Joe McKeever

My "Neat Little Theological System"

I call it my NLTS, and it works like this: I have my understanding of God worked out so that everything fits, and any reality that tries to intrude, I deny or ignore.

A pastor friend introduced me to the concept, without realizing it.

I was on his church staff, the newest assistant among several young ministers. After having pastored three small churches, serving on the team of the largest congregation in the state was a heady experience. The governor was one of our deacons, former governors sat in the congregation, and state denominational leadership filled many of the pews. Television cameras beamed our live services throughout the state. I knew it would be a rare thing for me to be asked to preach in this church. But it happened, sooner than I expected.

One Saturday night, the pastor called. "I'm coming down with something. Be ready to preach tomorrow morning. I'll let you know."

I ended up preaching both services the next day, morning and night. It was the Sunday night sermon that offended the pastor.

With so little advance notice, I had pulled out a couple of sermons I'd used before in previous pastorates, ones I felt confident about. The Sunday night sermon asked the question, "What about those who die without having heard the gospel?" Often when I would speak on college campuses, that question was raised, and I felt I knew the biblical answer.

The answer, for anyone who takes the Bible at face value, is clearly that no one is going to Heaven without believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is consistent on that, the Holy Spirit verifies it in the Word, the testimonies of missionaries through the centuries bear it out, and sheer logic confirms it. For example, if people who never have heard of Jesus go to Heaven when they die, then ignorance is the best plan of salvation there is. Call in all the missionaries, shut down the mission boards, and cancel all the outreach programs; leave everyone in darkness and we all end up in Heaven. Simple. Also dead wrong.

A day or two later, the pastor, now recovered from his weekend ailment, called me into his office. "I do not agree with your message Sunday night," he said. He was sure that God had ways for people to be saved and go to Heaven without the precise requirement of knowing of Jesus, trusting the cross, and praying some version of the sinner's prayer. I was stunned.

He added, "Joe, I have my theology worked out. It's a circle. And if one part of it is wrong, it changes everything else. And what you preached Sunday night does not fit."

To his credit, he did not insist that I preach his convictions and silence mine.

When I left the office that day, I determined to proclaim the message of the Scriptures and to let nothing change that. I also committed myself -- and this is equally important -- to continue studying this subject and to be open to whatever the Holy Spirit wished to teach me on this, or any other, subject.

His NLTS. The pastor had his, and excluded anything that did not fit it.

One of the most important contributions to the debate over gay marriages is the "My Turn" column in Newsweek, February 9, 2009. Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, writes that while he voted for Proposition 8 in his state which banned marriage between people of the same sex, he is not anti-gay and not a religious fundamentalist extremist. He says, "I celebrate the fact that we live in a pluralistic society, with many different worldviews and lifestyles." He watched the demonstrations on television when proponents and opponents hurled insults and epithets at one another, and grew saddened. "The tears welled up." "It makes me sad."

Mouw writes, "I have spent several decades of my life trying to spell out an evangelical alternative to (what the editor of Newsweek recently called) ‘the worst kind of fundamentalism.' My friends and I have argued that the Bible supports racial justice, gender equality, peacemaking and care for the environment -- views that often draw the ire of the worst kind of fundamentalists." He goes on, "But none of that seems to matter to folks who don't like our views about same-sex relations. Because we also believe that the Bible frowns on sexual intimacy outside of marriage between a man and a woman, we are being relegated to the margins of the civil dialogue."

Mouw insists, "I refuse to go to the margins." He wants to talk about these things, and encourages people in and outside the church to engage one another on these subjects without yelling, slander, or mean-spiritedness.

He may be asking a lot of both sides.

I don't have to tell you that many people who are speaking the loudest in the church on this subject have their own NLTS and nothing contrary to what they believe or think or feel will be condoned. Disagree with them and they relegate you to the depths of the abyss.

And that's as sad as anything I know.

It reminds me of the famous (okay, infamous) statement by SBC President (at the time) Bailey Smith in the 1980s when he told a Texas audience, "Almighty God does not hear the prayer of a Jew."

Remember that?

He got a rousing and thunderous ovation of approval from his audience. Only Heaven was silent. For Mr. Smith was boxing God into a corner that the Lord had no intention of entering. Had Evangelist Smith known all his Bible as well as he knows parts of it, he would have known he was treading outside his area of expertise.

After all, the Scripture was written by Jews, all the Old Testament and most of the New. Jesus Himself was a Jew. And even if one says, "Well, Bailey meant Jews who have not confessed Jesus as their Messiah," we would still have statements such as this one from Peter referring to the Roman centurion named Cornelius: "In every nation whoever fears (God) and works righteousness is accepted by Him." (Acts 10:35)

Before we frame God into our NLTS, I suggest we acquaint ourselves with the whole of scripture, but two in particular.

Psalm 115:3 says, "But our God is in the Heavens; He does whatever He pleases." I must be careful when announcing, pronouncing, and denouncing what God will do and what He will not do. He has a mind of His own, and has not confided to me -- nor to anyone else, to my knowledge -- all His plans and intentions.

And secondly, the last few verses of Romans 11. (Remember our subject, now. We're talking about the tendency of people to limit God as to what He can do and cannot, will do or will not.)

"Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

"For who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has become His counselor?

Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?

"For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11:33-36)

Well! So much for our NLTS. God refuses to play our little games and to let us limit Him to our denomination, our creed, our understanding, or our convictions. He is God with everything which that implies.

"Know ye that the Lord He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves." Thanks, David. That line from Psalm 100:3 ought to be tattooed on the forehead of everyone of us who purports to speak for God.

Perhaps this little prayer also:

"Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins." (Psalms 19:13)

This line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 5) has your and my names all over it:

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”