Every evangelical finds himself confronted with the danger of slipping into the ever-hardening attitude of the Pharisee while every theological liberal is confronted with the dangers inherent in the “doctrine” of the Sadducees. These dangers, present in all generations, are perhaps greater today than ever before, as the lines between “conservatives” and “modernists” are being drawn more clearly.
Of the Pharisees our Lord said, “In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Matt. 15:9), while to the Sadducees, questioning him about the resurrection of the dead, his reply was, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29).
Evangelicals need very much to be warned of the dangers of pharisaism, with its legalism and its negative approach to the Christian faith, and I will write on this another time. For now I am thinking of the growing evidence that many in the major demoninations who hold positions of great power are not far removed from the Sadducees of our Lord’s time.
The chief characteristic of the Sadducees was a type of religious rationalism that denied the realm of the supernatural with its angels and spirits and wholly rejected the doctrine of the resurrection. As has been said by such men as Machen, “Eliminate the supernatural and the miraculous and there is no such thing as Christianity.” How we need to stress this today.
Without the supernatural there is no such thing as the virgin birth, the miracles, the atonement, the resurrection, or prayer. Indeed, eliminate the supernatural and there can be no God, no incarnation of God in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and, of course, no Holy Spirit.
In other words, the minute one begins to tamper with God’s supernatural being and his manifestations in supernatural and miraculous ways, he is tampering with the foundational realities of the Christian faith.
The advances made by science stagger the imagination. The Apollo 8 triumph, for instance, has added another dimension to the marvels of modern scientific achievement. But never let us presume to conform God to the limitations of human achievement, for man discovers only what God has created and the laws of the universe that are a part of that creation.
The growing tendency to eliminate the supernatural, or the miraculous, in connection with the Christian faith is one that cannot be countenanced by those who hold to the nature and validity of that faith. Our faith is based, not on man-made dogmas and opinions, but on a divine revelation, supernatural in its nature and miraculous in its effect.
Wherever the natural is substituted for the supernatural or the miraculous nature of the work of the Holy Spirit held in question, effective Christian witness dies. Tragically, we see death in many areas of the Church, because there are those who limit God by their own limitations while they talk and work in terms compatible with those of the secularists and materialists.
The current pressure to secularize the Church is the result of a confusion over both its nature and its message. The need is not to make the Church popular with the world but to show the power of the Holy Spirit to transform lives, and the miracles that take place in the life of one who has had this experience with the living Christ.
Believing neither in the actuality of the Holy Spirit as a Person nor in the supernatural effect he has in the lives of those who have gone through the supernatural experience of being “bom again” (a biblical term that is very unwelcome among many modern Sadducees), many are projecting an image of the Church that is tied to man rather than to God, and to secular activities without reference to this miraculous change.
The modern Sadducee considers himself a realist, in tune with the world and committed to the discoveries and advances of science. The Christian is indeed a realist, but he knows that his faith is based in a supernatural person and that this destiny has no reference to, nor can it be affected by, anything man can do.
I have recently studied intensively the records of the early Church as found in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles of Paul, James, Peter, and John. The Church began in unlikely soil and was confronted by overwhelming obstacles, but not once did the Apostles seek to identify it with the existing social order. It was a supernatural organism existing in a naturalistic world. Its members expected and experienced multiplied evidences of the miraculous character of their faith—faith that changed men and revolutionized the social order, not by secular activism but by the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Church and individual Christians lose their effectiveness as they go the way of the secularist. They also lose the warmth and the light that characterize persons and groups who have had an encounter with Christ.
As was true in our Lord’s day, so today the Church is suffering from those who “know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.” To a tragic number of “Christians” the Bible is a closed book. Regarding it as no longer relevant to this scientific age, they close their minds to its supernatural message and the miraculous effect it has on those who take it as spiritual food and divine wisdom. Furthermore, never having experienced the power of God in their own lives, they ignore its availability for themselves and for those to whom they minister.
Recently, at a student conference dominated by men with a new concept of the mission and message of the Church, a student complained that during two days there had not been one prayer. From the leader he received this reply: “I am sorry that you have not been praying. Everything we do is prayer—cleaning your teeth or any other activity.”
What price secularization!
The Church—and individual Christians—need to rediscover that we are dealing with a supernatural God. Let him speak: “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited!): I am the LORD, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:18).
The view of this world from the Apollo 8 capsule was an awesome and thrilling sight to behold. Let the Sadducee stop and remember that we are dealing with the Creator of the universe, the magnitude and complexity of which staggers the mind. This should certainly bring us to our knees in worship.
L. NELSON BELL
