A Heretic at Last?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.  Romans 1:16-17 NASB

From faith to faith – I received an email comment that motivated me to respond.  Since the subject touched on several important issues, I thought I would share it with all of you.  So, here goes:

Dear Skip,

I have just read your ‘About Skip’ page.

I was seeking to establish what you actually believe, but was left non the wiser. All you seem to say is that one shouldn’t make a decision on what one thinks Skip Moen believes on the basis of the questions and arguments Skip Moen presents.

Maybe you don’t know what you believe? Or maybe your lack of a statement of faith in what you do believe is cleverly designed to create an enigmatic smoke screen around yourself with the intention of drawing people into your studies.

I have on occasion met several people who subscribe to your teaching. They are people who had a firm foundation in their faith, but now it seems are in danger of being on sinking sand. No longer firm in their belief in what is written in the Gospels, or in Yeshua as LORD, but constantly questioning and criticizing what they once believed. Confused is probably the best description – blinded by theology.

The Gospel was originally brought to simple, mostly uneducated fisherman and the like.  The first believers were a thorough mixture of humanity, from illiterate to learned. Poor to wealthy. They did not need letters after their names, degrees or phds to receive salvation, or to enter into a relationship with God through Messiah Yeshua. The Gospel of Yeshua HaMashiac is simple and straight to the heart. Believe in Him and be saved.

I challenge you to make an honest statement about what you believe. Do you believe Yeshua is God – the Word, through whom all things were created?

Until you do, I am not in the least bit surprised that you are often labelled a heretic.

_______________________________ 

Dear A . . . . ,

Actually, I’d take exception to your claim that the message of Yeshua, the Messiah, was deliberately simple, reaching the illiterate and poor.  Apparently you don’t know much about the educational environment of first century Israel.  Most Israelites were literate (as opposed to the pagan world) with many trained in rabbinic thought.  That should be apparent from the fact that the apostles wrote narratives and letters for people to read.  That’s also why Yeshua assumes so much in his teaching.  We Westerners have sufficiently dumbed down the text to make it seem as though it is simple, but any serious look at the Scriptures paints a different picture.  That’s okay if all you want is a pathway to salvation, but it doesn’t work very well if you want to know what he really taught.

As for my followers who seem to you to be confused, that’s not too surprising.  Once you discover just how much the Church has manipulated the text and altered spiritual perceptions to fit its agenda (not an opinion, by the way, but the facts from history), you too might question things you once thought to be certain.  That does not mean you’ve lost your faith.  In fact I would argue that you’ve just started to understand faith–and the difference between a biblical faith and the modern idea of religious certainty.

As for your comment about my lack of a “statement of faith,” I find that the relationship with God evolves and a statement of faith is at best a slice of one’s thinking at a particular point in time, subject to revision, as most human thought is.  Furthermore, I am afraid that if I provided a provisional “statement of faith” it would only serve to pigeonhole me, and subsequently prevent those who read my work from finding their own answers, not mine.  In truth, a good teacher helps people form the right question, not provide the right answer.

Anyway, all this really means is that this path isn’t for you, and it’s not for anyone who has no more questions to ask of God or the Scriptures.  If you find meaning and comfort in your beliefs as they are today, then be blessed.  But don’t, please, decide that those who are working their way back to the God of the Bible are somehow defective or miserable.

Thanks for writing.  Words like yours always help me reflect on my own journey.

Skip

A NOTE (not in the reply):  The claim that ancient culture of Israel was basically illiterate bothered me.  The author of the email I received cited several sources from Wikipedia.  I took a look at them, but I’m not convinced.  Why?  For several reasons: 1) Israel was known as “the people of the book,” which hardly makes any sense if the majority of the population couldn’t read, 2) every male was expected to be able to read from the Torah during services, 3) there is a specific commandment to write the Torah on the doorposts and it seems unlikely that this meant simply copying words that the person could not read, 4) there is a history that school systems were set up as early as the time of the first Temple, and while it is possible that instruction was only oral, it seems unlikely that students were not taught to read the Torah, 5) the Mishna (later, for sure) contains references to religious practices that assume the ability to read and write, and finally 6) the Gospels and the letters of the New Testament were all written with the intention of being read in assemblies of Jews and Gentiles.  It seems illogical to contend that few people could actually read them.

Topical Index: email, faith, statement of faith, heretic, Romans 1:16-17