Alarmism, Legalism, and The Gospel Focus

I get that ours is a culture that feeds off of critics and haters. We love the juicy in-the-news stories of teen-pop stars at war with one another. And of course there is always the blogosphere beckoning us to read another rant against someone else, usually including copious amounts of misinformation (but we can overlook that for a good rousing conflict). I get it, I hate it, and I try not to indulge it too much , but what I don’t get is when Christians proceed to do this to one another. I don’t want to do that now, but I do want to raise my concern over what I see happening in a current discussion between Christians who disagree. In a recent blog, pastor John MacArthur criticized “bohemian” Christians for their beer-drinking. Now, I love John MacArthur, in fact I learned more from him early on in my theological education than anyone, and yet I found this article not simply wrong, but strange. And MacArthur is just one example. The way that these men often attack issues and other Christians reminds me, however, of two very important things: (1) The Dangers of Legalism and (2) The Importance of Focusing on Essentials.

MacArthur, of course, thinks that this is an important issue. In his post “Beer, Bohemianism, and True Christian Liberty” he writes:

It is puerile and irresponsible for any pastor to encourage the recreational use of intoxicants—especially in church-sponsored activities. The ravages of alcoholism and drug abuse in our culture are too well known, and no symbol of sin’s bondage is more seductive or more oppressive than booze. I have ministered to hundreds of people over the years who have been delivered from alcohol addiction. Many of them wage a daily battle with fleshly desires made a thousand times more potent because of that addiction. The last thing I would ever want to do is be the cause of stumbling for one of them.

As MacArthur sees it the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement is, in their immaturity, promoting activities that are dangerous and have the potential to cause others to stumble. But then in previous posts MacArthur also thinks the way this crowd dresses is important.

In a previous critique MacArthur wrote:

But for heaven’s sake don’t dress for hardball. HCo. clothes and hipster hair are essential tools of contextualization. The more casual, the better. Distressed, grunge-patterned T-shirts and ripped jeans are perfect. You would not want anyone to think you take worship as seriously as, say, a wedding or a court appearance. Be cool. Which means (of course) that you mustn’t be perceived as punctilious about matters of doctrine or hermeneutics. But whatever you do, do not fail to pay careful attention to Abercrombie & Fitch.

I sometimes think no group is more fashion-conscious than the current crop of hipster church planters—except perhaps teenage girls.

The impression all of this is beginning to cast is that in-so-far as pastors and Christians are culturally and contextually different from Pastor MacArthur they are in serious error. If we don’t wear suits and do drink an occassional beer than we are immature and dangerous to the church. That seems to me to be a bit of a strange assumption.

The whole nature of his critique and those like it seems to be overly alarmist. We do not get the picture a gentile correction, of a loving reprimand, but of a commander rallying his troops to fight. As others have observed, MacArthur seems to be writing red-meat for like-minded Fundamentalists. There is the impression that MacArthur is lambasting a straw man and not really taking time to understand the YRR crowd. One author has pointedly said it feels like MacArthur just doesn’t get me. He is raising an alarm over what seems to be a silly issues of dress and drink, which MacArthur cannot Biblically say are sins. In fact he doesn’t even want to approach that subject. He writes:

But without even raising the question of whether this or that specific activity is acceptable, indifferent, or out-and-out evil, we surely ought to be able to say that controlled substances and other symbols of secular society’s seamy side are not what the church of Jesus Christ ought to wish to be known for.

So, it would seem, then, that (quite out of character for MacArthur) he is interested in discussing more of his opinions and strong convictions than of discussing Scriptural warrants. Oh, he offers a few proof texts but that is all he can do. He is raising an alarm over the dangers of what he considers to be “wrong” but not “sin” (which is a weird way to communicate). And MacArthur isn’t alone. Just a few days ago his friend Phil Johnson attacked Mark Driscoll for his views on prophecy, accusing him of Pornographic Divination. It was one of the most poorly reasoned and poorly articulated critiques I’ve read.

The reality is, of course, that there is no one that we will always agree with and yet there is room at the table for plenty of healthy discussion over theological and methodological differences. By-all-means, let’s engage in that. But this kind of alarmist attacking does nothing to build up the church, and in fact merely smacks of subtle legalism. There is a sense that behind these “critiques” is a hostile self-righteousness unbecoming of Christians. There is an assertion that sounds a lot like “be like me or you’re an immature Christian.”  And the real danger here is that all these silly discussions are distracting us from what’s important.

It’s not that theological and methodological matters are unimportant and aren’t open for discussion, but out of all the matters that need to be and can be addressed these things seem like silly disagreements. Do you want to be a teetotaler? Go for it. Do you want to wear a suit? Go for it. But to spend your time responding to the immaturity of the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement by attacking their dress and their drink seems like a waste of time. I’ve read and listened to enough MacArthur in my life to know that he would agree that it is the gospel that matters…so let’s talk about the gospel.

You may also want to check out some of the other articles which Justin Taylor links to in his post here.