Boz Tchividjian is "a former child abuse chief prosecutor and is the founder and executive director of GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment)." He is a Professor of Law at Liberty University and a grandson of Billy Graham. Given the "godly response" thing and "the Christian environment" thing, it seems odd that someone who should know better would be suing a church. Because, you see, we have absolutely clear instructions regarding Christians and lawsuits -- regarding the godly response in a Christian environment. And it is not the court system (1 Cor 6:5-8).
The fact is there are probably more Christians who would read this and consider me bizarre. They would agree with the lawyer suing the church rather than with me and my puny Scripture. The Bible is absolutely clear on this, and, apparently, absolutely wrong. While that may sound jarring, surely you've seen it ... a lot. We've reworded Paul so that when he says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man" we read, "It's perfectly okay for a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man." We've stripped out the offensive "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord" (Eph 5:22) and replaced it with "Husband and wife both lead." Scripture clearly states, "I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Cor 11:3), but that won't fly in today's church. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6) and we understand Him to say, "It's okay; there are lots of ways to heaven." We've calmly and coolly stripped God's Word of those elements we find offensive or distasteful. Worse, we've even replaced them with "better" options.
I'm not talking about esoteric or obscure stuff. I'm not pointing at the debatable. These things are not hard to read, hard to examine, or hard to figure out. They are straightforward, plain, and easy to understand. And yet ... we're happy to discard and/or redefine God's Word and complain about those who do not. Paul writes, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6:9-10). We say, "Clear? Maybe, but he was wrong on that homosexuality thing (at least)."
I know. There are difficult passages of Scripture. Is there a pre-Trib Rapture or not? What does it mean when it says Jesus preached "to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:18-20)? Who were the Nephilim (Gen 6:1-4)? What is baptism for the dead (1 Cor 15:29)? Oh, I could go on. We should be conscious that there is room for disagreement on the less obvious and we should be gracious, gentle, and respectful in our disagreement. But when it's clear -- abundantly, obviously, unerringly clear -- on what possible basis do we equivocate, delete, or revise God's Word? That makes no sense. And in no case is it a godly response in a Christian environment.
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