A false economy, part 2: theological knowledge

As I said in the previous article, part of an abusive system is shifting our focus from our worth and value in God's eyes to our worth and value according to some human scale. We can get blinded to the problem, because that thing is not, in and of itself, sinful, but finding our worth in that thing rather than our value in God allows the abuse to happen.

The second area I think the RP church struggles is in theological knowledge, or at least the assumption of theological knowledge. Again, interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees show some insight into this:

They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.” The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out. (John 9:13-34)

The Pharisees claimed greater theological knowledge than this seemingly inferior formerly blind man. Yet, that man is able to demonstrate a better knowledge of the truth than they had. One might think that the Pharisees would see the wisdom in his statement, but instead, they take offense and put him out of the church. The Pharisees are the biblical poster children of a spiritually abusive system. They put many human measures in the place of true value, and they made sure they had the top spot in those measures.

But, this still happens today. Theological knowledge is not withheld from anyone who takes the time and energy to study God's Word. Yet, those with a certain pedigree or certain credentials in the RP church like to place themselves in a superior position above those without the pedigree or credentials. Symptoms of this in the RP church include:

• Inordinate focus on the preached word as a means of grace (Thanks, Westminster!)
• Concern that all formal and informal teaching in the church be done by ordained leaders
• Leaders who listen only to respond - completely one-sided theological conversations
• Discouraging discipleship that happens outside the formal church programs
• Discouraging debate on "controversial" theological issues except by approved leaders
• Churches that simply give in to whatever convictions the pastor holds
• Focus on the "spiritual gifts" and office of the leaders as a means to silence opposition
• Public shaming and disrespect of those who hold different theological views
• Looking down on those liberal Christians elsewhere who don't hold to RP distinctives.
• Potential leaders must be pushed on the congregation by the leaders