Arrogance and Ignorance

Arrogance. Ignorance. To the casual glance these words describe two different elements of a personal inventory, but upon further unpacking we will see that these two traits are Siamese twins and interconnected. It is difficult to place these behaviors in chronological order since they never stray too far from each other’s company. Ignorance is usually the precursor to arrogance, and arrogance perpetuates ignorance. It is without controversy that both these traits are supposed to be aggressively rejected by a committed Christian, one who is committed to exhibiting the Savior he professes to believe in and follow. But those two sins have subtly crept into the church and disguised themselves as boldness and courage and even elements of defending the faith.

Arrogance is contrary to everything Christian and not only flies in the face of the life of the One we should seek to emulate, but it departs from some of the greatest martyrs of the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul called himself the least of the apostles and the chief of all sinners. Moses was the meekest man who ever lived. Peter acquiesced to the apostleship of Paul even though it meant he no longer was the chief apostle. And the Lord Jesus willingly allowed His face to be the target of the spit of mocking sinners. The entire New Testament is replete with admonitions to humility and meekness and gentleness. And yet many believers and even preachers have taken upon themselves the mantle of a high and lofty prophet who is given a divine indulgence for spiritual hubris and disregard for personal lowliness, and all of this while claiming to be a self defined defender of truth and receiving verbal attacks as persecution. Obviously we have redefined persecution as well.

It is distasteful at the least and disgusting at the most for comfortable American Christians to claim persecution while across the globe believers are hunted, imprisoned, and even murdered for their faith. They are usually not persecuted for some doctrinal nuance, but rather they are hunted and attacked for their faith in Christ and their unwillingness to blend in sociologically with that profession of faith. In essence, they not only refuse to recant their faith in Jesus Christ, they refuse to be quiet about it as well. Men are tortured, killed in front of their families, forced to watch their families murdered, and incarcerated for decades. All because the were standing for the truth who is Jesus Christ. That is a far cry from the pretenders in the west who lose sleep over television caricatures of Christians and claim persecution.

The arrogance of some western Christians is palpable and causes division among other believers who hold to the basics of the faith. They exchange written smirks among their doctrinal clubs and provide hubristic amusement that is understood and enjoyed by the enlightened among them. All in the name of defenders of Biblical truth which seems to be a carte blanche for any other unchristian behavior as long as you espouse the five solas or the inerrancy of Scripture or the fundamentals of the faith. And many times if you dare to comment in the midst of the ongoing narcissistic party, you will be attacked personally and with some literary creativity that is meant to illustrate some intellectual prowess, disarm through depreciation, as well as attract applause from the gallery of comrades. It breaks up the monotony, but it isn’t Christian.

Now these types of behavior are not only arrogant, they are ignorant. They are willingly ignorant of the many exhortations of the New Testament as well as the object lesson of the life of Christ. Many of the evidences of the Christ life such as mercy, grace, and humility have been either doctrinally emasculated by redefinition, or they have been positioned in scenarios far less vulnerable and far less threatening to our reputations. In other words, we have become quite proficient in manipulating truth in order to afford the least inconvenient sacrifice for us personally, while at the same time projecting ourselves as objective protectors of the same truth we are compromising. Having your doctrine and eating it too.

And in many circles come the barrage of posts and articles about certain men or certain practices that are incongruous to Biblical truth, and yet where are the same posts about our own struggles and compromises of that same Biblical truth that we so often shrink so the subject matter avoids the convicting truth about our own attitudes, tones, enemy centered love, and the embarrassing truth about our lack of intercession for the ones we so freely criticize. Moses asked God to take his life instead of the deserving rebels he led. Paul wished himself accursed for the Christ rejecting Jews. And yet instead of standing between God and those who we believe are deceived, we love to sit at God’s side and pretend we speak for Him in judgment toward the people who may be rebelling. And instead of offering ourselves as a substitute for their judgment, we expect a divine reward for telling God to “get ’em”. A striking difference, wouldn’t you say?

And if indeed we had the entire and unassailable truth given to us by God’s angel himself on a gold cd, how could we still be so arrogant with that which we did not earn, did not know, did not learn, and indeed did not deserve? I actually believe God is more pleased with a believer that has 65% of the truth and has a tangible humility, than a believer who has 85% of the truth and is arrogant. And in order to justify our words and arrogance, we quote the dead preacher du jour as if that carries any weight with God. Spurgeon said this, or Edwards used these words, or some other preacher of days gone by used lofty and harsh language that is used as our template and indeed excuse. And in that we don’t justify our words, no, we present evidence that we have progressed little since these men roamed the earth. Breaking with the Roman Catholic Church in the Reformation is our landmark to which we’ve hitched our Christian wagon, never taking the time to realize we should have built upon that event and pursued a church that emulates the Lord Jesus in much more meaningful revelations than just systematic theologies.

We’ve had centuries to refine our mercy and grace and love that should authenticate the revelation of our Savior’s life, but instead we revel in the partial revelation of Luther or Spurgeon and others by assuming their Christianity is monolithically complete and must never change. So instead of being exhorted by the living words of Scripture revealed and expanded by the Holy Spirit in this millennium, we are tethered to the words of dead theologians as our Protestant apocrypha. And we often quote these men as if they would agree with us if they were still alive which necessitates concealing the fact that we are discarding some of the more unpleasant parts of their theologies.

And we can never come out from our arrogant ignorance until we allow the Spirit to hold up a mirror to our spiritual lives that exposes and magnifies the vast areas that are irreconcilable to the faith we profess. It is indeed possible to profess the entire systematic orthodoxy of Biblical theology and yet live, breathe, and act like an unbeliever. Until we realize that deception is not limited to written doctrinal areas, we will continue to be self deluded as to our own self righteous mirage. And these works that cannot save but must substantiate our faith in Jesus must be freed from the doctrinal prison of our own definitions. The works of a Christian must exceed just speaking the gospel, they must be revealed in acts of human compassion, acts of good Samaritanism, and even acts of personal behavior that can and should be used by the Spirit to evoke at least curiosity from onlookers. Why aren’t unbelievers confounded and confused by our speech and behavior that seems so contrary to the ladder climbing and self serving atmosphere of today’s world? Could it be that we have succumbed to that same spirit and only Christianized it so as to appear as though we are standing for truth, when in fact much of our communication can be viewed as protecting the peace by promoting war, or bragging about humility, or preaching the cross by crucifying others. How ignorant, how arrogant.

We deserve nothing and we’ve been given everything. Speaking the truth in love and seasoned with grace should come naturally from sinners who have gained nothing on their own and who personally abrogate God’s law daily in many different ways - and we claim to be undeceived. I am often criticized for speaking too much on humility and am told to attend to my own situation. I stand in total need of everything I have written, but I contend the church needs a revival of humility before we can see God move among us in power. How have we gotten to the place where humility is seen as compromise, arrogance as boldness, and ignorance as discernment?

I realize in some circles I will be a heretic, but God help me to be a humble one.