Whole Means Healthy So Stop the Insanity.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein, (attributed)US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

In many ways this describes Christianity in its current state, if you see what I see. I am not looking at the many different things that churches and leaders have done. I am looking at the one thing that has stayed the same since the beginning of the 20th century. It is the church’s view of what it means to be holy. That has stayed the same despite any differences elsewhere with disastrous results. You might still ask: “So what?” My point is that you can make a massive google load of differences and changes and yet if you leave the key thing the same and continuous, those differences make no difference in reality.

That is why in my view church planting and many other movements within Evangelicalism to make things different really in the end make one thing still the same. It has not changed. It is the same whether you go to a conservative church, a liberal church or an evangelical church. It is all the same when it comes to the issue of holy or to put it another way, their view of what is whole and healthy is the same as well.

Allow me to try to make what some see as boring history interesting history. I think it is interesting, because the same thing is happening to us that happened to this people before. It is boring only if it has nothing to do with us. See my point? This pattern has very much to do with us!

Let me use a chart of history to try to simplify things down to the most significant things that are the same and different. Even the names that are different are not as significant as the same pattern that has shown itself in the present. I will try to use only the most significant names of people and groups to show a real pattern that has remained the same for some time. (As time passes and I am able to talk to more experts I will update this chart with improvements.)

The chart of what has remained much the same is this:

Different view of justification and mercy– Martin Luther and the Lutherans
Split over Luther’s view of justification – Martin Chemnitz and Philip Melancthon
Then peacemakers over the split – Philip Spener and the Pietists

Different view of humility and grace – John Calvin and the Calvinists (Reformed)
Split over Calvin’s view of humility – Gomarus and Arminius
Then peacemakers over the split – Richard Baxter and the Puritans

Different view of wholesome and kindness – Thomas Cranmer and the Anglicans (Episcopalians)
Split over Cranmer’s view of wholesome – Laud and Donne
Then peacemakers over the split – ? and the Brethren Movement

Different view of love and compassion– John Wesley and the Methodists
Split over Wesley’s view of love – Fletcher and ?
Then peacemakers over the split - ? and the Holiness Movement

Different view of goodness and longsuffering – Charles Spurgeon and the Baptists
Split over Spurgeon’s view of goodness – Torrey and Fosdick
Then peacemakers over the split – Billy Graham and the Evangelicals

(Present) Different view of ___________and _____________ -____________________
(Future) Split over ____________view of__________________ -__________________
(Further future) Then peacemakers over the split –_______________________________


My basic plea after seeing this chart is let us “stop the insanity.” Let’s move forward in fill in the next set of blanks. We are now at a time in history, when we need a “different view” of a specific biblical concept and we need to move beyond the next two stages following the Baptists, which lead to a deadness and then survival rather than revival from the first stage.

The irony, in the last stage dealing with Spurgeon, is that we are still trapped in the insanity following his death in Great Britain and the death of D.L. Moody in the United States. Those who brought the split and then the peacemakers hold to the same worldview. The only difference between them is that of an “either-or” stance on an issue or a “both-and” stance on an issue that is really relevant more to restoring the past revival than either their present or someone else’s future. That is what makes history boring, not history itself. It is a loss of relevance.

As an example of holding the same worldview, in the case of holy, all three camps agree that holy means separate or set apart. The irony is that this is different from Spurgeon, Wesley, Cranmer, Calvin and Luther. They saw that holy and healthy had to do with being whole in a broad and primary sense. They sometimes where a little hazy on this point, but this remained the same over time.

The difference in views that I believe needs to happen for us to again experience reformation and revival and health, is for Christians and their leaders to recognize that holy means whole and that kindness is the remedy for our lack of wholeness.

So you ask: “So what?” It is that insanity is by its very nature doing the same thing and expecting different results. The evangelicals are doing the same things as the conservatives and the liberals. Or at least they have the same worldview as the liberals and conservatives, when it comes to their view of holiness. There is no difference. This I believe is why they are as insane as the liberals or conservatives in believing that their worldview will produce reformation or revival.

I know that I must keep in mind that there is a difference between some who hold these views and others. Some are sane despite the insanity. Let’s make it so that some are insane despite the sanity. Let’s shift the majority position.

Let’s go back to Einstein. “ Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I am not looking at the many different things that churches and leaders have done. I acknowledge the multitude of things done differently. I am looking at the one thing that has stayed the same since the beginning of the 20th century. It is the church’s view of what it means to be holy. Since that time, not prior, it has not changed. So someone, please stop the insanity! I want to be whole and healthy!


In Christ,

Jon