The Bible and the Will of God: a Series on Christianity's Core Beliefs

From the beginning of Church history, all the way up until today, the most divisive issue for us Christians is doctrine. One person believes in infant baptism and another does not, so you fight. One person believes in having communion every week and another does not, so you fight. One person believes Jesus will return before Christians are taken up another does not, so you fight. I have been staying away from the Christian message boards because instead of being places of love and compassion, acting out Jesus' example, they are more like theological boxing rings where Christians try to knock the other person out with their best argument for their particular theology. But this is not how Jesus intended for Christians to treat each other. 1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 says "[Jesus] died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing." This is the purpose of the body of Christ, the Church, to build one another up in mutual encouragement, not to tear each other down for bad theology.

That does not mean that we are not to beware of false teachings, however. We are taught in 1 John 4:1, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." The Bible is clear in many places that we are to beware of false teachings. Paul himself wrote many times to defend against false teachings that were being brought into the Church.

During Jesus' ministry, he warned against false teachings that came from the Pharisees called "the tradition of the elders." We find this in Mark 7 where Jesus and his disciples were eating. While they were eating, we are told that the Pharisees came up to Jesus and asked him why his disciples had not washed their hands properly before eating. This had nothing to do with germs, and everything to do with spiritual cleanliness. The Pharisees believed in the traditional teachings from older scribes who interpreted the Old Testament law in such a way that they believed it taught that one had to wash their hands a very specific way before they could eat. There were many such laws that came from the tradition of the elders, that the Pharisees believed in and was much of the reason they went around criticizing Jesus and his disciples, because they were not abiding by such traditional laws, which the Pharisees felt they needed to in order to maintain their Jewish identity against the foreign occupation of Rome.

In much the same way, Christians today hold on to interpretations that come from tradition of men rather than from the Bible, and argue for their beliefs in such a way that if you do not believe in them, you are not a good Christian. The problem is two-fold. First of all, it comes from a lack of distinction between core and marginal beliefs. Core beliefs are those beliefs that one truly must believe in order to consider oneself a part of that world view. For Christians, a core belief is a belief that is necessary for one to believe, in order for that person truly to be a Christian. Marginal beliefs are beliefs held by Christians that one can change, reformulate, or even drop, and still be considered a Christian. What often happens is that marginal beliefs are confused with core beliefs and people argue for these beliefs as if they are the most important belief one can hold. This often happens with end times beliefs. End times beliefs are really a marginal belief that many people count as a core, necessary belief, and they get enraged if you call yourself a Christian and do not believe the doctrine as they do. I will discuss this more later this week as we go through this series on core vs. marginal beliefs.

The second problem for Christians is there argumentative style. We are reminded in 1 Peter 3:15 "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." It seems like we all too often forget that "with gentleness and reverence" part.

As we argue for our beliefs, we need to match our tenacity with the kind of belief it is. The more core a belief, the more tenacious we can be in how we argue. If it is a marginal belief, give-in if it is obvious the other person is being stubborn. It is not worth the argument. If it is a core belief, you don't have to give-in, but remain loving, gentle, and reverent through the entire debate.

We are supposed to be Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, present for the mutual uplifting of one another. For the next three or four days I will discuss certain core beliefs that we should remain strong on, and certain marginal beliefs that we need to begin being less strong on. Remember as I go through these core and marginal beliefs that what is most important is that we follow the two greatest commandments taught to us by our Lord Jesus Christ: "to love the Lord God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength; and to love our neighbor as ourself." Never lose sight of the greatest commandments: the commandments to love.
Blessings,
-Brandon

Christianity and Society in 2011

Back in 1951, H. Richard Niebuhr wrote a book titled Christ and Culture in which he looked at different views of how Christians should face culture. One of the views was that Christians should completely isolate themselves from culture; another was that Christians should embrace culture as it is and accept it completely; a third was that Christians should live in culture but work to fix it; and the final view was that Christians should live in culture but accept they can do nothing about it. Each of these views has been lived out at some time or another by one denomination or another of Christianity. In todays world you see the Amish living out the first view, cutting themselves off from technology altogether. We see other groups, such as the emergent church, completely embracing todays culture and incorporating it into their worship. I think most churches fall under the third category, with programs for every societal problem. Few churches have the perspective of the fourth option, feeling helpless to do anything. Let us look at Christianity and culture for 2011.

If we look at Scripture, and use Jesus as our basis for interaction, we see that he did not isolate himself from society (with the exception of going into occasional solitude for his own spiritual well-being) but instead went to wedding receptions, attended community feasts and holiday gatherings, and even engaged people casually at wells. Jesus did not shun society and he never asked his followers too. We know that Jesus did not embrace every facet of culture either. If he did, he would have followed the exact same hypocrisy as the other teachers, because that was a societal norm back then. Jesus did not get married or have children (despite what popular media claims), and we know that he was without sin. We do know, however, that Jesus did not withdraw from certain social situation in order to uphold his clean reputation, but gained the reputation of a drunkard and glutton, as the Pharisees called him, because of the people he hung out with and perhaps because of his own behavior. So again, though Jesus did not embrace everything about culture (he himself preached for repentance) he did not shun it. Jesus also did not see culture as something to fix. People do not like to be approached with the attitude that they are broken and need fixing. Nor did Jesus approach culture with the attitude that he was helpless. Jesus, instead, approached culture with the attitude that with love and compassion, he could lift people to a higher potential. Jesus did not see the brokenness or sinfulness in people, he saw their need for love and compassion, and a potential higher than they saw in themselves. Jesus approached each person, no matter what their background (some were tax collectors others were adulterers and prostitutes), no matter what their religion (some, like the centurion and the Gentile woman, were of a different faith than Jesus), no matter what kind of lives they lived at that moment (one woman had had multiple husbands and was now living out of wedlock), with love and compassion, and with the attitude that that person had tremendous value. He never criticized a person for their behavior, he never condemned them for their sins. Jesus came to each person with a full acceptance of them for who they were.

I want each reader to take a serious look at the condition of the world today. Christians ask, if we do not condemn people for their sins, or judge certain behavior, how can we stand out as separate from society? My is that there is enough hatred, judgment, and criticism going on. If you want to be different, and if you want to make a difference, show unconditional love and acceptance, show extreme compassion for everyone regardless of their faith and background. If you want to be different from everyone else, turn the other cheek, be blind to other people's sins. If you want to stand apart from society, show other people their true value as God sees it. Make everyone you come into contact with feel worth much more than they value themselves. My resolution for this year is to make others feel more valuable after coming into contact with me than they did before they came into contact with me. I pray that that is your resolution also. It does not matter if a person is gay, has had an abortion, has gotten divorced, or has used God's name in vain; what matters is that they are worth an infinite value in God's eyes and they should therefore be worth as much in our own eyes. Bring Jesus' love to others today and you will be surprised how you might change the world.