In Defense of Theological Labels
If we call a dog's tail a leg, does the dog have five legs?
“I want a car.”
“You’ve come to the right place! What kind of a car would you like? Are you interested in a sport-utility vehicle, a crossover, a sedan, a coupe, or …”
“I don’t care about all those labels—I don’t even know what those words mean. I just want a car that will take me to work and back from my house!”
“Well, sir, how many children do you have? Do you need to pull a boat?”
“Why does all that matter? I want a car.”
Do you think they are going to find a car? Sure—there are plenty of cars. But do you think they will find a car that matches their needs? Nope.
Why do we label a car with a style? So:
We can find what we are looking for.
We can truly describe a given car.
We find labeling things like cars useful, and yet we say things like:
I don’t care about Calvinism, Arminianism, premillennialism, postmillennialism, or other theological labels. I just want to follow Jesus.
Why?
Labels Don’t Matter
Does it really matter if you hold to Calvinism, Arminianism, or some other “system?” Let’s look at the question in another way. Does it really matter if you believe:
Humans have no free will; God always chooses everything for every human.
Humans can freely choose to do any evil thing they like—but can never choose to do anything good unless God overrides their free will.
Humans have free will in some things and not in others.
Humans have free will in everything all the time.
Does believing any of these things impact the way you understand God, how you think about other people, or how you live your life? Of course, they do! If you believe God chooses everything for you, you might believe things like:
If God wants me to study the Scriptures, he will give me the will and time to do so.
If God wants me to help my neighbor, he will give me the desire and means to do so.
Since God has already decided everything, the best thing I can do is just to let go and let God. I shouldn’t struggle against sin nor worry about whether my decisions are right or wrong.
If you believe humans can only choose to do evil unless God overrides your decisions, you might believe things like:
I desire to be saved because God gave me that desire.
My neighbor does not desire to be saved because God did not override their free will, which will always desire not to be saved.
Since my free choices will always be evil, my goal as a Christian is to learn to yield to God’s choices all the time in all things.
If you believe humans have free will in everything all the time, you might believe things like:
If I choose salvation, then I can also lose my salvation.
If I choose the wrong path today, God must figure out how to change the future to reach his desired destination.
So—does it really not matter which of these we believe? The first two options describe different forms of Calvinism, while the last describes a form of Arminianism. Given these differences, can we say Calvinism, Arminianism, and the various options in between don’t matter?
Labels Divide
“But labels divide, and the church should be unified in the face of the world.”
Yes, labels divide. To describe different options means to divide them up. There are many ways to look at this problem, however.
We Should Expect some Division in the Church
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 1 Corinthians 12:14–17
Each of us has a different gift within the church. The eye will perceive the immediate problem to be solved differently than the ear or the hand. So long as we all work together for the ultimate end—to honor God—then these kinds of differences should not bother us too greatly.
It is true, however, that many divisions in the church go beyond different purposes and gifts. Differences in our very perception of God and how God works with people in the world go far beyond perceiving different problems and offering different solutions.
But are these kinds of divisions the fault of labels?
Labels don’t Divide, People Do
If one person believes only sedans are cars, and another only crossovers are cars, they will not agree, regardless of the labels. In fact, these two people don’t need labels for sedans and crossovers. They can point to each kind of car and say to one another: “This is a car, and that is not.”
We can use labels to divide, of course—which is why we often then of labels as divisive. For instance:
“One of the things that make sedans proper cars is they always have four doors. Proper cars should have four doors so they can carry more people.”
“Well, if four doors are good, then five should be better. Proper cars should have four doors on the front and one more on the back, like a crossover does.”
“No, that thing on the back is not a door, it’s a hatch. Proper cars don’t have hatches because they don’t lay eggs!”
These kinds of arguments remind us that dogs don’t have five legs even if you call his tail a leg. When we get to the point of arguing over definitions just to prove we’re different, labels are being used to divide rather than describe.
The Right Use of Labels
How can we use labels helpfully rather than harmfully?
Understand the Labels
If you walked into the middle of an argument about whether only sedans are cars or only crossovers are cars, you wouldn’t understand the argument until you understood how each person defines sedan, crossover, and car. It’s the same in the church—you won’t understand a discussion about Calvinism, Arminianism, Provisionism, and other options unless you understand what these labels describe.
I can hear some readers out there screaming: “But I don’t care!” into their computer screens.
Not caring about all the things we use labels to describe—the place of Israel in the world, whether humans have free will, what the purpose of the church is, the goal of the Christian life, or how Christians should relate to government—leaves nothing but a very thin Christianity.
Caring about these things, but not caring about what people call these collections of belief, leaves you without a reference point to describe and understand the shape of Christian belief, in the past or present, in others and in yourself.
In many ways, trying to live without theological labels is like trying to live without the names of the colors. Does blue exist without the label? Yes. Could you describe blue without the label? Sure, in terms of RGB or CMYK values, for instance.
But isn’t it easier to just say it’s blue?
Understand the Limits of Labels
Understanding the labels also means understanding their limits.
We often make labels too narrow or too broad. For instance, almost everyone in the world of cars would reject a label like this: “A sedan has four doors, a sunroof, and the spare tire is always mounted on the roof of the car.” On the other hand, just about everyone in the world of cars would reject a label like this: “A sedan has four wheels.”
There is a median between these two extremes. Each theological system has unique aspects. We need to focus on those aspects, allowing the definition to become fuzzier as you move further away from that core belief.
On the other hand, we need to be careful not to disconnect things that are connected. To anyone who knows about cars, a definition like: “A sedan has four doors and an eight-foot bed” is nonsense. Some things are intrinsically connected. You can say: “Two plus two equals four, but four plus four equals ten.”—but just because you can say it doesn’t mean it has meaning. In the same way, you can say: “I believe humans have no free will, but I believe all evil is caused by humans making poor decisions.”—but, saying it doesn’t mean it makes sense or has any meaning.
In some cases, saying “I believe this” entails saying “I believe that.” We live in a world that wants truth to be a salad bar. It’s more like a set menu—you can change the topping or the side, but if you order steak, you’re not getting chicken.
Use Labels Descriptively
Labels are helpful for describing a set of beliefs. For instance:
Useful: “I would like to know how Calvinists resolve the problem of evil.”
Harmful: “Since I don’t agree with how Calvinists resolve the problem of evil, they are heretics.”
Useful: “I’m not a Catholic because I don’t agree with the way Catholicism thinks about the relationship between the church and government.”
Harmful: “Catholics cannot be trusted because of their view of how the church relates to government.”
Labels are useful when they describe, or you use them to ask questions.
Labels can be useful when arguing a specific set of Christian beliefs has contributed to, or opposed, certain cultural movements or ideas—or when they are used to connect realities together.
Labels are harmful when we use them as insults.
The Bottom Line
If you don’t want labels to divide, then don’t use them to divide.
Use labels to describe what you believe positively rather than in opposition to others.
Use labels to describe what others believe, rather than condemn them.
Labels in theology are not evil—they are useful tools for describing beliefs about God to understand a coherent set of beliefs.