The Desire of Easy Theology
There is little doubt that the Gospel was given to the common man. But in no way was the Gospel a common Bible or story. Anyone can understand the story of salvation and react to God’s saving grace. What concerns me is the desire from some for a easy theology. It seems that sometimes people will turn people off who challenge them to think. There could be an innate desire to reject anything that has not been previously mentioned in a person’s spiritual journey. There could be a preference for easy theology. All Christians should be questioning, thinking, studying the Biblical text to ascertain if what is taught is true. Every time I seriously study a text my eyes are opened to a greater depths of spiritual truth. There is a great realization of the divine story, a better comprehension of the background of the text, and ultimately a deeper insight into the events or arguments of the writer through the Holy Spirit. Of course all disciples are at different levels of spiritual maturity, but this must not be used to suppress the desire of some to search deeper into the Biblical text. This seems to be the problem with some of the mega-churches or some of the larger churches across the nation. The doctrine is watered down to make easy theology. There is certainly some value in telling the simple gospel story of Christ, but doctrine in the church still must be distinct. We are a people that have particular views of truth, we are a people who believe that doctrine is important, the solution is not to follow after a watered down gospel for growth, but to teach deeply the faith to committed disciplines which will cause great growth in the future. People need to be rooted in truth, not sold the watered down gospel story.
Related posts:
- Quit Church–It Must Be Easy
- Is the Desire for Growth about Numbers
- Emergent Theology or Restoration Theology
- Theology of Dreams
- Review of “Reconstructing Pastoral Theology”
About The Author
Just a spoon full of sugar…
I hear what you are saying and agree wholeheartedly. One thing that I think is a problem is the tendency to be at one extreme or another on this, when there is a middle ground.
We don’t have to be biblical scholars to understand the story, but by the same token we have to advance beyond the ‘milk’ stage and chew on the weightier matters as we grow and mature.
The one extreme is similar to the one that the Catholic church clung to with Latin only masses up to the late 70′s. We see some similar issues when people cling to things like KJV only for the only true source of the scriptures.
To many of this generation, especially in some of the less educated areas, it might just as well be Latin or Greek when I read from the KJV only.
I have tended to lean toward the ASV of 1901 or ESV (more recent) for literal translations in my own study, but frankly find some of the newer translations very useful in helping people understand what I am trying to teach them.
We have to understand and cling to biblical doctrine, but at the same time it is important to identify the difference between scripture and tradition, otherwise we will be converting our children and or friends to something that has nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus.
Our history is filled with church splits over things like how many cups, shape notes or no shape notes, new songs or the good old standards, slacks or skirts… the list is too long to continue, but I think you may get my drift on this.
Thanks for this blog and I look forward to reading and commenting on your thoughts and the thoughts of others.
Jimbo
This is a great post. We are in complete agreement. Some of the reasons we still fight over some of these non-issues is because of a lack of teaching. I believe most people in the pews can understand most everything in the gospel. The languages might be another matter, just because of the time it takes to study them. Also, this is one of the major problems in the church now, trying to know what is doctrine, which we must hold fast to, and what is tradition. Some of these splits happened because people closed the mind to truth. The first step in knowing truth is having an open heart. Great thoughts my friend.