Revolutionary

Sometimes I feel proud of my generation. There are days when I read something or see something that makes me happy to be born when I was. I especially enjoy seeing youth of my generation break the mold of stereotypes, studying the Word diligently for themselves, actively serving the Lord in their communities, and living as aliens and strangers in the world. This brings me great joy.

At the same time, however, there are (many) days when I am severely disappointed in the people of my generation (and thus often myself as well). One of the primary reasons I get upset is because I see the way that people are so quick to embrace somethning new and revolutionary, and throw out older things just as quickly. I find this to be completely naive, and what's more it's simply stupid. New does not mean good, and old does not mean bad. Yet I think that this mindset has pervaded the thinking of many, inside and outside my generation, and it is causing a great deal of harm. I can think of the new(-ish) prominence of the Emergent Chruch, the Prosperity 'gospel', and the extreme charismatic movement. These are movements that for many are radically different than the 'church' that they were raised with, and for many provides a welcome escape from 'tradition', 'religion', or the 'traditional way to do church'. People embracing this is, frankly, idiotic. Jumping to embrace a new movement simply because it opposes older doctrines/systems is not praiseworthy. It's foolish. Sadly, that's what often happens. People get tired of church in the traditional sense, get tired of 'rules and regulations', and so move on to place that's more 'free' and 'unhindered' by tradition. This merely shows those people's immaturity. Revolutionary doesn't mean better. Radical doesn't mean improved. When people rush to new theologies, doctrinal systems, etc., because they bored of or were hurt/offended by traditional ones, this is not a good thing. We ally ourselves with Scripture, and the theology that it teaches, whether we like it or not. New doesn't translate into good.

At the same time, however, older doesn't necessarily mean better either. For myself, I often times look back at the Reformation and think 'wow it was so much better then!' Or I listen to a hymn and think 'man people nowdays just don't get it compared to these guys!' And I'm wrong to think this. There were as many heresies and flawed belief systems back then as there are now. For example, I think that the Reformers (who I ally myself with) did a phenomenal job of emphasizing God's transcendence, holiness, love of Himself, etc. However, I think that many of them neglected God's immanence, and the great love He has for His children. This doesn't mean that I neglect their teachings in favor of ones that only stress what the Reformers missed. No, I believe the Bible, and doctrines, older and newer, that are accurate to Scripture.