I feel it a duty to bear my solemn testimony against the spirit of the day we live in... It is the system which is so liberal, that it dares not say anything is false. It is the system which is so charitable, that it will allow everything to be true. It is the system, which seems ready to honour others as well as our Lord Jesus Christ, to class them all together, and to think well of all... It is the system which is so scrupulous about the feelings of others, that we are never to say they are wrong. It is the system which is so liberal that it calls a man a bigot if he dares to say "I know my views are right."...
What is it all but a bowing down before a great idol, speciously called liberality? What is it all but a sacrificing of truth upon the altar of a caricature of charity? What is it all but the worship of a shadow, a phantom and an unreality? What can be more absurd than to profess ourselves content with "earnestness", when we do not know what we are earnest about? Has the Lord God spoken to us in the Bible, or has he not?... From the liberality which says everyone is right, from the charity which forbids us to say anybody is wrong, from the peace which is bought at the expense of truth - may the good Lord deliver us!
J.C. Ryle, Knots Untied
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Ryle - liberalism
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4 comments:
FWIW, IMO this is a pretty old record by now (or would that be 'a pretty old CD' these days?)
What good prophecy does is say: 'Hey! Look! Surely God is in this place right over here and I didn't see it before!'
Pointing to the 1000s of places where God is denied isn't all that much of an exercise in discernment.
My congregations, who have been genuinely faithful but who have participated in decline because of our culture's disinterest in God need someone to say 'Here is God with you right here in this place; keep the faith'. Instead, everyone seems to be shouting 'Your numbers would not be dwindling if God were with you; God is not in this place!' Crab-apples. God is everywhere.
Well, Ryle did die in 1900...
The OT prophets both pointed out where God wasn't and where he was, or more accurately what he was and wasn't doing, what he would bless and what he would judge.
It's worth adding that I recognise that much liberalism thinks of itself as being "liberal" primarily in the sense of inclusive. I think inclusivity is good, and I have no intention of criticising people for being known as friends of tax collectors and sinners.
On the other hand, what evangelicals (of whom Ryle was most definitely one) tend to use the term "liberalism" to mean is an implicit or explicit denial of fundamental truths, especially the authority of Scripture and salvation being only found in Christ. And I think there's something seriously wrong with that sort of liberalism. Sometimes it's the same people as the radically inclusive types. Sometimes it isn't.
Seriously wrong yes, but also very understandable. Dogma brings out the worst in most human beings IMHO.
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