I have been giving quite a bit of thought to the controversy over the Manhattan Declaration.
I have also given equal meditation to my behavioral response to it, as well as to many others.
It seems to me that many, perhaps myself included, have lost the forest for the trees.
I wonder, is it possible that some hold a higher view of the Gospel than a real tangible relationship with God? Has presumed knowledge of God exceeded relationship with God?
It seems to me, and J.I.Packer, that the chief aim of theology is "to know and enjoy God himself". This implies a relationship.
If you were my neighbor, and you wanted to get to know me, it would be weird for you to study my worldview, write the precepts down, attempt to live by them, and doggedly encourage others to do the same. No, if you wanted to get to know me, you would delight to spend time with me, we would talk, and this is how you would get to know me.
When I used the strong word sanctimonious in my previous writings on this subject, it was this tendency that I was rebelling against. Not that God's word isn't perfect, and greatly desirable to know, and follow.
But, isn't the relationship what God is looking for? Would he be proud if we spent all our life studying his laws, but spent no time with him? God is clearly judge, but not all judge, he is also love.
Did he not adopt us as sons, because he desires to have a relationship?
From J.I.Packer's Knowing God:
"We need to ask ourselves: What is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God, once I have it? For the fact that we have to face is this: If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians because of our interest in it and grasp of it; and we shall look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate and dismiss them as very poor specimens. For as Paul told the conceited Corinthians, "Knowledge puffs up...The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know" (1 Cor 8:1-2)"
It seems to me that we have seen some of this conceit on display as we have considered the Manhattan Declaration.
Let us dispense with the inter-family squabbles, and get about the business of influencing our culture with God's true truth. Abortion is bad. Religious freedom is good, and marriage = one man, and one woman.
