Category: Theology

The Bible is the voice of the Church, not the voice of God. By that I mean that God spoke to the Church, the Christian community, and then the Christian community wrote down their experiences.

The Church Created the Bible

The church created the Bible, the Bible did not create the church. Far too many Christians are Bible-centered rather than God-centered. The Church chose the 27 books to be on the New Testament, because there was a general consensus that these books accurately betrayed the nature and character of God, and our relationship with him.

Not an Answer Book

People are under the illusion that God wants to give us answers. God does not want to give us answers, he wants to develop our souls and minds. That requires us to do our own struggles. Just like muscles, the mind is developed by using it and disciplining it.

God allows us to doubt, because doubt is part of growing “in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). This entails growing pains. You will know the truth, and yhe truth will make you very uncomfortable.

” I know only in part” (1 Cor. 13:12).

Randal Rauser has rightly pointed out, “Humility about knowledge is not relativism about truth.”

Belief and Knowledge

There is a difference between belief and knowledge. Belief is the acceptance of a claim as truth, which then becomes a rule of action. Knowledge is a justified true belief.

Now not all claims in Christianity reach the level of knowledge. The virgin birth, for example, we have to accept on faith in the testimony of the early church. It is a belief, it is not knowledge properly so called.

Since there are many beliefs we might hold about Christianity, there will be some that are disputed. The theory of the atonement, for example. There has never been universal agreement. That means we should have humility when we share our viewpoint.

Progressive Christians

Progressive Christians recognized that there are many areas of disagreement. And science, history, scholarship, and sociology has brought other issues to light. Things that seemed sure, are now being openly questioned. This makes conservatives very uncomfortable.

But to those who just want the truth, this is a welcomed situation where we get to again examine our faith and make sure we are following the best evidence. And even then, we will always remember that we could be wrong. That is the humility appropriate to fallible humans.

Liberty in Non-Essentials

To paraphrase St. Augustine: In essentials let us have unity, in non-essentials let us have liberty, but in all things let us have love. This is the path of true Christians who love God, Christ, and the Church.

To believe something means to accept a claim as true. To disbelieve something means to reject a claim as false. But to doubt means to question whether a claim is true or false.

Belief is a decision to accept a claim. Disbelief is a decision to reject a claim as false. But doubt means to suspend judgement about the claim until further evidence clarifies the matter

Similar But Not the Same

Doubt and disbelief can look similar. They both refuse to accept the claim. But they are not the same. Doubt is indecision, disbelief is a decision. Douby is inaction, disbelief is action. It rejects the claim as false and then acts as if the claim is false. Doubt does not act on the truth or falseness of the claim

Know Them by Their Fruit

This is why Jesus told us to judge people by their fruit. By fruit he is talking about their daily conduct, both in words and deeds. These will indicate what a person really believes.

We can also use the same method to understand our own beliefs. No one has deceived us so often as ourselves. Examine yourself, what do your words and actions truly say about what you really believe.

1 I was small among my brethren, and youngest in my father’s house: I tended my father’s sheep. 2 My hands formed a musical instrument, and my fingers tuned a psaltery. 3 And who shall tell my Lord? the Lord himself, he himself hears. 4 He sent forth his angel, and took me from my father’s sheep, and he anointed me with the oil of his anointing. 5 My brothers were handsome and tall; but the Lord did not take pleasure in them. 6 I went forth to meet the Philistine; and he cursed me by his idols. 7 But I drew his own sword, and beheaded him, and removed reproach from the children of Israel.

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Note: Brenton Septuagint Translation. This Psalm appears in the Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible. You will find it in Eastern Orthodox Bibles. It was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Alisa Childers in her book Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity, makes a fundamental error about Progressive Christianity. It is that Progressive Christianity is one thing.

As I say in “A Progressive Christian Declaration”:

“Progressive Christianity is not a unified group, but a movement that seeks to be honest with the evidence of science, history, and modern scholarship.”

But the response to this evidence is varied, ranging from conservative adjustments to a radical abandoning of core Christian doctrines. So to paint Progressive Christianity with a broad brush as another gospel is unfair.

Unlike the pastor she uses as a representative of Progressive Christianity, I am not an agnostic. I believe in the Virgin birth of Christ. I believe in the resurrection of Christ. I believe in the atonement. And I believe the Bible is given by the inspiration of God and contains all things needed for our salvation.

That is not another gospel, that is the essential doctrines handed down by the historical church. Alisa Childers picture of Progressive Christianity is a caricature, because it is “a picture, description, or imitation of a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect” (Oxford English Dictionary).

So to say that Progressive Christians believe this, or deny that, or the like, is simply incorrect. Rather, they should say that some Progressive Christians believe this, or deny that. Because not all do. In fact, there is a growing group of Progressive Christians who believe that the Nicene Creed should form the foundational understanding of what Christianity is.