Dylan_Chica said:
i'm sorry about asking all these questions but i'm a curious person and finding this forum has enabled me to talk more about my faith. i'm a catholic myself although i don't agree with every single thing the church says, but what i wonder is if god gave us the bible, how far are we expected to interpret it before it becomes something that is wrong, before it goes to far? that's where i think all these different fractions of christianity come in, i think certain church leaders are shaping their fraction's beliefs around what suits them, not god. not saying all are though, because are honest human beings. what i'm saying is i think god only expected us to live good lives in pact with each other and nature and use the bible and our faith in jesus christ our saviour to guide us through life, i think all these different fractions of people disagreeing with each other over theology is just causing division and not unity, and if there's something us christian need in this current world, it's unity.
There are some wonderful illustrations of how the various fractions came about, and in fact, the bible even speaks of how some of this happened.
As Christians, it is important that we take time, from time to time, to look at what we "all agree on".
Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterians, Episcopalian, Methodist - - we all agree that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God the Father. We all believe in the Trinity. We all believe that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all believe that Christ came to earth, lived among man, died on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins and rose from the grave. We all offer the Lord's Supper in one form or another. We all offer a form of Baptism. We all teach that a personal relationship with Christ is required.
What we disagree on are the things that Max Lucado labled "belly button fuzz." Or what I call the "Southern Baptist Amen Pew Dance Ban."
The bible called it the traditions of men.
I'll pick on my own denomination for a moment.
Years ago, so I'm told by a seminary president, Baptists had no "anti-Dancing" ban. Then someone noticed that when they danced, they became sexually aroused. They further noticed that when they became sexually aroused, they gave into tempation. Rather than deal with this personally between themselves and God, they went to their church and said, "Dancing leads to lust, lust leads to sin, anything that leads to sin is sinful, ergo dancing is sinful." It was convulated, false logic, but for a few decades Baptists in many, many, many churches actually DID teach, "Dancing is a sin." It was just accepted. If kids asked, "Where does the bible say that," adults would look away and mutter under their breath, thinking, "It must be in there." It wasn't of course.
A few years ago the Southern Baptist Convention set the record straight, and Universities supported by the convention's funding stopped "banning" school dances.
A lot of that kind of thing happens. Someone says, "It never mentions this in the bible, so it must be wrong." Someone else says, "It never mentions this in the bible, so it must be okay." They're reading the same bible, putting different human spins on it.
So, we argue over the things that the bible tells us not to argue over. It tells us that we should NOT debate trivial issues that do little but divide the spirit. We are all positive that our issues are not trivial though, so we feel its okay for us to debate whatever we debate.
We aren't debating the key points though. We aren't debating who God is, or what He did for us.