Misconceptions

 

In the fundamentalist church there are some commonly held misconceptions. Now over the years I’ve heard it said that the bible is perfect. It is the Word of God and many Christians won’t hear word spoken against it. That is actually a sound teaching but even so every book is written by a human being inspired by God.

 

The gospel of John for instance very much reflects John’s personality. He was obviously a very loving person and he believed God to be loving as well. So much so that he said in 1 John 4:8“But anyone who does not love does not know God”. Paul, the apostle to the gentiles was an ex-Pharisee. As he wrote you can sense his somewhat legalistic, conservative demeanour and as a bachelor he had a fairly intolerant attitude toward women.

 

Many will disagree with me but the men who wrote the bible were flawed and human just like you and I. That’s why God chose them to write the various books of the bible. So they would connect with the people in their societies. When we read the bible it helps if we know something of the life and times of the men who were called to make a contribution to God’s word. The bible shows those character traits and flaws that made the writers the people they were.

 

Christians are very good at what I would call playing Church games. By this I mean that every denomination is guilty of holding to certain doctrines and can distort the way they interpret the bible as they apply those certain doctrines. For instance the Adventists have a doctrine called “The Investigative Judgement.”

 

This doctrine is based on interpretations of scripture from Ellen White and the leaders of the Adventist Movement in the days following “The Great Disappointment.” It basically says that to get into heaven requires Grace plus Works. Effectively you’re still under the law. To affect this doctrine the Adventists quote widely from the writings of Ellen White which they employ seamlessly with Word of God.

 

The Reformed Church have several Catechism’s such as the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Heidelberg Confession that largely go through the bible and make statements of faith that pull out the doctrines that the Reformed Church adheres too. They always say that the bible is their authoritative source but I notice they spend a lot of time studying the catechism and teaching their children to memorise portions of it. My concern with this is that they are affording the same status to the catechism as the Word of God and this has to have an impact on the theology of the believers in the Reformed Church.

 

So I just want to say here that I am not meaning to criticise the Adventists or the Reformed Christians per se. I am merely commenting from the position of an observer stating some intriguing behaviours on the part of Christians that I have had experience with. The reason that I am commenting on these behaviours is because they cause a raft of unintended consequences. 

 

So, often it seems that deep seated beliefs that have initiated certain thinking and resulted in specific doctrines at some point in the development of a movement or denomination. It also seems that once these doctrines and beliefs are in place that regardless of any contentions against them. They attain an unchallengeable status which results in sects within the Church at large.

 

I wonder at times if the situation only really effects people like me who are seriously determined to know the truth of things Christian and equally determined that my point of view is the right one. Defender of the Faith and Champion of the Underdog as it were.

 

This brings me to the crux of the matter which is that really Christianity should be pretty simple. It’s based around understanding that we all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God and need salvation. Accepting that we need to believe that Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God bore our sins on the Cross. That He died and the Father resurrected Him on the third day to eternal life. That we who believe on Him will not perish but will inherit eternal life.

 

In fact Christianity at an individual level is about our relationship with Christ Jesus and it is about repenting and being baptized in the name of his name. An obvious part of the Christian life is living a life in the Spirit, This is supremely important and you can spot the people doing this in a congregation a mile off. They are happy, joyous folk who seem unflappable and don’t usually worry a whole lot about the doctrinal issues the beleaguer the rest of us. Maybe if we ditched the scrapping over issues which we can’t change we would do better in making our focus on living a Spirit filled life.

 

Perhaps this is true faith. Staying out of the disputes about theology and putting more time into prayer and spending time with Christ. Seeking to surrender to the will of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Being a living example of Christ Jesus to those around us. Loving our fellow man as we love ourselves and in the process sharing the Grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.