A band strikes up a chord. The drums begin to beat, the guitar begins to play, and the singer steps up to the microphone to sing a song about his wife. The song ends, the crowd applauds, the singer leaves the stage. For five minutes, three hundred seconds, a man sang about his wife yet God gained glory. This belief ultimately acknowledges that music is not something that can be an original thought or original creation of man, and thus must belong to God, therefore is not evil. Yet there are those that will argue that unless strong Christian lyrics accompany a song, that song is secular and not fit for the Christian mind. This is a form of Dualism. What is Dualism? Dualism is the belief that the spiritual is inherently better and holier than the physical. That anything physical in this world must be viewed and participated in suspicion and seeks to separate ontologically the physical from the spiritual. This is what we could refer to as incorrect metaphysical Dualism. By labeling such beliefs as “incorrect” this means that there must be a “correct” way to be Dualistic. This correct way is proper metaphysical Dualism, in the belief that God is separate from His creation, and all of His creation is ontologically and metaphysically equal. In other words, God is above His creation, the Dualistic line is horizontal running between God and creation.

GOD

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Creation

As Wittmer says, “Christians are metaphysical dualist, for we believe that there are primarily only two kinds of reality in the world: God, who is in a class by Himself, and everything else.” This is the proper Biblical worldview to hold concerning God. God, being the Creator of reality, exist in His own realm of reality and thus outside of reality. Anything He creates exists on the same realm of reality because it is all created matter and non-matter. However, misplaced metaphysical dualism seeks to confuse the issue and drive a vertical line between the spiritual world and the physical world. Again, as Wittmer (site previously cited) diagrams: Physical, Material World Spiritual, Immaterial world Temporary Eternal Earthy Heavenly Lower Nature Higher Nature Flesh: hinders piety Spirit: helps piety Evil Completely good

Thus, misplaced dualism creates a chasm between the spiritual and the physical, elevating the spiritual above the physical in all matters. An example of this is Christian clothing, which some believe actually make a shirt and person more spiritual or Christian for simply adorning a spiritual icon. However, before too much attention is paid to this, one must understand the history of misplaced dualism before combating the heretical nature of it.

As soon as Christ ascended into Heaven and the church began at Pentecost, false doctrines began to permeate into the new church. One such doctrine was that of Gnosticism. While it took a good two to three centuries before Gnosticism developed into a full-blown belief system, the seeds of it were planted in the first century. One of its leaders was the rival of the apostle John. Cerinthus was one of the first leaders of the Gnostic movement. Cerinthus, as well as other pre-Gnostics, believed that the physical world was completely evil. If something was comprised of matter it was evil. This belief was taken to such an extreme that they believed the God of the Old Testament who created the physical evil was a lesser (the Paulicians later in the 6th Century advocated this “god” was evil) God and thus did not deserve the reverence that the spirit God did. Cerinthus finally completed his heresy by stating that Christ was a spirit that inhabited the body of Jesus of Nazareth, and that Jesus and Christ were separate. That instead of the word becoming flesh, the Word merely partook in an already physical creature. This is why we have such passages that state, “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us .” Regardless, the Gnostics, already distorting the redemption story as well as the relationship between spiritual and physical, next sought to distort the creation story. Instead of treating the creation and the fall as separate events, they believed the events were one and the same. The world was created out of the fall with a dissatisfied aeon. Thus the physical world was viewed as inherently sinful and inherently fallen, and could not be changed. The Gnostics taught that the only way to overcome this physical world was to deny oneself of physical pleasures that were “empty” and to seek after solely “spiritual” things. Obviously the Gnostic heresy was eventually defeated; however certain tenets of it remained.

Some of the beliefs of Gnosticism worked their way into the Catholic belief system after the fourth century. The most obvious came in forms of roles of church leadership. The person who had sacrificed more and had denied himself of “worldly pleasures” was elevated higher in the hierarchy. In other words, spiritual acts warranted more favor than simply going about the act of living. The Pope was viewed as higher than the Bishop was because the Pope held higher spiritual responsibilities. A priest was viewed higher than the blacksmith because the priest’s job concerned more spiritual matters. This was part of the transition from post-Gnosticism to modern dualism. The one that had a vocation dealing with spiritual matters was inherently of more use to God than the one who held a vocation dealing with physical matters.

However, early forms of Protestants and even latter forms were not free of such dualistic thinking. The Paulicians, who for all intents and purposes held certain Protestant beliefs (Salvation by faith alone, eternal security, etc.), actually held on to post-Gnosticism until the 6th century. The Novationist and other groups that could be considered protestant forerunners all had some form of dualism within their belief structure. Only the Anabaptist can escape such claims, although narrowly. Early reformers actually did quite an excellent job at defeating the dualistic beliefs that had now consumed the Catholic Church. Both Martin and Calvin had published essays concerning vocation for a believer. Both believed that so long as a believer was doing what he was called to do, he was no better or worse than any other believer was. In other words, the priest was equal to the blacksmith because both were fulfilling their calling in life. Unfortunately, this was taken to the extreme later in Protestant beliefs while other Protestants (Puritans) rejected such teachings. Those that took it too far eventually elevated the physical above the spiritual, stating that work is what saved a person and then took God out of a calling. Those who practiced this type of dualism eventually left the church (as there was no need for God) or became part of the liberal wing of evangelical Christianity. Those that held to the Catholic stance of dualism eventually carried over into the conservative wing of evangelical Christianity. The liberal wing of dualism has all but died off as the liberal wing has faced bigger problems (such as inerrancy, Christ being the only way, etc) however the conservative wing must still face the consequences of the Gnostic beliefs of almost two thousand years ago.

In order to correct the error that has been plaguing Christianity for two millennium one must look to the creation story to understand how we misplace metaphysical dualism. In the beginning God created everything and declared it good. The same God that has stated that none is righteous, the same God that set impossible standards for His creation to follow, stated that what He had created was good. This means that all was perfect. His plan for creation had been completed; man existed and was now on the earth. God created this world not as a temporary holding place, but instead created this world as a place for humans to live. In fact, when redemption is complete, this world will be revamped and restored to its pre-fallen condition . We will also hold physical bodies (though different from what we hold now, as the current bodies are affected by the fall) in the new world as we hold physical bodies now, though our bodies will not have to worry about death or decomposition. This leads back to the belief that original creation was good and perfect. However, once man chose to sin all of creation suffered from this fall . This means the physical world was once perfect yet has since fallen because of sin. However, the effects of the fall are not complete as God is still God over the ontological world. Since God is metaphysically different (and higher) than man, nothing man does can overpower or control God. Nothing man tries, no matter how evil, can overpower an all-powerful and sovereign God. Therefore, certain aspects of this world remain good. In fact, the ontological effect of sin merely caused the decomposition and temporary status of physical creation. Understanding that the fall is not complete causes a Christian to realize that much of what is considered taboo really is not taboo.

The first realization of a Christian freed of the dualistic paradigm should be that, “everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving .” The context in which Paul stated this was that many Gnostics were teaching that anyone who partook in physical actions was sinning. They subsequently forbid people to marry and to deny anything and everything physical. Paul corrects this heresy by stating that all of what God has created is good and so long as it is not directly sinful or perverted by sin it is to be accepted. A modern example of this would be choosing to listen to “Christian” music over “secular” music. Assuming that neither type of song contradicts the Bible and presents no sin, a Christian must then establish which one is more spiritual. A Christian dualist will default to the lyrics and examine which one mentions Christ and which one does not. Upon realizing that the “Christian” song recognizes Christ whilst the “secular” song does not, the “Christian” song will be labeled superior. This ignores the fact that music is something that is part of creation. The ability to create and receive music requires human senses. In order to create music, a human must hold a creative analysis of music (something which is created), be able to take sound waves (something that is created) and manipulate these sound waves in such a way that the one who receives the sound waves understands the sound that the author is attempting to make (the process of hearing and interpreting sound is another created item). Thus both the “Christian” and “secular” song require components of creation to be used. Since both use created components both bring equal glory to Christ, for anything created that is not perverted by sin brings glory to Christ, for He created it all . This is simply one example of why we must be weary in separating the “Christian” from the “secular”. We must make sure that our definition of secular merely applies to that which refers to the ethical world and not the ontological world.

At this point many will turn to the works of John and state that we are not to love the world or anything within the world . The argument goes that because secular things, such as secular t-shirts, secular music, secular jobs, etc are a part of the ontological world Christians are to avoid these items at all cost. However, this would make no sense. Again diverting to the history, this is the teaching that John fought. His beliefs against Gnosticism (elevating spiritual above physical) were so strong, that it is reported that when encountering Cerinthus at a bathhouse John turned around and told Polycarp (his disciple), “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.” This belief was so strong that even Polycarp picked up on this strong attitude. When Polycarp encountered Marcion (a man who was similar to Cerinthus), he (Marcion) asked Polycarp if he knew who he was. Polycarp replied, “I do recognize you, the first-born of Satan .” This is brought up to show how strongly John was against the belief of separating the ontological world from the spiritual world. Thus in attempting to use 1 John 2:15 as a justification for Christians to avoid all things “secular” one fails and misses the history and context John was speaking of. Instead, John was speaking of the ethical world and not the ontological world. In other words, a Christian is to avoid sinful ethics and morals yet can participate in the physical acts of the world, so long as these acts are not sinful.

The importance in ridding Christianity of dualism is significant. For one, a Christian no longer has to worry about doing less for the kingdom because he is a janitor and not a pastor, or a credit consultant and not a missionary. So long as a Christian is participating in this world in the way God intended him to do so (vocationally speaking) then he is equal among his brethren. A pastor holds no more ontological or metaphysical importance than a car repairman does. So long as both are called by God to that position both are on equal ground. It allows both to give glory to God in everything they do. A pastor can glorify God in that God has given him the ability to convey the word in a certain way and to lead His flock. A car repairman, likewise, can glorify God for giving him the mind and ability to work on a car. The car, by itself, glorified God and not man. For God gave man the mind and inventiveness to create such things in order for a more practical life. Without God these things could not exist, thus, by them merely existing God gains glory. When we rid ourselves of a dualistic paradigm we are able to appreciate and worship God for this.

Secondly, we are able to enjoy ourselves as Christians. We are able to go to a movie and not have to worry about not “doing enough” for God’s glory. By sitting and enjoying a movie (so long as that movie is not sinful or cause one to sin) we are giving glory to God for only God could give man the inventive genius and artistic ability to create such images on the screen.

Finally, the most important element in understanding a world without dualism is just how much the grace of God has saved us. He is saving us from more than a spiritual death but is also promising us a physical afterlife with new bodies and a new earth to enjoy. By accepting God’s grace we are coming into a fullness of redemption. This is the beauty of Christ, that He created a physical world for us to enjoy, provides a way for us to enjoy this world even in its fallen state, and once redemption is complete the world will be brought back to perfect enjoyment. Under dualism this view is impossible to hold, yet under a biblical view this beautiful picture of God is painted.