"New Thing" Theology by Todd Wilken

New Thing Theology

by Todd Wilken

One of the strongest feelings you can get in life, one of the most rewarding feelings is the feeling of an “Aha! I finally understand.” —Penn Jillette

     I have listened to my pastor preach for over seven years. I can count on one hand the times he has given me one of those “aha!” moments. He is a great, faithful preacher. But he is mostly unoriginal. And, that’s just fine. He seldom delivers that new insight, that fresh understanding, that “aha!” moment. And, that’s just the way it should be. 

     There are few things more dangerous in the Church than a bored theologian. I call them New Thing Theologians. Be it a pastor, Bible teacher, seminary professor, author —bored theologians have the potential to do as much damage as bad theologians. I know. I have been one for the better part of 25 years. 

     My pastor’s preaching has cured me. For most of my pastoral career, I have lived for that “aha!” moment. The old, run-of-the-mill theology was fine, but it didn’t give me the theological buzz that I craved. I lived on the edge of boredom, always looking for something to stave it off. I tended toward the pastors, professors and authors who I thought could help me do so. 

     As a New Thing Theologian, I read the Bible always on the lookout for something I had never seen before. I preached, always trying to find the new spin on the old text. I taught Bible class, always exploring some new angle on an old passage. 

     Now, not every new thing I came up with was a bad idea. Some of them were good ideas. None of them were truly original. I eventually realized that most my new ideas were really the old ideas of better theologians than me. Some of these new insights and ideas were just interesting for the sake of being interesting, and new for the sake of being new. Looking back, I realize that I was aiming for freshness, not faithfulness. 

     Then, I started listening to my pastor preach. It was great preaching. It was consistently textual, consistently clear Law and Gospel, consistently centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus for sinners. I wasn’t bored with his preaching, but I was a little conflicted. Where were my precious “aha!” moments? One, maybe two times a year, he would give me one. But most of the time, there were no surprises to speak of. 

      What are the dangers of New Thing Theology? Where does boredom with old theology, old doctrines, old theological categories and expressions lead? 

Heresy 

"I always wanted to become famous. And, then it occurred to me that to become famous in theology means to present something new and different. But, if I present something new and different, after 2,000 years of Christian theology, it is bound to be heresy. And therefore, I have decided not to become famous." —T. A. Kantonen

     The most obvious form of New Thing Theology is, of course, heresy. “New and different” may be good thing when it comes to technology, business and advertising, but “new and different” can be a very bad thing when it comes to Christian teaching and practice. The heretic is all about the new and the different. 

     But, the heretic rarely presents his false teachings as new or different. The heretic almost always presents his new and different teachings straight from the Bible. “All heretics quote the Bible” is the old saying. And, that is usually true. But, already in the second century, the church father Irenaeus observed the heretic’s trick: The heretic presents his teaching “under a pretense of superior knowledge, … as if, forsooth, they had something more excellent and sublime to reveal than God.” 

     Of course, some heretics don’t even bother to cite the Bible, claiming new revelation altogether. Islam started this way, even though we consider it an old religion. Muhammed may have lived 1,400 years ago, but at the time his revelations were new, fresh and different. Islam, Mormonism, The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society —these heresies are easy to spot today, but in their day, they were the newest thing around. And, the claim to new revelation continues today.

God Is Doing a New Thing 

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I 

am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? —Isaiah 43:19-19

“God is doing a new thing” has become the Creed of many New Thing Theologians, from the charismatic televangelist to the liberal mainline protestant. This is another form of New Thing Theology. You name it, God is doing it. On the one hand God is bringing about new revivals, signs, miracles, anointings, moves-of-the-spirit. On the other hand, God is affirming new alternative lifestyles, sexual orientations, genders, and definitions of marriage. Depending on whom you ask, God is doing all these new things. 

      These New Thing Theologians have a “Bible plus” theology. The Bible is great, as far as it goes, but now God is doing something new. This is a very convenient claim. If God is doing something new, something not found in the Bible, something even contrary to what is in the Bible, then anything goes. Who is to say what God can do? Who is to say what God will do next? The New Thing Theologian, that’s who. 

       This kind of New Thing Theology, like heresy, is the enemy of Christian theology. But in a way, this version of New Thing Theology is even more dangerous than heresy. The heretic introduces a new teaching and usually stops there. The “God is doing a new thing” theologian doesn’t. He can’t, really. God’s ongoing revelation is never the final word on any doctrine or subject. It is always a rough draft, never the final version. It is always open to future changes and revisions. The most this kind of theologian can say is, “This is what God is saying to us today; this is what God is doing today; tomorrow it may change.” The heretic misinterprets the Bible; the “God is doing a new thing” theologian is rewriting it. 

Jeremiah 29:11, a Plan to Prosper You?

"Death, Distraction and Pixie Dust" by Steven Kozar

     As I look back on my 35 or so years of being a Christian, I'm very thankful for the foundation that was laid in my teenage years. I read books by C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Josh McDowell, Phillip Yancey and Francis Schaeffer; and I was encouraged by several godly men to build my faith on the reality of God's Word-not just my feelings. Jesus was a real historical person who really said and really did the things the Bible describes. I don't believe one can hold the position that the Bible is "just a bunch of stories that people made up" without being intellectually lazy-or worse (but that is a gigantic topic for another day).
     Today, I look around and see that the Bible describes the world we live in as it really is. The Bible describes man as constantly veering towards selfishness and it describes man as always wanting to rebel against God. We've got a million different ways to disobey our Creator and take control. The Bible does not portray man as basically good, and history bears this out with painful and horrendous emphasis (which is not to say that some people haven't done some very good things, some of the time). The Bible also describes man as all too willing to buy into Satan's original lie that we "surely will not die" and that if we disobey God we will "be like God." In other words, the Bible does not give us a fantasy land of unicorns and pixie dust, where "all of our dreams can come true"-no matter what false teachers (like Joel Olsteen, just to name one) would have us believe. We should be glad that the messy, sinful world we live in is very much like the messy, sinful world that the Bible describes. Why? Because Christianity is about God redeeming mankind-not creating religious fantasies to cover up the often nightmarish existence that we all share.
     This nightmarish existence that we all share is most difficult to grapple with in America; this is the Land of Distraction and the Home of the Shallow. It seems we will go to any length in order to prolong our delusions.
     Here's the greatest truth that we deny: We will all die.
     I don't even know the names of my great grandparents, let alone have any pictures of them. Each of us, with our thousands of personal photographs, mementos, and belongings will also be forgotten within a few generations (some of us will have our precious belongings liquidated while we're still drooling in a nursery home). Think about it: Completely Forgotten. I'm an artist, so there's a chance that my name will be remembered a little bit longer than most people, but still, I know that my earthly life will soon be over and forgotten.
     What's truly shameful, in my way of thinking, is how this sobering reality should lead us to God, but even in many churches this reality is avoided. We should be asking ourselves: How and why did I get here? What will happen when I die? What is the meaning of my life? Instead of confronting us (lovingly confronting us) with these difficult and sobering questions, many pastors are telling us how to "reach our destiny" and "find the hidden keys to our purpose" and so on. They tell us that "we are meant for greatness" and that God has "planted a dream inside us" yet, all the while they never allow us to contemplate the reality of our impending fate-death itself.
      The Christianity of the Bible confronts us with our sin, and reminds us of our death; it also confronts the sinful, deceptive and violent world we live in, and offers us redemption. Ephesians 1: 7-8 "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." -Steven Kozar

A Pentecostal in (General) Support of the Strange Fire Conference

VERY powerful article!! If only more Pentecostal/Charismatic pastors would face reality like this one:

A Pentecostal in (General) Support of the Strange Fire Conference | Question Tradition

Here's the five points of this article:
1. Any error John MacArthur espoused at the conference, and any recklessness he demonstrated, is far less than the errors and recklessness we see in much of the modern Charismatic movement.
2. Pentecostals and Charismatics are allergic to doctrinal distinction and discernment.
3. The false teachers have more influence than we think or admit.
4. We routinely ignore the regulative principle of worship.
5. We functionally ignore Sola Scriptura.

"False Teaching About False Teaching from Rick Joyner" by Steven Kozar

The New and Improved Christianity: Subjective Personal Experience Leads Us to Truth! Or: The "Make It Up As You Go" Christianity!

The following is an exact quote of three paragraphs from page 232 of "A Prophetic Vision for the 21st Century" by Rick Joyner (with my comments in parenthesis):
   
     False prophets and false prophecies are founded on deception. The most effective guise of the enemy is to come as "an angel of light" or "a messenger of truth." Just because a prophecy has some truth in it does not make it genuine. Unfortunately, Satan knows the Bible better than most Christians. He is so clever at perverting its message, he even tried it on Jesus, who is the Word Himself. Just knowing Scripture, and being able to bludgeon others into submission with it, does not make one a true messenger. We must ask if someone is "rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV). (Outside of his bizarre "bludgeoning" reference, this is a very straight-forward and orthodox Christian paragraph.)
     Who will know if the Word is being rightly divided? The One who wrote the Book. (Only God knows? Notice what Joyner leaves out? The ability of believers to rightly divide the Word based on the Word itself!) Doesn't that leave a lot of room for subjectivity? Yes, it does, and that is dangerous, but it is far more dangerous not to allow for subjectivity in the discernment of truth. Subjectivity is essential. (This is not a parody piece-he actually wrote this, and it gets worse...) The Lord must become our personal Savior, our personal Lord, and truth must be personal if we are really going to know it. (Notice that no Bible references are given to back up these claims about needing a personal Lord and Savior. I believe Jesus IS Lord. Period... regardless of my personal feelings or experience. And exactly when do we know for sure that truth has become personal? Isn't truth, by it's very definition, self-existing?) For this reason the Bible was meant to be relatively subjective in its interpretation. This was not to promote private interpretations, but to require each of us to be seekers of the Lord and His truth ourselves. (This is "double speak" of the most extreme order.) We will not keep from being deceived just because we know someone who knows the Bible. Every one of us must know the Spirit of Truth. (Again, what is he leaving out? Knowing the Bible in order to avoid deception!) 
     Scholars have devised many systems of hermeneutics to remove subjectivity from biblical interpretation. (Joyner knows the motives behind every Bible scholar who has ever lived?) Many of these are excellent guidelines, but regardless of how good our hermeneutics, we will be subject increasingly to deception in the coming times if we do not know and follow the Spirit of Truth. We must recognize that some hermeneutic principles are an attempt to remove our need for the Holy Spirit, regardless of how much the developers give lip service to needing Him. (It's amazing how Joyner knows when theologians are merely giving lip service!) Many of those who react the most to what they perceive to be people's tendency toward "private interpretations" are really reacting to the ability of people to see things differently from the way they do. (Notice how Joyner can't come right out and call private interpretations what they really are: private interpretations. This is why there is so much chaos, confusion and defection in the "hyper-charismatic" church: everyone is just making it up as they go. Folks, PLEASE stay away from this man's teaching-and all the other "Super Apostles" like him! -Steven Kozar)
   

I am an Angry Pastor (A Statement of Purpose)

This short article confirms what I just wrote recently on my page "Why This Blog?"...

I am an Angry Pastor (A Statement of Purpose) | The Angry Pastor Blog

"The New Apostolic Reformation End Times Scripture" by Steven Kozar

New and Improved Scripture (that fits the New Apostolic Reformation)

His disciples asked Him, "Tell us, what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" And Jesus answered them and said, "See to it that no one deceives you with Bible verses about this, that and the other thing-who can understand all that doctrine, anyway? Just buy all the books, CDs and DVDs from the Apostles, Prophets and Pastors. You will know them by their catch phrases, advertising campaigns and highly publicized conferences. Do they have gigantic churches, TV shows and best-selling books? Then you can trust them. Do they live in ostentatious mansions and fly in private jets, having derived all of their riches from the sheep they pretend to help? Then do whatever they say and continue giving them your money. Remember that time I went into the temple and drove out the money changers with a whip? Well, in the last days that gets reversed; you will pay the new money changers to tickle your ears, whilst ignoring the preaching of the Gospel. I know I originally said, 'It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves;' but in the last days I will raise up a group of new and better apostles who will get filthy rich even as they proclaim false teachings. They will make many errors with their "fortune-telling" style of prophesying, and their lives will often be a moral train wreck, but as long as they do it in my name, it's all good!" His disciples then asked Him, "what if they talk about doing many great miracles, but produce very few results? And what if they talk more about themselves than about You? And what if they mishandle the Holy Scriptures by constantly taking verses out of context? And what if..." Jesus interrupted them and said, "Hello? Didn't you hear Me the first time?? As long as they do these things in My name it's all good! Let's just be positive; remember, your words have creative power, so try and speak good things into existence. In fact, I think I felt a shift in the atmosphere as I said that. Did you guys feel that?!" At this the disciples marveled, because it didn't sound like any of His other teachings.