Christians Who Hate Authority

Civilizations can't survive without authority.

But, in my opinion, the American church is being torn apart by Christians who hate authority. The self-worshiping humanism of the 1960s fermented during the Me Generation 70's and the Clinton years, and has now produced a Generation Y that doesn't even grasp the idea of authority, rules, or obedience. This wave of cultural disease infects the current evangelical church, I feel.

You can see the breakdown of the church throughout the nation, in all the scandals that have rocked us over the past 20 years.

This Christian hatred of authority takes a variety of symptomatic modes:

Hatred of Christian doctrinal standards.

I know a situation where the drummer in a church worship band admitted that he doesn't believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. The pastor wants him removed, which is what ought to happen. But his buddies are all opposed. Why? Because it might upset him, and besides (they say) he doesn't propagate it.

This is abominable. This man is a mission field. He has no more business playing in a Christian worship band than an uncircumcized Ammonite would have had serving at the Temple altar. Would it be OK if he was a practicing homosexual, as long as he wasn't actively pursuing the church's children?

Christians who say things like, "Doctrine doesn't matter", or, "Who needs doctrine?", are expressing their hatred of authority as well as hatred of God (since it is God Almighty who has given us His doctrine in His book).

Even the philosophical assertion that truth isn't knowable -- a cornerstone to the emergent movement -- is, in my opinion, an expression of rebellion. Since your goal is an unsubmitted, self-willed, self-worshiping life, the tactic is to justify sin by creating an epistomology [theory of knowledge] that says knowledge of God and His standards isn't humanly attainable! Having put God's truth almost completely out of reach, now you can live your life how you like. Rebelliously.

Hatred of Christian leadership authority.

I know a situation where a breakaway group from a larger church wants to start a new "church", but evidently it will be a "church" without pastors. This despite the fact that Ephesians 4:11 says that pastors are Jesus Christ's gifts to His Church, and they are necessary tools in His hands for the Christian growth process to occur -- just as needed as the apostles and prophets in their day. This, despite Hebrews 13:17, which commands Christians to obey their leaders and submit to them, because they are watching over their souls. This verse tells us that the Church must have leaders, and that God endows Christian leaders with Bible-based authority.

This aforementioned group is not a church. It is a rebellious mob of proud, self-willed people falsely posing as an "open", "grace-oriented" association. I pity the fool who agrees to take on any degree of decision-making for that mob. They will inevitably bare their fangs on any new self-appointed leaders and rip them to shreds, just as they did the pastors and boards of their former churches.

Christians who rail about alleged church dictatorships, when there is no evidence of actual power-abuse happening, are in spiritual rebellion against God. A twist on this comment is that there are lots of Christians who use the [real] sins of abuse as cover for their own sinful hatred of authority. As if someone else's abuse of authority -- a Dad's, a pastor's -- makes your own hatred of authority OK. No Christian has the right to hate authority. God is the ultimate authority. The criminal abuse of authority (say, a cruel father or a bullying pastor) doesn't nullify authority itself. To hate authority in itself is like hating God, who is our King.

Hatred of correction.

Being corrected is the test of a Christian's pride. How many of us have seen scenarios where a Christian simply seethes with barely-bottled rage at being criticized by anyone at any time? One reason church leaders are so hesitant to deal with sin firmly in a congregation is because we live in such a rebellious, self-worshiping era. If a church leader tells someone, "You have erred", even if it's communicated with self-restraint, discretion, and appropriate words, the church leader is liable to be attacked. The corrected Christian immediately begins to plot his or her revenge.

Many of us have heard of the case out West a few years ago where a woman disfellowshipped from her church for moral failure sued the church -- and won money in a settlement! There is a case I know where someone claimed that he/she left their "mean, unfair" former church for what sounded like silly, petty reasons on the church's side of things. But it all turned out to be a lie. He/she was in trouble for immorality, and the church was actually doing the right things as far as confronting him/her. But he/she hated being corrected for sin.

Hatred of holiness.

Beware anyone who pits "grace" against the idea of rules. Following rules to receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ is one thing. The Bible says that's a heresy, a deadly and damnable heresy. But people who say that "grace" replaces rules, so that there are no moral or ethical rules for the Christian life, are just as much false prophets as anyone who teaches salvation by works.

This doctrine is called Antinomianism, meaning anti-rules, and it is an ancient evil. It is hatred of holiness. Christ said, "If you love Me, keep my commandments." Not His "guidelines", not His "suggestions" -- His commandments. Christians keep Christ's commandments as the God-ordained way they show their love for Him. If you break His commandments, you don't love Him. If you consistently and knowingly break His commandments as a lifestyle, you aren't a real Christian (1 John 3:7-10).

What are we as Christian people going to do to stop this devilish avalanche of anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-rules, anti-authority destruction?