I came across a great article today written by Sinclair Ferguson entitled “Medieval Mistakes.” In the article Ferguson outlines five ways in which contemporary evangelicalism is similar to medieval Christianity. You remember medieval Christianity, don't you? You know, the church was exploiting naïve people telling them that if they bought indulgences they could shorten a family member's time in purgatory (“Every time a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs”). The church was seen as a sacramental machine which pumped people full of grace. Of course, this grace was not enough; one had to use his/or free will to cooperate with grace. If a person did his/her part and did not leave a mortal sin unconfessed to the priest before he/she died they might only have to spend a little time in purgatory. To be sure, one's time in purgatory could be shortened through the prayers of family members or masses being offered on behalf of the deceased family member.
We twenty-first century American Christians react strongly to such teachings; indeed, as Ferguson says, we find them “dinosauric.” How is our age similar to that period? Ferguson suggests five ways:
1. Repentance
Ferguson says, “Repentance has increasingly been seen as a single-act, severed from a lifelong restoration of godliness.” He goes on to criticize contemporary churches who assure those who respond to “altar calls,” that simply because they “walked the aisle,” they can have assurance of salvation. I know of pastors who tell new believers to write the date they responded to an altar call in the back of their Bibles just in case they ever doubt their salvation. Later on if the believer doubts his/her salvation they can assuage their conscience by reminding themselves they walked the aisle and prayed the prayer. Ferguson says that the altar has replaced the sacrament of penance. In the middle-ages believers had assurance of salvation if they did penance, that is, “works of satisfaction.” In contemporary evangelicalism, professing Christians have assurance by recalling their response to an altar call.
2. Mysticism
In the medieval church the Bible was not seen to be the sole infallible authority for the individual believer. Rather, people were to follow the “Spirit inspired” living voice of the church. The church was the vive voce (“living voice”) to the people. In this way, the Word and the Spirit were separated. Thus, in the medieval period people listened to the “living voice within the church rather than the Spirit's voice heard in Scripture.” In contemporary evangelicalism, individual believers do not follow the “Spirit inspired” words of any one institutional church, rather, they follow the “Spirit inspired” words of charismatic leaders. Churches are filled with pastors who claim to have a direct ear to God. They claim God speaks to them audibly and personally almost on a daily basis.
How is this like the medieval church? The bottom line assertion is that God speaks outside of Scripture. What makes matters more complicated is that those individuals who believe God speaks outside of Scripture (mostly charismatics and Pentecostals), still claim that the Bible is their final authority. Thus, they make a distinction between “canonical revelation” and “personal revelation.” 1
The question, however, is whether or not the Bible makes this distinction. Since God's revelation is to be communicated publically and corporately, it is unbiblical to say that God's revelation is dualistic. As Richard Gaffin says, “God does not reveal himself on two tracks, one public and one private.”2 Even when God revealed himself to individual prophets, the messages were intended for the entire covenant community. This emphasizes that, while our relationship with Christ is “personal,” the biblical term would be to say that it is covenantal. God does not deal with us merely as individuals. Thus, rather than saying we have a “personal relationship with Jesus,” it would be more biblical to say that “we are a part of the Body of Christ.” And when God speaks, he speaks to his people as a whole. Therefore, whereas the medieval church claimed to have extrabiblical unwritten revelation passed down from the Apostles, today's church also claims to have revelation from God not contained in Scripture.
3. Sacred Powers
In the medieval church sacred power was communicated through the priests, whether it was granting absolution or turning the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. In the past, therefore, “The divine presence was brought to the church by an individual with sacred powers deposited within him and communicated by physical means.” In contemporary evangelicalism “it is the Spirit who is bestowed by physical means.” As Ferguson says, “Special sanctity is no longer confirmed by the beauty of the fruit of the Spirit, but with signs which are predominantly physical.” In other words, “we are more impressed by performance rather than piety.” This criticism is nothing the new. At the time of the Protestant Reformation the Roman Catholic Church claimed the Protestant movement was not of God because they had no physical miracles to show for it.
4. Spectators
If Ferguson's comments have not hit home yet, they definitely should here. He says, “The worship of God is increasingly presented as a spectator event of visual and sensory power, rather than a verbal event in which we engage in a deep soul dialogue with the Triune God.” Ferguson says there is an over emphasis on the visual, and not enough emphasis on what is heard. Stated memorably, he says, “There is a sensory feast, but a hearing famine.” We have forgotten that, as God's people, we do not call ourselves to worship. Rather, God summons us to assemble on the Lord's Day where we are to gather to hear the Law of God, confess our sins, be assured that we are forgiven, and then hear from God directly as he deigns to speak to us through the words of his ordained servant, the minister. This is then followed by God's sermon illustration, his visible promise to us that we are his people, as we see the gospel visibly through the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
5. Bigger Means Better?
In the medieval church it was about the size of the cathedral and the size of the crowd you could draw. Not much has changed. Ferguson quips, “the 'mega-church' is not a modern, but a medieval phenomenon.” In the medieval church a successful ministry was tied to the size of the cathedral. Contemporary evangelicalism is somewhat the same: a large church equals a successful ministry.
May we repent of these vices and turn to the Lord with renewed dedication and devotion.
1These distinctions are made by Richard Gaffin, Jr. in Perspectives on Pentecost: New Testament Teaching on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. (Philipsburg: P&R, 1979), 97.
2Ibid, 97.
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