Part 2 = Here -> "What you do IS what you believe!"
Part 3 = Here -> "What does Jesus think about discipleship?"]
I am dumbfounded and truthfully DISGUSTED that all kinds of doctrines divide so many Christians!*Now, I'm sure that many of you just read that statement and are currently saying to yourself "Ah... this is one of those guys who thinks that if we all just love each other it doesn't really matter what we believe and what doctrine we have!" & I have to respond to what you are thinking to yourself with "no, I am not 'one of those guys.'" (although I would have to respond to my response by saying I DO think if we all just LOVED each other instead of just saying that we did - that WOULD solve a lot and would change the world!)
What we believe is absolutely important & so is our doctrine. Some of you seemed to think I was somehow saying that doctrine/orthodoxy was UNIMPORTANT by what I wrote in "part 1"... but you were reading into what I was saying, not simply reading what I wrote. A recap would simply be that how we live is definitely more important and MATTERS MORE TO GOD than our doctrine... doctrine is worthless unless we LIVE IT! (kind of a recap of part 2 too.)
Anyway, back to my disgust. I think it's stupid and maybe even sinful that Christians ("professional" Christians for sure = pastors, church staff, seminary students, etc...) base HOW THEY TREAT PEOPLE on what kind of doctrine those people have. HA! that's funny, because the last time I checked it seems like God wanted us to treat people how we want to be treated. (Luke 6:31 ring a bell?)
Why should we base friendship or how we treat anyone on what their doctrines are? That's like one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. (About half as dumb as treating people differently based on their skin color.)
Just for a random example = There are lots of people who wouldn't want to associate with Christians who "speak in tongues." Just for that one simple difference in OPINION/doctrine/belief! Who gives a crap? Paul spoke in tongues and I bet Luke didn't. But I'm pretty sure they got along just fine (or at least hung out together for years).
A lot of times I hear stupid stuff like that and say to myself "WE'RE ON THE SAME FREAKING TEAM!!!" aren't we? I'm for Jesus & His fame & kingdom. Anybody who's for that... we're on the same team!
People on both sides cause this division over stupid stuff! (I'm not saying these doctrines are stupid, I'm just saying it's stupid to divide/treat peeps differently because they believe on 1 side or the other of these doctrines!) Here's a few areas off the top of my head:
- All kinds of doctrines about the future! (I'm pretty sure Jesus said He didn't know when He was coming back)
- Calvinists and Arminians... Reformed & less Reformed peeps
- egalitarians and complementarians
- dunking vs. sprinkling (form or function? = a future blog I think)
- METHODS of ministry & other stupid arguments like worship styles, etc...
- spiritual gifts arguments, of course (from cessationists to vineyard peeps)
- dispensationalists & progressive dispensationalists & Covenenant theologians, OH MY!
- Bible version arguments
- women in ministry/women preaching (they CAN vote now, right?)
- Creation = 7 literal days, not literal, micro/macro evolution, progressive evolution, etc... (Were any of you scholars actually there?)
- Hell = trash dump, annihilation, or literal eternal fire? REALLY? is that something we wanna spend our time arguing about? (yeah, I have my opinion, but really? arguing?)
*I'll probably write blogs on this specific thought later, but let me just say that after all your years in seminary studying those topics above = you're probably still wrong on about half of your conclusions! (I'm probably wrong on at least 60% because I don't do that well with percentages.)
So, instead of picking my friends and who I'm nice to based on peeps having the same doctrine as me, I'm gonna LOVE everybody! (I mean, I can even be nice to red sox & duke fans... so of course I can love anybody!)
But beyond that, when it comes to who I align myself with and do ministry with and spend more time with... that's not based on doctrine... it's based on HOW PEOPLE LIVE.
Why would you wanna spend more of your time & work alongside a dude who believes the same as you about the milennium and hell, but is MEAN? or isn't humble? or doesn't love the poor? that's dumb... in my opinion.
I'll pick spending my time with an unbeliever who happens to live a lot like Jesus OR a believer whose doctrine is all jacked (we think), but LIVES LIKE JESUS!
I guess again I'm saying that what we DO seems to matter more than what our doctrines are. (like I said in parts 1-3.) I'm sure many of you disagree... and that's cool. But I'd still love for you to be my friend even though we have a different belief. Let's at least agree to STOP treating people like ENEMIES just because they have different doctrine!
After I originally wrote this blog I read the following that same day. I thought it was pretty awesome timing!
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them SHOW IT BY their GOOD LIFE, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." - James 3:13
As always... WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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2 comments:
Well put Patrick. A previous comment on part 1 mentioned how the past 150 years have been especially divisive in the USA and western Christianity and I have been thinking about that. I was thinking about the years of about 1850 on to about 1910 or so. Multiple less than orthodox ye thighly successful religions formed in the USA including Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, Christian Science, Seventh Day Adventist amont others. You had a philosophical movement which I think was called Higher Criticism which questioned such doctrines as the Verbal Inspiration of Scripture, etc. You had Darwin in science and Dewey in Education and Marx in politics who proposed a radically different world view than was traditional at that time. As opposed to "In the Beginning God"..you had the exact opposite. In education, the age old assumption, based on Romans 3:23 was replaced with the opposite assumption that man was basically good inside but it was rather his exterior circumstances that determined his fate. Building on all this of course you had many of the so called mainline denominations in the USA solidify around these new world views. The scriptures "contain" the Word of God and miraculous content is allagorical at best. Positively, Mainline denominations were much more likely from my understanding to care for the poor than more Fundamentalist types. I was not there so can not judge of course. All I can say is that from my very shallow understanding of the past 150 years, there was much turmoil. Red Herrings galore were available for Christians of all flavors to get distracted from the greatest commandments; Love the Lord your God and Love your Neighbor as yourself. If I was to draw any conclusion it might be this. I think we must keep our eye on the prize to keep out of the ditch. James got it right. It is not all Faith and it is not all Works. Works proves Faith. As we have established, Truth Matters but as we have also established...talk is cheap and Faith is not real with out proving works. Thanks for stirring us up. Keep up the good work.
People don't debate dumb theological arguments with me. Who are these people. :D
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