Certainty: A Place to Stand

Grant Richison

Description

Two centuries before Christ, the Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes experimented with the lever. He declared that he could “move the earth” if he had a place to stand somewhere in the cosmos. People need a certain place to stand, a point of reference beyond the self. In this bold critique of the emergent church of postevangelicals, Dr. Grant Richison, well-known Bible expositor (versebyversecommentary.com), draws a line in the sand to prevent further erosion of the certainty that we can stand on the absolute truth of the Bible. In his rejection of relativism, he lights the way for those who would present the gospel with certainty and clarity.

Informations

• Publié par: Castle Quay Books
• Date de parution: 15 février 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781894860765
• Langue: English

Extrait

CERTAINTY - A Place to Stand - Critique of the Emergent Church of Postevangelicals
Copyright © 2010 Dr. Grant C. Richison
All rights reserved
Printed in Canada
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-894860-62-8
ISBN 978-1-894860-76-5 EPUB
Published by: Castle Quay Books
1307 Wharf Street, Pickering, Ontario, L1W 1A5
Tel: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
www.castequaybooks.com
Executive editor / producer: Diane Roblin-Lee
Design and production: byDesign Media, www.bydesignmedia.ca
Cover art: Elma Eidse Neufeld, http://www.chateauroc.com
Technical assistant: Candace Morgan
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Thomas Nelson Publishers ©1984, 1982, 1980, 1979
Scripture quotations from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers are used by permission. All rights reserved.
This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission of the publishers.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Richison, Grant C., 1936- Certainty : a place to stand / Grant C. Richison.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-894860-62-8
1. Evangelicalism. 2. Emerging church movement. 3. Christianity--21st century. I. Title.
BR1640.R53 2010 270.8’3 C2010-906704-5
Dedication
To my wife, Joyce, who faithfully supports me in ministry. And to my sons Grant (Heather and children), Blake (Kristin and children), and Ross.
In Appreciation
Deb Elkink, a professional editor, is a long-time friend and editor of my website Verse-by-Verse Commentary www.versebyversecommentary.com . As a significant editor of this book, she poured countless hours into its preparation.
I am honored that Norm Geisler, a friend of many years and author of more than 50 books, wrote the Foreword.
Finally, I am thankful to Jack and Carol Klemke for encouraging me to write this book.
Foreword
In a day when the evangelical trumpet is making an uncertain sound, every Christian leader needs to read this book. It shows the need to be anchored to the Rock in our efforts to be geared to the times. At no time in our generation has there been a greater need and a clearer call to return to a surer foundation than that which is laid for our faith.
Dr. Norman L. Geisler
Professor of Apologetics
Veritas Evangelical Seminary
www.VeritasSeminary.com
Murrieta, CA
Preface
I have not written this book for theologians or scholars but for broad-spectrum leaders within evangelicalism. For that reason, heavier theological or philosophical concepts have been relegated to the endnotes. While this is not always the case, hopefully the context will help the reader to decipher concepts that are more difficult.
I would like to recommend three books to the more general reader that expose the postconservative movement for what it is: The Evangelical Left by Millard J. Erickson (Baker Books, 1997), Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church by D. A. Carson (Zondervan, 2005), and The Courage to be Protestant by David Wells (Eerdmans, 2008).
A heavier book, Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation in Postmodern Times , edited by Millard J. Erickson, Paul Kjoss Helseth, and Justin Taylor (Crossway Books, 2004), critiques Renewing the Center by recently deceased Stanley Grenz. Bob DeWaay wrote one of the best books that I have read on this subject called The Emergent Church, Undefining Christianity (Bethany Press International, 2009). Evangelicals Engaging Emergent: A Discussion of the Emergent Church Movement (B&H Academic, 2009) is a balanced book critiquing the emergent church movement.
Why We’re Not Emergent ( by Two Guys Who Should Be ), by Kevin DeYoung and Tel Kluck (Moody, 2009) is an easy-to-read book that challenges the paradigm of emergent thinking.
Prior to launching into a discussion on evangelical postmodernism, a caveat is in order. Philosophical and functional postmodernism differ. Philosophical postmodernism is a belief in a system; the function of postmodernity manifests itself in how people live their normal lives but without a clear understanding of the philosophy. Philosophical postmodernism gives no direct extrapolation to functional postmodernism; we find functional postmodernism in television, movies, and business. Not all postmodernity (the function) comes from postmodernism (the philosophy)
1. LOSS OF CERTAINTY AMONG EVANGELICALS: A Sad Story

Denial of Certainty
Two centuries before Christ, the Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes experimented with the lever. He declared that he could “move the earth” if he had a place to stand somewhere in the cosmos. People need a certain place to stand, a point of reference beyond the self.
I was surprised to hear a fellow staff member make glowing comments about a book that assails certainty of biblical truth. He even recommended that book to our leadership, yet possessed little perception of what that book taught. This staff person assumed it was a book about congenial relationships, but it had to do with lack of certainty about truth.
Some forms of the emergent church reject certainty of truth. This group reacts with skepticism towards evangelicals who assert certainty. These people feel betrayed by the belief that we can know something for sure. They want to distance themselves from what they deem to be judgmentalism that comes from certainty. They believe in a more “generous orthodoxy” devoid of discernment. For them, coming to belief is a quest for truth rather than arrival at truth. These people want to be non-judgmental about truth, so they blur such ideas as eternal punishment and homosexuality. They cannot assert that homosexuality is wrong by going to extant statements of Romans 1. Thus, their thinking lands on the ash heap of relativism; that is, truth is relative to the individual but does not stand independent from individual perspective. This becomes a serious problem in presenting the gospel.
Adherents to this movement curb their generosity toward evangelicals who hold to final truth. They tolerate almost any movement except evangelicalism. They are cynical and condescending toward those who think they have certainty about truth.
The greatest problem with this type of the emergent church is that it accepts a philosophy (postmodernism) that runs rampant through academic and pop culture. This philosophy rejects the idea that anyone can come to ultimate truth. Those who hold to this view assume that because general culture does not accept the idea that someone has the truth, they themselves cannot be perceived as having the truth either. Instead of critiquing this culture from a biblical viewpoint, they adopt the viewpoint. In other words, they have bought into the assumptions of this belief system, which is ironic in that this belief system claims certainty of sorts—that is, the certainty that nothing is certain! In one sense they cannot critique this assumption about reality because they do not have anything certain by which they can evaluate it.
The Word of God refutes the idea that people cannot come to ultimate truth. The Bible presents universal and absolute truth; it positions itself as mutually exclusive with other beliefs. There is no middle ground on this issue. Christianity places itself in conflict with the idea that humanity does not have a place to stand in the universe. The belief that “man is the measure of all things” (Protagoras) is a polar opposite to the Bible. If we say “everything is relative” and “there are no absolutes,” then those statements themselves become absolute.
Absolute truth is what is true of God and his creation. He and his Word are immutable (Hebrews 6:17–20). Truth does not begin with the individual but with revelation from God. That is the Christian’s place to stand. Holding to this conviction is no more arrogant than belief in uncertainty. Christian revelation rises above finite man to God, who transcends culture. He existed before the universe and culture. He speaks with clarity and certainty. God knows exhaustively. Humans cannot know exhaustively.
The Bible itself makes no claim for exhaustive knowledge. It allows that other sacred books such as the Koran can make accurate statements, but they do not contain ultimate truth. The Word of God is as inerrant as God is; it, therefore, makes accurate claims to truth. Both academic and pop beliefs hold that it is impossible to come to certainty about truth. This skepticism denies ability to come to absolutes. Those who hold to uncertainty replace truth with pluralism, pragmatism, relativism, and other current popular philosophies. A subjective view of life is paramount in these days. But these people are certain about doubt! Because self is subjective, doubt pervades all knowledge. To know that one does not know is a universal fact; one has to know that he or she does not know in order to doubt. Subjective thinkers, who start from the premise of the self, believe there is no universal truth that all can accept. To them, no objective truth outside the self exists, and eternal truth is not an option. They preclude transcendent truth. They also abandon the principle of contradiction (that is, that A does not possess the predicate of B). But doubt, to be meaningful, presupposes the absolute validity of the principle of contradiction. Either there is truth or there is not. Both cannot be true. If both were truth and its contradictory opposite, then doubt would not make sense. Most skeptics can see that a thing cannot be and not be in the same sense at the same time.
Unend