Outside the Camp
➤Throughout history, the principle that the majority rules has shaped not only the world’s way of thinking but also much of the Church. Sadly, the prevailing consensus among believers often becomes the standard by which doctrine and practice are measured, thereby establishing traditions and norms widely accepted and followed within the Church at large.
While the majority continues to guide and govern church life, the dominance of mainstream views does not necessarily guarantee accuracy or faithfulness to the scriptures.
The Church, like the world, frequently sets its direction according to the influence of the larger group at the expense of minority interpretations that may hold greater truth or insight.
The larger body of Christ also suffers when they don’t know and walk in the truth.
While many Protestants once condemned the clergy/laity form of Christianity as entirely unbiblical, they have essentially done the same thing with the pastor/everybody else form that has either directly or indirectly influenced large swaths of the Church for generations.
That structure is arguably the single greatest obstacle to spiritual maturity for the body as a whole and for members individually. The majority consensus effectively “ordains” local church polity, usually authorizing only one man to speak to Christ’s body, shutting out the Holy Spirit’s gifts and callings of the many. Here, the many become the minority.
It’s the model that 95% are comfortable with, despite a clear misalignment with the scripture.
Church History Proves the Majority is Not Always Right
While hurrying along in the comfortable flow of the majority, don’t forget that God worked far away from the majority throughout generations.
He called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, away from his family, culture, traditions, natural heritage, and everything familiar before He could use him (Gen. 12:1-4). God spoke to Moses “outside the camp” of Israel, for Israel. And God spoke to Elijah in a “still, small voice” while he was in a cave (I Kings 19:9-13).
John the Baptist was far from mainstream, orthodox Judaism, but God passed over all the scribes and Pharisees to speak to him by the Jordan River (Matt. 3:1-3). And it was not until the Apostle John was banished to an island far from his fellow believers that the Lord opened His spiritual eyes to show him marvelous things benefiting Christians for nearly 2000 years (Rev. 1:9)! And the list goes on and on of those God revealed Himself to “outside the camp.”
I’ve Seen it Firsthand, Far and Wide
God has given me a wide, panoramic view of the Church at home and abroad spanning my whole life of seventy years; and together with my studies in Church history, I concluded long ago that mainstream Christianity is not always right about the main things.
One of the most condemning patterns in church history is how often the theological majority has been wrong, and a lonely minority has held the truth more faithfully, though they were often scorned or even silenced altogether.
This does not justify private interpretation for its own sake, but it should teach us that consensus is not the same as correctness and that the Spirit sometimes leads those outside the camp ahead of the mainstream.
Consider John Wycliffe in 14th-century England, who insisted that scripture alone was the supreme authority and that the Bible should be translated into the common tongue. The institutional church condemned him as a heretic; his bones were later exhumed and burned. Amazing, the disdain the mainstream Church had for him! Yet today, virtually all Christians affirm the very principles he died defending.
Jan Hus followed in Wycliffe’s footsteps, teaching that scripture stands above papal authority. He was burned at the stake at the Council of Constance in 1415. Yet about a century later, the Protestant Reformation proved him right.
The Anabaptists of the 16th century were persecuted mercilessly by both the Catholic and Protestant churches, yet their convictions about believers’ baptism, the Church’s freedom from the burdensome power of the state, the need to be born again for Church membership, and more are widely embraced today across Evangelical Christianity. They paid with their lives for interpretations that are now largely considered biblically sound.
William Tyndale, who gave the English-speaking world its first printed New Testament, was strangled and burned by church authorities in 1536. Today, it’s hard to believe that the Church would do such a thing, but it was not uncommon throughout much of the 16th and 17th centuries. Tyndale’s dying prayer was, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes,” a prayer that was answered within a year when Henry VIII authorized an English Bible largely based on Tyndale’s own translation.
What these heroes, and others like them, share is not rebellion. They were not reckless individuals without the fear of God, mishandling His Word. They were students of the scripture who tested their interpretations by the Word itself and found the prevailing tradition wanting.
Their dissent was costly and ultimately confirmed by history.
The lesson is not that the lone interpreter is always right, but that fidelity to scripture must sometimes place a believer ahead of, or even against, the mainstream of his generation.
As Luther himself said:
“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures and by clear reason, for I do not trust in the pope or councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves, my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot, and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. God help me. Amen.”
Yet, as true as that is, and as thankful as we are for God raising up Martin Luther for what he did get right, he was dead wrong about some major points that the Bible makes plain.
Martin Luther was known for overthinking, which led him into serious errors – something not uncommon among many Bible scholars, past and present (I Cor. 1-2). Apparently, he didn’t know that he had the mind of Christ, if only he had appropriated it (Col. 1:16).
For example, he retained infant baptism and the state/church model, following the institutional tradition that everyone born in a Christian territory was automatically a member of the Church. Also, he flatly condemned the Jews, believing that God had finished with them entirely. He advocated the burning of their synagogues and the mistreatment of Jewish people.
Today, the Lutheran Church rejects his stance on antisemitism but wholly embraces his stance on infant baptism, though they don’t hide the fact that there’s nothing biblical about it. They agree that it’s a cherished tradition. Among Lutherans, it’s still the majority’s preference.
A Final Word
In summary, let us be firmly biblical.
Dr. David Cooper (1886-1965), the founder of the Biblical Research Society, said in 1942:
“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.”
If mainline Christianity agrees with the plain sense of the scripture, then go with the mainstream; but if it deviates from the plain sense of the scripture, protest, raise your hand, stand out in the crowd, and speak the truth in love.
To the degree that the Holy Spirit enables you, stand against the tide and speak the truth!
You will be lonely, but in good company.
Jeremiah had only a few friends after 40 years of prophesying against the mainstream, and after three and a half years in ministry, even Jesus, the Son of God, had only garnered a relatively small following.
In today’s social media world, everyone wants “followers,” but when it comes to the things of God, we should prioritize who we follow (Jesus) over who follows us.
Watching His plan unfold,
Mark S. Case
