07-17-12

reformers are the new legalistic fundamentalists.

The thought hit me about a month ago. I don’t know why I’ve never seen it before, but it’s true, clear as day. The mod­ern day reformed guys (and girls) are no dif­fer­ent than the very thing most of them grew up in and reacted against–namely the legal­is­tic, tra­di­tional fundamentalists.

Let’s start by defin­ing legal­ism. Legal­ism is tak­ing an extra-​​biblical stan­dard that you have cho­sen for your own per­sonal holi­ness that’s inher­ently good and apply­ing that expec­ta­tion on every­one else, using oth­ers as a gauge of your merit, and find­ing assur­ance of your sal­va­tion through your mea­sur­able standard.

So, in walk reformed guys. It’s edgy, it’s cool, and we’re bring­ing accu­rate, bib­li­cal truth back into West­ern Chris­tian­ity. These guys know what the Bible actu­ally has to say about issues, they know bet­ter than to think we can attain right­eous­ness through works, and they know their the­ol­ogy, so weaker-​​minded legalists…watch out!

Ya they can define the finer points of sote­ri­ol­ogy, have a formed opin­ion on N.T. Wright’s new per­spec­tive on Paul, and they always have fan­tas­tic off the wall, the­o­ret­i­cal hypothe­ses about some the­o­log­i­cal trea­tise. Oh, and at any given time you can ask what they’re read­ing and they’re sure to be work­ing on 2–3 books, not includ­ing the Bible (that’s a given because of course if they’re read­ing the­ol­ogy books that would only be on top of their Bible read­ing, so we won’t ever ask about that).

These guys are doing good. They feel pretty good too. They never would impose their stan­dards on some­one else. They’re the essence of devout Chris­tian­ity because obvi­ously being steeped in knowl­edge is a strong indi­ca­tion of a person’s spir­i­tual temperature.

Are you catch­ing the drift yet? Mod­ern reform­ers are find­ing their merit/​assurance in what they know. It’s mea­sur­able. If you can under­stand the ins and outs of the gospel then surely you’ve got the gospel in your heart because only a per­son who’s blinds have been lifted can under­stand the gospel. It’s a good feel­ing to go to bed hav­ing fin­ished up your fifth Christian/​theological book this month. And at least you know more than the major­ity of Chris­tians you come across and even more than 3⁄4 of your own church.

Herein lies the ironic over­lap of tra­di­tional fun­da­men­tal­ists and their reac­tionary coun­ter­parts, the reformed circle.

Do you see other similarities?

Andrew is a 20-​​something Chris­t­ian who strives to live a very sim­ple lifestyle after real­iz­ing the van­ity of rush­ing around and all the mate­ri­al­ism of our soci­ety. He wants to squeeze the most out of life and live each day extra­or­di­nar­ily through sim­ple means. This blog is a run­ning com­men­tary of his jour­ney of faith and prac­ti­cal­ity, and how your life can go from nor­mal to extra­or­di­nary too! Andrew is the author and edi­tor of Live [Sim­ply] Free, and con­tin­ues on the jour­ney of declut­ter­ing and sim­pli­fy­ing his life. Fol­low him on Twit­ter @Andrew_Randazzo.
reformers are the new legalistic fundamentalists.
Andrew Randazzo
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Posted by Andrew Randazzo » Church
  • Randix

    We cer­tainly should know/​be learn­ing what the Bible teaches. How­ever, you are right, when we start think­ing that we are some­thing, because of what we know, we’re on a slip­pery slope.

    • http://livesimplyfree.com/ Andrew Ran­dazzo

      Def­i­nitely, it’s like every­thing else in life, there has to be a bal­ance. Legal­ism is bad but we do need to have stan­dards for our lives. We tend to react and swing to one side or the other. We need to prayer­fully find that center.

  • Logan

    I think you just made a broad, sweep­ing state­ment about reformed believ­ers. Am I included in this group?

    • http://livesimplyfree.com/ Andrew Ran­dazzo

      Logan, if the shoe fits, wear it. I’m not hear to say who is and isn’t in this group. That’s for you to search your heart. I know in the past I’ve def­i­nitely been there, and even some­times I still find myself there.

      Broad state­ments aren’t bad, though. That’s what pas­tors do every Sun­day. They preach a topic that is an issue. It may apply to a few or may end up apply­ing to many. Truth needs to be spo­ken and let the Spirit do with it what he wills.

  • Brian Haver

    I was very excited to find your blog as I too am a Chris­t­ian that has been dis­cov­er­ing the use­ful­ness of min­i­mal­ism as a tool to enrich my rela­tion­ship with God and the peo­ple around me. How­ever, this post and all the ones on the most recent page have dis­ap­pointed me from the start. These posts appear to be venge­ful dia­tribes against what you believe is bad the­ol­ogy as well as against those that believe/​ engage in these actions. I urge you, brother, to review your posts and fil­ter your new ones in light of the Grace that has been given to you from God through our Lord, Jesus. Please look to Matthew 7:1–6 as part of the ser­mon on the mount and Eph­esians 2: 1–10. As a seper­ate request, it may help to see what the word of God has to say about the top­ics you feel led to write about and include those ref­er­ences so that oth­ers may fol­low your mes­sage. I look for­ward to read­ing more on your thoughts on min­i­mal­ism and the Gospel. Thanks.

    • http://livesimplyfree.com/ Andrew Ran­dazzo

      Thanks Brian, I’ll take that into con­sid­er­a­tion. I will say a few things for clar­i­fi­ca­tion. This is a blog of my jour­ney of faith and prac­ti­cal­ity. The jour­ney implies I’m not land­ing any­where but sim­ply mov­ing through. So, these are just obser­va­tions that are gener­i­cally made. If you were to sit down with me, you’d prob­a­bly find me to be a lot more bal­anced than what it may sound in my posts. I’m merely ampli­fy­ing obser­va­tions to allow peo­ple to see pos­si­ble errors. I’m throw­ing a stone in a group of dogs. I’m not accus­ing any­one, but I am ques­tion­ing motives and hope­fully pro­vok­ing thought in oth­ers. I could include scrip­ture, but scrip­ture is defin­i­tive and my thoughts aren’t. They’re just pon­der­ings along my journey.