I've been delaying this post trying to find a story that I think would go rather well with what I'm going to rant about, but I could never find the story, so I'm going to have to loosely paraphrase, and probably not even get the story right.
The year was 1917. Russia. As the country was about to be swept away by the Bolshevik Revolution and the Communist Party, there was a conference being held by the Russian Orthodox Church. Was it to openly defy the communists? Was it to rally the Russian people and give hope to the hopeless?
No. They were fighting over what kind of communion chalice they were going to start using.
So as their country was basically going to "hell in a handbasket", as the saying goes, the church was fighting over dumb issues that really shouldn't have mattered.
Which brings me to my rant. Debating theology. Especially when it's the ongoing battle between Calvinism and Arminianism. Unfortunately, I used to enjoy participating in these debates, and I heard such comments such as "can the words Arminian and scholar actually go together?".
Come on, people. Does it really matter? What is our responsibility as Christians? Is it to endlessly debate each other over issues that are non-essential when it comes to salvation? Yes, that's right, Calvinism vs. Arminianism is a non-essential issue. Of course, there are other theology debates, but most of them are the same way: debating over issues that really don't matter.
Mark Twain used to say he put a dog and a cat in a cage together as an experiment, to see if they could get along. They did, so he put in a bird, pig and goat. They, too, got along fine after a few adjustments. Then he put in a Baptist, Presbyterian, and Catholic; soon there was not a living thing left.
Surprisingly, Mark Twain was not a Christian (that's sarcasm, folks.) I'm sure he saw the hypocrisy of Christianity, where Christians are supposed to love each other, support each other and encourage each other, but he saw the opposite in practice.
John Calvin himself said this about Christian unity:“Among Christians there ought to be so great a dislike of schism, as that they may always avoid it so fast as lies in their power. That there ought to prevail among them such a reverence for the ministry of the word and the sacraments that wherever they perceive these things to be, there they must consider the church to exist...nor need it be of any hinderance that some points of doctrine are not quite so pure, seeing that there is scarcely any church which has not retained some remnants of former ignorance.”
Not surprisingly, a majority of theology debaters are students who are going to some kind of Bible college. It reminds me of what Mark Buchanan had to say about Bible college in his book "Your God Is Too Safe":
"We go to Bible college, hoping that will inoculate us against spiritual languor, will create in us robust faith. But many theological schools and bible colleges are built on borderlands. There is the danger in such places that we will learn much about God and at the same time grow distant from God; we will study the intricacies of doctrine, but lose passion; we will become eloquent at God talk, but cease talking to God."
That's not a condemnation of Bible colleges, just a warning. And it's a warning to those who debate theology: don't spend all your time fighting with fellow Christians over non-essential issues. We would all be a church of one person if we were adamant that everyone believed the same as us.
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