An article recently posted from a writer I follow (along with 12k others) who made the following list of what he considers traditional Christian theology within the church that is incorrect.
“Jesus never says we must:
- Believe exactly the right doctrines to follow Him or receive His love;
- Get our lives together before following Him or receiving His love;
- Belong to the denomination with all the answers;
- Not belong to “that” denomination or church;
- Subscribe to the proper interpretation of scripture;
- Practice any particular liturgy;
- Vote for the correct political party;
- Vote for the correct politician;
- Dress a certain way;
- Not dress a certain way;
- Do “quiet time” every day;
- Consume the proper news media or entertainment;
- Ostracize certain types of Christians;
- Hold the correct opinions about “insert culture war issue here.”
He tries to make the point that all we need to do is follow verses such as Luke 10:27 in our own, individualistic way.
Below was my response to his post:
Quotes and responses from your post…
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Do you know what the greatest expression of love we can offer someone… to share the life-changing Good News of the gospel, because it’s impact is eternal.
““Jesus never says we must: Believe exactly the right doctrines to follow Him or receive His love;” Correct. But there are fundamental doctrines He does expect us to follow (Rom. 10:9-10). You hide the essential doctrine of salvation within optional theology and misguided dogma on your list in order to discredit the narrow path to Heaven (Matt 7:14). Respectfully, this cavalier attitude on core doctrine has eternal consequences for you and your readers. Sadly, the acolades of approval you may receive on this side of the grave will not sway God as we all approach the other side.
Within an hour the writer responded to my comment by making two points…
1. Romans 10:9-10 is all about telling the people to stop judging gentile Christians on their salvation.
2. Paul’s writings (in Romans) is not to be taken as seriously as what was said by Christ.
My response to his comment follows:
E…, thanks for the response….. two points if you will allow me to be direct…
To your first point, I agree that Jesus is reminding His chosen race, the Jews, that Christ will redeem all who follow Him (Rom. 2:9-11), as He shows no partiality. The deeper question is what does it mean to believe with your heart and follow Jesus as Lord (Rom. 10:9). I suspect we differ greatly on that. Most of our differences are irrelevant as to entrance into Heaven. Likely, my theology has many flaws as God’s ways (the Potter from Rom. 9:21) are above our ways (Isa. 55:8), and we see many things relatively poorly today (1 Cor. 13:12). To me accepting Jesus with our heart and as Lord of our lives is also an acceptance of His love letter to us (the Bible). This is in contrast to much of your writing which focuses on personal “feelings” on who God is and seeking the anthesis of Occam’s razor by selectively choosing/twisting verses to fill one’s own, drifting deconstruction. That brings me to my second point.
Your implication that quotes from Paul should take a lower position than Jesus’ is misplaced and exposes your theology on the errancy of Scripture. If one believes as I do that all Scripture is God breathed (2 Tim. 3:16-17) and what we hold in our hands today is 99.9% of what God originally penned through man, then the red-letter words of Jesus hold no more weight than the black letters (all divinely inspired and all penned by man). To say otherwise merely adds credence to my response to your first point.
