Are you a red-letter or black-letter Christian?
October 26th, 2006Daniel Randle has a great post about the incredibly stupid idea of some liberal Christians to call themselves “red-letter Christians,” while they refer insultingly to conservatives as “black-letter Christians.”
Their reason for doing so? They emphasize and follow the teachings of Jesus, often designated in red letters in various Bibles, while all those mean conservatives only believe the “black letters” and don’t follow the teachings of Jesus.
Talk about snooty. And talk about childish. That sounds like something an 8-year-old would come up with.
Daniel writes:
“I find that these sort of distinctions only blur the debate that should be the focal point of discussion between moderate, liberal, and conservative Christians - and that is the authority of the Bible. What we have seen throughout history is that the axis upon which all of Christianity turns is the Biblical witness. When Christians have been made to emphasize one aspect of the Biblical record to the exclusion of another, then the Gospel itself has been compromised.”
Amen, brother.
That’s funny…in my Bible this is in red letters:
“I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.”
Revelation 2:21-23
Guess us mean old conservatives don’t have a corner on the judgment market in our black letter texts.
Jesus said, “I did not come to abolish the black letters, but to fulfill them”
It is a spirit of divisiveness that seeks to categorize people apply labels and draw lines. The sad result of this is that Christians gather themselves into little groups to laud their positions while stereotyping the other side’s position without ever speaking to them. You can’t have an honest conversation with “them” anyway because they can’t be trusted to speak honestly. Oh, and “our” motives are always pure!
Anytime labels are used, even denominational labels, it hurts the church by separating believers. Once lines are drawn, walls of separation get built. Once the walls are built, both sides have a vested interest in maintaining it. You are either with “us” or you are with “them”.
Divisiveness should be called what it is. Sin. These people who are wanting to define who is “red-letter” and who is “black-letter” should repent.
“What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided?” The more things change, &c. What’s really funny is the Holy Grail of the “red letter” crowd is the Jesus Seminar, which voted out virtually all the “red letters” in the Bible.
When you wrote “Daniel writes,” my first thought was you were quoting your less-than-8-year-old.
John MacArthur says that he wonders why the whole Bible isn’t printed in red letters, if they are truly the words of Jesus.
“Divisiveness should be called what it is. Sin.”
Did Martin Luther ever repent of sparking the reformation you think?
Divisiveness is not always sin. It is sin when it is done for selfish or non-God honoring reasons (or in this case as an effort to dumb-down God’s Word) but sometimes we are called to be divisive. As I’ve heard said, labels tell us whether the can contains soup or rat poison. We should avoid (divide from) theological poison so that it doesn’t infect the entire church. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” Galatians 5:9
I’m not, BTW, saying this particular divide is appropriate, just that we can’t paint all divisiveness with the same brush.
Why are these things seen as being mutually exclusive?
The short answer to your question is that they shouldn’t be seen as mutually exclusive at all. The Bible is consistent and unified, no matter what colors the print the text in.
The long answer goes kind of like this. You have a more liberal crowd… Oops I just labeled them! Let me try again…
You have a crowd that that is more “blue” state-ish, Rats! Another label!
Attempt #3…
You have a crowd that is passionate about social issues and appears to be less concerned about spiritual/eternal salvation issues…
On the other side, you have a crowd that is passionate about the eternal salvation issues and appears to be less concerned about the social issues…
The first crowd mentioned tend to appeal to the life and words of Jesus, or at least, their personal perception of the life and words of Jesus… Thus the “red letter” crowd.
The second crowd mentioned tend to appeal to the words of Paul, who seems to be more focused on eternal issues. In Bibles, his letters are in black ink…
The first crowd tends to paint the other group as being fundamentalist, narrow-minded, Pharisaic legalists.
The second crowd tends to paint the other group as being liberal, left-wing, overly-tolerant, universalists.
It becomes very exclusive indeed. The “black letter” people believe Christianity is exclusive…only for those who embrace Christ. They even have some red letters to back it up: John 14.6.
The “red letter” folks believe Christianity is not exclusive…yet exclude the people who believe it is.
The truth is that there is unity in the red and black letters, it’s just that people have a tendency to read their Bibles with preferential eyes, noticing what they want to believe and ignoring what they don’t want to believe (the sovereignty of God in salvation is a great example).
I’m not sure if I answered your question or not, but hope it helps.
Recently I was at a mainline church for a wedding. I noticed a bulletin board with ads for the various study courses offered by the pastor. “Justice” “Family” 2 sessions on “Feminine Images of the Divine” ETC. Nary a single study of a Bible book or anything remotely Christ-related. I’ve heard the pastor preach twice, but never heard him mention “Jesus” by name or refer to a single verse of scripture.
The last time I check, orthopraxy meant nothing without orthodoxy and vice versa.
Print the whole Word in Red! Then do something about the whole Text!
gen-o ,
Run. Run away. Run as fast as you can.
I’m a Baptist.
Does anyone know the origin of the ‘red-lettering’?
I submitted a question on Daniel Randle’s to two of the “red-letter” Christians. One has responded and it is very telling. It helps illustrate just how far off the red-letter “Christians” are.
I read it, Brett. And it shows, at least in this instance, that this “red-letter” Christian doesn’t even know what the gospel is. And if you don’t know what the gospel is, then how can you even be a Christian at all?