Churches That Teach Theology But Fail To
Expose Evil Are Only Doing Half the Job
by Stuart DiNenno
A church can faithfully teach you all the facets of theology including bibliology, christology, pneumatology, soteriology, sacramentology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. They can faithfully teach you all about church history beginning with the creation account, the world before and after the flood, the patriarchal era, national Israel, the early church, the medieval church, and the reformation period. They can faithfully take you through all the Reformed confessions, catechisms, and exposit the Bible to you on a broad variety of topics.
But if they are failing to expose the evil of the age by failing to name the enemy who is destroying the society in which you live (who is also destroying many individuals and families in the process) and they are failing to reveal the methods by which this enemy is doing so and failing to inform you about what must be done to counter this enemy, then they are only doing half the job. It is as if they are the leaders of a military force and are providing all the best weapons and training, and yet neglecting to inform their soldiers about the enemy’s location, the weapons he has, the strength of his forces, the battle strategies he uses, and not even identifying the enemy himself — leaving all this up to the individual soldiers to figure out for themselves.
If such a church is acceptable to you, then I am sure you won’t mind paying a mechanic to fix your car, even if he is only going to drop off the parts and leave all the labor for you to do. I also know you won’t have any complaints when a house painter bills you for a complete job, even if he is only going to apply the undercoat and leave the topcoat for you to do. And I am quite sure that you will have no objection when a roofer charges you full price for replacing the roof on your house, even if he is only going to tear off the old shingles and then hand over the new shingles to you so that you can install them yourself.
Your low standards make you an easy mark for swindlers and a sucker for a deficient religion.