A foundation for life

My pastor preached on the Bible today at church. Not just from the Bible, but about the Bible. In a society that values "spirituality" over faith and commitment, the Bible is often pushed aside when discussing Christian belief. People like Jesus, and are willing to think about Him on their own terms, but many do not want to confront what the Bible has to say about Him, about God, and about the way God designed us to live.

This may be the result of something far more fundamental to our modern Western culture. If you ask people what they believe, they'll probably rattle off a dozen or so "statements of faith" from whatever religion or philosophy they have learned. (As a side note, it's unfortunate that so few people actually have exposure to philosophy as part of their education!) If you then ask them WHY they believe those things, you'll probably get some hemming and hawing as they try to dig down to their reasons for their faith. In my experience, there aren't a whole lot of people, including those in churches, who know why they believe what they do.

Christians historically have found the foundation for what they believe in the Bible. We believe that it is God's Word, written by human authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and teaches us what God wants us to know about Him, about us, and about our world. By studying the Bible, we learn how we relate to God through Jesus Christ and how we should live as children of God. As we come to a greater understanding of God's Word, we are able to develop a greater faith and greater ministry on the basis of that understanding.

The biggest misconception many have about studying the Bible is that the purpose of Bible study is to learn more facts, more dates, more memory verses, and just plain more stuff about what the Bible says. All of that is of course important (I"m a Christian education director, after all), but if that's all we learn we fail at the most basic level to truly understand the Word of God. All of those facts teach us important truths about God, and important truths about the way we were created to live. If we don't see our lives changing as a result of our exposure to the Bible, then we are studying it wrong.

When you have no foundation for your beliefs, you will tend to find your beliefs changing with every new fad that comes along. You can't build a coherent and satisfying life based on a hodgepodge of what everyone else believes or what fits what you want to be true without giving it any further thought. That goes just as much for Christians as for anyone who is outside the church. There are many who are Christians because their parents were Christians, or they just happen to go a certain church, or they think Jesus is cool and loving, but who have never examined why they hold their beliefs.

I find the Bible to be a strong foundation for my life. I'd like to say I understand it fully, but there are many passages I still need to study deeply. Even more, I'd like to say I always consistently follow the teachings of the Bible, but as a sinner saved by grace I have my failings. I firmly stand on the Bible, however, and seek to grow in my understanding and practice of what it teaches. I invite you to join me on this lifelong quest/

How Much Truth Is Enough?

In my rather unsystematic excursion through the second century, I came across the life and works of Bardesanes, the Syriac poet and author from Edessa. Although we have little of his work extant, what we know about his life and his writings certainly makes him an intriguing figure. Depending on whom you consult, the various influences of astrology, Christianity, and Valentinian Gnosticism land Bardesanes a place among the faithful, the fallen, the heretical, or the badly confused.

This leads to a question with which Christians of all stripes have to wrestle, and which does not lend itself to an easy answer: How much truth is needed to lead to an authentic faith? I am not one to teach that the content of faith doesn't matter, just the sincerity of the seeker. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," and it is not for us to say otherwise. So the question becomes, "What does it mean to have faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord?"

Maybe another way to put it is, Is Bardesanes [or your favorite questionable figure] a believer?" Christianity took some unusual forms in the second century, and it takes some unusual forms today. Which of these forms retain enough of the truth to ensure the salvation of their adherents?

We often put this question into a denominational form: Are Baptists/ Catholics/ Lutherans/ Episcopalians/ Orthodox/ Pentecostals/ whomever truly saved? The answers range from the fanatical assertions that the only true church is "us" to the extremely broad "God loves everyone." As a student of church history and a friend of Christians whom I believe are born again even though they belong to a denomination other than mine, I want to answer this carefully.

In the end, only God knows for certain who are His. I believe that we need to walk a fine line between recognizing that He may work in many different ways and through many different groups to draw people to Jesus and remaining faithful to Jesus' own teaching that He is the only way. I believe that those whose faith is in Jesus (not the church, a denomination, a particular teacher, or a vague notion of God) are bound for heaven, even if we are not exactly correct in every point of doctrine. This doesn't excuse us from studying and seeking to refine our beliefs to conform to the Bible, but it does provide some needed humility.

So was Bardesanes a Christian? Will we see him in heaven? My opinion (and it is just that) is that yes, he was a genuine believer who tried to fit what he knew to his faith, sometimes stumbling. (As opposed to someone like Valentinus, who I believe was not a Christian despite the Ehrman/Pagels arguments, but whose belief used Christian terminology to cloak something entirely different.) I'll find out someday, when I get to heaven and join all who truly trusted Jesus around His throne.