A Faulty Diagnosis

What is wrong with most Christians? The answer to that question, according to Boyd and Larson, is grounded largely on their understanding of modern neurology (the science of the brain) and based loosely on the movie The Matrix. Their thesis is summed up on page 8:

A "god of this age" (2 Cor. 4:4) has seized the world and created a deceptive pattern, a "dream world"—a Matrix—that holds us in bondage. We are to a large degree conformed to "the pattern of this world" instead of to the truth of who we are in Christ (Rom. 12:2). We find ourselves imprisoned in patterns of electrical signals that we interpret as real, but that are not true.

Does this sound biblical? If it does at first, look again—more closely. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, the only people who remain under the bondage of Satan (the "god of this age") are unbelievers—those who cannot see "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." That verse says absolutely nothing about Christians or their behavior. Read verses 3-4 for yourself:

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (emphasis added).

Two verses later, Paul informs Christians that in their case, the veil has been removed:

For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).

Only unbelievers are trapped in "the Matrix." True Christians are certainly not perfect, but neither are they in bondage to sin (cf. Rom. 6:16-23; Eph. 2:1-5; Col. 1:13). Nevertheless, Boyd and Larson consistently portray them as deceived, blinded, bound in sin, conformed to the world, etc., all to justify their repeated references to even the most persistently unholy people as "Christians." Consider yet another gross misapplication of Scripture as the authors' attempt to drive home this point:

We have been conformed to the Matrix of this world (Rom. 12:2). We have been deceived (2 Cor. 11:3). We have been blinded (2 Cor. 4:4). We are being controlled (1 John 5:19). Though we are in principle set free in Christ, we experience ourselves as slaves (2 Peter 2:19). (p. 42)

Readers who trustingly accept that the authors have correctly interpreted and applied these texts may be convinced by this barrage of unquoted references. On the other hand, anyone willing to read the above-referenced passages in their contexts will note the following errors, several of them glaring:

• Are Christians truly conformed to this world as Boyd and Larson say they are? Romans 12:2 is an exhortation not to be conformed to the pattern of this world. Paul does give a similar command in Colossians 3:2. But the fact that he gives these commands to Christians does not imply that a true Christian might ultimately disobey them. What I mean is this: Christians are commanded elsewhere to love one another (John 13:34-35), yet there is no such thing as a true Christian who characteristically disobeys this command (cf. 1 John 3:14-19). Christians are commanded to forgive (Col. 3:13), yet there is no such thing as a Christian who is characteristically unforgiving (Matt. 18:35). Christians are commanded to "Flee immorality" (1 Cor. 6:18), but there is no such thing as a characteristically immoral Christian (Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Cor. 6:9-10). In the same way, Christians are commanded not to be worldly (i.e. "conformed to the pattern of this world"). Yet any who remain characteristically worldly are given no biblical assurance that they are truly Christians (cf. 1 Cor. 5:9-13; 1 John 2:15-16).

• In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul never says Christians "have been deceived," as Boyd and Larson would have you think. He warned the Corinthians not to be deceived. And if anyone is deceived, it means he has received "another Jesus . . . a different spirit . . . a different gospel" (v. 4). In other words, he has abandoned the true gospel and can no longer be thought of as a Christian.

• 2 Corinthians 4:4 refers only to unbelievers, as I explained above.

• Regarding 1 John 5:19, the verse Boyd and Larson take to mean that Christians are "being controlled," read verses 18-19, noting my italics and bracketed notes:

  We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God [i.e. Christ] protects him, and the evil one does not touch him [let alone control him]. We know that we [Christians] are from God and the whole world [the remaining mass of unregenerate humanity (cf. John 15:19)] lies in the power of the evil one (ESV, emphasis added).

  Clearly, the only ones "being controlled" in this passage are unbelievers.

• 2 Peter 2:19 refers to false teachers, not struggling Christians, as the context makes clear (vv. 17-18). In fact, verse 17 says that they are men "for whom the black darkness [i.e. hell] has been reserved." Obviously, this cannot apply to those who have been "set free in Christ."

By repeatedly insisting that even habitually unrighteous people may be true Christians, and by asserting that many Christians have been set free only "in principle," Boyd and Larson establish an utterly unbiblical foundation for the rest of their book. But this is indeed their professional diagnosis (to use a clinical term) of the disease that plagues much of modern Christianity. And as everyone knows, if the doctor's diagnosis is wrong, then the prescribed medication (or therapy, as the case may be) will provide, at best, a placebo effect—only an illusion of recovery. What Boyd and Larson have done in this book, as I hope to demonstrate, may be likened to a doctor prescribing pain-killers as the cure for cancer. Patients begin to feel better while their disease continues to spread.