Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

What’s the big deal?  Why is there such disagreement between those who call themselves Christians?  Is there a baseline to which all should refer?  Or are we free to follow our hearts and worship in a way that brings us the most satisfaction?  

Recently I attended a church service in which all the elements appeared very religious.  Pastors and choirs in robes, a church building, pews, hymns, a baptism, the reading of the Bible and prayer.  According to most it fit the definition of a ‘worship service’.  

In many ways, I wish I could just leave it well-enough-alone.  But my understanding of Scripture and the nature of God does not allow me to keep silent.   Whether God needs defending or not, I feel I must offer some critique and see if I can do so in an effort to pursue Truth in an attitude of love.

It’s amazing all that can happen in a one hour service, but my thoughts in this brief diatribe describe the direction of the church and Christian worship in my relatively short life time.

I first observed that God was neutralized.  Meaning…He is no longer a “He” nor “Father”.  God is referred to as “Creator” and hundreds of years of hymns have had gender eliminated.  Rewriting Scripture is always a dangerous venture but I must ask the question, “Why does God refer to himself….as a ‘him’?”  There’s more to this answer than society being patriarchal just as there’s more to the change than the fact that God is neither male nor female.  Another agenda is striving to take over.

Proper understanding of 2000-4000 year old documents need good exegesis(drawing out meaning rather than reading meaning into).  Why did the author write what he(yes, they were all ‘he’s’) did and what was the culture like then?  Merely choosing a few verses to prop up your agenda is poor in any discipline.  So, it was not surprising to hear 1 Corinthians 12 used as support for diversity.

Multiculturalism has an agenda that, on the surface, seems benign.  I am not against celebrating the uniqueness of any given culture but the beauty of a Christian worship service is that Scripture transports us beyond culture.   It’s the one place where I can come together with brothers and sisters of different nations and share a common creed.  But political correctness has muddied the waters so much so, that a church worship service can look more like a national street festival.

I am, admittedly, a follower of Jesus Christ according to the Reformed tradition which dates back to the days of Martin Luther in the 16th century.  What this means is that Scripture is my sole guide for how I worship.  With this in mind, two other things jumped out at me: 1) Jesus was described as having part of God just as we have His Spirit…a part of God.  A thorough study of the Bible will reveal that Jesus was 100% God and 100% God.  He was and is equal to God.  And we are His creation.  A follower of Jesus Christ is granted the indwelling of His Spirit when we receive Him as our Lord and Savior.  But we are never on the same level as Jesus.  The disciples often worshiped Him as Lord.  No one else deserves such adoration.  2) A reformed worship service has  a significant period of reflection leading the congregation in confession and repentance.  The Bible teaches that we are spiritually lost from birth and need a Savior, thus repentance from willful acts of sin due to our sinful nature is required(“you must be born again”).  In the service, humanistic ideals were praised and all walked away feeling good that we were striving for unity amidst diversity.  Thus ignoring the elephant in the room which I interpret as our need for a Savior because we are helpless to save ourselves according to the rules God set up from the beginning of time which, of course, is according to the Bible.

I know I’m stepping on a lot of toes but the ramifications are serious.  A child was baptized in the service.  As far as I could tell, she was being welcomed into the church.  Which, by the way, she didn’t particularly like as she stiff-armed the pastor who was trying to put water on her head.  A biblical view of infant baptism is that the child, who was born in sin, needs a Savior.  The parents and the church are vowing to raise this child according to biblical ideals so that at an appropriate age, she will repent of her sin and confess Jesus Christ as Lord.  I didn’t hear this.

The music was professional, the speaker was articulate, the setting beautiful and there was food.  Allen, why do you have to be so judgmental and mean?  The prophet Jeremiah tried to be quiet as he warned the Jews to repent of their sinned he said ‘the Word of God was like fire in his bones’.  He didn’t want to be the correcting force in their lives.  Isaiah was told to walk around naked for three years demonstrating the vulnerability of the Israelites, Amos was called away from his occupation as an arborist, John the Baptist lived in the desert and ate locusts. Maybe I have a similar spirit.  I was afraid yesterday, and my wife as well, that I would stand up and scream “Heresy!”, but I practiced self-control.  

So, what good am I doing by writing this blog?  Maybe it’s just a place to vent.  A place to put my thoughts.  But it’s also a desire that God has placed deep in my bowels to preach and teach the Truth of God and the nature of the universe.  If this is indeed God’s cosmos according to the Bible, it will operate according to His rules.  Therefore, no human is allowed to change the rules of the game because he disagrees and wants to make it more palatable to their fellow human beings.  

Consider my thoughts not as conservative verses progressive or liberal verses evangelical but merely as one Truth-seeker to another.  C.S. Lewis said, “A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.”  What’s your straight line?