Jimi Hendrix
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14
I was recently directed to the blog of New York Times Bestselling author Donald Miller. Donald Miller has written bestsellers titled Blue Like Jazz and Searching For God Knows What. The latter which I have read at the request of my girlfriend who is a big Donald Miller fan. After reading the book, I found Miller's writing style engaging, but the content held as much theological truths as The Purpose Driven Life. Miller likes to take a simpleton's view of spirituality and attempt to make it culturally relevant. The blog that Miller wrote that I want to address is titles "Are People Basically Good?" and can be found at this link.
Before I address the content of this blog, I want to give a little background on the theology of Donald Miller. He is part of the Emerging Church, which derives a lot of its theology from the Postmodern hermeneutic of Deconstructionism.Deconstruction generally tries to demonstrate that any text is not a discrete whole but contains several irreconcilable and contradictory meanings; that any text therefore has more than one interpretation; that the text itself links these interpretations inextricably; that the incompatibility of these interpretations is irreducible; and thus that an interpretative reading cannot go beyond a certain point.1 The Emergent Church has denied vital doctrines such as penal substitutionary atonement, hell and eternal punishment, and places more importance on living like Jesus than being led by Jesus. According to monergism.com, "Emerging Churches usually define themselves as those who like to take the life of Jesus as a model way to live, welcome those who are outside, share generously, participate, create, lead without control and function together in spiritual activities or communities who practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. While all of these activities may be good, please notice that all of the above emerging principles are not about what Christ has done for us, but what we do for him. So the the very central core of Christianity is left out. The true gospel, rather, is news about what Christ has already done for us as a Savior, rather than instruction and advice about what we are to do for God. The primacy of His accomplishment, not ours, is the essence of our faith. The gospel of Christ above all brings news, rather than instruction."2
Now whether or not Miller ascribes to all of these beliefs is debatable. His writings convey the message of a relational dynamic with Christ and its importance over above believing certain doctrines. He rarely quotes scripture and takes an 'Aw shucks, I don't know about theology but I know that Jesus ate with sinners, and that seems pretty important.' While eating with sinners and living as Jesus lived is important, the salvation of a fallen man is not dependent on those things. Christianity without a cross ceases to be Christianity.
Onto Miller's blog, Are People Basically Good? Miller opens the blog with this line. I’ve always wondered why people who believe in total depravity say things to their kids like “good job” when they catch a baseball. Shouldn’t they say something like you caught the ball, but you still deserve to go to hell?
Miller quickly shows his severe lack of intelligence in regards to theology. As someone who holds dear to the doctrine of total depravity, his conclusion is quite offensive and it shows not only how ignorant Donald Miller is, but also how lazy he is. Even those who deny the doctrine of total depravity don't even take it to the conclusion that a man would tell his son, "Nice catch but you still deserve hell." He continues displaying his ignorance with this gem of a statement.
I’ve never really trusted people who believed we were totally depraved, for obvious reasons. How can their view of the world be trusted? They are totally depraved, after all.
Quite Frankly, Mr. Miller, I've never trusted Christians that believed they were good enough to earn salvation or that by just living a good moral life, Christ would be pleased. The worldview of a christian that holds on to total depravity is a cross centered worldview. There is none righteous, no not one. Knowing the evil that lives inside of me and its POWER, my only recourse is to cling to the cross. Miller continues....
A pastor friend told me recently, though, that the term total depravity doesn’t mean you aren’t a good person, or aren’t capable of doing good, but that you aren’t capable of redeeming yourself. You are totally depraved, he said,at being able to access God.
This pastor was correct, but it shows the lack of respect that Miller has for doctrine. As a writer and one who has influence, Miller never says he went to scripture to then research this idea or sought to read what the reformers had to say. I guess I should at least be thankful that Donald Miller clearly knows a pastor that could talk some sense into him. He continues...
That made more sense to me, to be honest. And besides, I’ve met plenty of people who don’t even know God who are good people. And I mean really, really good. I mean they love and care about people, they are moral, they are charitable, so the whole idea there is nothing good in them doesn’t seem to jive with reality.
This is where Miller's postmodern view of scripture shows itself. Who is he comparing these people to? Himself? Clearly, he is not comparing them to Christ. He takes great care to mention that they are "really, really good." and they "love and care" for people. Mr. Miller, loving and caring for people is not enough. While it is good and noble, it does not save. And when you start to look at yourself in comparison with Christ and not your friends, you will see that there is no good in you. Your buddy and life model, Jesus Christ said himself in John 15:4-6 "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned." So according to Jesus, no man can do any good unless he abides in Him. Those that do not abide in Him or know Him, are like branches that are thrown away and burned. So I ask Miller, what good are these non-believers doing? Do you believe the good they do saves them? Makes them righteous? Are their works not like filthy rags? Furthermore, the account of the rich young man in Mark 10:17-18, Jesus has some interesting words about what is good. "And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." Miller concludes his blog with this:
Sometimes I wonder if God has an enemy and that enemy is trying to get us to not like people, because if we don’t like them, they won’t listen to anything we say. And sometimes I wonder if the idea of total depravity has been skewed to get us to not like people. Ever thought about this? And do you think people can be good? I don't know what type of christian Miller has dealt with, but I have never in my life met someone who used total depravity to not like people. The reason the church has lost its relevance is because it has forsaken sound doctrine and traded it for a snake oil salesmen. The emerging church and seeker sensitive churches think they have figured out the church's cultural crisis by fleeing from sound doctrine, watering down the Gospel, removing it's offensiveness and preaching a Gospel of acceptance and making Jesus as cool as possible. The truth is, this gospel does not save anyone. It does not change anyone. Donald Miller writes about a weak Jesus that doesn't care what we believe about him, he just wants us to hold hands and sing around the campfire. This is not a freeing gospel. The Gospel teaches us that we cannot attain righteousness on our own. We cannot do good in God's sight. We cannot love like God. We are under the power of sin and God has sent his son to free us. Ultimate freedom is found in service to the Cross. It is found by being led by the spirit. How can the church be led by the spirit if the wolves in sheep's clothing like Donald Miller tell us that we are good and scripture isn't that important to knowing Christ. We just need to follow His example. It is no wonder his simpleton writing is so popular in an age where the offensive doctrine of the Cross is replaced by the buddy Jesus. So let us seek the truths and mysteries of Christ and be led by His spirit. Let us seek to know more of Him so that the fruit we bear, we bear by being led by His Spirit. I will close with a quote from the great Puritan theologian John Owen. "Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about manners, justice and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers."
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstructionism 2.http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/qna/emerging.html
You got my heart
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First, way to make your fiancee sound like someone with "itching ears" listening to stuff that sounds good. :)
ReplyDeleteI liked him because he appears real and does not put on that Christian mask. He was honest about doubts and questions and didn't step along with the republican Jesus line.
I will say that the example Miller used is ignorant juvenile. There's a possibility that he could have used that statement to accomplish something, but he went nowhere with it. I think he should have developed the thought his pastor shared with him about what total depravity meant and perhaps explored the idea of imago dei.
I do like your comment about snake oil salesman. If that's all we are, people will be able to see that and blow us off accordingly.
I'm not trying to make you look bad. I semi-enjoyed the book you recommended. It was an easy read, but it was mostly fluff. I dont recall Miller using any scripture references.
ReplyDeleteNow, onto his blog. Given the nature of his theology and his view of scripture, I have lost what little respect I had for him. When you belong to a movement that devalues theology, you devalue the very source of salvation that you are claiming to preach.
Nicely stated.
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