One of the great things about Christianity is that it allows for so much wiggle room. It makes it possible for people to have opinions and disagree on things without breaking fellowship. We don't all have to have every little peg pushed firmly into every little hole to be Christians, but we do have to believe in Christ. That's where the problem lies. We can allow for variance of perspective and thought on much of what we believe but we absolutely must have our theology correct or we're simply not Christians. That may sound harsh but remember, I'm not saying that everyone has to believe what -I- believe or what -that guy- believes, what I'm saying is that we all have to believe what God tells us and luckily the Bible is often quite clear; and when it doesn't confirm something definitively it usually shuts down the false thoughts rather completely.
If we believe in a Father that is not The Father, or a Jesus that is not The Son, or a Spirit that is not The Spirit than we are not believing in the Father, the Son, or the Spirit. We may as well be worshiping golden cows in our living rooms. Look at the early centuries of the church. They fought against heresy so much that modern day scholars try and tell us they were just pushing down opposition and enforcing their own views; when really they were just stating more specifically what everyone already believed but perhaps hadn't put down succinctly until that point. For example they debated the modelists who believed that God existed only as one but who showed Himself in three 'modes', namely as Father, Son, and Spirit but never at the same time and they were not distinct persons. It became quite popular but the Bible again kills it due to several instances of all three persons of the Trinity appearing together; most notably at the baptism of Jesus (see Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:9-11, and Luke 3:21-22).
This isn't going to be a full description and defense of the Trinity, perhaps another time. The point I'm making is that truth matters and if we're not worshiping in truth we're not worshiping properly. God is not who we want Him to be, nor is He so vague that we cannot know Him with certainty. We hear the old phrase used for Christian peace all the time “major on the majors and minor on the minors, namely that we shouldn't push so hard on the less specific things in scripture. But how much time do we spend on the first half of that phrase, on majoring on the majors? We need to study, to debate, even to argue with the people around us -always in love- but with the knowledge that how someone defines God will point them either toward or away from the one true God of the universe.
Recommended Reading:
No comments:
Post a Comment