From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Theological liberals love "nuance" because they believe they're smart enough, and Christians who trust their Bibles are just too dumb, to appreciate it. Today most Evangelicals are falling in love with nuance too.

The dictionary defines nuance as "a refined or subtle distinction in ideas." Liberals are in love with the concept of nuance. The etymology of the word describes the liberal mindset perfectly. "Nuance" comes from the Indo-European word for "fog" which later became a French verb meaning "to cloud."

Liberals love to place fogs and clouds of doubt over the Bible and theology. Certitude, they say, is unsophisticated. The truly erudite Christian admits that he really doesn't know anything for sure. After all, doctrine is complex, because God and the Bible are paradoxical. The "thinking Christian" broad-mindedly embraces these contradictions. We must carefully chart our course through the fogs of nuance, lest (horror of horrors) our ship of theological ambiguity should run aground on the solid rocks of Biblical logic.

It was bad enough when such fuzzy-headed thinking existed mainly in liberal seminaries and mainline churches. But today, the fogs of nuance surround and confound much of the Evangelical church.

Preaching Uncertainty With Great Certitude

As the fogs of nuance have rolled into the Evangelical church, the main thing they have brought with them is uncertainty about the Bible. The graduates of most modern Evangelical Bible colleges and divinity schools come into the church preaching uncertainty with great certitude. The Bible is "inerrant", they say, but that doesn't mean we have to believe that Job and Jonah were historical people, or that the Bible is accurate when it speaks about things other than "spiritual matters".

Postmodern Evangelicals are passionate in saying that the church needs to be "missional" but they're not very clear when asked to explain what the mission is. We need to be passionately engaged in the work of "evangelism", they say, but the more they talk the more obvious it becomes that they aren't sure about the definition of the Evangel.

The important thing, it seems, is not so much what you believe, but that you're passionate about it.

Words Mean Whatever I Say They Mean . . . For Now

The rolling fogs of nuance also provide cover to preachers who say that the Bible's words mean whatever they want them to mean - at least today. Definitions may change tomorrow. So "faith" easily becomes not objective belief in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from sin, but a subjective, changeable kind of "faithfulness" defined by church leaders. "Born again" becomes not an objective act of God through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, but a feelings-based experience-of-the-moment that gives psychological uplift to a person who remains dead in trespasses and sins.

"Propitiation" becomes a nebulously-defined "sacrifice" because we don't want people to be made uncomfortable by the actual meaning of the term in Scripture, which is "appeasement of the wrath of God." Hell becomes a state of mind rather than a place of literal torment. "The body of Christ" becomes the crowd where I go to be entertained and pumped-up on Sunday morning (or more conveniently, Saturday night) rather than the general assembly of the blood-bought, Christ-worshipping saints of God.

A "Nuanced" Jesus?

Nuance in today's Evangelical church also gives equal standing to conflicting, even diametrically opposed, views of Jesus. Evangelical lovers of nuance say that they and Roman Catholics can come together as one, because after all, we both worship the same Jesus in our nuanced ways. So it really doesn't matter so much if you partake of the Biblical Lord's Supper commemorating the once-for-all atonement of Christ, or if you go to the Mass and bow the knee before a wafer and wine alleged to be a fresh sacrifice of the literal body and blood of Christ, made so by the incantations of a priest.

Grace can be what the Bible says it is - favor that is God's alone to dispense according to His sovereign wisdom without regard to human merit and only because of Christ's person and work; or it can be what Rome says it is - favor that the Church dispenses when it decides that someone has done enough of the right things to deserve it.

For the postmodern Evangelical, nuance means never having to say you're certain about Jesus anymore.

No Fogs in Scripture

Scripture-driven Christians must utterly reject these cheap substitutes for Biblical truth. The bright sunlight of the Word of God drives away the fogs of "nuance". The Word of God speaks with crystal clarity. It speaks nothing of a nuanced "inerrancy", a nuanced "mission", a nuanced "gospel", or a nuanced "Jesus".

The Bible speaks nothing of a nuanced "inerrancy" -

Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. (Psalm 119:89)

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. (Psalm 19:7-9)

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:19-21)

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! (Psalm 46:10)

I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him. That which is has already been, and what is to be has already been; and God requires an account of what is past. (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15)

The Bible speaks nothing of a nuanced "mission" -

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)

And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15)

So the Word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. (Acts 19:20)

The Bible speaks nothing of a nuanced "gospel" -

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13)

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31)

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you - unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)

The Bible speaks nothing of a nuanced "Jesus" -

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. (Job 19:25-27)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight- if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Colossians 1:14-23)

For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you." And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:13-20)

Simplicity, Not Complexity

The Bible teaches us to cling to God-given simplicity and reject man-invented complexity -

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. (Acts 17:22-23)

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:13-16)

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end. (2 Corinthians 1:12-13)

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted - you may well put up with it! (2 Corinthians 11:3-4)

Clarity, Not Fuzziness

Scripture speaks in terms of "yes versus no" not "yes-and-no". It speaks of "light versus darkness" and "truth versus error", not shades of grey -

But as God is faithful, our word to you was not "Yes and No." For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us - by me, Silvanus, and Timothy - was not "Yes and No," but in Him was "Yes." For all the promises of God in Him are "Yes," and in Him "Amen," to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 1:18-22)

But let your "Yes" be "Yes," and your "No," "No." For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. (Matthew 5:37)

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:4-5)

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. (John 3:18-21)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1-6)

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