nuance without arrogance
nuance without arrogance
NUANCE WITHOUT ARROGANCE
August 1, 2026
One of the recurring themes I've noticed in online theology is the desire to "correct" almost everything we learned growing up.
Some corrections are genuinely helpful. We all want to grow in our understanding of Scripture. As we mature in the faith, we should expect our theology to become deeper, richer, and more nuanced.
But there is another tendency that concerns me.
Sometimes it seems as though every new theological insight must come wrapped in a declaration that Christians have been wrong all along.
One example that comes to mind is our understanding of heaven.
You'll often hear someone confidently declare, "Heaven isn't up there somewhere. It's another realm entirely." There is certainly truth in that statement. Heaven is more than a physical location beyond Earth's atmosphere. Scripture presents it as God's dwelling, the unseen reality from which He reigns and which intersects with our world.
Wonderful. That's an important insight.
But then comes the unnecessary part: the implication that generations of Christians who spoke about heaven being "up there" somehow missed the point.
Did they?
The Bible itself seems perfectly comfortable using that language.
Jesus ascended into heaven. Luke tells us He was taken up, and that a cloud received Him from their sight (Acts 1:9). The angels then told the disciples that Jesus would return "in the same way" they had seen Him go.
Stephen looked up and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55–56).
Throughout Scripture, God's glory comes down. Our prayers ascend. Christ descends in the Incarnation and ascends after the Resurrection. Even today we instinctively speak of "looking up to God" or "lifting our hearts."
None of this is accidental.
The Bible consistently uses vertical imagery because it communicates something real about God's transcendence, majesty, and authority. "Up" is not merely geography—it is theology.
Of course, we also recognize that heaven is not simply another place somewhere beyond the clouds waiting to be discovered by a telescope. Christians have understood for centuries that God's heavenly kingdom transcends the created order.
These two ideas are not enemies.
The biblical imagery is not made obsolete by deeper theological reflection. Rather, the deeper understanding enriches what the imagery was already communicating.
That's how theological maturity should work.
Too often today, however, maturity is presented as dismantling everything that came before. We discover a nuance and immediately begin explaining why Sunday school, your grandmother, your pastor, and the entire Christian tradition supposedly got it wrong.
I don't think that's wisdom.
In fact, I wonder if there's a subtle temptation hiding underneath it.
There's a certain satisfaction that comes from possessing "secret knowledge." It feels good to say, "Actually..." and then explain why everyone else has misunderstood the Bible. Social media rewards this. The algorithm loves controversy. Nothing generates clicks quite like telling Christians they've been deceived.
But Christian teaching shouldn't be driven by novelty.
The goal of theology isn't to make people doubt everything they've ever learned so they'll depend on our brilliance instead. The goal is to help people love Christ more faithfully.
That means asking a different question whenever we discover a new insight:
Does this deepen what Christians have always believed, or does it unnecessarily tear it down?
Very often, the answer is the former.
A child who points upward when talking about heaven isn't making a theological mistake. They're using the very language Scripture repeatedly uses. As they grow, we can help them understand that heaven is more than a place "up there." It is God's dwelling, His kingdom, His presence—a reality beyond our ordinary experience.
That's not correcting the child.
That's helping them see more deeply into what they already believed.
Perhaps that's a better model for theological growth.
Not replacing the faith once delivered to the saints with our latest discoveries, but allowing deeper study to illuminate the wisdom already present in Scripture and the historic faith of the Church.
The deepest theology should produce greater humility, not greater smugness.
When we truly encounter the riches of God's truth, our first instinct shouldn't be to announce how wrong everyone else has been.
It should be gratitude that the Lord continues to lead His people into a fuller understanding of the truth He has been revealing all along.
_
Mike