(Apostolic Vision) Pietism vs. Biblicism — Dale Heisey

Again this evening I do want to greet you in the precious name of Jesus. It is a joy to see that on a Monday night this number of people has interest in being in the house of worship. Usually a Monday night is a low attendance night in meetings of this kind, and it's a joy to see this kind of interest here on this Monday evening.

I want to say early on in these meetings that I have deeply appreciated the few contacts that I have been able to have among you. I am aware that this meeting is especially prepared and planned for the congregation here at Tangent, but I am deeply blessed with the participation and support of other congregations from the surrounding community that are also visiting these services.

And I do feel impressed to say this evening in a public way that on my part, and I trust I am speaking for all of us that are here, but on my part I sincerely welcome to this meeting people from this community who maybe do not normally attend our churches and who maybe do not even fully understand some of the practice and teaching that we have in these churches, but I sincerely welcome these dear neighbors and friends we have to these services.

And I want them to be encouraged to be here, and I want them to learn and worship God with us here and meet the Lord in our presence. And so feel free as a congregation to invite your neighbors here, and we certainly welcome them.

And in our services where I live, it is a very understood thing that in the services we have people visiting, people searching, people interested, people attending who maybe are not part of our congregation or part of any congregation anywhere, but they are welcome to come.

And I think it should always be that way, and there should be a word of welcome for those that choose to come. And I want everyone to know how I feel about that. This service is for everyone. And you do not have to be a Mennonite to be here.

We want you to worship and know the God of the Bible. Now, I would like us to take our church handles here and open them to number 365. 365, we would like to stand and sing this hymn tonight. Those that can comfortably stand, we would like to stand and sing 365 tonight.

Church hymnal is probably my favorite hymnal and has been for many, many years. And I learned to sing from this book when I was a small boy, and I could not sing very well, and so I sat beside an older, near an older man who could sing tenor.

And I tried to figure out what he was singing when he was singing tenor. And so I tried to follow what he was doing and learned to sing tenor by listening to him. And that man was a song leader and was a real inspiration to me.

This page, to which you are open in your hymn book, has probably the four deepest hymns in your book. O love that casts out fear, for hearts are praised by God, eternal source of joy divine, and for a closer walk with God.

These are hymns of aspiration. They should be the hymns that are dearest to our hearts, hymns of aspiration. And this hymn book has very, very deep and meaningful hymns of aspiration. And this page is a focal page in the center of this hymn book.

And it should be a page that almost naturally opens up because of its frequent use. And so I will give that word of encouragement to the congregation of Tangent. Now, but the song is 365. Let us sing that hymn together.

The Pilgrim Church and the Contrast Between Pietism and Biblicism

And I did not want to scare you with this title tonight, nor lead you to think that.

We're going to go on some kind of deep subterranean excursion tonight with this title and with this theme. But I do feel responsible in at least every series of meetings where I speak to bring at least one message in every series that reinforces to those who are hearing what I have chosen to call the doctrine of the Pilgrim Church.

And I choose to belong to the Pilgrim Church. And it was a choice that I had to voluntarily make. I want to be part of the Pilgrim Church. I want my children and grandchildren to be part of the Pilgrim Church.

I want the people in this Willamette Valley of Oregon to be part of the Pilgrim Church. And if you're not part of the Pilgrim Church tonight, I want you to open your heart to the teaching that we hear.

And so we could speak many, many nights on this subject. I have only ever written one book in my life. And that is the theme of that book. It is the story of the doctrine of the Pilgrim Church. And it is printed in Spanish, but not available in English.

But here this evening I'm going to take all that we can say about this large subject and reduce it down to just one aspect of the doctrine of the Pilgrim Church. And then as I open this subject to us tonight, we could preach for the rest of the week on just this aspect of it, which I think we will not choose to do.

But I want to speak about Pietism versus Biblicism. I want to look at these two words, Pietism versus Biblicism. And as we just hear that title, we know right away that the title suggests a contrast. Pietism versus Biblicism.

One is contrasted with the other. Or perhaps this word, Pietism versus Biblicism, means that one is in conflict with the other. Or at least, it must be either a choice of one or the other. Either Pietism or Biblicism.

Now, Pietism is only one of a whole series of concepts, or methods of thinking, or manners of thinking. Thinking about the Christian life. It is one of a whole series. And if I would put this whole series before you on a blackboard this morning and start over this wall over here and go across this wall over here, we'd find Pietism someplace a little bit to that side of center.

And we would probably start off with what happened very, very early on in the Christian church. Very, very early on. Something that was called Spiritualism. And that was followed, and I'm not going into all these words tonight, that was followed by Mysticism.

And that was followed by Pietism. Which was followed by Revivalism. And if that is not enough of isms, then we can come into the more modern times and come closer to the doctrine of eradication. If you want to use that word.

And we can keep on coming down through this thing, the Holiness Movement, and come into Pentecostalism. And come a little further down the wall and we'd have down there the, more recently, the Charismatic Movement.

And we could probably add a few to that. And all these are a manner of thinking or a way of thinking about the Christian life. And there's something about this way of thinking that is somewhat off of center.

And although I'm going to try to explain to you tonight that there are some very right emphases in Pietism, there's something very wrong about it. And if we can understand the right about it, it will not do us any harm to know what is good about it.

But we should also know where it goes wrong. And at that point where it goes wrong, we should choose to go straight. Where Pietism tends to go wrong, we should go straight on. On the straight and narrow way.

And so we do no good in looking at a movement to just discredit it and say it is no good. And we will learn nothing from it. We will do best if we give credit to its strength and appreciate the reason why it exists.

Because every ism, every false teaching, or every variant view of the Christian life was born for a reason. And Pietism is here for a reason. It was born out of a reason. And it's in this world today because of a reason.

And we are not going to get rid of Pietism by decrying it or denouncing it or anathematizing it. But we're going to deal with Pietism by meeting the lack that it supplies in our own churches. Now, I hope that that was understood.

We're not able to simply eliminate the bad around us by pointing our fingers and decrying it and condemning it. All that does many times is simply arouse curiosity of our youth. And they turn more to that and listen to it and buy tapes about it, listen to CDs about it, look it up on the internet and check it out.

More than what we ever thought they were going to do. So we should try to supply in our churches the lack that Pietism is trying to fill. In regards to what name you ought to put to these various teachings that I named, suffice it to say that every one of these things is an attempt to deal with the inner man, with the person, the interior of us, the spiritual part of us, the faith in here, what we have in our hearts.

It's a focus on the heart. It's a focus on the feelings. It's a focus on a relationship, an exercise of piety, of inner piety, without an equal emphasis on practical living, on the practical life. It's a clear focus, a strong focus on the interior and at the expense of what happens on the outside.

And I realize that there is in Pietism a strong absence, a serious absence, a notable absence of emphasis on brotherhood. And if you want me to prove that, I can give you the names of Pietistic authors who promote Pietism but they admit that their weakness is brotherhood.

And wherever you have a Pietistic emphasis, you can have cell groups, you can have a degree of fellowship, you can have people gathered together excited about God, you can have people gathered together encouraging each other to examine their hearts and grow in piety, but you cannot establish a church.

I don't know of any Pietistic group that has established a church. And when E. H. Broadbent wrote his book titled The Pilgrim Church, he asked a question at the end of his book, is it possible for us today to have, to teach, to practice, to maintain the doctrine of the early church in the Bible?

And he said there are six answers to that question. And when he sought to give the six answers to that question, he said that the Pietists answered no. They answered no. They said it is not possible, as far as they're concerned, to take the church of the New Testament and live it and practice its doctrine and teaching today.

They do not even try to do it. It's not possible with Pietism to establish a church. You can have cell groups, class meetings, you can have all kinds of Pietistic cells and interviews, but having a church you cannot have.

That is, if you're only and completely Pietistic. Now I realize it's hard for me tonight to draw a line and say, now look here, brothers and sisters, here's a line. Pietism is on this side of the line, and Biblicalism is on this side of the line.

It's hard to put a line down here and say everything over there is a false emphasis. From here on it's correct. It's hard to do that, because Pietism comes from a very, very beautiful word that's very, very Biblical, piety.

Every one of us should be pious. Every one of us should have holiness in our hearts. Every one of us should have an interest in that subject. Every one of us, in that sense of the word, should be Pietistic, in that sense of the word.

To be holy is to be Biblical. But I want to look tonight at the doctrine of Pietism in its somewhat extreme form, and I'm being honest tonight to say that. I'm going to talk about Pietism in its somewhat extreme form in order to be able to focus upon it, and then I'm going to admit to you that there are shades of this.

There are shades of this extreme form of Pietism that have affected many, many groups, including the groups that are sitting in this service tonight, because Pietism has greatly affected the Mennonite Church.

In fact, the Pietists are proud to tell you that in colonial America, the Mennonite Church was one of the adherents to, and one of the promoters of, Pietism in America, along with the Quakers, the Church of the Brethren, and the Moravians.

And we don't like to hear that, but for quick proof of it, for very quick proof of it for anyone that knows anything about history, when the Mennonite Church became the stillium lundi, the quiet in the land, it was the result of Pietism affecting their churches.

And where the cross was let go, and evangelism was left for somebody else to carry out, and the Mennonites were enjoying their farming and their other industries, and losing their children to the world.

That's what was going on. And so we should be aware of this. How much has it affected us here in this valley in Oregon? Pietism. Now, Pietism is not like a counterfeit dollar bill, or a counterfeit $20 bill.

I can't hold this up to you and say, whenever you find this, it's a false one. This is a true one, because it has these shades of meaning. And I'm going to try to be as honest with you as I can tonight.

I realize I'm taking upon myself a difficult assignment, and I'd like to be balanced. I know that it's hard to be. Let me start with an illustration. Martin Bohm was a Mennonite preacher, and he found himself responsible to stand before a congregation and preach the Word of God.

And he was appreciated as a preacher. And I say this because Martin Beam has been used in modern-day conservative writings, writing and teaching against Pietism. His testament has been used to discredit Pietism.

But I want to be careful in how I use this illustration, because it seems like some of our historians don't understand what happened with Martin Beam. But he was a Mennonite preacher, and after he had his first Pietistic experiences, he was so appreciated in his church that he was ordained to the bishop office after he had the experience that I'm going to tell you about this evening.

And it was not until later on that he was expelled from the church because of the excesses that he went to with his teaching. But he was in the field plowing, and his heart was burdened by his lack of contact with God, lack of power in his life, lack of power in the pulpit, lack of strength in the church.

He was concerned about himself, he was concerned about his people, and he was plowing. And he got to the end of the row, he dropped his plow, and he knelt down to pray. And he got back behind the horses and followed the plow to the other end, and he was plowing.

And as he was plowing, he was praying. And I don't know if this is true or not, but someone said that the next time he went down through the furrow, he didn't even wait until he got to the end. He stopped the horses in the middle of the furrow and started to pray right there.

He was just too burdened to go on with his work. When he felt an infilling of God's presence and spirit in his life, and he felt that his burdens were gone, he felt like he had a relationship with God that he was missing all this time, and his preaching took on the effectiveness of his newfound experience.

This man later on was part of a special meeting in Long's Barn in Landis Valley there in Meixure County, Pennsylvania. And a lot of people came to these meetings, and he was teaching in these meetings the new experience that he found.

And a brother, a gentleman came out of the audience, came up on the stage where he was, the platform there, and greeted him and said, We are brethren. And the result of that thing was the formation of the United Brethren Church, now called the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

And a new denomination was born as a result of that, and Martin Beam became a full-fledged pietist, worked closely with Francis Asbury, the Methodist circuit writing preacher in this country. I'm not sure about this, but I think Francis Asbury preached his funeral sermon.

A new denomination was born, and the Mennonite Church lost one of its bishops, a man that they probably should not have lost. But it was a result of a pietistic experience. And so he began to emphasize that experience, and I want to show you what that does as we go through this lesson tonight.

Repentance, Transformation, and the Evidence of New Life

But I want you to take your Bibles. I want to read several verses, starting in Matthew chapter 3. And so before we read these verses, I want you to know that I'm not afraid of piety. I think we should be afraid of unholiness.

I don't think we should be afraid of holiness. I think we should be afraid of unholiness in your life and in mine. I'm not against piety. Pietism has a false emphasis, yes, I think should concern us. But we're in chapter 3 of Matthew, and I'll look at verse 2 where John the Baptist says, Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

In verse 8 he says, Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. I want you to notice this word repentance and what it accomplishes in your life. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.

Fruits of repentance. Fruits that match the profession. Fruits that match the decision. Fruits that are evidence of what's going on inside. There's something out here that proves what is going on internally.

Of repentance. Now Jesus had a similar message in chapter 4 in verse 17. In that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In chapter 5 he began to explain to us what that repentance should do in our lives.

He started in verse 3 by saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. And he expected that this repentance was going to affect your life. He expected that this repentance was going to affect what you were.

And in all of the Beatitudes he does not stress there so much what we do, but he stresses what we are. And you are different. You are a different creature. You are a different being. You are not what you were.

You were not a peacemaker. You are a peacemaker. You were not poor in spirit. You are poor in spirit. You are not pure in heart. You are pure in heart. And this is what Jesus expected to be the result of repentance in the life.

You were not merciful. No one by nature is merciful. You kick the cow. You hit the cow and she puts her foot in your bucket. You shouldn't do that. But by nature you are not merciful. But Christ comes and there is a work running wrought in your heart.

And this work affects you and changes what you are. And when you are different, you do differently. Your life is different because you are different. And if you try to be different without being different, that is a gold ring in a pig's snout.

That is detestable. That is terrible. That is bad testimony. That is legalism. That is hypocrisy. That turns our children away from the church. That turns our children to the world when we try to do what we cannot do because we are not what we are trying to do.

It starts in here. Now up to this time, up to now, pietism is doing alright. Up until now. Are you following up to here? I don't know if you are understanding or not. And not in America I would know where I am.

The people are responding. I can tell where they are. You people are very polite and very orderly and I can't tell. And so notice what happens with this changing like verse 10 of the same chapter of Matthew 5.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Look at the result of this thing. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That is something also that men and I still know very much about. And the New Tribes mission people are being martyred year after year.

And the Southern Baptists are being martyred year after year and on the mission field. And we are not experiencing as much of that as what we probably ought to be. And there has to be a reason for that.

And if we are separate from the world as we claim to be, there is something about our relationship with the world that is maybe in too many cases too acceptable. There should be a more resounding conflict with the world.

Blessed are you when men shall revile you, verse 11, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for greatness and reward in heaven.

For so first He did the prophets which were before you. And Jesus expected that this change in your life would possibly bring you to this result. And then you look at verses 21 through 48 in this chapter and you see six graphic distinctions, six graphic conflicts, six graphic distinctives that are going to characterize those who have had this repentance worked in their hearts and they had this new fruit coming forth.

And so they are loving their brothers and they are not hating and they are not murdering or hating either. And they are not only not committing adultery, but they are not desires to look upon and to lust after.

They are changed within and changed without. And there is none of this divorcing going on. And we notice here that this swearing has stopped and this performing of oaths does not take place. And there is a loving of the enemy here.

And how does that happen? It's a great change that took place within the heart and in the life. Chapter 7, verse 21 through 23, this is Jesus teaching, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

And now we have a doing coming out of this thing. We have a doing the will of God. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied thy name, and thy name hath cast out devils, and thy name hath done many wonderful works?

And while I professed unto them, I never knew ye, depart from me ye that work iniquity, because it was not my work, it was not my will that was being done. There was too much that I said that you ignored.

You said to me, Lord, Lord, but did not do the things which I said. How can you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I taught you? And here we begin to part, cut me with pietism. Chapter 10 of the same Matthew, verse 34,.

Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth. I come not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.

And he that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. It's interesting if we go into the 13th chapter of Matthew, and look at the seven parables that Jesus puts for us there.

We see a clear distinction in those parables between the church and the world. And the church and the world is different for only one reason. The only reason why the world and the church is different, the only reason why is because the people in the church are different from the people in the world.

It is because of what happened to those people. It's because of what happened in their hearts. You are a new creation. You are a new creature in Christ Jesus. And so this church is in this world. It's like a light in the world, Jesus said.

516 in Matthew. And this light shines in this darkness. Next time you're on the beach, I don't know where your beaches are around here, your waterfront. All I know is that you go there. I don't know where it is.

It's a river. It's an ocean. I don't know where it is. But you go there. The next time that you go there, I want to ask you a question. Are you a distinct light on that beach? If you're not, if you're not in the trumpet sounds, what do you plan to do?

If you're in the Walmart, are you a distinct light in that Walmart? If you're not a distinct light in that Walmart, what are you going to do at the trumpet sound? You're on the airplane. The video is playing in that airplane.

Are you a light in the darkness of that airplane? And if you're not a light in the darkness of that airplane, what are you going to do if the date is 9 -11? I'd just like to ask you a couple questions.

The Church as a Distinct Community Under Christ’s Authority

And you see a distinction between the world and the church. And that difference is not made by building a building out of brick. And putting a sign in front of it. And filling that with members. That does not make the difference.

That does not make the difference between the church and the world. The difference is what God has done in here. And that work must be done in your life and my life. And Peter made a great confession in the 16th chapter.

He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, verse 16. But then something happened in verse 23. But he turned and said unto Peter, that's Jesus speaking, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offense unto me.

For thou savest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. And then notice what Jesus says in verse 24 and following. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what has the man profited if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

But there is a day coming, there is a time coming, when if we're confused today, if we're unsure today of how this thing stands, God is sure the Lord knows them that are his, and that everyone that name with the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

The foundation of the Lord stands sure having this seal is how that verse begins. Take up your cross and follow Jesus. And that is something that pietism has sought to avoid. Chapter 18, verse 15. And here are results of it.

This new life that we have, this new group of people united together in love and true union. Heart changes, pours in spirit. Broken hearted, merciful people living in the truth, living in light, living in separation from this world, living with love in their hearts, living without perversity and without pervertedness.

And now these people have gathered together into a body. Here we have two or three gathered together in his name. And look what they do, verse 15. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go tell him his fault between thee and him alone.

If he will hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more. Then the mouth of two or three witnesses everywhere may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.

But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man or an republican. Now we have this binding and loosening responsibility that the church has in verse 18. And verse 19 tells us that if two of us or more agree on the earth, God in heaven hears that and upholds that.

And then it says in verse 20, where two or three are gathered together in my name, they are mine in the midst of them. This is Christ's plan for the church. I would like to take you yet to chapter 28 of Matthew and show you this thing now on a worldwide universal scale.

When Jesus says in verse 18, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore, congregation at tangent. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

And, Lord, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. And so we have maybe four stages here that I have read to you. We have, first of all, the message of our Lord Jesus. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What Jesus taught. We hear this message and faith comes by hearing this message. It starts there. And then we have, as a result of hearing that message and believing that message, we have lives changed.

We have changed lives as a result of hearing the Word of God taught and preached. We believed it and it changed our lives. And this changing of life results in a new society, a society of people who have this change of heart.

And they bind themselves together. They unite themselves together in a committed and responsible relationship. And shall I say, into an accountable relationship. They bind themselves together. And then you have a church with authority and responsibility.

And you have in that church true communion, true love. And as the cafe sign says, koinonia, true koinonia. There's power among the brethren. There's power in the church. And that's exactly how the early church was formed.

What I just said is exactly the outline of how the early church was formed. Now I have several questions I want to answer tonight. And I hope that I can do this as quickly as possible. The first question I want to answer is, what is pietism?

Pietism as a Movement of Inner Piety

Pietism is not a church. It's not a denomination. Because it does not even have a defined doctrine as such. We're going to try to look at some of his teaching. But it never tried to outline a doctrinal position.

It is not a church. It is a movement within established churches. Much like the charismatic movement. You can find that among Mennonites. You can find that among Catholics. You can find the charismatic movement among almost all kinds of groups.

Lutheran, the charismatic movement affects the Catholics in our town of Vittal. Right next to the closest town to where we live. There's a charismatic movement there among the Catholic church in that town.

It's a movement within established churches. It's not an attempt to establish a church. It's an emphasis on piety. It looks at the condition of your heart and tries to get you to examine that. It is the practice of piety.

And has exercises that are designed to condition your heart towards God. And I don't know if you've ever thought about that. What can I do to make my heart more godly? To think more thoughts about God.

What can I actually do to see just how my heart is leading to God right now? And they think about questions like that. And that in itself is not bad. But as we saw in the case of Martin Beam. This man was depressed.

He was under a terrible load. And he based a lot of what he did there on his feelings. His feelings were different. He had an emotional response to his experience that he's not had before. As soon as I began to focus on my feelings and on my emotions.

As soon as I began to focus on my experience. I have left the North Star. And I'm beginning to follow a jack with a lantern. Now, did you understand what I said? The North Star never moves. Right here it is.

The Day Star that shines in our hearts. We have a more sure word of prophecy. For unto we do well to take heed. As unto a light that shines in the dark place. The Day Star. The North Star. And it brought the slaves out of the South and took them to Canada.

Because they knew that thing was up there. And they looked at the End Star at the end of the Great Drinking Gourd. As they sang about it and wrote about it. The Great Drinking Gourd. The Zippers. And they looked at that.

Those two line up and go to that North Star. And they followed that. And it was always accurate. It didn't matter where you were. You could be in Alabama. You could be in Tennessee. You could be in Texas.

You could be in South Carolina. You could be in Virginia. And it didn't matter where you were. It took you in the same direction. But when you start following your feelings and your experience and your emotions.

You're no longer following that sure word of prophecy. You're following a jack with a lantern. He's down over here. And now he's over here. And now where did he go? Down the street. And over there he is.

And that light keeps on moving. Keeps shifting. And then we have a problem with tithing. So this experience-oriented teaching replaced discipleship. Replaced Bible obedience. Replaced clear, defined doctrines.

And to assure my experience and share my experience with others becomes the practice of piety. Becomes the focus of this Christian experience. Now I want to talk a little bit about its origin. The origin of the piousness.

Began sometime after the Reformation. But I'm going to start in the Reformation to give you just a little background. Men like Luther. Men like Calvin. Promoted several errors that have continued to this present day.

I'm going to just mention two serious doctrinal errors of both Luther and Calvin. Let's answer the question. How can a man be justified? And Luther answered that question. How can a man be justified? He answered that question this way.