Monday, December 11, 2006

I don't really get it

There seems to be two ways to be a Christian. You either believe that you are the only one right or that everyone is right. This is a hard distinction to make. I think it is even harder on those who are trying to spread God's Word. I mean, how do you tell someone who disagrees with you theologically that they are wrong without really condemning them. Sure, the easiest thing to do is say "your beliefs are stupid and only mine are right." But then we miss so much of what it means to be Christians. We are united to Christ as his followers. Christ never told us the supreme denomination that exists. Hey, the URC has only been around for like 11 or 12 years now, that is a long time since Christ. The CRC has only been around for 149 years, so Christ couldn't have commanded people to go to that church either. (Sorry to the Presbyterians, but right now I just don't recall the years, other than early 30's and late 70's.) But besides this I think I have an even bigger problem with denominations that treat themselves as supreme. Take for example churches that list the denominations that are allowed to partake at their communion table. I am not talking about "if you are Reformed in doctrine you can partake" but an actual list of denominations like "if you are URC, OPC, blah, blah, blah you can partake." You can condemn a church as a false church all you want, but that does not mean that there are not true believers. The CRC continues to be put down by so many people, but that does not mean that there are not true believers. We are stubborn Dutchmen after all, and maybe the older people just didn't want to leave because it is the church that they grew up with. Sure there are a few churches that have gone off the deep end, but we are not a stew. Just because a few churches have gone off does not mean that the whole batch is ruined. The whole batch is not indeed ruined. The problem in our lives, though, is that we constantly want to tell people that they are wrong for their beliefs and instead of encouraging them to go to our church we completely turn them off from Christianity. Why is this? Because we are abrasive at what we do. I pray that we may see past this abrasiveness to gently nurse the flock and those we are trying to bring in the fold. If you want to shock people into Christianity just have them read the Tim LaHaye novels. That seems to work for a while. But wait, that is not how Christ got so many followers. Go shepherd the flock in a loving and tender way and stop worrying about condemning others.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home