Monday, June 05, 2006

WELL, WELL, WHAT DO YOU KNOW….? PART III

This is the final of a 3-part series examining the details of the Eddie Long/ITC/James Cone affair. After reviewing the facts of the matter, Part I; the larger unbiblical, theological framework and similarities among Long, ITC and Cone, Part II; we now conclude by focusing on the Essence of eschatology, the purpose ministry and a caution to our brothers.

Christ Is Our Eschatological Goal
The voluntary condescension of Jesus Christ, beginning with His Incarnation and ending with His passion and death, does not merely provide us with an example to live by (The Example Theory of The Atonement), with the existential need for good to conquer evil, or with an inspiring pattern of the weak overcoming the mighty or the poor defeating the wealthy. Neither does it furnish us with some inane principles and guarantees of material prosperity in this life. Such views are contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture. Rather, Christ's humiliation establishes an eschatological goal, a goal that is pointed to and attained by the theology of the cross, not the theology of glory which finds its expression in "power and autonomy."

The biblical dialectic of crown through the cross, glory through groaning, life through death, power through (Christ's) weakness, cross and resurrection-- all encompassing both the First and Second Coming of Christ-- will arrive at its perfect synthesis only in the Consummation when all things are placed under the feet of the Lamb, cf. Gen 3:15; Rom 16:20; 1 Cor 15: 24-28; Rev 19:6, 11-21. Yet, we live victoriously in this present age, not by deconstructing the divine design in redemptive history but by clinging tenaciously to the cross and to its theology, both of which grant us confidence in the final eschatological victory which is ours even now in Christ. "[T]his confidence, anchored in the resurrection of Christ, ... provides the triumphant indicative for a baptism in the age to come." (Adapted from Horton, Covenant And Eschatology, 43, 44). Therefore we joyfully join in the apostolic affirmation: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom 8:31-39.

It is most important that we arm ourselves with the correct view of this recent development. Failing to have a full-orbed perspective lands us in an ether/or conundrum-- either we side with ITC/Cone or we align with Long. Our trust must be in the Scripture alone Which affords us the transcendent, panoramic perspective we are to embrace: "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." Eph 4:11-16.

Here are the biblical mandate for pastors and the biblical model for churches: authentic growth of God's covenant community is attained in a loving and nurturing local body and is measured by that community's faithful work which prepares it to recognize and reject false teachings and teachers.

Conclusion -- A Caution to the Reformed Community
It is regrettable that the name and teaching of Cone are again receiving undue attention in some sectors of Black Reformed thought. Recently one person told me that given the impact of Cone's contributions to Black Theology, “we have to deal with him.” My response was and is that Cone has already been dealt with and found theologically lacking among those "conservative" corners of the Black Church, for example the National Baptist Association which does not endorse his theological viewpoints.

As those professing to be Reformed, we have at least a moral responsibility to present and to promote Reformed Teaching, the loftiest and most internally consistent interpretation of Scripture and the one most committed to preserving the sovereignty and glory of God in the entirety of His Self-revelation and works of redemption, to His glory alone, in a manner that is edifying to our readers. In His gracious sovereignty, our God has availed the Internet to us for His grand purposes. It therefore behooves us all to exercise due diligence in our expressions, thoughts and comments. As the ITC/Cone/Long episode confirms, our people need to be clearly, patiently and lovingly instructed and grounded in the unshakable truths of Scripture which find their hermeneutical apex in the simplicity of Jesus Christ. It seems that decades of prodigious preaching, teaching and writing by several Black theologians have done little or nothing to sharpen our understanding of and to increase our commitment to the God of the Scriptures. This is particularly disturbing when we recall the works of Cone whose earliest writings go back to at least the 1970’s. I hold that, should he have understood the telic design of our sovereign God’s unfolding of redemptive history and accordingly sought to apply that overarching truth to the condition of Blacks in the United States, especially during the fluid, epochal, social and political times of four decades ago, it is reasonable to assume that he would have made significant contributions to grounding our people in sound doctrine. Instead, his cultural and social impositions on Scripture have only served to drive our people away from their only hope, the true Christ and His gospel, while at the same time attracting them to competing paradigms of Black empowerment and intriguing notions of widescale liberation of the disenfranchised from oppressive White power structures.

My brothers, we owe it to our Lord to strive fervently and faithfully to expound and apply this (Reformed) teaching whenever we have opportunity. On the basis of our Lord's promise that our continual, abounding in His work in Him, is never in vain, 1 Cor 15:58, we can expect that somewhere along the way we will impact some who will respond, “well, well, what do you know.. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out ! ” ” Rom 11:33 (KJV)