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from Alathea Baptist

Why Alathea?

It is not unusual for businesses to rebrand and sometimes even change up their “flavor” so to speak in order to reach more customers. In the Spring of 1985, Coca-Cola Company decided to do that quite literally. They changed the flavor of Coke only to discover that the vast majority still preferred the original over the new. So, they went back to the original recipe and called it “Coca-Cola Classic.” I’ve often wondered if all those changes were perhaps planned out from the beginning as a way to draw a great deal of attention to the company and thus sell an optimal quantity of the soft drink for as long a period of time as possible.

At the risk of sounding like we at Alathea Baptist Church have succumbed to the pressures of the church marketing movement, I cannot deny that we did, beginning in 2020, undergo a “rebranding” that was quite intentional. Our intentions, however, unlike many in the church marketing movement, were not to figure out what the world wants, shape ourselves into that likeness, and then hope massive numbers of people would start flocking to our services. Instead, we had simply come to the realization that who we had become as a church was not consistent with the reputation that Bethany Baptist Church had earned over several decades. That is not a slight on Bethany Baptist. Much fruit will be seen, and many rewards handed out in Heaven to faithful saints who were a part of the Bethany Baptist Church family.

By and large we have not changed as it pertains to orthodoxy. Our orthopraxy has changed, and our hope is that the changes in our orthopraxy are more consistent with our stated orthodoxy, not less. So along with changes in orthopraxy and philosophy, we made a change in our location and name; a kind of “fresh start” that would hopefully, in time, more accurately portray who we are.

Let me interject a brief word about the connection between orthodoxy (correct doctrine) and orthopraxy (correct practice) that may shed more light on why we “rebranded.” I regularly walk by a utility trailer that belongs to one of our local Boy Scout troops. On the back of it is the Scout oath which I used to have memorized being a Boy Scout myself. Perhaps you know it too:

“On my honor, I will to do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”

Often, when I pass that trailer, I think about how even though the Scout Oath (their stated “orthodoxy”) has never changed, the policy (orthopraxy) changes made by the Boy Scouts of America organization over the years demonstrates that their definition of what it means to “do one’s duty to God,” and to be “morally straight,” has changed dramatically.

I would argue that the same has happened in many supposedly fundamental and conservative evangelical churches. Most still have the same or very nearly the same doctrinal statement they’ve had for decades, but their practice indicates that the definitions of what they claim to believe have changed significantly.

For instance, what once would have never been viewed as holy is apparently holy now. Much more could be said, but I’ll leave it at that. My reason for bringing this up is to demonstrate that people’s actions define their truth claims. Our aim at Alathea is to have our orthopraxy give the definition to our orthodoxy that we intend it to.

Now let me get back to the changes at Alathea. The change in location, though a great blessing for us, is not the focus of this article. I want to communicate briefly why we chose “Alathea Baptist Church” as our new name. Aletheia is the transliteration of the Greek word translated “truth” in the New Testament. That’s a little challenging to spell and remember, so we changed the spelling a bit to “Alathea.” Why Alathea?

The attack on truth started in the Garden: “Has God indeed said…?” (Gen. 3:1), Truth has been under attack by Satan, the father of lies, since his rebellion against God and removal from heaven. In response to Jesus’ statement, “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice,” Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Jesus spoke something to the Pharisees in John chapter 8 that was a very serious indictment, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.” (vs. 44-45) Men and women have been following Satan’s lead in questioning truth and promoting lies since Adam’s sin in the garden!

This doesn’t mean that there have not been periods of time in which truth, in a general sense, was given its proper place. It is interesting to trace Western civilization’s “truth journey” from the Enlightenment onward. Some years ago, that journey was described to me in a presentation by Dr. Kevin Bauder. I mention his name because I want to give him credit. However, I don’t want my summary to shed negative light on his more than adequate explanation. In the pre-Enlightenment years, truth was “up there” (picture me pointing to the sky). Even unbelievers recognized a transcendent God as the source of truth. With the full “maturity” of the Enlightenment came the onset of modernism. With modernism, the
prevalent thought was that truth was “out there” (picture me pointing outward). Supposedly science had all the answers to life’s questions; we just had to discover them. After the atrocity of a couple world wars and the fact that modernism couldn’t explain those atrocities among others, a new shift in the “truth journey” took place.

However, instead of acknowledging that truth must reside in a transcendent God after all, post-modern thought claimed that truth is “in here” (picture me pointing to my own heart). The idea is that my truth is my truth, and your truth is your truth, and though our truth perceptions may not even be close to each other, both truth claims are equally valid.

That is a very over simplified explanation of a complex subject, but it does demonstrate where we’re at as a society. Sadly, many proponents of post-modernism don’t realize that their relativizing of truth destroys truth altogether along with any foundation upon which to build a life or a society! This is philosophical nihilism which leads to practical nihilism! Let me give you some definitions of nihilism from dictionary.com and see if you don’t agree that these accurately reflect our society.

1. (Under the heading of philosophy)
   a. “An extreme form of skepticism: the denial of all real existence or the possibility
   of an objective basis for truth.”
   b. “Nothingness or nonexistence”
2. “Total rejection of established laws and institutions”
3. “Anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity”
4. “Total and absolute destructiveness, especially toward the world at large and including
   oneself”

One cannot deny the fact that what is described above, in both thought and deed, is spreading across our country like wildfire! Indeed, the age-old attack on truth never stops; it only seems to escalate, but it remains the role of the church both to protect and to proclaim Alathea. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul describes the church as “the pillar and ground of the truth.” Of course, it is something that each of us as believers must embrace for ourselves, but also must pass along in our disciple-making efforts in obedience to the Great Commission.

This brings me to a second area of major concern. Not only has there been an assault on truth that, while not new, has been escalating since the Enlightenment, there has also been a grave failure on the part of the church and Christian families to effectively pass truth along from generation to generation.

This failure will be the subject of my next blog. Please stay tuned!

Pastor Doug DeFord

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