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Over the last few posts we’ve looked at some of the distinctive features of Chinese pietism. Chinese pietism can sound very holy and impressive, with a lot of talk about faith in God. But throughout this series you can already get a sense of some of the serious theological problems hidden within Chinese pietism. Today we draw some of those threads together…

The primacy of the Bible

The first danger of Chinese Pietism is that God’s inscripturated word takes a back seat to God speaking directly as Spirit, to our human spirits. Together with this is the rejection of the tools of grammatico-historical exegesis to get at the meaning of the text. The Spirit bypasses the need for such worldly discipline, through direct communion with our spirits, and guidance through our intuition.

Sure, the Bible might speak very clearly on a certain point – but what if I feel called to disobey that instruction? For individuals, they are most likely to value that spiritual guidance over and above Scripture. And for others, they are unlikely to question that person’s calling. And this happens more often than you would imagine… In some cases, this has led to the clear teaching of Scripture being sidelined!

Yet this is very different from Paul’s instructions to put such intuitions and leadings of the Spirit to the test (1 Thes 5:19-22). Others are to weigh carefully what is said (1 Cor 14:29-38). Paul is aware that God may speak through prophets in the future. But such extra biblical revelation must never be treated as over and above God’s inscripturated word. No, it is always to be tested by the word.

The basis of Christian assurance

A second danger is that people’s assurance and confidence no longer rests in the finished work of Christ proclaimed in the gospel. Instead it shifts to the present experience now of God, through special feelings, and happenstances.

How do I know that I am truly a spiritual Christian? that my Christian life is real and not a sham? I know, because God speaks to me! because he called me to do this work! because of his constant leading! And this logic will be quite persuasive to many people: anyone can read the Bible and make some sense of it. But if we experience God by his Spirit, then that must mean that our spirit are truly made alive!

Yet this is very different from the tests for assurance that John gives us in 1 John: that we love the brothers (1 John 2:9); that we hold to the truth about the Son (1 John 2:23); that we obey his commands (1 John 2:3). The danger of substituting present experience for biblical tests is that we may fool ourselves that we are close to God (when in fact there is no biblical grounds for that assurance), or be uncertain of our standing before God and anxious to feel these spiritual impulses (when in fact we may actually be showing biblical signs of new life).

The way the Christian life is lived

A third danger is that Chinese pietism redefines the Christian life entirely. No longer is it characterised by turning from sin, and growing in our love for God. Instead sin expands to now include our intelligence, wisdom, knowledge and natural abilities – in fact anything that is of the body or soul. We are to die to these things. And the goal of growing love for the God of the Scriptures – now becomes the goal of ongoing communion with God in our spirits in the present.

When faced with a situation, the spiritual thing is not to make use of the natural resources that God has given us (such as our natural talents, problem solving skills, reasoning). The admirably spiritual thing would actually be to do something non rational, under the prompting of our intuition – because rationality can only ever be carnal! And one would only feel truly spiritual when one is living by intuition alone.

The danger here is that while there are examples in the Bible of God indicating to individuals what he would have them do in certain cases, there is no indication that this was the normal course of life for these individuals. Nor does the Bible set up an expectation that God would interact with Christians in this way into the future. And whenever the Bible speaks about God’s will for us, it is always in general terms: to be properly ordered under God (1 Cor 12:18), to suffer for doing good rather than evil (1 Pet 3:17), to make known the riches of his glory through us (Col 1:27). At the very least it is presumptuous for us to redefine authentic spirituality so as to require God to interact in a way he has never promised.

The passage usually quoted here to affirm the priority of faith over reason is 2 Corinthians 5:7 where Paul says that “we live by faith, not by sight”. Chinese pietism takes this to mean that we are to live our lives depending entirely on God to provide for our needs (‘faith’), and not on our own human resources (‘sight’). Faith here is understood to mean abandonment of the soulish faculties of reason, talents, ability and the limitations of what may be visible to us (hence: ‘sight’).

However in its context Paul is encouraging Christians who were unconfident about having a future heavenly body. He assures them that, while they currently live in this earthly tent (and this is all they can see), they can have confidence that one day they will be clothed with a heavenly body. More than that, we have a guarantee that this will come, in the form of the Holy Spirit. And so you can see that in 2 Corinthians 5:7 Paul is not giving a blanket instruction to abaondon reason in all of life, but rather he is saying that we can press on with confidence in the Christian life, trusting that God’s promises for heaven will come true.

Such a redefinition of the Christian life dangerously shifts the focus for Christians away from loving God’s word and being obedient in living it out – to a longing for personal revelations and obedience to those intuitions. And authentic spirituality is no longer about being enabled by the Spirit to understand and live out the things in God’s word – it is now about being open to, and enjoying frequent personal intiutions!

[ PS: how do you think you might minister to Chinese pietists? ]