Has anything changed? Christian religion today is
mired in doctrinal dispute. They argue over the length of
one's ordo salutis in the "Lordship salvation" debate. They
banter about the legitimacy of charismatic experientialism.
They attempt to defend their historical and theological
assertions with apologetic proofs. Contemporary
fundamentalism and evangelicalism are so entrenched in
the "epistemological heresy" that their ideologies have
become idolatry, and they proceed to worship the Baal of
natural thinking rather than God in Christ.
Making the DistinctionIt is imperative that we make the distinction between an
epistemological base of knowing and perceiving action and
an ontological base of knowing and perceiving action.
Christianity is not essentially assent to or belief in tenets of
truth, but rather receptivity to and participation in the
activity of the Being of the One who is Truth (John 14:6).
Jesus did not say, "I came that you might have orthodox
beliefs and defend them apologetically." He said, "I came
that you might have life (the very Being of God) and have
such more abundantly (in the abundant expression of God's
character in our behavior). (John 10:10)