Dear friend,

 

 

The last episode of Shiny Happy People focused on three things:

A gentle reminder: This is a secularly made documentary. Every documentary has a bias. This doesn't discount the testimonies of victims; it just means the conclusions a documentary director wants you to draw can be shaped by how the show is edited and compiled. For instance: Shiny Happy People represents ultra-conservative home “education”, but it in no way represents homeschooling as a whole. SHP presents us with an extreme faction of “Christianity” that I would argue was not true Christian teaching at its core. It does not represent the whole Christian church, all pro-life advocates, all homeschoolers, etc. In the wake of SHP, however, we will probably see secular culture attempt to draw such associations. We should expect this. There are inevitable negative side effects to the good work of exposing sin (an exposure that even a secular documentary can accomplish). 

 

I won't get into the child pornography case because to be honest, it was too disturbing. I was aware of the case and followed it years ago when it occurred; I wish I could say I was surprised. But I know how porn works. I had my own addiction. If you do not brutally cut off the head of a pornography addiction, it WILL grow – and it will lead you into greater and greater darkness. The only way to break its back is with confession, vulnerability, Spirit-led prayer, accountability and in many cases, licensed counseling. We already know that the IBLP environment did not allow for real vulnerability. It also enabled abusers rather than holding them accountable. Josh was fully responsible for his actions – AND the environment set him up to continue.

 

Which leads me to a quote from interviewee Bobye Holt: "They have to look happy… they can never deal with what may be rumbling inside their hearts." 

 

Bobye's comment struck me to the core. Without transparency, vulnerability, true confession and lament for sin, you can never truly deal with sin at all. You have to look happy and manage it. Confession is not safe with unsafe people. And high stakes environments, low on grace, create a space where vulnerability is impossible. If you share what you're struggling with it can be used against you. Rather than grace, support, and healing, you find gossip, slander, and manipulation. Reputation must be protected while character is lost.

 

We MUST deal with what's “rumbling in our hearts” when it is small. When it's just beginning. Otherwise, it only grows.

 

It's tempting to manage sin with rules and regulations. If we AVOID xyz… then we can AVOID sin. But sin cannot be permanently “avoided” and repressed. And Christ didn't die so we could attempt a life-long evasion of every temptation. Christ died to defeat the POWER and IMPACT of sin. That's not just an eternal reality. It is for TODAY. The Holy Spirit equips us to say no to sin every single day without fear, anxiety or control. As we walk by the Spirit, we can reject the leftover vestiges of the flesh and live into the saintly identities we possess through Christ (Gal. 6). In Christ, we are victors. We get to live like it!

 

This is the freedom organizations like IBLP just can't reckon with. Another interviewee pointed this out when she said: "The fear of your kids doing drugs or going to jail… I ended up in jail anyways." In her account, she reacted against her upbringing by running the other direction. The controlled environment did not teach her strength, discernment, or the blessings of righteousness. It made a fool of freedom. It sold her the lie that true freedom is found in doing whatever you want - rather than in confident godliness and “options within boundaries”. 

 

At the beginning of this series I mentioned that I grew up adjacent to fundamentalism but not in it. I was in a Christian family, oldest of six kids, homeschooled. On Father's Day last week I was at the beach with my parents talking about all this. “How did you escape this kind of fundamentalism if you were basically doing a lot of similar things?” I asked my dad. His answer? 

 

“We were well discipled.” 

 

Dad explained that the church he and my mom were in for the first 14 years of parenthood was a church environment low on legalism and heavy on the Holy Spirit. And, as the Spirit does, He equipped with discernment. Even when the church changed and my parents eventually left, the training in hearing God, following the Spirit's discernment, checking against the Word, questioning everything (even things that look good and promise great results) equipped my parents to circumvent the Christian-calling card of their day.

 

What's the calling card of your day? Your city? Your environment? 

 

It might be shrouded in goodness. It might seem, at first glance, like it's the biblical way. Maybe you can narrow it to a list of rules and to-do's, tidy little scripts you can memorize and say to your kids. The perfect, controlled environment (Christian school? Homeschool? Youth group?). Be wary of anything that teaches you to shortcut walking with the Spirit. 

If I could sum up Shiny Happy People's fundamentalism in one sentence, it would be this:

 

“Attempted holiness without the Holy Spirit, missed the mark – and missed out on God's love because of it.”

 

Because that's the heart of true holiness, friends. True holiness is always a response to grace. True holiness is sparked by meeting the God who made you, knowing His heart for real. Its repentance led by kindness. It's not hidden. It's not secret. It's not hard to find. The TRUE God is standing there, arms open on a Cross, ready to welcome and win and weep with you. Ready to see you walk away from the laws of man and into the love of Christ.

 

I think the best way to end this series is to end with another quote from one of the interviewees: "No matter what, God actually loves you."

 

And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!" (Mark 7:6-11)

 

Bestsellers this week:

 

 

I understand this struggle. Your upbringing, your own predispositions, your exposure to spiritual abuse or unhealthy church environments; these can all affect your view of God. Step One: identify what you believe about God and compare to what Scripture says about Him. Start with these verses. Step Two: Get a right understanding of holiness and sin. God's treatment of sin isn't arbitrary and hard. He is against sin because He is holy, of course, but He also against sin because He is love. Sin wounds the ones He loves, so like a good and loving Parent He is wrathful against the thing that wounds His own. God would not be trustworthy if He was NOT wrathful against sin! His wrath is protective. Step Three: Cultivate your prayer life. Even if you start out not sure what to say, keep showing up. Ask God to reveal His heart and goodness to you. And He will!

 

Show Me Your Glory, PDM
 

 

Inerrancy applies to the original documents of the Bible. In their original form, the manuscripts were completely without error and unable to deceive (infallible). This is why translation efforts must be so, so cautious and careful. It's why books like The Passion “translation” are so dangerous; they take great liberties that mistranslate and misinterpret what the Bible says. As far as proving the inerrancy of the Bible, we can look to archaeology as well as the consistency of manuscripts and most of all, the consistency of God's character over time. He is the same God with the same Law from OT to NT. 

 

 

Short answer here because this week's Verity Podcast episode is about this! Stay tuned for that on Wednesday. A few short truths: prophecy in the Old Testament was both foretelling and forth-telling. It was also “double reference prophecy” in many cases, with both a short term application and long term fulfillment (e.g. prophecies about Jesus in the book of Isaiah). Prophecy in the New Testament was expected and encouraged by the apostles (see 1 Cor. 13-14). It's also the primary role women take in Scripture from the OT through the NT (Miriam, Huldah, Isaiah's wife, the women of the early church). However, NT prophecy is not adding anything new to Scripture; it is reaffirming Scriptural truths and applying them to the Church. More details in the episode!

 

A little glimpse of what's bringing us joy at home: routines, books, kitchen and home life.