Saying the Yes and No
Ben Patterson
Friends in Christ, I reckon the article that’s had the biggest impact on my entire ministry was just one page long! It was written by Ben Patterson and appeared in the mid-90s, in Leadership Journal. My copy has been framed on an office wall ever since!
It’s entitled “The Inadequacy of ‘Yes’ Theology”. (You can still read it online, although the full version is now behind a pay wall).
In it, Patterson argued that every yes contains a no.
“And if you can’t learn to say one, you won’t learn to say the other.”
He illustrates several ways; firstly from marriage: if you say yes to one woman, you are saying no to every single other woman. Obvious, but essential. And sadly, not always appreciated.
Theologically, Patterson observed that it was insufficient for Nicea to say Christ was begotten of the Father – otherwise those modern day Arians, the JWs would affirm it today – rather it had to say “begotten, not made”. The Creed's ‘no’ spells out what we did and did not mean by ‘begotten’.
Patterson wrote,
“Learning to say the yes and the no: Few issues portend so much for the future of the church, because none carries so much potential to fly in the face of the spirit of the age. I speak of the infatuation with pluralism and inclusivism and certain brands of multiculturalism; the belief in the egalitarianism of opinions and feelings—that it is not only wrong, but rude and bigoted to this that some people's ideas and feelings may not be as good or as valid as others.”
It was from the 90s, but could have been describing yesterday. Yet Patterson wasn’t the first I’d heard this observation from.
The Senior Minister who trained me, John Gray, said you needed to be specific in explaining not just that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life but that other religious leaders like Mohammed or Buddha were not! And we served in a very multi-cultural area, with more temples than churches!
We need to believe both halves of John 14:6. And the 'no' comes in the second half, where Jesus says,
"No one comes to the Father, except through me."
Of course, bluntness can turn into insensitivity and even sometimes inaccuracy. But I thank God for preachers and teachers and authors, like my predecessors in the role of Dean of Sydney, who have been willing to say the ‘no’ as well as the ‘yes’.
Sometimes it's the only way people can really come to understand the peril of their sin, their need for the Saviour, and the completeness of what Jesus has done for us in his death and resurrection.
We heed the words of Paul in his final letter to a younger pastor, 2 Timothy 2:24-25...
"And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth..."
Prayerfulness and patience.
Even so, Ben Patterson spoke of how narrowness is still often criticised. “But,” he says,
“its narrowness is the narrowness of the birth canal, or of a path between two precipices – or of a lifetime spent loving one woman.”
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney