Written by Carl R. Trueman |
Friday, February 3, 2023
I would not deny that I am an “elite” myself. I trade in ideas. I teach at a college. I write books. My hands are soft through lack of doing what anything that my grandfather might have referred to as “real work.” And the challenge this poses for me is: Who are truly my brother and my sister? When the line is finally drawn, on which side will I stand? With the people who belong to my class or the people who belong to my church?

There are a number of ways to look at the current divisions that are emerging in traditional Protestant and evangelical circles in the USA. The old fault line between those who affirm and those who deny the reality of the supernatural—the line that marked the old liberal-fundamentalist divide of the early 20th century—is not particularly helpful, given that the most significant debates do not focus on that particular kind of issue. Rather, other buzzwords—Donald Trump, abortion, gender, sexuality, Christian nationalism, social justice, critical race theory—reflect the points of contention.
Protestants thought they owned the USA. They no longer do, and they are struggling to adapt to this new reality where they still think their voices count but how to make them count is not clear. Thus, one way to understand our divisions is as a set of conflicting responses to our new social order.
Another way, however, is to see what is happening as the exposure of a class division, long latent but now increasingly clear. It has been interesting to see the muted response in some evangelical quarters to the Dobbs decision.
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Confusion about our Lord’s return was common in the early church (one can think of the questions and answers about the end times in Paul’s two Thessalonian letters), even as it is in our own day. Bible prophecy pundits have made so many wild and irresponsible predictions about the second coming of Jesus Christ that non-Christians no longer pay any attention to the Bible’s teaching that Jesus is going to return to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new.

1. The Apostle Peter warns the churches of the dangers of false teaching and the ungodliness that it produces.
Peter does not name these false teachers, but from his comments in 2 Peter 2:1–3, it is clear that they were once professing Christians who have since departed from the faith. Peter describes them as introducing destructive heresies, denying the Master who they claim “bought them,” while attracting a large number of followers who blaspheme the Lord. False doctrine inevitably leads to sinful conduct. Because of their apostasy, God’s judgment upon them is certain.
Based on several hints given to us by Peter, it may be the case that these people misused the letters of Paul to justify antinomian (lawless) behavior. In 2 Peter 2:19, Peter writes, “They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption.” The Apostle goes on to say in 2 Peter 3:15–16 that there are some things in the letters of Paul “that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” Apparently, the content of Paul’s letters was distorted in the Apostolic age, even as it is in our own.
2. Peter speaks of his readers as having a righteous standing before God through faith.
Peter writes, “who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1). The faith that grants such a standing is a gift from God given through Jesus Christ—the source of the righteousness of God—and therefore something received (Eph. 2:8–9). All those who have been given such faith are said to be of the same faith as “ours” (the Apostles). Believers obtain this righteous standing before God through the instrument of faith by means of Jesus Christ—who, Peter tells us, is God.
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The real freedom that we have is freedom within the bounds of the law of God to honor it as a way of gratitude. People today are making the assumption that freedom is freedom to live outside the law of God. Simply put, “If you come to us, we won’t require anything of you.” We need to properly define legalism as putting a yoke over people for their justification before God, in addition to faith in Christ.

What is legalism? The charge of legalism is so carelessly flung around today that people have no idea what the term means. It’s become a catch phrase to write off any teaching of God’s moral law.
There are three ways this term is being misapplied and abused to attack churches that have remained confessionally Protestant.
First, churches that are serious today are characterized as legalistic. In fact, any church that is serious or formal anymore will “stand out like an organ stop” (quoting David Wells) and be labeled as those who are joyless and legalistic. People are equating legalism with formality, as if freedom means casualness before God. I’m reminded of the Lord’s complaint against Israel,
For My people are foolish, They have not known Me. They are silly children, And they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, But to do good they have no knowledge.” (Jer 4:22)
Just before Israel’s impending judgment for apostasy, the Lord tells us that the worship became full of sheer “silliness.” No word could better capture the feel of today’s worship than silliness. We have forgotten the Lord’s warning, “By those who come near to me, I must be regarded as holy.”
Second, legalism is being carelessly used to attack people’s liberty. I have noticed the reverse problem of striking at a brother’s liberty because he wants to, for example, offer his first-fruits in the way that he dresses or looks. “They make all their people dress a certain way at that church.” Broad characterizations and generalizations are made this way and lumped together as a “legalistic” when, in fact, practices of people are often birthed out of genuine gratitude for the grace given. In other words, marketing mega-churches keep kicking the traditional churches as legalistic in matters of Christian liberty—they wear ties, they sing out of a song book, etc.
Third, and most dangerous, the charge of legalism is made against those who are sincerely trying to honor the law of God out of gratitude. Now none of these people would advocate that Christians should murder, steal, commit adultery, etc.; but when a Christian wants to, for instance, keep the second commandment and not make images or have icons for worship, since it is expressly condemned in that commandment, well, that is now said to be legalistic. If someone says, “I want to honor the fourth commandment and keep the Sabbath day holy” this is the kind of stuff being labeled as legalistic, when in fact, it is a law of God.
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