Legalism

The Perennial Heresy

Legalism is the most dangerous heresy for pious Christians. Its polar heresy, antinomianism, is perhaps just as dangerous, but that danger is mainly a problem for those less pious who slothfully sit back and feel they don't have to spend time thinking about what pleases God. Legalism, on the other hand, is a temptation to everyone, pious and slothful alike, but a special temptation for those who are most active and effective in the Church.

What do I mean by "legalism"? In its strictest sense it is the ancient heresy of Pelagianism: that men can attain the Kingdom of Heaven by doing good works, and that if they do not do enough good works they will go to Hell. Note that this is totally different from Universalism, the heresy that all men will attain the Kingdom of Heaven. All legalists believe that bad people will go to Hell. We usually think of the Strict Legalist, who believes that you must work very hard to attain Heaven and few people will succeed. Infinitely more common, however, is the Easy Legalist, who believes you must work a little to attain Heaven, but mainly by avoiding gross temptation. Most people are Easy Legalists, even if they are just nominal Christians who never go to church. They believe they will go to Heaven because they don't commit any crimes, don't kick their dogs, and are faithful to their wives most of the time. They believe, however, that Joe down the street, who was in prison for robbery when he was in his 20's, who does kick his dog, and who openly has both wife and girlfriend, will go to Hell. Joe, in turn, is also an Easy Legalist. He may kick his dog, but he isn't Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler, he says, is the kind of person that populates Hell.

But let's focus on the Strict Legalist. To basic Legalism, he adds Perfectionism, the heresy that a man may become morally perfect. Perfectionism is a bit different, because though Pelagian Perfectionists would say that they can become perfect by their own efforts, Predestinationist Perfectionists would say they can't do good by their own efforts, but they can become perfect by the grace of God. They're both wrong. Your own efforts can make you better, but not perfect. God's grace can impute Christ's death to you as atonement for your sins, but it won't keep you from ever sinning. For the Perfectionist, however, sinlessness is a feasible goal. Indeed, for many Perfectionists the Christian road is "Perfection or bust". It is the ultimate in Strict Legalism: you must not only do good works to attain God's kingdom, you must do them perfectly.

Now let us come to the subject of the bland, typical, American Real Church--- that is, not the fake, dying, liberal churches, but the American evangelical churches, large or small, strong or doctrine and weak, run by saints or run by rascals. Legalist Perfectionism is a problem for almost all of them, but legalism in a particularly insidious form. It's insidious because nobody thinks of it as legalism, or perfectionism, even though the problem I'm thinking of is widely recognized, especially by the simple, unsophisticated, members. It's that everybody in church is perfect, and you can't admit that you're not, because that would show you don't belong.

I'm writing this because I'm reading now, in 2021, of the Ravi Zacharias scandal. Pastor Zacharias was a celebrity evangelist who died recently. He was famous worldwide for his eloquent defense of Christianity, combining an elegant accent with friendly openness and familiar story telling. It turns out, however, that he packed his ministry with relatives paid secret salaries, hid his financial dealings generally, lied about his credentials, was intimate with many, many women, and resorted to slander to protect his image. I myself have heard him speak and liked it. He was one of our Christian heroes.

Pastor Zacharias actually does us good by his sin, yet another example of how God turns all things to good. He is a prime counterexample to Legalist Perfectionism. As far as I know, he was completely sound in doctrine, and intelligent enough to appreciate all its nuances and explain them to others. He may well have believed it all, too. But knowing doctrine and believing it is true does not attain the Kingdom of Heaven-- the demons believe too, and shudder at the fate they know is coming. What people mistakenly call "faith"--- the proclamation, or even the belief, in what is true about God--- does not save. It's more complicated than that. You need God's grace to give you the desire to walk the walk and well as talk the talk.

Pastor Zacharias does not seem to have had that grace. I say "seem", because maybe we will meet him in the Kingdom of Heaven despite the sin that continued all the way to his death. I do not know whether he was fighting his sin and failing, or relishing his sin. Either way, however, his sin teaches us not just that good doctrine is insufficient, but a second lesson: we should not expect moral perfection in anyone--- not in ourselves, and not in our leaders. Martin Luther's First Thesis of the 95 Theses is

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What he meant is that nobody becomes perfect. The Christian is always trying to be better, and always failing to become perfect. He is always trying to change, knowing that although he will never overcome his sinfulness completely, God will be pleased by his childlike efforts and every little bit less sin is a gift to his Lord.

Members of the modern American church do understand Luther's point, I think, as far as their own sin. Most real Christians do realize how sinful they are, and how they keep on sinning despite all their efforts--- not all, but most do. I don't know if most churches preach this in their weekly sermons--- quite a few even of Real churches avoid the topic of Sin--- but a lot of churches teach this, and it takes a high level of blindness for someone not to realize that he himself is a sinner just like the preacher is saying.

No, where people are fooled is when they think about the sin of the other people in church with them. True, they know from gossip that Fred across the room has an on-again, off-again drinking problem, and that Leonard just got back together with his wife after a six-month separation. They realize that Fred and Leonard, like themselves, are in desperate need of God's forgiveness and will probably keep on backsliding. What they don't grasp is that Pastor Smith, and every one of the elders, and sweet old Mrs. Jones who always sits in the front row are also sinners.