Following Judah's Lion

The Liabilities of

Discernment Obsession

A phenomenon which has grown over the last several decades is what is called the “discernment ministry”. With the advent of the internet, along with the accessibility of sophisticated personal computers, this type of Christian ministry has become very prevalent. There are many different and varied approaches and tones in this genre with some being restricted to doctrinal issues while others include gossip and still others are embroiled in the political arena. Some are reasonable while others are caustic; some use harsh words while still others are measured in their verbiage. It has become a spectacle to say the least.
I understand the motivation for such ministries, however I have never seen such a ministry calling in the New Testament. Some use the “watchman” metaphor and make the correlation to such a ministry. But that is a stretch at best. We all are called to some level of discernment when it comes to matters of truth, however we must show humility, restraint, and we must avoid being obsessed and consumed with discernment. Just a perusal of the many online discernment blogs will reveal a fixation on heretics from all stripes which far outdistances and even eclipses any fixation of Christ Himself. Over and over the same issues and the same men are dealt with ad infinitum until it becomes apparent that the writer spends an inordinate amount of time scouring for error. He or she has become preoccupied and many times has embraced a narcissistic view of being an anointed defender of truth. And to be fair, many times what they say is altogether accurate.
Now the political and nationalistic aspects of these ministries is carnal and spiritually void. And the gossip elements that report the latest Ted Haggard or Myley Cyrus debacle are carnal and self righteous. But what I would like to address is much more nuanced and actually alters a person’s spiritual makeup substantially. And it is at this intersect that the subtleties become counter productive to the life of a believing follower of Jesus the Christ. If the eye is whole then the entire body is whole; but if the eye is compromised, then the body (life) follows. Increasingly many believers have cultivated an eye for error rather than an eye for Jesus, and many now view truth, including the truth that is Jesus, in the doctrinal abstract. What this produces in a believer is manifold.

1. It is a clandestine form of self righteousness.

When an obsession about others and their distortion of the truth becomes a motivating force in a believer’s life one of the results is an obvious lack of self examination. In fact, an adherence to doctrinal truth is usually counted as being a faithful follower of Christ. That systematic theology litmus test becomes the standard for the depth of one’s discipleship and God’s approval. And this kind of perspective becomes pronounced when those who espouse it form cliques and fellowships, both organized and informal, and treat each other with overt deference mostly on the basis of common enemies. Even such important doctrinal issues such as baptismal regeneration or transubstantiation are overlooked when they have common targets.
And the personal failures and shortcomings of discernment people are usually only acknowledged in a doctrinal mantra fashion that concedes personal sinfulness in a dispassionate regurgitation, but they become much more passionate and demonstrative when dealing with the sins and shortcomings of others. Repentance is dealt with as a regeneration necessity and in the chronology of the born again experience. While they call a broad swath of men and women to repentance, they themselves limit their repentance to the common frailties of believers and not significant when juxtaposed against the sins of so many others. That is blatant self righteousness and stagnates spiritual growth regardless of one’s doctrinal purity.
We are all horrid sinners who even after receiving Christ continue to fall short openly and in secret; willingly and by nature. And even though men like Rob Bell and Brian McClaren dismantle redemptive truth, we are no less sinners then are they. If this is not acknowledged and even uncomfortably embraced, then we are no better than the publicans. And without that confession, especially within the sacred confines of a prayer closet, then we are destined to be very shallow in our dealings with our own life while being disproportionately energetic about dealing with the lives of others. And when we are teachers, then we influence others to think along the same lines and cultivate a heart of self righteousness but defining it as standing for truth.

2. It is an addiction.

I speak from experience. Once you become preoccupied with researching and uncovering error, heresy, or moral failures it becomes an addiction. You cannot get enough and any blog or book that uncovers new and startling information concerning doctrinal compromise or outright heresy feeds your soul and becomes great topics in the evangelical realm and even at the next Sunday gathering. Stand and listen to what believers discuss at church. They speak of football, car repairs, the latest heretic, upcoming conferences, children, work, vacations, Obama, and a steady stream of the commonplace. And if they even happen to mention the name “Jesus” it is almost always in the doctrinal abstract. If you find someone speaking of Jesus in a personal and intimate way, and if you find someone quietly praising and worshiping the Risen Christ alone, remember that as an anomaly.
In addition to scouring the internet to find the latest sensational heresy and/or heretic, many discernment bloggers invite and receive e-mail reports from a host of readers who effervescently provide details of some startling doctrinal compromise or personal failure. And some even subscribe to secular news updates in order to have real time information about such things, including many carnal and secular talk show hosts. This is nothing more than gossip and has no redemptive value whatsoever. But this is an addictive fascination that continues to detour those who embrace it away from the Living Savior and His gospel, except as it is revealed in systematic theology.
You cannot be addicted to Jesus without truth. But you can be addicted to truth without being addicted to Jesus.

3. It is unreceptive.

When you are the corrector you often become unreceptive to correction. When your “calling” is predominately to correct others then it becomes difficult to receive correction yourself. While you are loudly expressing outrage you often become deaf to the still, small voice that is saying, “Thou art the man.” Do a search of the discernment blogs and you will be hard pressed to find posts that correct other discernment blogs, to say nothing of self correction. In fact, every once in a while some discernment blog offers a correction to the institute of discernment blogs in general and there is a hue and cry of objection. Even when a discernment blog uses a secular news report as their source and it turns out to be false, they blame the news source and take little if any responsibility themselves.

4. It is impersonal.

Dealing with truth in the abstract is a delicate matter and one that always needs some ancillary garnish that makes the discussion personal and spiritually intimate or you run the risk of teaching Jesus like you might teach algebra. To win the approval of God it takes more than just winning the doctrinal debate. It takes more than just proving your doctrinal orthodoxy and providing your systematic theology as proof of your authentic and passionate pilgrimage to believe in and be like Jesus. There is a time to confront error, especially redemptive error. But God is not impressed with regurgitating that which should be obvious and our reasonable service.
But when you distill truth primarily into discussions, then you, however unintentially, minimize the life manifestations of that same truth. Truths such as the Trinity, the virgin birth, and the reliability of Scripture are easily defended by words. Truths such as love, mercy, and humility require much more than just words and quoting verses.

5. It diminishes the Person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is more than a collection of Scriptural truths. And although the Scriptures provide for us the bedrock of our faith, Jesus transcends what we now know about Him without ever abrogating the Scriptural revelations about Him. The Person of Jesus is most effectively “defended” by most effectively manifesting Him through a humble and living prism that strives to avoid any subjective refractions. Jesus is not just the tree upon which truth can be hung as ornaments. He is truth. Period. And that truth is a living Person who has chosen to live within every believer in an eternal mystery. And what we say we believe is belied by how we live it.
If, in truth, the Creator dwells within us in all His fullness, then why are we so unremarkable in the epicenter of darkness? And what many of the discernment ministries have done is change the subject. The subject is not that Rob Bell is changing the gospel, although that seems to be true. But the more personal and parochial question is how can we as believers, supposedly orthodox, live with such little power and sacrifice? How can we read the life of Jesus and be so proud and arrogant and still claim to believe the Scriptures? How can we see God’s heart upon the cross and be so critical and uncaring toward sinners?
And with all the protestations about being orthodox, and with all the tantrums about liberals and emergents, and with all the neatly arraigned doctrines of the faith, are we believing in truth or are we believing in Jesus? And if we say both then why doesn’t our practice seem to mirror the revelations of Christ in the gospels? It surely seems like we have reinvented our own Jesus who is orthodox in His theology, born of a virgin, died on the cross and resurrected bodily, but who lives in stark contrast to the Jesus who walked the earth for three years.

Theology without practice diminishes the Person of Christ.