So what’s an IPR? I’m glad you asked – it stands for ‘In Progress Review’. That’s what this post is about. I’ve been cruising around Christian Blogland for six months now and it seemed wise to reflect a bit an decide whether or not to continue. Is it a worthwhile endeavor, bringing glory to God, or is it mostly about professing believers finding another form of self-satisfying fellowship that tends to sacrifice truth on the altar of ‘tolerance’?

Offered in a blog comment by the post’s author, to all who might read the post: 

“To all: I know this is a many-sided topic, and to those who would try to pick it apart theologically … know I’m not trying to do that.”

The particular author is irrelevant, as is the topic of the post. There is, however, an underlying sentiment that’s a serious matter that is not only prevalent in ‘Christian’ blogging, but one that pervades postmodern evangelicalism. I am not referring to the author’s desire that there be no useless personal arguments, if that is what was meant by ‘picking apart’. What concerns me is the addition of the modifier “theologically” to picking the topic apart.  Although the author was speaking reflexively (“I’m not trying to do that.”) the clear implication of the comment, in a larger context, was for “all” to also avoid theological debate. 

I realize that I just changed the phrase ‘pick apart theologically’ to ‘theological debate’, so don’t go pinging off the walls and accuse me of changing the subject. I am not accusing the the post’s author of not wanting theological debate, but avoiding theological debate is the matter at hand in this post.

Found by ‘accident’ when clicking a link to an interesting sounding book this morning:

“At its most basic level, the word theology is “God talk,” the Greek theos originally meaning “God” and logos meaning “word, statement, speech, discourse.” God is then the ultimate subject and source of theology. Included in theology is the study of the nature of God himself, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. But theology also includes the scope of the Bible itself: the study of the Word of God subject by subject, like the doctrine of sin, the doctrine of grace, demons, angels, and many others.”

Now to the heart of the matter. . .

I fully realize that I have only had this blog up for six months, but I think my observations are accurate concerning the realm of ‘Christian’ blogging, where I hang out a lot online. These observations concern ‘Christian’ blogging about ‘things spiritual’, or ‘God stuff’. My observations:

‘Christian’ discussion blogs seem to fall into two categories, 1) those that want to discuss the objective truth of scripture, with or without personal application thrown in the mix and 3) those that seem to be more subjective in nature – “what this scripture means to ‘me'” having priority over the objective truth of scripture – “what does this scripture SAY”. It is to the latter that I address these observations, after watching a ‘blogged bible study’ that has gone through the first 10 chapters of John’s Gospel.

• While there is some discussion about the text of a chapter under consideration, there is far more discussion concerning participants’ ‘personal’ insights that might or might not apply to the specific text, and that are nearly always attributed to the Holy Spirit..
• There is a considerable amount of affirmation of these ‘personal’ insights, between participants and from most who merely observe and comment.
• Discussions of the text sometimes miss the central theme of the chapter when read with the overall context of the Gospel itself. This will manifest itself in discussions focusing on real or imaginary sub-themes, accompanied by more of the aforementioned personal ‘affirmations’.
• ‘Wolves’ disguised as sheep like to lurk behind the scenes and enter the dialogue to add to all of the ‘affirming’ going on and to attest to the most vacuous of ‘personal insights’ being extremely ‘profound’. This serves Satan well.
• Those who would attempt to bring scriptural clarity and/or a measure of specificity to the ‘dialogue’ in order to render it meaningful and profitable for real Christian growth are often deemed intolerant and arrogant, especially when scripture touches a nerve. That’s known as ‘shooting the messenger’, for those who missed it.
• “Let’s all just get along…” is the rule of the day. Feeling good about ourselves is more important than being cut by the Sword of Truth.

I could continue, but I won’t. This is NOT a personal attack against any specific individual. What these observations reflect is the ‘sold out’ nature of postmodern evangelicalism to a ‘me’ centered Christianity, rather than the God-centric faith of Scripture. I also realize that there are many true believers who are caught up in this postmodern distortion of biblical Christianity because they were brought up in it. For those, my heart aches. The greater grief in all of this is the grief to the Holy Spirit who indwells all believers, the insult to the Son who died that we might live, and the dishonor it brings to the Father.

To blog, or not to blog, that is the question. . .