Considering the Early Church Fathers.

What was clear to Athanasius was that propositions about Christ carried convictions that could send you to heaven or to hell. There were propositions like: “There was a time when the Son of God was not,” and, “He was not before he was made,” and, “the Son of God is created.” These propositions were strictly damnable. If they were spread and believed they would damn the souls which embraced them. And therefore Athanasius labored with all his might to formulate propositions that would conform to reality and lead the soul to faith and worship and heaven.

I believe Athanasius would have abominated, with tears, the contemporary call for “depropositionalizing” that you hear among many of the so-called “reformists” and “the emerging church,”younger evangelicals,”postfundamentalists,” "postfoundationalists,” postpropositionalists,” and “postevangelicals.” I think he would have said, “Our young people in Alexandria die for the truth of propositions about Christ. What do your young people die for?” And if the answer came back, “We die for Christ, not propositions about Christ,” I think he would have said, “That’s what Arius says. So which Christ will you die for?”

Athanasius would have grieved over sentences like “It is Christ who unites us; it is doctrines that divides.” And sentences like: “We should ask, Whom do you trust? rather than what do you believe?” He would have grieved because he knew this is the very tactic used by the Arian bishops to cover the councils with fog so that the word “Christ” could mean anything. Those who talk like this—“Christ unites, doctrine divides”—have simply replaced propositions with a word. They think they have done something profound and fresh, when in fact they have done something very old and stale and very deadly.

This leads to a related lesson . . .

4. The truth of biblical language must be vigorously protected with non-biblical language.

Athanasius’ experience was critically illuminating to something I have come to see over the years, especially in liberally minded baptistic and pietistic traditions, namely, that the slogan, “the Bible is our only creed” is often used as a cloak to conceal the fact that Bible language is used to affirm falsehood. This is what Athanasius encountered so insidiously at the Council of Nicaea. The Arians affirmed biblical sentences. Listen to this description of the proceedings:

The Alexandrians . . . confronted the Arians with the traditional Scriptural phrases which appeared to leave no doubt as to the eternal Godhead of the Son. But to their surprise they were met with perfect acquiescence. Only as each test was propounded, it was observed that the suspected party whispered and gesticulated to one another, evidently hinting that each could be safely accepted, since it admitted of evasion. If their assent was asked to the formula “like to the Father in all things,” it was given with the reservation that man as such is “the image and glory of God.” The “power of God” elicited the whispered explanation that the host of Israel was spoken of as dunamis kuriou, and that even the locust and caterpillar are called the “power of God.” The “eternity” of the Son was countered by the text, “We that live are alway (2 Corinthians 4:11)!” The fathers were baffled, and the test of homoosion, with which the minority had been ready from the first, was being forced (p. 172) upon the majority by the evasions of the Arians.

R. P. C. Hanson explained the process like this: “Theologians of the Christian Church were slowly driven to a realization that the deepest questions which face Christianity cannot be answered in purely biblical language, because the questions are about the meaning of biblical language itself.” The Arians railed against the unbiblical language being forced on them. They tried to seize the biblical high ground and claim to be the truly biblical people—the pietists, the simple Bible-believers—because they wanted to stay with biblical language only—and by it smuggle in their non-biblical meanings.
But Athanasius saw through this “post-modern,”post-conservative,” “post-propositional” strategy and saved for us not just Bible words, but Bible truth. May God grant us the discernment of Athanasius for our day. Very precious things are at stake.
Contending for Our All: The Life and Ministry of Athanasius
By John Piper February 1, 2005
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Biographies/1532_Contending_for_Our_All/

Yes. I want to call one thing to your attention in this whole thing (and I know it's long). We have traded in the Sovereignty of God, God honoring Theology and understanding for three things.

1. Laziness. It is easier to read the Bible through the lens of our own understanding, our preconceived notions and our cultural comforts. It is easier to let scripture fit our ideas than to make our ideas match scripture, because we think in a self-focused way. We are selfish by nature, and we have read the scripture for us and by us and for us. We think that by us and for us and through us all things are created, yet it's clear that scripture teaches:
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Col 1:16-17 (ESV)
It's easier to read it from our nature.

2. Fear. We are afraid that our beliefs and our way of thinking will be wrong. We are afraid to be wrong. When someone asks you a spiritual question, are you afraid to say "I don't know?" We read the scripture that says "be ready to give an answer" and so we are afraid if we can't give an answer. So we simplify the scripture so we can have an answer. We fit scripture into our world view because we are afraid if we read it for what is really is, we won't be able to justify the syncratism and contextualization of our modern religious idealism. We are terrified to be wrong, and even more terrified that others will think we are wrong.

3. Ignorance. We don't know any better. Someone once told us "it's just about Christ, it's only about the Bible". What we didn't know is what Christ are they talking about? Mormons talk about Christ, Jehovah Witnesses talk about Christ, Emergent Church people talk about Christ. Go back in history, Gnostics, Arians, Modalism. Some spoke of Christ as a spirit possessing the man Jesus, and leaving his body as Crucifixion. Some speak of Christ as God in the mode of man. Arianism speaks of Christ being created. So, modern Christian, which Christ is it about? If we just focus on Christ, but never a theology of who Christ is, we fall into Heresy. We assume we live Orthodoxy, but never take time to examine the presupisitions that exist in the modern Church. We have become a self-worshing idolotrist mass of people, and the church is dying and we wonder why. We don't see greater things (which I believe is tied to the harvest) and we don't see a great harvest? Why? Because we have thrown theology under the bus, and we just want to focus on our culturally understood and modern evangelical representation of Christ.

So here is my point. Stop being lazy, afraid and ignorant. Challenge your ideals. Piper put some things in his message about categories of thought that will mess with your current modern American sensibilities. Like:
God rules the world of bliss and suffering and sin, right down to the roll of the dice and the fall of a bird and the driving of the nail into the hand of his Son, yet, though he will that such sin and suffering be, he does not sin, but is perfectly holy.

God governs all the steps of all people, both good and bad, at all times and in all places, yet such that all are accountable before him and will bear the just consequences of his wrath if they do not believe in Christ.

All are dead in their trespasses and sin and are not morally able to come to Christ because of their rebellion, yet, they are responsible to come and will be justly punished if they don’t.

Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, divine and human, such that he upheld the world by the word of his power while living in his mother’s womb.

sin, though committed by a finite person and in the confines of finite time is nevertheless deserving of an infinitely long punishment because it is a sin against an infinitely worthy God.

The death of the one God-Man, Jesus Christ, so displayed and glorified the righteousness of God that God is not unrighteous to declare righteous ungodly people who simply believe in Christ.
ibid

Do those mess with you? I assume that most of you are bothered by the first one, that God will sin and yet is not sinful. We speak so often in our modern sensibilities about knowing and doing God's will, like somehow God's will can be thwarted. Can God's will be thwarted, or does He create, maintain and sustain all things? I know the argument that by His choosing He has stayed His hand, and He allows free will, I understand that, but do you really assume that God had no knowledge that sin would prevail on earth? Do you believe that when God planted the tree of knowledge, He didn't know the outcome? By it's very nature, sin was brought into the world by the will of God, who created mankind with the potential for sin and the opportunity for sin. Why He did it isn't in question, the reality is that God, if the creator, willed sin it existance, yet He Himself did not sin by doing so.

If you have read to this point in the blog, I commend you for sticking with it. This is weighty and probably convoluted diction, I know. It's difficult to begin to think outside of the society norms you have known your entire life. I am currently struggling with the fact that my entire life, Christianity has been foundationally about me, and God has been external to that. I must decrease and He must increase. More over, I am finding that most Christians in our society are at the exact same place, and only by God bringing in a few select few I have even come to the realization myself. I didn't get here on my own, and my blogging is sharing part of this journey. Perhaps you think the entire thing is errornus, then just pray for me. My own prayer is that God will change me in whatever way necessary for me to grow closer and understand more about Him than I have previously. Something is happening.