Dogmatism

Bill O'Reilly often refers to "urchins".  Meriam-Webster Dictionary defines this as "a usually poor and dirty child who annoys people or causes minor trouble".  O'Reilly uses it tongue-in-cheek when he refers to precocious children. Adults are to take these small urchins and transform them into responsible, mature and happy adults. The process of doing this is molding, called "modeling" in psychological terms.

It is the obligation of responsible adults to find an acceptable mold, work their little budding clay pots and let them cure in that mold until a permanent structure is formed, and the painted pot never breaks! Scripture tells of this process:

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

There is a problem today. Those adults, even parents, who construct the mold, do it after their own pattern; the pattern of their world or their denomination! If the pattern was not so full of flaws that would be a great start, but unfortunately those who mold are replicating flawed copies, and that's a big problem!

First off, let's look at the intent of this proverb.  It was surely written so that children of righteous parents grow up to be righteous adults. The assumption with this proverb is that the mold has itself been patterned after God!  This saying is good if one looks at the modifier "in the way he should go". When God inspires words of wisdom it's obvious that the pattern is to be "truth". Parents sometimes intentionally and unwittingly pass down falsehoods because that's the same pattern from which they were molded.

Let's take a familiar tale: A modern housewife always cuts off the shank of her roast before putting it in the pan. When asked why, she said "Because my mom always did!" When the mother was asked the same question she relayed the same answer. "Her mom always did!" Upon further investigation it appears that her mother initiated that ritual because her roasting pan was too small. Those to whom she modeled did the same thing in spite of having ample roasting pans! The pattern for this activity was doing what was necessary, but she unwittingly passed along a ritual which her seed did without question!

This is the same modeling which people do in all aspects of life! People vote for a certain party most often because their antecedents always have. People believe certain doctrines because that's the way they were brought up. In essence people are shallow. They are mini-models in that they are what they were brought up to be!  That's desirable if the pattern is of excellent quality, but a flawed pattern creates a flawed mold which in turn causes the product to be flawed. Flawed children are caused because the pattern or mold  was flawed.

In Christianity the pattern is always perfect. The pattern is to be Christ:

1 John 2:6 "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."

If we desire to have a good pattern for modeling our children we turn to perfection. Jesus was a perfect pattern and that's the one we are to use to make the model for our children. Don't worry, because we're prone to error, the model will still have some imperfections, but that's what makes us human. That's what makes the distinction between the pattern and the product. Error is introduced in each phase of the process!

Christian parents take the pattern of Christ; a perfect pattern, and make a model for teaching children "in the way he should go". In the process contamination gets in the material of which the mold is made. A good pattern is put on paper and from that a mold is made. The model-maker must interpret the pattern and make the mold. Even if the pattern is understood perfectly, our own lack of skill introduces a mold which may be acceptable, but still flawed. All parents not only misunderstand the pattern, but also introduce flaws because of their own lack of understanding!

Hence, the product is in fact patterned after that perfect model, Christ, but is as a final product, is full of errors. If the model-maker is really unskilled the product is corrupt and not worthy of existence. Even those "right" products still have flaws. Then the pattern-maker steps in! He says "If you have faith in me and trust me, I can make this product the way I intended it to be!"

 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

It's grace from the pattern-maker when he sees the mistakes made all along by everyone. The process is flawed because it has error introduced at all steps. If the product is covered by the "finish" of the pattern-maker it is protected from further contamination. However, although the finish is sufficient the bearer must have faith that the finish is durable. He trusts the finish!

That "finish" is the blood of Jesus and the product, us, must trust that finish! However, the finish is there because the product (us) knows about it! That's crucial and what is meant by "train up a child in the way he should go". Many people never get that new finish because their model wasn't formed after the pattern; Christ!

This process of building an acceptable product is what Christianity is all about. As products, Christians cut off the old product having a flawed model, and let Jesus correct it. Thereafter the product is "right" and as such lives according to the pattern. They become as righteous as they can because the finish only preserves something imperfect. The product can never be perfect because only the original (Jesus) was built to perfect specifications! However, the new creation does the best it can with the limitations the pattern-maker imposed on his creation!

Let's take a quick look at denominations or more specifically "doctrine". Denominations are formed over differences in doctrine! Part of the imperfection still existing in new creations is that we still have elements inside which struggle with "train up a child" because of the unskilled molders. One of the inherent flaws is that we do what the molders intended: to "train up a child". However, when the molders "train up the child" the training manual, the pattern, is not fully understood. It's just like that process of cutting off that butt end of the roast. People "train up" how they were trained up! Christians don't train up wrong on purpose just like grandma didn't cut off the roast to deceive. That's the way she dealt with the issue, then it became ingrained in those who followed. Her descendants have larger roasting pans. They needed to look closely what they were trained to do!

My premise is that the doctrines of Christians are most strongly modeled by adults who were dominant in their lives. It may be a parent, grandparent, teacher, preacher or even a mature friend. I am what I am because of my righteous father! My own dad was sincere in all his beliefs, but in some, he was sincerely wrong! Why? Because the person or group who molded him had inherent flaws. They weren't destructive flaws, but they contaminated the product. and had certain doctrines to which he clinged! As his son and product, I have inherent flaws as well, but not the same ones.

I have had the blessing of moving through several denominations all my life. Each denomination had some very good doctrine, but there were always troublesome dogma which caused me to move on. However, each time I was taught things which helped me later on!

Pride became less of an issue with time. When people challenged my doctrine I eventually didn't take it as an attack on my models, primarily my Dad. It wasn't an attack on the doctrines of my denomination because denomination had become of less importance to me. In effect by learning different doctrine and testing them with scripture, much of my error, at least the way I understand scripture, was cleared up.

Oftentimes I wondered why God desired me to experiment with denominations and even non-denominations. I'm sure it was so that I could seek truth in the confusion of differing doctrines. What I believe now is according to the pattern. I tested varying doctrines, disregarded the errors introduced by my models and went back to the pattern-maker and asked him to inspire me! I attend a certain church, not because that's my heritage handed down from my models, but the denomination fits best, although imperfectly, what the pattern-maker intended.

I believe those who were brought up after a pattern are blessed! However, I believe those who were brought up with dogmatic teaching are flawed because their pattern is flawed and they always go to the pattern-maker with a bias from their model! Dogma, according to Meriam-Webster is  "a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted".

Dogmatic people are much like those who still cut the roast and just accept it as necessary and right. They condemn others who fail to cut off the roast because that's obviously the right thing to do! "Why can't other people see that?" they think!  This is an attitude of dogmatic people.  Fundamentalists are most always dogmatic. I am too because I am fundamental in dogma. However, I recognize, and put my pride aside, that I CAN BE wrong! Many fundamentalists will never look away from their dogma long enough to listen intently to the pattern-maker!

There is a way to test whether a person is dogmatic or not. Ask questions of yourself?

• Do I cling to what I've always believed as ultimate truth?
• Have I an unchangeable doctrine before I listen to the evidence of others?
• Are my doctrine and beliefs still the same as when I was a babe in Christ?
• Do I get angry when others disagree with my doctrine?
• Do I show a good model for causing change or does my attitude hinder an otherwise convincing argument?
• Are my arguments consistent or do they change when necessary to support my points?
• Do I listen to others with finding truth, or is my doctrine more important?
• There are many others, but this is a start!

As a fundamentalist I value the King James Bible. It's not the original 1611 version because it had errors and has been revised many times! However, the KJV is the authorized bible and was translated from the textus receptus, the Great Bible, the Bishop's Bible, the Geneva Bible, Wycliffe's Bible and the Latin Vulgate. It was translated by a panel of 40 scholars all of the Church of England. Although it was subject to Anglican bias, the actual translation was extremely true to intent as evidenced by it's reliability and durability over time. People who espouse the KJV have confidence in it's being the most true translation, and other than archaic words, I believe that as well!

Fundamentalist insist on using the KJV because of it's rigidity in staying true to the original intent. It's age testifies to its passing the test of confidence. However, when the KJV doesn't support the dogma of fundamentalists, they revert to the original Greek and Hebrew! They use Strong's definitions. By this practice dogmatists are saying in effect "Joe Blow (the fundamentalist) understands the original Greek and Hebrew better than did the 40 scholars! That's pride! Those that imply this are taking Strong's definitions over the 40 KJV scholars. We need to be consistent: Is the KJV reliable or not!

Dogmatic people will play the game "Twister" so that the Bible fits their dogma! They are more concerned with pride in what they have always believed over truth! Yes, we are all somewhat dogmatic and that's caused by pride. I allow that I just may have wrong doctrines at times and that others just may be right. I take the attitude, unless it's crucial to salvation, that we'll know the truth in heaven; or by that time it won't matter and be so obvious that we'll feel stupid! That's what it means to be meek.

Bill O"Reilly call the "twisting of truth" by dogmatic people "spin". He says "The spin stops here!" Rather than spinning scripture to fit doctrine, maybe we should just consider our doctrine. Let's create a "No Spin Zone"! Does it pass the test of scripture? Does it pass without adding things and conditions to it? Does it pass without reading between the lines? Does it pass ALL scripture all the time?

I write notes in the margins of my bibles. Sometimes when I'm studying scripture, I read my old notes; some from when I was a "babe in Christ". I laugh at my heresy. I thought I knew it all at that time because my molder made me what I was. Sometimes I just didn't understand my molders. Other molders misled me. I have abandoned much of my dogmatism because I was so wrong at times before. Yes, I can and am wrong at times! However, my desire is to understand what my pattern-maker intended, not what my denomination teaches!

To avoid being too liberal, we must always test doctrine to scripture and endeavor to disregard what we've always been taught! That's the downside of "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." People ignore the modifier "in the way he should go" and rewrite it as "in the way we've always went"!