MINISTER’S LETTER
POSITIVELY PARTISAN
Dear brothers and sisters,
I want to encourage you to be more partisan.
Surely not! How unchristian! How divisive! So, some caveats. I’m not advocating for division or fallouts, or for any kind of tribalism. Instead, I want us to be a church deeply rooted in the Word of God, clearly discipled from the Word of God, and building our worldviews on the Word of God. I want us to know our own story, to be aware of where we stand in church history and have confidence in our beliefs because of the shoulders we stand upon.
It is, I suppose, a conviction flowing from a doctrine of Scripture that values every word of the Bible as divinely inspired, true and profitable for teaching and training in righteousness, which means that every single corner of God’s Word is to be cherished as the treasure it is, and this will include our doctrine of God, our Christology, our soteriology and so on, but will also cover our belief on baptism, the Lord’s supper, ecclesiology (doctrine of the church), eschatology (doctrine of the end times), church membership, ethics and much more.
Really what I want to do is to encourage us all to dig deeply into our bibles and allow God’s Word to infiltrate every corner of our lives and beliefs. We often silo our beliefs into primary, secondary and tertiary categories, and we often do this in the church in order to clarify the boundaries around the church itself; what must we believe in order to be truly a disciple of God and member of the body of Christ? Whatever the answer is must belong in the primary category. Everything else is secondary. Well, ok. That’s fine and good for that exercise. The only issue is that we often then end up minimizing the secondaries to the point that they get distorted, minimized or even abandoned. And to hold a clear opinion on a “secondary” doctrine is viewed as being unnecessarily divisive.
But danger lies in that direction. GK Chesterton is credited with saying “Heresy is truth out of proportion.” Theological drift is the bedfellow of heresy. I’m not saying that holding a different view on baptism makes someone a heretic! But to downplay secondary matters, to never define them, to avoid holding clear views out of fear of offence is unhelpful. Instead, every local church should be clear about what it believes and teach its members. It is this I want to encourage. What we believe matters a lot, even what we believe on secondary and tertiary subjects, because in reality all our theology is interconnected within one single framework. When we shift our standpoint on one point, even if it’s nearer the edges, it impacts the whole.
It has been tragically sad to hear of Sam Allberry’s hidden sins which have recently come to light (Sam is a well-known Christian leader and author, particularly his contributions to sexuality and gender identity – he himself has struggled with same-sex attraction), but it has also been distressing to see the way in which his mistakes have been reported on, misreported, argued over and weaponized. I make no comment on the details, nor on Sam personally, but there is discussion to be had over the importance of clearly understanding secondary theological doctrines, such as the doctrine of concupiscence in this example.
In a sentence, concupiscence is the doctrine of disordered desire, and Sam Allberry, John Stevens (director of FIEC UK), Vaughan Roberts and others argue that the desire is not sinful until acted upon; others, including IPC minister Matthew Roberts, argue that lustful desires are sinful in and of themselves and must to be “put to death”.
My point in this letter is simply to say that what we believe really matters, even on secondary matters such as the doctrine of “sinful desire”(concupiscence), and my personal view is that Sam and others are not helped by holding to a more open, relaxed view on concupiscence.
So, what is the antidote? How do we avoid complacency? How do we avoid schism? How do we encourage one another to love and good works? By practicing positive partisanship. We rejoice in the truth. We search the Scriptures diligently. We delight in the common means of grace God has blessed us with. We love the Word of God. We delight to walk in righteousness by streams of living water.
May Gilcomston Church be such a place and such a church.
Grace and peace,
Nathan.