Question 20.
Why do Christian Hedonists seem to abruptly stop talking as soon as you ask for Scripture?
Answer 20.
Preface: It would be inappropriate to characterize all Christian Hedonists as acting the same or responding in precisely the same manner. In truth, all Christians are unique individuals, with their own personalities, motivations, and values. Therefore, every believer will be somewhat different in their reaction to being questioned about hedonism. This FAQ is in no way meant to denigrate anyone or stereotype any given group. This FAQ does point out a fundamental human response that seems to manifest itself across demographic lines and to explain to non-hedonists why a specific reaction is so often encountered.
When I first started studying Christian Hedonism years ago, before I understood very much about the doctrine or the philosophy, I began asking questions of my pastoral staff and other leaders in the local church in which I was a small group leader within the lay ministry. Very quickly the questions moved beyond, "what does the book Desiring God mean here?", to "and where in the Bible did that concept come from?"
When the questions moved from "what does it mean?" to "where did this come from?" the leadership discontinued answering questions and avoided the subject altogether. As the silence deepened, so did my study. As my study, and questions, deepened the leadership took varied actions to attempt to stop the inquiries from myself and from others, not by resorting to the Scriptures to answer the questions, but by resorting to methods by which to discourage discussion of the topic entirely.
This pattern of questions, silence, and active discouragement has continued in uncounted situations since. As soon as the conversation takes the logical step from "what does Christian Hedonism mean in this paragraph or on that page of the philosophy book?" to "where in the Scriptures does that idea or doctrine come from?" the dialogue abruptly stops and actions are taken to keep the conversation from continuing.
Sometimes the actions taken are as simple as the Christian Hedonist saying, "you don’t get it so I am not going to talk to you anymore", all the way to vicious personal attacks regarding character, intelligence, or the salvation standing of the inquirer. Most of the time the outcome is the same, dialogue is abruptly severed and the Christian Hedonist does not supply the promised Scripture passages from which he claims his beliefs flow.
Certainly, that does not happen every single time, but in my experience it is the prevalent pattern.
Refusing to provide a Scriptural defense does not seem to be an actual tenet of the doctrine or teachings of Christian Hedonism. Instead, it seems to be more a result of human nature under stress.
It is my opinion that when someone reads the various philosophy books that define Christian Hedonism, the reader is first shocked by the concepts (and the label), but over time as the reading progresses they adapt to the shock and become a bit desensitized–in other words humans become more accepting to most any idea the more familiar they become with it.
Since the books are filled with Scripture quotations on diverse subjects, partial verse quotations, allusions to numerous passages of the Bible, and old creeds of the faith (or re-worded creeds of the faith) it becomes an easy matter to be impressed by the sheer volume of references and to make the logical leap that the thesis statement must therefore be biblical. Once they have assured themselves this doctrine and philosophy are "biblical", the actual philosophy itself is quite appealing–God wants me to pursue my own pleasure with all my might.
When challenged on the biblical nature of the philosophy, it is my opinion that a Christian Hedonist’s first reaction will be to quote key phrases from the various works of philosophy which first convinced him to follow this system of belief, such as from Desiring God or Dangerous Duty. Since those quotes from philosophy books are not an inspired source of God’s instructions to man, the natural reaction of someone challenging hedonism is to ask the hedonist to supply the Bible passages from which the doctrine itself was derived. This is generally where the trouble begins.
A hedonist’s first reaction could well be to search the pages of the philosophy books to identify and quote back to the challenger the same passages of Scripture which they assume are what first convinced them to follow hedonism. Since, again in my opinion, those books of philosophy lack direct support of specific passages of Scripture regarding the necessity of hedonism, and the main thesis statements seem to be based more on re-worded creeds and assumptions about what the Bible "should" or "might" have said, the hedonist becomes quickly confused and frustrated.
Once someone, not just hedonists, comes to a realization that the fundamental elements of their belief system are unsupported by passages of legitimate Scripture, they become stressed. As a result of the stress they often resort to "tactics" and emotion instead of directly addressing the problem that rests before them.
In short, confronting a crisis of convictions a person must choose what to do and how to react. Some will choose to react in fear and anger in an effort to mask to themselves and others that they are indeed unable to validate their own value system with the Word. This takes the form of name-calling, repetitious quotations from extra-biblical sources, and the inevitable accusations which include all of the following which have been made to and about myself: "you don’t get it", "you’re mis-defining Piper’s words", "you’re too stupid to understand the deep things of God", "are you sure you’re a Christian", "I have given you plenty of Scripture, why don’t you respond to that [even though they have indeed offered none]", "you just make me so angry I cannot talk to you any more", "you have evil motives in questioning the biblical nature of hedonism", and, "it is obvious you have never read Piper’s books".
All these personal accusations are used to hide the real problem, most of these individuals have found that they and the books they use for reference, are unable to provide genuine Scriptural support (nor even proof texts) on which to base the most basic elements of hedonism (e.g. God commands man to pursue pleasure as man’s highest calling, or, that unless a man is born again into a Christian Hedonist he cannot see the kingdom of God).
Such a reaction to a crisis of conviction is a natural emotional response. No one enjoys realizing that some of their core beliefs are built on something less than actual precepts of Scripture.
For a few hedonists, they come to understand why they are so stressed and honestly evaluate their assumptions and beliefs in light of revealed Scripture. These few, as 2 Timothy 2:24-26 states, "come to their senses" and realign their beliefs with the Word of God. That takes true courage and much honest soul searching. Anyone who has had to admit to themselves, and even to others, that a dearly held assumption or value was incorrect, is aware that it takes uncommon personal fortitude and bravery to make the admission and to face it straight on.
It is for the benefit of these few that we ask the question, "from which passages of Scripture do you derive your belief that God commands men to ‘pursue pleasure with all their might’ and to be ‘converted to Christian Hedonism so they might access saving faith’?" If such tenets of hedonism are rooted in God’s truth, then they must be rooted in actual Scripture; however, if they are inventions of men, the student of the Word will find only man’s support. How will such a student respond to his crisis of conviction, with courage or with anger?
