Hegelian Relativist Christians

I don’t know how many other people do this, but I have a habit of reading the comments people make on blogs or in response to ‘controversial’ posts on Facebook. It never ceases to amaze me how ridiculous many people are. I generally find that a majority of those who write vitriolic responses have generally missed the whole point of the article or post. Another thing that frequently happens is a debate ensues between two or more responders, who end up arguing over something completely beside the original writer’s point. People just don’t seem to be able or willing to concentrate anymore.

But what amazes me most often is how Hegelian or relativistic so many Christians are. These are the same people who complain about secular society’s loss of moral compass and the denial of absolutes. But let someone make a strong two-fisted theological statement, and these same people turn into chicken-livered relativists. “Well, that’s your opinion…” You get the picture.

It’s fascinating to hear Christians rail against our degenerate society with its lack moral absolutes. They lament how the church has bought into this same moral subjectivity. Yet tell them that the Pope is the anti-Christ and see what they say. Claim that to be a true Calvinist one should advocate paedobaptism and watch the relativistic bullets fly. Call Arminianism a heresy and see what happens. Declare the imposture of Popery and watch the bullets fly. The same people who want absolutes, suddenly they think you are merely stating your opinions and that theirs are equally valid.

Calvinism and Arminianism cannot both be true. True Reformation Christianity cannot be compatible with Popery, despite what the compromising "evangelicals" of ECT say. Scripture affirms one view or the other. This should be clear to anyone willing to listen. Revelatory sign gifts are either still in operation or they are not. Baptism of infants is either valid or it isn’t. It’s funny though that when you affirm Calvinism, Cessationism and Paedobaptism and repudiate their opposites, you will hear the Hegelianism shine through.

Highway to Hegel

Hegelianism is the philosophy of relativism. It asserts that all judgments of the mind are made relative to the person making the judgment. The outworking of this system is the gross indifference to traditional morality that pervades much of our world.

As such, pragmatism becomes the order of the day. Face it, if nothing is intrinsically right or wrong, but this assessment is purely my subjective valuation, then whatever gets me the desired results is the way to go. Nothing embodies this more that modern evangelism. And the culprit responsible for this irresponsible and unscriptural results-orientated approach to evangelism is none other than the poster-boy of revivalism, Charles G. Finney.

Finney’s numerical success was his vindication. In his Memoirs he confronts his critics thus, "Show me the fruits of your ministry and if they so far exceed mine as to give me evidence that you have found a more excellent way, I will adopt your views.” Countless heretics have resorted to this hogwash of an answer ever since. People who have no business being in Christian ministry justify their unorthodox practices by comparing their so-called “track record” to that of their critics. He with the highest score wins. Finney’s invincible answer to his objectors was: My results justify my methods. In other words: the ends justify the means.

Later generations of evangelists fell victim to this fallacious reasoning that “success” is the barometer of God's blessing. Billy Sunday, though ostensibly a Calvinist, stated, "Theory has got to go into the scrap heap when it comes to experience." This is unmitigated mysticism. Since when is Christian doctrine merely theory? So the doctrines of grace could be ignored by the evangelist. And if they could be ignored, why not rejected? Future generations of evangelists have chosen this path. D.L. Moody resorted to this same false reasoning when he said, "It makes no difference how you get a man to God, provided you get him there."

The million dollar question though is this: Do we get anyone to God? And secondly, does anyone come to Christ when His gospel is not preached? The answer to both questions is a resounding “NO!”

Yet this hasn’t stopped hundreds of preachers from trying anyway. Billy Graham, on more than one occasion invited people to the front to accept Christ as Savior even though, because of unforeseen circumstances, he was unable to preach. He simply said, in effect, “I can’t preach tonight, but if you’d like to accept Jesus as your Savior, come on down to the front and pray.”

Believe me, in my years of ministry I have seen far worse. I heard a preacher (and I use that term liberally in this guy’s case) ask for a show of hands of those who wished to go to Hell. All those who did not raise their hands, and there were none, he insisted come to the front to pray and accept Christ. The fact that this was merely an appeal to the basest self-interest of sinful man didn’t stand in the preacher’s way. He was going to fill his quota.

Nowhere in Scripture do we find an altar call. Nowhere do we find the Apostles inviting people to accept Jesus as their Savior by repeating some stock prayer. Yet this fact has not stopped thousands of preachers from doing it anyway. Nowhere are we commanded to do these things. There is neither a direct command/example, nor a way to deduce it as a principle taught in Scripture.

What is this but Hegelian relativism? Millions of people then have been introduced into Christianity with the notion that what Scripture actually says is probably not realistic in this day and age, and is certainly not practical (just ask Robert “Crystal Cathedral” Schuller).

The ridiculous antics of the “church growth” movement and the drivel of the “purpose-driven” lot are all the fallout of this mentality. It doesn’t matter how we get people to God (be it through raffles, mimes and clowns or Jonas Brothers concerts) as long as we can produce numbers. Who is some farm-town pastor with 25 members to complain about Rick Warren, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen or Bill Hybels? Their success speaks for itself. Or does it?

I Can't See Their Hearts

I have been irritated lately. I have heard a dozen or so comments from various people that have just really angered me. I’ve already tipped my hand by the title of this post. Yes, it’s about this lily-livered, spineless, relativistic, “who-am-I-to-judge-anyone” attitude that has infected, or should I say, infested much of so-called Christian thought. Much more could be said that I will say, but there are some huge flaws that this mindset betrays.

First of all, it is based on the assumption that truth is subjective. That idea in and of itself is absolutely idiotic. I don’t know of a nicer way to put it. It is so fashionable for people to say that what is right for one person may not be right for someone else. But this is sheer idiocy and hypocrisy. If a person, outside the Christian faith wants to believe such drivel, I say, let them. Paul said we didn’t judge those outside the Church. But, for a person who claims Christianity to hold to such a philosophy is unpardonable. Christianity means nothing if it doesn’t mean it absolutely.

The world has been turned on its head by this relativistic mindset. G.K. Chesterton, in his book Orthodoxy, remarks that we were meant to be sure of the truth and doubtful of ourselves, but we have reversed the order. It is considered arrogant to make exclusive truth claims. Classic Christianity is too “narrow” because it views all other religions as false and holds that no one who does not believe in Christ is or will be saved. Period! Somehow it has been portrayed as humble to be doubtful or, at least, to not be insistent about the exclusive claims of Christianity about salvation and sin. What kills me though is that the same people who are so “modest” and “humble” as to doubt God’s Word, are the same ones who are unspeakably confident in themselves. The only reason that the subversive Emergents reject the exclusivist claims of Christianity, is because they place their own minds above God’s. Chesterton quipped that we are well on our way to producing a race of men too modest to believe in the multiplication table!

But it gets uglier. As my title suggests, I’m particularly irritated by the Osteen-esque refusal to pin oneself down theologically by appealing to this wimpy, “I Can’t See Their Hearts,” copout. Say what you like, but this is nothing other than a denial of sin. It is based on the false, anti-Christian belief that all men are essential good. It is assumed that regardless of how a person lives or believes, as long as he has a “good heart” then nothing else matters. But there’s the rub. Scripture claims that NO ONE has a good heart. Outside of Christ, everyone is vile, corrupt, wicked and perverse. The noblest unbeliever is on a greased slide to hell.

Here’s a short sample of what God says, and incidentally, He can see the heart.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jer. 17:9

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen 6:5

I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Gen. 8:21

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. Job 14:4

Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Ps. 51:5

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Jer. 13:23

Peter tells us that the spurious believer is "in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." Acts 8:23

"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8:7

All men are by nature children of wrath.... and dead in trespasses and sins. Eph. 2:1, 3