The New Kind of Heresy

I have been a Christian since breakfast.

For those of you who don’t know, that is a different way of saying “not very long.”

Since becoming a Christian, I have always felt the desire to know as much about my faith as possible.  Growing up, I had the kind of family that either acknowledged God but refused to talk about Him unless they were praying when things went south or did not acknowledge Him at all.  So, I wanted to know what I was getting myself into and what I needed to know to convince others.

What I have found is that there are a lot of things that I truly do not understand about Christianity, which made me want to know more, and more, and even more.  Since then, I seem to have found two main groups of Christians.  One group is filled with those who have clearly defined black and white beliefs.  Anything different from what they believe is viewed as an attack on the Gospel.  There are also those who are so unwilling to define what is true and what is false that I am not even sure that they know what they fully believe.

This is just weird to me.

You see, I believe that there are some truths and some lies when it comes to our faith.  I think it is important to try and understand all that we can and know God as best as we can.

After all, theology is the study of God, not Calvinism versus Arminianism.  Theology is getting to know God more so that you can worship Him the way that we were meant to.  It’s not about proving other Christians wrong.  I think it is weird that we have two giant extremes: the Christians who won’t allow any questions and the Christians who won’t answer any.  So much of Christianity today is fighting amongst ourselves and we think we are going to convince society that someone joining this family feud is a good idea…

Are you nuts?  We have made our faith into a battle of denominations.  The Lutherans versus the Baptists.  The Presbyterians versus the Methodists.  The Reformed Baptists versus the Westboro Baptist Church…just kidding, no one likes the Westboro Baptist folk.  Sorry not sorry.

So what am I saying?  I am saying what the heck are we so afraid of? Seriously?! You honestly think that God is going to fail because some people are in the wrong denomination?  You honestly think that God will fail because some speak in tongues while others do not? That some baptize babies while others do not?

I have a word of advice for you.  Get over yourself.

God is bigger than your right answers and He is powerful enough to not sweat your wrong ones.  We have a responsibility to maintain glory to God and the faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ because, ultimately, it comes down to worshiping Jesus the way that we were meant to.

Stop viewing this as a competition.  Stop trying to break down one another.  We are a family and we will more than likely be spending an eternity with most of these folks, so we better play nice now.

I am not saying we should not hold teachers accountable to God’s word.  I am not saying we shouldn’t rebuke false doctrine.  Jesus, Paul, and Peter all warn us of false teachings and Christians.

What I am saying is that we should be okay with not having an answer to everything. We should be willing to discuss these things with folks outside of our camp and try to figure out the truth.

We should also stop being cowards and running from our own beliefs. Too many Christians today struggle with just being honest about what they believe because of what society says. I am not saying you should get a megaphone and broadcast it from every major street in your nearest major city. I am saying commit. It’s this wonderful idea my generation seems to be forgetting. If you love Jesus and believe in the Bible then say and do something about it!

With all of that said….

We need to accept that there are some things we just will not ever know.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12.

Until Jesus returns again we can only do our best to work together through the power of the Holy Spirit to figure out this truth thing, but things aren’t going to get better and people won’t just listen to the truth if we walk around calling everyone a heretic.

Truth is huge, we believe in an objective truth, and that is the word of God. We just need to approach it better. We can do it. We have the power of the living God inside of us. Stop getting so insecure about your theology and trust that God is perfect, and He will not fail. So live with that kind of trust. Live your life seeking that truth, with humility and grace.

And love people like crazy. Because ultimately that is something I think we can all agree is important.