What is the proper way to read the Bible? Part II

I’ve noticed that by far my most popular post has been “What is the proper way to read the Bible?” I figured since so many have read it and continue to read it, I would do a follow up. But first, some preliminaries. I am not a Bible expert; I do not have all the answers, and I do not know anyone who does. Like with anything I write, I encourage you to research it, think about it, and come to your own conclusions. If you feel so led, you may comment on the post and I will probably write back, as I love to dialogue with people about the Bible and what it means to them. Regardless of the fact that I am not an expert, I do have a Bachelors of Science in Bible that I have earned from Philadelphia Biblical University. Yes it is a Protestant Bible college with Calvinist leanings, but please don’t group me in with that, as I disagree with them on many points.

The following are some suggestions that I recommend for reading the Bible.

1. Put the text into context. Psalms (a collection of poems) is different than Exodus (a narrative.) Matthew (a gospel) is different than I Peter (an epistle, or letter.) Amos (a prophecy) is different from Revelation (an apocalyptic prophesy.) The genre of the book is important because some books are meant to be taken literally, such as a gospel or narrative, while prophecies and poetry are not necessarily. Another important aspect to remember is that the Bible is not written in English. It was written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, depending on the Bible you use. If you use a Protestant Bible, all three of those languages are used but if you use an Eastern Orthodox Bible, it is all translating from Greek manuscripts. This is important because many times we all bring different definitions of words to the table. Two examples: Submission and love. If you are an American reading this, you probably don’t like the word submission. Because of this, many women have a difficult time reading about how a wife should submit to her husband. Research the word. Put it in context, as well as the cultural context of the day. Love: the Greek language has four different definitions (romantic love, brotherly love, family love, and friendship love.) So when you read 1 Corinthians 13 and it describes love, it is referencing the brotherly love, and is not saying you need to love everyone like you do your significant other. Here’s a good site to help you with this: http://net.bible.org/home.php. I have used it many times for a basic understanding.

Lastly, put it into cultural context. I have sited Genesis 1-11 before and I will do it again. After reading Genesis 1-11, you will notice that it is extremely similar to many other ancient Near Eastern literature that is dated way before the Old Testament was written. Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions and seek answers. I think there is a certain fear in the Christian culture today that limits us from asking hard questions, such as ‘Why is Genesis so similar to Gilgamesh?’ A good start for looking into this is a book entitled Inspiration and Incarnation by Peter Enns. Not expensive, shorter read, brief introduction to the complex world of ancient Near Eastern literature and the issues of inspiration.

2. Look to the early Church fathers for understanding. By Church fathers, I do not mean Luther, Calvin, or Wesley. I’m talking about the EARLY Church fathers or anyone before the year 400 AD. There are a few books out there that collect excerpts of writings from these people and categorize them by author and topic. The reason I am suggesting you look at these is because they were aware of the culture at the time. They lived it and wrote it. One of the first things you may realize, if you are a Protestant, is that what they did and how they worshipped are radically different than what you may do to worship God. They were strongly influenced by the Jews on how to worship God so their songs, order of doing things, and places of worship strongly reflect that, along with how the gospels themselves were set up. Give them a chance to speak.

3. Consider reading the deuterocanon, or better known as the Apocrypha. Between the books of Malachi and Matthew exist about 400 years worth of history that is not overtly talked about in the Scriptures of Protestants. Catholics and the Orthodox have more books in their canons that do capture this history. Because of a lack of understanding, you might not get what is going on in the gospels. When Jesus came, there were three types of Jews: Jews who wanted to overthrow the Romans physically (called the Zealots; the pharisees would fit into this category), Jews who wanted to work with the Romans and usually ended up compromising their faith (Herod), and Jews who wanted to withdrawal from all the calamity the Romans and Jewish societies brought (Qumran community, which hid the Dead Sea Scrolls.) Jesus came and He was not in any of these groups; in fact He pointed out all their problems. His Kingdom was not a physical one (like the Roman empire and like the one expected by most Jews), but one that lived among the people and had a solid governing basis with Christ ruling in Heaven. That’s one example that reading the Apocrypha will help with.

4. Discuss the Bible with the Church. I have already talked about ‘discussing’ the Bible with the early Church fathers but do so with each other as well. I have gone around and talked to pastors, Catholic priests, Orthodox priests, nuns, and laity. Bible studies are great ways to discover more and should be led by someone who is experienced with the texts. Discussing the Bible with other Church members is also beneficial because if there were no Church, there would be no Scripture. The Church is the Body of Christ and has been led by the Holy Spirit to decide what books should be canonized and which should not. That being said, Scripture and tradition are very difficult to separate. Look to both for answers. Talk about it with others. Don’t be afraid to walk up to learned men and women who have studied the texts or are priests and pastors. Most are friendly and committed to helping others learn about God.

5. Be humble. Let’s face it. You are not God. You are not from 33 AD. You are not from 2000 BC. You have not read all the ancient Near Eastern literature there is or even be knowledgeable to talk about it in normal conversation. You may not be familiar with the Church fathers. You may not know why the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church are not one or why Protestants are not either. You probably don’t know Hebrew or Greek. You are probably not an archaeologist who understands the culture thousands of years ago. And that is okay! Be able to admit that someone else out there knows more than you do in certain areas and that you can learn from them. God puts people in others live so they may grow closer to Him. Ask hard questions, demand answers, seek wisdom and knowledge with a humble attitude and the Spirit will grant it to you. Also, do not be afraid to try different denominations or communions. The first time I, as a Protestant, attended an Orthodox Divine Liturgy (church service) I felt odd. People were kissing icons, crossing their chests and foreheads, and praying to St. Mary for guidance. Ask why. Don’t assume. It’s okay to recognize that something is different but seeks wisdom and knowledge before rejecting. And as always, be respectful to those who do hold different beliefs. Many are not heretics but are desiring to grow closer to God.

Some end notes: There is a saying at my school. The Bible is shallow enough that a mouse can wade through it and deep enough to drown an elephant. The Bible is a complex book that takes a lifetime to know well, if it is even achievable. The Bible, Church fathers writings, Apocrypha, commentaries, and scholarly texts are a MASS amount of material to read. Go at your own pace. Learn about what you’re interested in. Let the love for learning and Truth guide you. And as always, please comment if you have any questions or comments.

Recommended books:
Inspiration and Incarnation – Peter Enns
The Challenge of Jesus – NT Wright
A New Kind of Christian – Brian McLaren (to rid you of your modernist tendencies; read it, you’ll understand!)
The Orthodox Church – Peter Ware
The Faith of the Early Fathers – Jurgens
Catholic and Christian – Alan Schreck

Security in Gender

A few months ago, I said I was going to write a series of posts on feminism. So far I have only written one so this will be my second.

I have been contemplating what it means to be a feminist, especially an angry one. I think it’s these feminists that can give the women’s movement a bad reputation, especially among believers. After telling many men and women why I am a feminist, I haven’t found one yet to say, “No I disagree. Women should be used as an object rather than a human. They don’t have any feelings after all and they’re only good for sex and selling stuff.”

For a while now I’ve been living in a basement apartment. There is a man who lives above me who is both sexist and racist. I have heard the word ‘nigger’ be thrown around more times than the Ku Klux Klan do in the movies. I’ve also heard that women shouldn’t give directions because they naturally can’t drive, women are trained from the age of five years old to latch onto men and control them for their own selfish desires, and that women are so stupid that they can’t perform even the simpler tasks. Now yes these remarks do spark some anger in me but it’s not nearly as intense as it would have been a year ago or before. The anger dies out within ten seconds now.

A few months ago I read Corrie Ten Boom’s Holocaust experience. Her and her sister were sent to Ravensbruck, the only female concentration camp. This camp ranked with Auschwitz in brutality and cruelty. While there, Corrie and her sister witnessed a female guard beating a Jewish prisoner almost until death. Her sister said, “I feel sorry for her.” She wasn’t talking about the prisoner though. She was talking about the guard. Why? The guard put up so many barriers between herself and others to make sure she didn’t see them as human. Jews aren’t humans so that makes it easier to beat and kill them.

Women aren’t humans. They’re stupid, parasitic beings who are a plague to the human race, a necessary evil! There. That should make it easier to hate them. Blacks are the same way: Parasites to society! There. Now it’s easy to hate them, too.

People that hate another type of people because of race and gender are putting up barriers because they don’t want to love them for one reason or another. Yes it can be insulting to those who are receiving the insults. But who’s hurting themselves more here? Those who are slowly deconstructing what it is to be human and who’s in and out? Or is it those who are trying to be suppressed into believing that they are unworthy of love and respect? I don’t know. Depends on the person. Are they secure or insecure in who they are?

I think those who are insecure fight right back with anger and hate. Some try to force their views on others and that just makes the issue worse. Those who are insecure also change. Women try to lose their femininity to fit in with the boys (unless they really don’t like wearing dresses and things that women tend to) or they become quiet and unsure of themselves. What does being a woman mean? Wearing a dress? Painting your nails? Growing long hair? Highlighting your figure? Being emotional? What happens if a man is one of these things? Is he girly? Maybe he’s gay? Possibly he should “man-up?”

Those who puts these barriers up hurt themselves. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with these people but to do so angrily and hatefully highlights an insecurity. Why fight back with hate unless you’re defending something? What’s to defend? We are what we are. God created us this way. He seems secure in who we are. We aren’t we?

Does Everyone Desire God?

Does everyone desire God? This is a question I posed to my tenth graders while student-teaching about the Romantic artists. Most Romantics, characterized by their emotional depictions, didn’t like the Church or Christianity yet many felt a deep sense of spirituality, mostly towards nature. That’s why nature is the subject of many of their paintings. The three paintings below are by  Caspar David Friedrich. The building is part of a church but it is broken and surrounded by nature. I don’t want to explain these paintings too much because everyone must look at it and come to their own conclusions. (Click on the pictures and take a look.)

The Romantics were trying to answer the question, “What does it mean to be human?” When they painted, they were rebelling against the Enlightenment, which relied on reason much of the time and hence, a rational basis for deism (and some of the other emotionless forms of doctrine that are still present today; I won’t mention any by name.) The problem was that the Enlightenment threw out emotions. The Romantics realized that being emotional is a large part of what being human is mostly about. Why?

Being human means being made in the image of God. What does that mean? I believe it means loving God and loving others, so it’s twofold. Why I think this is because in Mark 12:29-31 it says that these two commands are the greatest among them all. If you look at the Ten Commandments, the first five tell us how to love God and the second five tell us how to love others. What is love? Many think they have the definition of it but I think they confuse love with its exact opposite: selfishness. Love is outward, not inward. 1 Corinthians 13 lists out what love is: patient, kind, doesn’t envy, is humble, is not proud, is not rude, is not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no records of wrongs, doesn’t rejoice in evil but rejoices with truth. 1 John tells us that God is love. By the way, this is the Bible in a nutshell. These three passages are how I understand the world everyday and I can honestly say a day doesn’t go by when I don’t think about them. But more on that later.

The point is that God is an emotion. God also gave us reason and in that, I think God is reasonable as well but he isn’t just one or the other but both! (It may be wrong thinking to even separate the two!) And when one is ignored, there is rebellion from the oppressed (yes I do consider the Romantics to be rebelling.) I think all the emotions come from love, or lack of it (selfishness.) Happiness, euphoria, hope, joy, shame, wonder, sadness, depression, surprise, grief, gratitude, fear, frustration, hostility, jealousy, apathy, anger, anxiety, awe, compassion, contempt, desire, despair. I think everything that people do is because of love or lack of it. Loving God and loving others is what life is all about and when this doesn’t happen, negative stuff happens, like those not so positive emotions. When I see unkindness happening, I always think, “Who hurt you?” I’m not trying to be judgmental; I’m talking some from observation, much from experience.

So does everyone desire God? I want to say yes. I honestly believe that even the most ardent atheist does desire God, because God is love – love between himself with us and us with others. Everybody wants to be loved by someone. No one wants to live hating everyone and being hated themselves. I look around at other religions and see people reaching for God. I’m not justifying religions; God understands their situation and it is his job to judge them, not mine. It’s just too complex for me to understand, let alone give grace or give justice. The point is, everyone desperately desires love, either between a higher being or between each other, and God is love.

I could and probably should stop here, since I feel like I’ve made my point but no. This is why I wrote this. Everyday, I worked with all kinds of kids. Kids from loving and caring homes. Kids from broken homes. Rich kids. Poor kids. Obnoxious kids. Shy kids. The list goes on and on. When taking the three Scriptures I mentioned before into mind and using that as a lens to see the world, you realize very quickly how sin has infected and diseased the world and how God can diagnose and heal it. It is one of the most saddest things to see how someone doesn’t have love in their life. They know it should be there. They know their mom should love them and ask about their day, make sure their homework is done, get on them for bad grades in motivational way. But it doesn’t happen. So they look to their classmates and their teachers for love, sometimes by being loud or rude, just to be noticed. Just so I discipline them. They just want to know that I saw them today and I know very well that they exist. Maybe not consciously but subconsciously or even deeper.  I see it other places too, not just with my students. Listening to the man upstairs prove himself to others and himself by cussing profusely. By confiding in a friend that he is lonely. Listening to him boss his girlfriend around. Listening to him make sure that whoever is in his life knows that he is calling the shots. Insecurity? Afraid to be vulnerable? Because he was once and someone wasn’t loving towards him? So now he thinks vulnerability is out and useless?

The world is indeed diseased with selfishness. God, heal us.

Absurd Messiness

Lately, I’ve been deeply pondering the idea of sin. 

I started seriously thinking about sin about a year ago. I was taking a class on four of the Pauline epistles with a five-point Calvinist, who taught this class through the Calvinist perspective (TULIP). The T in TULIP stands for total depravity, which means that we are not at all good, we are passive towards good, and we cannot do good alone, are hostile towards the Spirit, and need God’s help to do any good. In other words, our spiritual eye is blinded totally and useless without God. At the time, I violently rejected this idea. I still do today (not violently though) but for different reasons. The motivation a year ago was that I don’t think I wanted to see how bad I truly was. I wanted to think that I was a good person apart from God (I was an ardent existentialist) and total depravity really torn that down. I’m glad I took that class because it has been the starting point for some deep meditation and introspection, as well as insight into society and relationships. 

What I believe today is that the world is very bad indeed. The point I differ with the Calvinists is through the idea that the spiritual eye is completely ruined. I see it as very badly damaged, still usable to a small degree, but very damaged none-the-less. Before I came to this view, I rejected total depravity but did not hold to anything in particular. I gave in for about a week and half and acknowledged it, but then again rejected it, holding this view, which is Orthodox. 

I’ve been focussing on sin in society and how it relates to the individual. I used to think that my sins were my sins and only I was affected by them. Now I see that when I sin, it affects those around me, which affect everyone. It’s a chain reaction. The easiest example I can give is when I get angry, sometimes I try to hide it but I can’t; I’m a terrible actor. I get anti-social or bitter. Others see this and are affected by it. Some get a negative view of me while someone else, who could look up to me, thinks it’s okay to be like this every now and then. Either way, my sin is like a drop of dye in warm water. At first it’s small, but through time, the whole bowl of water is blue. With that in mind, I’ve been very pained lately with how the Church’s sins affect the world. 

I could name many sins but there is one going on now that hurts me to think about. There is one church that claims that God hates homosexuals. They are an abomination and worthy of death. This is a very hateful and unloving viewpoint. It’s not my job or place to judge motivations but I can however judge actions. I think how people hear this and some probably think that this is what Christ is all about. These people are using Scripture after all. Most don’t have a deep knowledge of the Bible so they believe this, thinking that it is the only interpretation. Now someone out there has a tainted view of God that they firmly believe is the Truth. Now, that someone who could have come to God now won’t because of bigotry they believe to be Truth.

With this in mind, I can only acknowledge that it’s God’s job to judge those who hear this bigotry. God understands how deep sin has gone into this person’s rejection of the Truth. I can’t say if this person is or is not being saved. Maybe their rejection of this hate is getting one step closer to God, even though this seems to be taking a step backwards because of their outward rejection of Him. This is just one issue. What about the other ways the Church acts and speaks that is not the Truth and drives people away? And there are many.

Sin is deeper than you or I can imagine. Just when we think we get it, another layer gets added on and the dye seeps into that as well and keeps on going. Christ, I pray that You redeem this world like You said You would. “[Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the WHOLE world.” 1 John 2:2

A Poem

I’ve never been much of a poet but for a while around Christmas, I wanted to write something that could express how I felt a few months prior. Painting, drawing, and photography could not do.

I believed in total depravity for about a week, maybe a week and a half. I accepted the idea because at the time, it seemed to fit. I looked around the world and saw brokenness everywhere, even among good things. It was a very spiritual experience knowing that all good came from God. I don’t deny that but I do deny total depravity now for logical reasons. 

When I wrote this, I had two verses in mind: Romans 8:26: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” And the end of one of the many Leviticus verses, such as Leviticus 1:9: “… It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an  aroma pleasing to the LORD.” As such, I titled it Aroma. 

I don’t claim it to be good. It’s free verse, meaning no rhythm or rhyme, the easiest kind of poetry to write. So if you want the good stuff, I suggest Robert Frost, Henry Rousseau, or  William Blake. I simply wrote it so I would not forget the deep sense of God I got from the week I felt totally depraved.

 

Sometimes when I lay in bed and pray

I have to stop babbling

Because the aching, agony, and sadness in me

Cannot be put into words.

So I lay in silence while my emotions

Trickle up to God in a dancing stream of smoke.

And I imagine that God accepts this

As an offering from my soul,

As an aroma that is pleasing to the Lord.

Good

I’m frustrated, straight up. I confided my frustrations to a good friend that I’ve known since I was six. She’s majored in political philosophy and is not someone who will beat anyone or anything down (because almost all forms of government have at least one good thing in them). We disagree on many things concerning government, but the disagreement creates some of the most fruitful, intelligent, and mature conversations I have ever engaged in. 

At first, my frustrations came from the election. It seemed that both sides lied, exaggerated, and were rude in differing degrees to the other side. The rudeness seemed childish to me, while the lies and exaggerations made me angry because the politicians seemed to care more about their own careers than the truth. With or without my vote, the election happened and of course, Obama won big time. 

I didn’t vote because I didn’t like John McCain’s rudeness or some of the lies he was telling (Obama lied too so please don’t jump on me for this). I don’t like big government that Obama proposes because I don’t think it’s the government’s job to get deeply involved of the lives of the citizens; big government tends to scare me (my bias is that I’m a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant who grew up hearing again and again how England’s big government caused us to revolt and gain our rights). I thought I liked the Libertarian party but I’m not sure anymore. My question is, Which is more biblical? I don’t think there’s an answer. I’ve sat analyzing this for a long time. And not only conservative, liberal, and libertarian, but socialist, communist, and monarchy as well. There is no answer, and if there is, it is with God.

I guess the main push of this writing is coming from the blatant disrespect for Obama. There is a difference between mocking him and disagreeing with his ideas and actions. I’ve heard some things over the past few weeks that have caused me to lose some respect for those I once looked up to in varying degrees. He was in office for one day, and already one person is complaining that they haven’t gotten their stimulus check yet. Upon reading this and some other things, I felt very sad. 

Secretly (or not), I’m hoping Obama turns out to be a Kennedy but he’s set up to be a Carter. I feel like all I can do is watch and thank God for the good that will come from him. He’s already moved to close Guantanimo, a place where terrible unkindness and lack of love presides. Maybe some good can come from him helping the economy and maybe even more good will come from the already improved relations with other countries. 

Enter conversation with friend, and this thought is not my own: Government of all kinds relies on the goodness of people. When people aren’t good, like a bad king, president, mob, or congress, the government is not good. This country was created out of the bad kingship of George III, and Americans will be forever scarred for that. But there were and are good monarchies, good socialist systems, good presidents, and good Congresses. 

When there are bad governments, it makes me feel better to remind myself that Christ is my King and He rules over me. He is good and his goodness will always be so it is reliable. Even when there is good governments, He still rules and some of his goodness can be seen through the leaders and people.

In the Mood to Write Something

I’m in the mood to write something but I’m not quite sure what. It seems my life is somewhat exciting right now, at least to me. 

In a few days I start my student teaching. I have been dreading this for the majority of last semester but now I’m pretty excited. I have a vision for my class. I want them to learn social studies through art, literature, music, and philosophy. Anyone can read a textbook and memorize the dates. I don’t just want them to learn the Industrial Revolution, I want them to feel it, see it, smell it, taste it, hear it, and learn it. We’re going to have a good time.

The second thing that’s making my life pretty exciting right now is Eastern Orthodoxy. It used to be such a foreign thing to me until recently. As a Protestant it’s always been about us and the Catholics. We learn about our wonderful heritage and why we are definitely not Catholic. After getting my Bible degree, I rejected some things and adopted others to my theology. For a while I thought I was eclectic. Then I started reading a book that a friend lent me about an Orthodox priest’s journey from Jewish Orthodoxy to Eastern. As I read, I realized that I hold a lot of theology that the Orthodox church does: the rejection of total depravity, rejection of legalism in the faith, emphasis on the Resurrection, the idea of being saved rather than pinpointing one time to being saved, emphasis on the early church fathers. I feel like this is very much the truth. I still have lots of questions though. Most are about the Apocrypha and the Orthodox church in current culture. I’d also like to talk about the meaning of the ‘one true Church,’ as they claim to be it. 

I would have a lot of trouble going to an Orthodox church though. The church I go to now has such strong community that I have ever experienced and I’m not willing to give that up. I can believe the doctrine I want without committing to a particular church. 

I don’t know. So much to learn in what seems like such a short amount of time.

When will Israel start acting like Israel?

“The truth about Jews is that they killed prophets and messengers and broke pacts and promises between them and other nations. And they seek to spill blood and kill the souls of innocent old men, women and weak children.” - Ilyas Ait Siarabi, Muslim preacher in Algiers, Egypt, found in an article by the New York Times. 

I know there’s a lot of tension between Muslims and Jews, especially in the Middle East. I’m sure this tension has mounted to the point where exaggeration is used to describe both sides. I’m not sure if the people believe the exaggeration or they are simply using it as propaganda. 

It’s hard for me to judge what’s going on in Gaza right now. I don’t know the history of the conflict, like most Middle Easterners do. I don’t know as well as the locals the culture, the kind of people who live there, or their frustrations. Normally I follow the news closely, but when I saw this recent war, my desire to read about it wasn’t there. Sure I read the headlines but not the stories themselves, until this morning at least. When I first realized it, I got sort of a hazy feeling. Yes I cared that people were being hurt and killed, their lives disrupted by fighting, but not so much the politics behind the fighting. I feel like my frustration came from the idea that Israel is not acting like Israel. 

What does that mean?

The question that came to my mind was, “How can Israel act like what God called her to be using weapons, designed to kill people?” In the Old Testament, it seems that the only time God permitted war like this was the initial taking of the land under Joshua. After that, God commands that Israel show kindness and love to others. Love God, love others. After David, Solomon took over. The Bible mentions that he built three cities almost immediately. These three cities were military bases. I understand the need for protection but not for conquest and control. Conquest and control isn’t loving God or others. 

Israel split eventually into Judah and Israel. Both were captured by other empires, Babylon and Assyria respectively, and both went into exile. Since this, Israel hasn’t been its own nation, that is until 1948. But before that date, Christ came. Christ lived during the Roman empire’s reign. At this time in Israel, revolution was popular. Stories of the Maccabees circulated and their attempts to overthrow their conquerors was celebrated. The Pharisees took up the nature of revolt. They were most closely associated with the zealots. Yet, Christ comes and does not side with them, like most Jews thought he would. Christ acts as Israel is to act, showing love and kindness, bearing truth, and offering hope. Paul in Romans goes on to say that we should obey the government we are under, and he obviously knew that Israel was under Roman rule. 

Throughout the years, people have branded the Jews as many things, many being anti-Semitic. I know that there tends to be a dislike and distrust of those different, even if those are kind and loving. 

My question is, Would Israel still be hated by Muslims if they acted as God told them to? When Will Israel start acting like Israel?

Join the Club

I just attended my old church’s Christmas Eve service. My old church is in a small town of 800. Only about 100 to 150 attend the church. I have many mixed emotions.

On one hand, this is probably the first year where I am trying to concentrate on the birth of Christ this Christmas instead of the chaos of making plans, wrapping gifts, and arguing with my dad because I don’t want to go to whoever’s house. It was nice celebrating that at church for once. 

On the other hand, I went in expecting community. Now I have no doubt that there are true believers at this church. But I can’t deny that I felt like church was more of a social club than a way of engaging in community for the sake of Christ and his kingdom. I don’t know… I feel sad that some seemed more concerned about the way some were dressed and who showed up rather than Christ. 

I’m disappointed that this is how things are in many small towns like mine but I’m also happy that I have a church that I can go to that community is for real and Christ is taken seriously. 

What would change these people that come just for the ‘in the club’ aspect? Is it even right for me to be judging like this?

The Disillusionment

I have officially completed my bachelor’s degree in Bible. I feel smarter but at the same time, I just don’t. I came in with a legalistic mind and am leaving not as a legalist but as someone who is open-minded. This sounds good but let me tell you a story. I was writing my doctrinal statement over the weekend. Looking back over all the notes I took as well as some different theology books, I’ve realized that there are a few things that Christians can agree on. When I say few, I mean like…. five? Six?

How should the Bible be read? Some say literally, some say allegorically, and others say a mix (which can have hundreds of different combinations). 

Church discipline? Many different views as well.

Church structure? Look at the different denominations. Catholic is very structured but what about the independent churches? They’re not presbyterian. 

End times? Preterist, premil, amil, dispensational premil, postmil. 

What did Jesus’ death really mean? Substitutionary atonement? Defeat of Satan? There’s like six different answers, at least, and to make things worse, you can mix and match these things. Maybe none of them are wrong! 

My point is that no matter what you believe, you’re in the minority. Then comes the question, does it matter? Does it matter to which doctrine you hold to or is there a greater picture? What can be thrown out and what must be held to? Some of these answers are obvious and some aren’t. 

My main question is, “How could God plan it to be this way?” How could God give us the Bible and we get all these different views from it, some of which are very good and biblically supported? Not to mention, mix 2000 years worth of church history in that, which spans three different eras. In one way, you can easily minimize the question but to do so is to brush it off when I think it truly has importance in postmodern society. 

And at the same time, disillusioned is maybe a bad word to use. It means that something isn’t as good as one perceived it to be. In some ways, that’s true. But in other ways, no. God is still sovereign. God is still good. God is still love. Cliche to many, but the lifeline to me.