Synthetic Christianity

 By Pastor Dewey Roberts - Posted at Vanguard Presbyterian Church:

Georg William Frederick Hegel (1770-1831) was a German philosopher whose dialectical method has become the dominant thought pattern for most people in the world today—including so-called evangelical pastors and theologians in the United States. His methodology is non-evangelical to the core and it is a dangerous inconsistency for any Christian to hold to it. It amounts to the denial of absolute truth. Most Christians and most pastors/theologians would deny Hegel’s dialectical method. Sadly, they still think according to Hegelian dialecticism nonetheless.

So, what is Hegel’s dialectical method? The old methodology was to think in terms of truth and error; right and wrong; pros and cons. Hegel changed that way of thinking by offering a third way—the synthesis of the thesis and antithesis. Hegel’s synthesis becomes a higher truth and a new truth which replaces the old stalemate of thesis and antithesis. For many years, the Church pushed back against the Hegelian dialectical method, but it has been a thorn in the side of Christianity for most of the past two centuries. The result is a new kind of Christianity which really is not Christianity at all. It is not Scriptural Christianity. Rather, it is synthetic Christianity based on the false and synthetic truth of Hegelianism.

So, what exactly is Hegel’s dialectical method? In simple terms, Hegel’s dialecticism says that instead of competing positions called thesis and antithesis, there needs to be a combination of both which forms a synthesis. That synthesis is the new truth and is a higher truth than either of other two ever were. If we start with the thesis that the Scripture is the infallible, inerrant Word of God, the antithesis would be that Scripture is none of those things. Hegel’s method was to try to bring those two competing positions together. Sadly, he has been wildly successful and the Church has suffered the devastating consequences.

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