Picture, if you will, a man. He is young, still somewhat idealistic, passionate and energetic. His friends, if asked to describe him with one word, would say things like, “faithful,” “devout,” and “intense,” and they would mean those things in the best possible way. He is utterly devoted to his god … he prays daily, he never misses a worship service, and his participation is fervent and sincere. His charitable acts are well-known. He is held up as a good example in his community. And one day, incensed with the wickedness he sees in the world, he straps a bomb around his waist and blows up a local cafe.
Up until that last line, I could have been describing a believer. And most reading this might think, OK, it’s a Muslin extremist. But what if I changed that line to say, “And one day, incensed with the wickedness he sees in the world, he picks up his rifle and waits outside an abortion clinic until the doctor appears, who he then shoots to death”?
Extremism is not limited to any particular religious or ideological group. In fact, it is often indistinguishable from true devotion to a casual observer, until that moment when it expresses itself in an action no right-minded person would condone. But it doesn’t have to be some overt act or horrifying behavior; sometimes it’s an attitude that flies below everyone’s radar. It might be a subtle disapproval of anyone who doesn’t do exactly as they do. It might be a condescending air, or condemning spirit that people can see, but brush off as a character quirk. It might be nothing visible at all to others.
But there is one thing all extremists of any degree share, and that is the absolute conviction that they are right. They have formed their ideals, however they have formed them, and they reject with prejudice every thought that opposes what they have decided to be true. Often, in fact, almost always, they can back their position up with whatever they consider scripture, even though others who use the same scriptures disagree. Even some who diligently study the Bible can get things wrong, and their actions show quite clearly that their understanding of the Bible is different from other people’s, who have studied it just as much.
There are two major difficulties I can see with this particular state of mind, putting aside when it devolves into full-blown-crazy extremism. The first is when a person is utterly convinced they are right about something, yet they are wrong; and second is when they are utterly convinced they are right, and they truly are, but they hold to it for the wrong reasons. And I’m not at all certain the latter is any better than the former.
Hebrews 11:6 states that without faith, it is impossible to please God. But a great many people, Christians included, think that faith and conviction are the same thing. A solid faith might lead to conviction, but it is still possible to be convinced of error. But the Bible also teaches us what faith really is: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” (Hebrews 11:1). In other words, faith is the recognition of a truth outside yourself that is not evident to your own senses. If I say to you, “I have an office chair in my living room,” it takes no faith at all on my part: I’m sitting in it as I write this, and both my sight and my tactile senses confirm it exists. But if you are confident in my trustworthiness, and take my word that this chair exists, then you have faith in what I have said. You believe me, and you too are convinced I have an office chair in my living room. If you heard the same thing from another person, let’s say, someone who has only been in my home once, there could be some doubt about the chair. Maybe they misremember it, or maybe I got rid of it since they visited. Can you see the point? Your faith is only as good as the person you have faith in. And I think this is exactly what pleases God: faith in Him. Not faith in what others say of Him, and not whatever ideas you have come up with on your own about Him, but the recognition and understanding of Him that comes from God Himself.
Of course, this requires that God speaks to us, and it requires that we recognize His voice, and we understand Him. He speaks to us through the Bible … which is precisely why we call it the Word of God. But how can we have any confidence we understand the Bible correctly? And how can we be sure we are not drifting towards an extremism that’s based on our own understanding, and not the Lord’s truth?
Look again at Hebrews 11:6, with some emphasis on the second half of the verse –
“… for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” God is not going to leave us dangling, He will reward us if we seek Him.
John 16:8-13 – “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” God has left the Holy Spirit specifically to help us understand Him, His Word, and what is right.
John 1:18 – “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” This is an integral part of the gospel; Christ came to show us who the Father is, and one of the ways that He showed us was by dying to pay the price for our sins. With such a loving God, can we really be afraid that we will get it utterly wrong? Yes, we will sometimes make mistakes. Yes, we will sometimes take another’s word for spiritual things and get them wrong. But we can be assured that for as long as we are diligently seeking Him, we will find Him (Matt. 7:7-8).
So then, if we desire to please God, we must earnestly seek to know Him. And we must be diligent to rightly understand the Bible (2 Tim. 2:15), as the Holy Spirit guides us (John 16:13). We cannot simply accept what we have been told without seeking to understand it rightly ourselves, and we cannot quickly latch on to any concept that pops into our heads without prayerfully considering it in the light of God’s word.