Question 23.
Why do you say that Christian Hedonism majors on the infinitesimally minor?
Answer 23.
It is popular in Christian circles today to hear pastors and teachers ask their congregations to "major on the majors and minor in the minors." What they mean by this expression is that there are some extraordinarily important doctrines and responsibilities that predominate the whole of the Scriptures–these are the majors. There are also doctrines and practices that are mentioned but once or twice in the Word and which would seem to have little impact on achieving the grander visions God has ordained in His Word–these are the minors.
Personally, I am not much of a fan of the concept of "major in the majors and minor in the minors" yet I do understand the general concept of not making a bigger priority matter out of certain areas of life than what the Word would indicate they ought to be. "Sin no more", big matter; "men should not have long hair", smaller matter. Priorities help us decide where we spend time studying, meditating, and laboring.
To be considered a "major" or a "big matter", there must be a whelming wealth of Bible verses instructing us toward the major. If "do not sin" is a major, I ought to find this command and this principle everywhere in the Word, Old Testament and New Testament, epistles and gospels.
Regarding "pursue pleasure with all your strength", Christian Hedonism, where is the abundance of biblical commands emphasizing our emotional state over our obedience or even over our love? If Christian Hedonism and its command to pursue pleasure as our "highest calling" is not simply a "major" but THE major, the Bible must be replete with commandments to "pursue pleasure with all our strength" and the Bible must be overflowing with directives to put our feelings and our emotions ahead of duty, obedience, and love.
C.S. Lewis wrote (in letter 17 from the published work Letters to Malcolm) that experiencing pleasure and then attempting to see tangible hints of the glory of God in that pleasure was merely the "adoration in infinitesimals". To emphasize that the experience of pleasure was an infinitesimally small thing compared with the major themes of Scripture, Lewis further wrote to Malcolm that "the simplest act of mere obedience is worship of a far more important sort than what I’ve been describing" regarding pleasure because the Scriptures clearly tell us that "to obey is better than sacrifice". To Lewis obedience is the "far more important" major while experiencing pleasures are the infinitesimally small minor.
Historically, few if any Christians have found that the Bible puts feelings and emotions ahead of duty, obedience, and love. Pleasure was never thought to be a goal to be pursued but rather was thought to be a gift from God for a life of faithful devotion. Emotions have traditionally been found to occupy a more minor seat while love, obedience, and duty predominate as the major themes of Scripture and the priority for our lives. Now, suddenly, in the 1980s a new doctrine is published in a book by a single individual which claims that emotions and the pursuit of pleasure are our "highest calling" and chief duty, THE major of all majors.
As with any modern doctrine, one must ask, did God really wait around for 2000 years following the last recorded Scriptures before revealing His true will regarding human emotions and pleasure, and did He really select an extra-biblical philosophy book in which to publish this revelation to His people?
Everything we have needed for holy living, sound doctrine, worship, and Christian growth have been available to the church for 2000 years. So let us return to that standard. Where are the genuine tangible calls to seek pleasure for ourselves? Where are the passages that elevate enjoyment as a highest of all duties?
Honestly, and that is what I am seeking here, honesty, the Word is never focused on our emotions over our conduct. Where are the Bible verses that describe knowing we are saved based on our emotions? Not finding such an abundance, instead, I can find a wealth of Bible verses that tell us to evaluate our level of obedience to see if we are in the faith. For example, how often do we read the directive that He who loves Christ will keep His commandments?
The fact of the matter is, emotions are simply not esteemed in the Word as highly as are love, faith, hope, and obedience. Emotional responses are certainly discussed in the Word, but they are not given priority. Those who fight against that idea must invent "new Scripture" to make it sound as if emotions were highly important. One such example is when Dr. Piper wrote as part of a rhetorical question, "unless a man is born again into a Christian Hedonist he cannot see the kingdom of God." If the Word had actually said such a thing even but one time anywhere in all the Bible Piper would not have had to bastardize a genuine Bible passage to make his point. This is a classic example of making "a major" (the doctrine of salvation) out of not just a minor, but out of a man’s imagination.
Nor would he have to use the one verse fragment, "delight yourself in the Lord," out of its context over and over and over again, most often erroneously calling this fragment of a promise a "command of God", if such genuine commands existed.
When legitimate Scripture makes something a priority, it is plain and evident when it does so. What is the greatest of all commandments? Everyone knows it is "love God" because the text of the Word says, "there is no commandment greater". No ambiguity, no need to invent pseudo-Scriptures.
When "love" is set against two other great elements of our religion, "faith" and "hope", which is the greater? Again, no guesswork needed. Plain text from 1 Corinthians 13 explicitly states that love is greater.
And just what is this love that the Bible refers to as the most major of all our commands and pursuits? Yes, even the youngest of children know because it is so often and plainly told us that to love God is to obey God. Again, due to the abundance and the straightforward language of the Word we know that love is the greatest of all commandments and that the primary definition of love is to obey God.
Where are the same indisputable and obvious Bible verses that say, "pursue pleasure", "convert to hedonism", "be thou devoted to the pursuit of pleasure", "terrible things will happen if you are not happy enough", "worship is only authentic when you are elevated in an emotional ecstasy above the working of your thinking mind"?
Since there are no such Bible verses you can be certain, absolutely certain, that God does not require such counterfeit commands to be placed onto His people, nor will He hold us accountable to live by them. For this reason the one who is converted to Christ away from sin but remains unconverted to the philosophy of Christian Hedonism is not imperiled in his Christian walk nor in his eternal salvation.
Had there been even a few Bible verses to establish the fundamental concept that God wants us to pursue pleasures at all, pleasure seeking may have been legitimately held to be a minor doctrine. Given that there are no commands at all in the Word that elevate the pursuit of pleasure "with all our strength" to be our highest calling (which would make the pursuit-of-pleasure into actual "hedonism") then we know that "Christian Hedonism" is not even a genuine doctrine of Scripture at all. Since "Christian Hedonism" is not a legitimate doctrine of the Bible, not to mention that it does not even qualify as a minor doctrine, permit me to ask this question: Why does the church tolerate this philosophy to be used in the Sunday School classroom as if it were a God-sanctioned doctrine?
Major in the majors. Fine. Minor in the minors. Fine. But why major in a philosophy that is not even qualified to be called a minor? There is little enough time on this Earth for man; let us redeem the time and redouble our efforts to love God, love our neighbors, fear God, and keep His commandments, for after all, is this not the entire duty of man?
