Influence In Theology

I read a blog recently entitled, How To Lose Your Influence In Theology. (reclaimingthemind.org) The author offered several points that he suggested would discredit the influence of the one practicing them in theology. Some of his suggestions have merit. But some were typical among the ecumenical kind of Christianity. Among his challenges were Insisting upon an inerrancy version of the Bible Holding a particular view of end times And do so with passionate relentlessness. It is not the desire of my heart to lack grace. However I do believe that his article must at least have an answer. First, I have some trouble with the goal of having "influence." I know that influence is an outcome of either preaching or writing about the Word of God. But influence cannot be our end. To make it so is to expose our work to compromise. The goal of influence can override our goal to be true to God's calling upon our lives, the convictions we hold and to the truth of God's Word itself. Our goal must be God; to grow on grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the only appropriate goal because that is the only goal we can pursue without risking compromise. As we pursue that, God will then gives us whatever influence He may please us to have. Secondly, the blog sounds like a rehearsal of the messenger's advice to Micaiah in 1 Kings 22:13, "Here is what all the other prophets have told the king. Tell him the same thing they said and you will have credibility." Micaiah wasn't as worried about having credibility or influence with the prophets or with the king as he was about preaching God's message. This man's blog is designed to dumb down the message of the preacher until every opinion about God is as good as the next. I am aware of the objections raised concerning the inerrancy of any particular version of the Bible (They mean the King James Version - it is attacked with a hatred similar to Jehoshaphat's hatred for Micaiah). I am aware that even the translators of the King James never ascribed to it infallibility. But I remind you that John nor any of the other penmanship (with some exceptions) of the Bible never ascribed that to their books either; it was concluded that they were the very Words of God at a later date. The translators did know that they had been given a rare opportunity. They engaged in their work with reverence and completed their work with confidence that God had permitted them this privilege. It has been since its publication that the obvious blessing of God upon it and the hatred of the word the flesh and the devil against it has demonstrated that it, above all the more modern translations is the very Word of God. Someone needs to say that God can intervene in the Work of man. Someone needs to say that despite all of the protests and objections of the so called learned, God is capable of and indeed has preserved for the world a Bible that is without error. Someone has to say that the devil hasn't left us with enough of the Bible but not a perfect Bible. Someone needs to say that the message of the Word is clear. That we are not left helpless to follow only those men who gather together to tell each other what to say. That because we have a perfect Bible and because the God is still at work today and because the Holy Spirit is still the true teacher of the Word, any man woman or child can pick up a Bible, and with some sanctified study, find what God says. -- Marvin McKenzie In the fields