Evangelicalism through the Looking Glass - a fairy tale

As Alice was walking down the road through the forest, she saw, sitting high up on a fence, a strange-looking creature rather like an egg.

'How curious you look,' she called up to the creature. 'What kind of person are you?' 'My name', said the egg, 'is Humpty Dumpty. And what, pray, is yours?'

'Alice,' said Alice. 'And why do you sit so high up on that fence?'

'My task is the protection of the truth of evangelicalism through the preservation of fellowship and peace between the people who live on either side of this fence.'

What do you mean?

'That is very interesting', said Alice. 'Tell me, what exactly do you mean by evangelicalism?'

'I mean all those from whatever country who agree on the basics of Christianity, that God is sovereign, humanity fell in Adam, justification is by grace through faith via the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Stuff like that.' Humpty sniffed and looked up to the sky. 'Such childish questioning!' he muttered to himself.

'Curiouser and curiouser.' said Alice. 'I have never heard of these things. Perhaps you would like to explain them to me?'

'Hmm', grumbled Humpty, not used to being subjected to such shameless interrogation. 'I am most exceedingly busy, little girl, but, as you are so ignorant, I shall try to lighten your darkness.

'To say that God is sovereign is to say that God is in complete control of all that goes on, that he knows the past, the present and the future. It is also, I am glad to say, a definition broad enough to include the claim that God is not in complete control of things and that, while he knows the past and the present, he has some severe blind spots when it comes to the future.

'As for the Fall, it means that when Adam disobeyed God in the Garden, the whole status of humanity was changed, that he was driven from the Garden and that all those descended from him are subject always to avoiding his presence at every opportunity. Upon this, we are all, I am pleased to announce, completely agreed-except, of course, for those who think that Adam never existed and that humanity is essentially sound. Still, the basics of the position are held in common by dwellers on both sides of this fence. As for justification by imputation, it means that we stand before God clothed only in the righteousness of Christ and that it is only as we trust God that we are given this status of righteousness. There is absolute unanimity on that - except, of course that no intelligent reader of the Bible on the far side of the fence really believes it any more. Nevertheless, this does not undermine our unity on the issue.'

Unity within disunity?

Alice, somewhat perplexed, looked at the strange egg-shaped man. 'But is it not nonsense to say that those in such fundamental disagreement can agree to a formula of words? Does it not require that words can mean one thing and also their complete opposite?'

'My, my, you are a naive child, aren't you?' said Humpty. 'Has nobody ever told you that meaning is only in the mind of the reader, not the text?'

'I confess, sir,' said Alice, 'that I have heard such arguments, but have always felt that, in the realm of Christianity, holding as it does to the idea of the God who has spoken, and of a loving heavenly Father who is of a kind that will not give his children a stone if they ask for bread, such a two-faced position was less than biblical. And indeed, is it not the case that for anyone, especially a Christian, to affirm public belief in something in which they don't actually believe, is an act lacking in personal integrity? What you propose indicates that there is a moral void at the heart of your position.'

'You forget', laughed Humpty, 'that one man's personal integrity is another man's narrow-minded fundamentalism! And what you so offensively call 'a moral void', I call 'biblical Christian breadth', or, better still, 'a sound attempt to revision Christian theology for the post-modern world of Generation X'. You really must not be so bigoted, you know! The important thing is to act like a Christian. Now, please, take your self-righteous fundamentalist extremism elsewhere.'

Alice, deeply upset by the last jibe, shouted up at the egg: 'Sir, you play games with me. Does acting like a Christian not involve first and foremost being honest about what one believes, about not saying one thing and doing another in order to gain a platform, audience or credibility. You are not using these words with their proper meaning.'

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean different things.'

Serving two masters?

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.'

'And who is master?' cried Alice. 'To whom are you accountable?'

Humpty Dumpty leaned down as far as he could without losing his seat on the fence and patted Alice on the head. 'My dear, dear, young girl, rest assured that I am master and certainly not the words themselves. And I and my friends are accountable to no one-and certainly not to such a naive and impudent young thing as yourself.'

'Be careful, Humpty,' Alice warned, 'that fence is exceedingly narrow and you might well find yourself falling off it if you insist on trying to do justice to those of us on both sides.'

'Nonsense!' cried Humpty. 'What ever you mean by 'narrow', I see it as exceedingly wide with plenty of room for all.' Then, leaning closer, he hissed in her ear: 'But, if I do happen to fall, have no fear-I have no intention of coming down on your side of the fence. Your view of words is so exceedingly narrow and your view of integrity so antiquated, so bibliolatrous, so . . . so . . . rationalist, that I fear I should never find a fence to sit upon in your land.'

Alice felt a shiver go down her spine. 'On that', she said, 'we can both agree.'

She waited a minute to see if he would speak again, if he wished her to stay, if he would come to a realisation of the basic incoherence of his position but, as he never opened his eyes or took any further notice of her, she said 'Good-bye!' once more, and, on getting no answer to this, she quietly walked away. But she couldn't help saying to herself as she went: 'Of all the unsatisfactory people I ever met . . .' She never finished the sentence, for at this moment a heavy crash shook the forest from end to end.

Evangelicalism through the Looking Glass - a fairy tale

Alice and Humpty discuss the problems of open evangelicalism

What do you mean?

Unity within disunity?

Serving two masters?

Carl R. Trueman

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