I am a Professing Christian. Here’s Why Some Don’t Agree.

I am a Professing Christian. Here’s Why Some Don’t Agree. December 5, 2022

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Maybe I should have kept more to myself. I should have asked fewer questions. As the would-be ‘prophet’ that came to the Assemblies of God church I once attended said: “you know too much.” Perhaps he got that right.

I grew up in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It’s a very formal, fundamental version of Lutheranism that has much more in common with modern Evangelicals than they would like to admit. They also become somewhat snarky when you question any of their ‘infallible’ beliefs such as that the world is 6,000 years old, closed communion, and cismales only in ministry.

I tried out Southern Baptists and Assemblies of God before coming to rest in the conflict-ridden United Methodist Church. Even then, in the words of Bono, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” Since then, what I’ve learned through the experiences of ministry and life is that I’m a Christian – but many others don’t agree. Here’s why:

I don’t accept the doctrine of original sin

I need to write a separate post on this one alone. The idea that we are all conceived or born as naturally bad was the first element of Christian theology I needed to rid myself of. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Here’s the background on this one. Early Christian theologians were attempting to understand the death of Christ, and, because of this, they created various theories of atonement. They completely lost sight of the beauty and truth behind the mythical Adam and Eve narrative and created it and turned it into a ‘fall’ narrative.

Aside from the theories of atonement, this wretched doctrine that has cast so much shame on humanity was crafted in the 3rd Century by Augustine of Hippo. Augustine was an interesting character, moreover, he was a likely sexaholic. He lived with shame. Shame seemed to him something that might have substituted for his first addiction. It was he who conceived the modern idea of original sin that continues to haunt the church. He even suggests that original sin is passed through sexual intercourse – therefore, making any act of sex – sinful.

I now refuse to believe that I was born ‘bad.’ Sin is what it literally is, the human tendency to mess things up. Another word for that is free will. That does equate to any person being fundamentally sinful or ‘bad’ from birth. At least the ‘bad’ part is what I picked up.

I no longer accept the substitutionary atonement

This one is connected to the first. Does the idea that I need to be saved from my original sin comes in the form that God needs to bludgeon and torture God’s Son through the hands of humanity make much sense?

First, does this sound like a God of grace?  Or does this sound like a God of contempt who accomplishes God’s will through gore and violence? Have I done something so offensive that Jesus needed to face the most brutal form of torture, death, and humiliation conceived by the mind of humanity “for such a worm as I?”

The substitutionary atonement is to some, the cornerstone of the Christian faith. It’s the belief that ‘Jesus died for my sins.” Yet I believe that Jesus’ death was rather an act of injustice. Jesus continues to die each and every day at the border and on the streets of North Korea, metaphorically speaking. The resurrection, which should have much more emphasis, is the belief that God’s love does not have the final say over injustice.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not a prerequisite

This one I don’t have as much of a problem with – other than that it’s such a fundamental teaching of the church. “You must accept the doctrine of the Trinity – or you’re not a Christian” is the often-unspoken belief. I use it to understand the mystery of God, but not as a precise revelation of God’s being.

Truth is, that in scripture God is revealed in many ways. The doctrine of the Trinity was created to reconcile the Christian belief in the divinity of both Christ and the Holy Spirit as God while still claiming to be a monotheist.

The Bible doesn’t need to be taken literally

Sorry to break your bubble people, but the Bible did not drop out of the clouds from God, it was not etched in stone tablets that its authors copied, nor did they go into a trans to write its books. What I have learned is that the Bible is a human book, a great anthology and work of literature along with being a sacred text.

The Bible presents a remarkable diversity of beliefs about God, contexts, time periods, and agendas. That is not to say that it is not worth reading and studying, but that it is best understood in a critical study of its own context and culture. The book can be manipulated in ways that can hurt people if not taken carefully.

I no longer believe the Bible is God’s word any more than I believe shellfish is an abomination woman should drink poison to determine if they’ve been faithful to their spouse (Num. 5). Instead, it is a witness to the stories, prayers, and beliefs of those who carried to faith on to me. I need to wrestle with them and find meaning in them. I need to take the Bible seriously, but I don’t need to take it literally.

To hell with hell, satan and a literal second coming

I began an interest in theology when I was a youth – and at that time my fear began. How do I know I’m not going to hell? Also, how will I know that I will be one that is not ‘left behind’ during the rapture? Believe in Jesus, they say. But what if I have just a speck of doubt….?

The Old Testament really does not mention an afterlife. Surprise! Jesus mentions of hell are a very literal place that was created by the hand of humanity: a cursed valley outside of Jerusalem known as Gehenna. The ‘theory’ of the rapture was created only around a century ago and uses questionable scholarship at best. The scary images in Revelation are written by to small communities of early Christians as a book of hope. The main enemy it addresses is the Roman Empire, the very real threat of its time.

Oh, and Satan. God needs an enemy, right? The scholarship on Satan’s character in the Bible shows that he went through an incredible evolution from being a member of God’s court in Job to being God’s adversary. We shouldn’t take this character so seriously and the baggage he creates and just go with free will.

My belief is that the hell we need to worry about is the one that we create of our own free will: through prejudice, racism, weapons of mass destruction, climate change, and our own unwillingness to change. Christ has come and continues to come through me and you when, through our own free will, we choose to live lives that match the life and teachings of Christ. We literally get to be the return of Christ the world has been waiting for.

Conclusion

Based on these, many would say that I do not fit within their version of Christianity. But how more beautiful would our faith be if we accepted humanity as good? God, as indeed merciful rather than bloodthirsty? If we embraced the mystery of God, and looked to the past to find inspiration and to the future to be Jesus in a world that needs his emulation so much?

I may not have fully found what I’m looking for, but in the searching and openness, there is a gift that God gives to be truly who we are and whom we are called to be – and not let others, even the church, tell us who we must be. So keep the spiritual conversation open and you may find out what I already know – you are a beloved child of God!


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