us out or correct us? That way you’ll have our ears when you do have a gem or two of truth to share with us. I call it keeping relationship.

Maintaining relationship in the face of differences of opinion is the VICTUS IN AMBITUS way.