Alongside our posts about Miroslav Volf’s book, and alongside some of the fury unleashed about universalism this last weekend, I want to begin a weekly series by drawing on a book by pastor Martin Thielen. His book has a provocative title, but the title only gets us to open the book to a very serious topic that is handled responsibly and pastorally. The title: What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?: A Guide to What Matters Most. (For how to use this book in the church, see this site.)
This is a good question because it is one many people ask … and I can’t say I think it is a final question. But it is one that can generate a good conversation for us. Take a stab at it, what do you think? What is the least? Or what is the minimum one has to believe to be a Christian? But there’s another question today: What is something you don’t have to believe though you’ve been in circles where they needed to believed — or at least it sure seemed that it needed to be believed?
His book is cut in half. The first half looks at things Ten things Christians don’t need to believe, and the second half at Ten things Christians do need to believe.
Today, the first half of the first half…
Here are some things one need not believe.
1. God causes cancer, car wrecks, and other catastrophes. Here Martin takes a common line: although God can and does bring good results out of tragedies, God doesn’t cause them.
2. Good Christians don’t doubt. Doubt is not the enemy of faith and it is part of authentic Christianity.
3. True Christians can’t believe in evolution. Science and faith, Martin contends, are compatible. Theistic evolution is perfectly reasonable.
4. Women can’t be preachers and must submit to men. Women are fully equal with men in marriage, church and society.
5. God cares about saving souls but not about saving trees. God cares about personal salvation and social justice, and so should God’s church.
Is Thielen also affirming our open theism brothers and sisters with #1?
Jason, I don’t have the book in front of me and don’t remember if he said anything about that.
What’s the least I can believe and still be a Christian?
Jesus.
T-
“Jesus”
But as the post yesterday demonstrated, that can mean different things to different people.
Interesting question — “what is the minimum one has to believe to be a Christian?”
I would say that *believing* in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, whose life, death, and resurrection is the way to be reconciled with God (whose relationship we need in this earthly life and eternally) is centrally important to being called a “Christ-one”.
However, *being* a Christian is about more than a profession of faith in a set of beliefs. To *be* a Christian, one must love God and love others, by learning Christ’s teachings and following/obeying/LIVING them out as closely as possible.
For me, I also think the doctrine of the Trinity is important. God’s Spirit lives in me; God helps me to live as I should in being transformed more and more in Christ’s likeness.
“something you don’t have to believe though you’ve been in circles where they needed to be believed”: This one could take a while
The list is pretty long… The more conservative denoms, in my experience, tended to be more legalistic and interpret the Bible as a mandate for strict adherence to a particular view on all matters of church and society. Everything from Creationism to complementarianism to a common political identity as a conservative/Republican are non-negotiables with many of my conservative Christian friends. Some churches (officially) are straight out about these non-negotiables. In many others, the leaders try to stay neutral, but the majority of the body holds these as gospel truth anyway, I have found.
Studying the competing “systematic theologies” didn’t cause me to be a better Christian. It did help me to better understand where others are coming from, and where I fall in the grand scheme of Christian religion… I become “real” when I live for Christ and do what He did and taught.
I’d add inerrancy to the list of things that need not be believed.
Rick,
Yes, people do have all kinds of ideas about Jesus. But ultimately, he is the answer to the question asked. How much error about him is too much? I don’t know. But if anyone asks me that question, my answer is “It’s not a ‘what’ but a ‘who’ and the ‘who’ we have to believe is Jesus.”
Justin B. – I have thought long and hard about the matter of “inerrancy” and decided that I can affirm the inerrancy of Scripture. Here’s the catch, for me: If I or anyone else insists that their interpretation of Scripture is positively inerrant, then we’ve got a big problem. I don’t blame God for what I don’t perfectly understand at any given moment…
I agree with #6.
Though I’m an inerrantist, I don’t think it should be included. Someone who believes the gospel and does all it requires is not disqualified simply because he thinks the jots and tittles are out of order.
T #7-
“How much error about him is too much? I don’t know”
That is a good question and one that I am sure we will see addressed in this series.
However, it is a question that must be answered, otherwise people could empty Him of His true identity, and that can have numerous unfortunate implications.
Too bad Jesus never said, “And now, here are the minimum entrance requirements for being a Christian and getting into heaven.” Maybe there is a reason Jesus did not do this.
I’ve read the book. I did not see any hints of open theism.
Is this a good question? Is our mental assent to certain principles what saves us? Or is it our active mental and physical participation in what god is doing?
Or better question, are salvation and justification the same thing? Can people be forgiven but not “saved” in the sense that they aren’t following Jesus and are still on a path of destroying that which is fully human within them.
Let me add another dimension to this. People are objects in motion, but we often ask these questions in snapshot terms rather than directional terms. But Jesus tends to talk in directional terms. Faith, whatever it’s particular content about Jesus, that doesn’t result in the kind of love he lived (the “fruit” of his Holy Spirit), or the kinds of things he said to do, then it’s not the kind of faith in him he’s asking for; he’s asking for the “following” kind of faith, the kind that makes a person a “little Christ.”
In my theology class, I sometimes describe Bultmann, demythologization, etc., to my students. Then I ask them: “Was Bultmann a Christian? Why / why not?” Their struggle to answer that question is illuminating.
I think the things that have most consistently been presented to me are inerrancy and a literal hell where people actually go. I think both are defensible, but I don’t think either is necessary. I think the Bell Hell fiasco this last weekend demonstrated the second of those as being a hugely divisive issue.
While I am not a fan of reductionist questions such as in the title, I do think there is an answer already covered by the late Internet Monk, Michael Spencer:
http://www.internetmonk.com/articles/G/grace.html
@Susan N.,
I’m a former inerrantist, myself, and I agree with what you wrote. In my experience, when people say the Bible is inerrant, what they really mean is “My understanding of what the Bible says is inerrant.” It’s not a coincidence that some people will bring up inerrancy when they’re defending other issues and realize someone disagrees with their conclusions.
Jesus is alive (yes that means in his body) and is Lord of heaven and earth.
And, FWIW, here’s my favorite, minimalist creed. if I had to give a “what” answer, here it is:
“Jesus is Lord.”
No pulling a Bill Clinton on “is.” “Is” ain’t “was;” “is” means alive, just like God IS the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (according to Jesus). And “Lord” means what Jesus said it meant, too; it means doing what he said to do, more and more, above all other voices.
If you really believe that Jesus IS Lord, be very glad! You’re a Christian.
Does the title of that book rub anyone else the wrong way? I just cringed when I read it. Trying to reduce Christianity to a few essential beliefs just feels wrong to me. I think he’s asking the wrong question. Wouldn’t it be more relevant to ask, What’s the least I love and still be a Christian? Christianity is so much more than a cognitive experience… it’s about changing what our ultimate love and desire is.
The least – is to be hearing and being led by the voice of God to the soul, whether or not one knows it is the voice of Jesus. Rom 2:11-16
Ann, I agree with you on the title, yet as I read the book the author was taking that question to the next level … so it’s a catchy, rhetorical title … but the book is not about how little I have to do …
Ann (#22),
Scot mentioned that the title is more a hook than an accurate description of the book. It might even have been the publisher’s title, not the author’s. As a pastor I think the question is worth considering. I don’t think it is wise to play cognitive realities against transformational ones. There is content to the Christian faith (Jude 3) that is worth defining and defending. Yet that faith, as you rightly point out, works through love. It’s both.
I’m surprised no one has gone here yet…
Romans 10:9 – If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
We see here two things: a personal declaration of Jesus’ lordship, i.e. Jesus is MY Lord, and a proclamation of God’s powerful work in the resurrection, i.e. this is a new chapter in God’s (hi)story with the people He created.
If Jesus taught the disciples to “make disciples,” and Paul’s teaching here essentially sums up the response of a disciple, then the “minimum” has to be following Jesus because of who you believe Him to be.
I agree with T, Jesus is Lord is all that is required to be a Christian.
I also don’t necessarily believe that Christian=Saved is true or Not Christian=Not Saved. It becomes more nuanced once we move beyond the definition of Christian.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the very traditional/evangelical/fundamental answers being offered up here. But from my perspective there is sooo much more to following Jesus and his teachings that I get frustrated by my inability to express them articulately. When I finally lifted the lid on the box I was in and began to explore the “more’ of Jesus that is outside of the evangelical box I truly began to feel God’s presence in my being. The contemplative/”wisdom Jesus” folk have taught me a lot that I just never came face-to-face with in the mainline evangelical branch of Christianity.” The more I look into the bigger Christian tent the more real Jesus’ message and life become. I’m saddened to think many are stuck within the “gotta do this” / “can’t do that” view.
Still exploring….
A Christian is a follower of Christ, someone who is a member of the Kingdom and follows the King. Thats it. I don’t think we can judge other than that. If the question was “who should be a member of our local church?” The answer might be very different. I could come up with a whole list.
I completely agree with you John, there is content to the Christian faith, but what I meant to tweeze out was this….When we look at the content in pure isolation from what it means to be a Christian (being implies doing….. we are material beings, not simply cognitive spirits) then we risk missing the point.
Here is an analogy. What if we decide to research water. We could look at hydrogen in isolation from oxygen and vice-versa and think we are understanding water, but until you combine them and look at how they react when together, you really aren’t looking at water at all.
My fear is that faith (content) and works (love, desire) only make sense when looked at together.
And maybe he gets at this in the book? Sorry, I never got past the title.
While I accept that the title is a ‘hook’ to draw the potential reader, the concept of the title may still be probed. Does the title assume that the category Christian has certain boundaries and that we need to know what the boundaries are? Maybe, maybe not. But perhaps the comments assume it even if on deeper reflection one would reject it. Paul Hiebert challenges that assumption, arguing for what he calls a centred set rather than a bounded set, defining a Christian by relationship with God and not through the boundary conditions at all.
Timothy #31-
But isn’t belief in God a “boundary”?
In the discussion, a distinction between salvation and earthly identity and calling jumps out at me. It does seem to be coming back to the age-old debate: simple faith vs. works, with a twist on how much faith and/or works constitutes a “real” Christian. I recently finished studying Matt. 13 which includes the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares… What I got out of it is, essentially, don’t worry about which ones are “real” and which ones are “counterfeit” in the Church. Just keep on following Christ according to your best understanding and convictions, and as God has enabled you to obey. I trust that, in God’s perfect love and goodness, He will sort it out justly and mercifully in the end. So, at the root of the universalism, heaven/hell debate, I will just say that I don’t know for sure how it works out in eternity, in spite of my best efforts to understand select Scriptural passages on the topic. I do know that I truly HOPE that God will save all, somehow, some way… I am saddened by the thought of anyone being condemned to ECT. I certainly don’t relish the idea of some who are pre-selected to be exempt or “saved”, and others who are pre-selected to be subject to this judgment. I’m more worried about *me* doing the right thing NOW as a “Christian”.
What T said.
But — really, I don’t like the question one bit. Why would anyone ever ask such a question? The question itself betrays a failure to understand what “being a Christian” is all about in the first place.
Here’s a better question: because the God I have come to know in relationship through Christ is the God of all wisdom and truth, how can I continue to grow in wisdom and truth?
dopderbeck #34-
“because the God I have come to know in relationship through Christ is the God”
But how did that relationship begin/take place?
The author is bothered by elements that are used to define Christian – hence he’s got ten elements that don’t define Christian. Then he looks at ten elements that define the content of the word “Christian.”
Odd…the title seems obviously relevant to me. Sure, we can nitpick over what we’d prefer it to say, but the reality is that many Christians tie a crap ton of stuff to salvation and everyone else is left wondering if its true. You have to be YEC, Republican, anti-gay, liberal, generous to the point of poverty, pacifist, apolitical, whatever. Even if we’re not openly saying you have to be those things to be a Christian, the implication is writ large in almost everything we say.
A big question today really is “What’s the least I can believe and still be a Christian?” It’s an absolutely enormous question for the average person, but maybe not one people immersed in theology and theological discussion will think goes far enough.
Rick 32.
I did not say anything about belief.
Some of us here are confusing necessary conditions on being a Christian with sufficient conditions on being Christian. It is pretty plausible that being a Christian (at least in the case of adults—children present us with an interesting case) requires believing certain things. I doubt that one could fail to believe that there is a God and be a Christian; likewise, I doubt that one could fail to believe that Jesus of Nazareth existed and be a Christian.
All that said, believing that Jesus is Lord, or that God exists is surely not sufficient for being a Christian. “Even the demons believe, and tremble.” Being a Christian definitely entails a lot more than right belief.
Jeremy (#37)
Same here. I’ve found asking similar questions of myself to be very helpful in seeing just how vast the Church really is.
One of the most transformational moments for me personally, coming out of the typical conservative evangelical non-denomination setting, was the time one of my pastors had the adult discipleship class answer basically this question. What we saw was how few things really were required, and how many things we tend to pile on to “what must I believe to be a Christian?”. To me it opened up an avenue to fellowship with the 99.9999% of the Church that I’d always been told weren’t “really” Christians.
Okay, here is the big elephant in the room – can one be gay and be a Christian? Or is that a non-negotiable Gospel truth?
Scot, this very much reminds me of my recent post I shared with you.
There are some basic things people need to get in order to be in right relationship with God … but even the question brings in issues: the whole “saved” as in “saved from hell” versus a better rendering: “redeemed” as in “redeemed for Kingdom living”.
Being an old(born in 1931)country boy(born in Okla.)and somewhat literate(Texas A&M,’57),I truly believe we have let God down. He gave us His Word to tell us who He is; it IS The Truth. In it He told us what He expects! In The New Testament, He said about 114 times to have faith in His Son; about 45 times, to confess that belief before men. Also, He said about 33 times to be immersed in water. Plus, He said to repent of your sins about 45 times.He wants,really really wants, everybody to do these so He can see them eternally with Him! He can and does expect that, since we are saved or lost in His mind only, and not in our minds. And the truth….He can read our hearts! As a man THINKS in his heart, sois he(Prov.27:3KJV)
“Our theology” only leads people away from His Theology!!
Billil March 2,2011
Ian … we are all sinners redeemed by God’s love, grace and mercy. God loves everyone. Period. God desired to be reconciled to everyone. For those who accept Jesus as LORD, following him will prove both challenging and blessed … we all sin (miss the mark) is a variety of ways.
I guess the question comes down to the parable of the two sons and their prodigal (extravagant) father, eh? The father loves both sons … the challenge too often comes as to whether the brothers love one another and look out for each other … or whether they are competing with each other to be the favorite….
Rick (#35) — I met him personally, like Paul did (well not exactly like Paul of course!).
The point I’m trying to get at is that “being a Christian” is not about some line involving propositional beliefs — so that, once I’ve checked off the minimal number of belief-boxes, I’m a “Christian.” “Being a Christian” is about following the living person of Jesus Christ. (Appropos of the post on Rob Bell, BTW, I think there probably are lots of people who don’t even realize they are or are on the way to being “Christians” yet).
Bill#43, In Scot’s one.life book he says that in the new testament they talk about how we treat the poor 2,000 times. Trump.
Well, maybe it was 2,000 verses, but you get the point.
I haven’t read the book, I should get it Monday, and reading most of the posts, I think part of the problem is that we add so many ‘things’ to being a christian. Some add a mandatory belief in the virgin birth, which the NT does not do. We add a certain belief about movies, drinking, dancing and we need that those beliefs become more important in some circles than what the NT actually says. I was raised Assembly of God and now am a United Methodist minister. When we get past propositional theology and get to the narrative of God’s story and let the NT speak for itself and not add some many conditions to salvation, maybe we can actually talk about what it means to be christian.
The problem with this book is that it claims to inform readers on the lowest common denominator of Christianity, the very least that we need to believe in order to be among the ranks of believers, and yet Thielen uses very few if any Scriptural references to support his theories. Thielen is well versed with modern, pop psychology, political correctness and what the Scriptures refer to as “human reasoning,” but while consitently contradicting the Scriptures, this book contains scant Biblical references. SCRIPTURE MUST BE THE FOUNDATION OF ANY CHRISTIAN BELIEF, AND YET IT IS GLARINGLY ABSENT IN MOST OF THIS BOOK. Thielen encourages us to follow logic and mass secular opinion to find Truth. I suppose that would be fine if the Scriptures didn’t expressly warn us time and time again of the dangers of human logic and mass opinion. It would be fine if the Bible wasn’t God’s great warning to humanity about elevating our philosophies above His divine revelation in the Scriptures and in Christ. Christ Himself told us that the path to life is narrow, but the road to destruction is wide.
If there is anything of importance for Christians to agree upon, surely the criteria for salvation must be near the top of the list. But Thielen does everything within his power to obscure this criteria. He supports the unbiblical philosophies of universalism and annihilationism with a mere passing glance to the countless Scriptural references that refute these beliefs. And Thielen makes frequent patronizing and inaccurate statements about what conservative, fundamental Christians believe. He paints all conservative Believers with the brush of the fringe, or even the cultish. I find very little to recommend in this book.
Where are those ministers and theologians and readers who still ask the hard questions, who still require a person to source their material and address the hundreds of Scriptural passages that refute a person’s claims? The Truth of Scripture is absolute, it is intolerant, it is exclusive, it is politically incorrect, it is inconvenient. The Truth of Scripture is also filled with love, grace, passion, forgiveness, reality, compassion… and POWER. Take away the list of uncomfortable traits and you can maintain some of the more attractive traits. But… you lose the POWER. The power to change, the power to heal, the power to save. Truth is there for us to find in God’s divine Word and in Christ. We can choose to believe, or we can choose to deny. Thielen has chosen to deny what Christ and the apostles taught in favor of man-made philosophy, a pretty sounding theology that tickles the ears of it’s listeners. “When the truth you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be.” (Matthew 6:23) How deep indeed.