Core Beliefs

Today's blog is about a saga that's been going on in my life since the Easter weekend. I put some lyrics up in my status on Facebook and got a reply from someone who clearly didn't agree with what the lyrics had said. The way he came across was rather rude so I decided to attempt to engage with this man in a more private conversation, namely email.

I started off by explaining how I interpreted the lyrics, and then finding out what he believed the problem was. His reply to this was rather confusing, and it was at this stage that I started thinking that his definition of core Christian beliefs may be different to mine.

His reply confirmed the fore mentioned suspicion when he stated that he believes all sinful nature is gone based on Christ's sacrifice. This is not what I believe, and it's not what I believe the Bible teaches.

At this stage this man also stated the following: "i myself am immune to sickness, poverty, failure , etc simply bcoz i know what the bible says. e.g 'greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world' "

Now, at this I became rather enraged because I don't believe that anything in the Bible teaches anything like this. In my head I said "Mother fucker, this is the prosperity gospel." I did a fair amount of research and thinking before replying and asking him to read Romans 5 - 8:17, and quoted Romans 7:21 - 25 which states:

"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

His response claimed that the passage spoke about awareness, and that if you are aware of sinful nature being gone, it is. I don't remember anything in the passage even slightly hinting at any sort of awareness leading to a desired outcome. At this stage I felt that he was not even reading or considering what I had to say and tried to call a truce.

It didn't work. He responded with something he tried to sell as an argument, but was actually just a list of almost true statements. Things like "we are made in Christ's image." and obscure verses from Psalms.

I read everything he stated in depth and after calming down I responded by addressing everything he had said in a Biblical context before saying that as long as he believed that he was doing what was right, I didn't mind. I did however, urge him to reassess his beliefs from a theological, historical and literary critic's perspective, to which he replied with some more almost-truths before telling me that no context was needed.

Then he accused me of being a Christian who was too 'young' to understand righteousness, and quoted Hebrews 5:11 - 14. I don't believe he knows what that passage is actually speaking about, but anyway.

I sent a firm message back saying that I believed that what he had said made sense if you read all the random versus he'd pulled out as blank statements, and not part of a larger work; so if you read them out of context. I also said that his raping of the Bible enraged me and I'd prefer if we stopped debating because I don't believe he's hearing me out and we're doing more harm than good.

This man's final response said that he felt sorry for me because I didn't know God and that "your knowledge will take you nowhere, ur "context" will bring you nothing.. if you read what i told you to, then you will know that what i am saying is truth."

Now, the fact that we disagree didn't anger me. The fact that he wouldn't consider what I had to say irritated me, but the fact that he continues to destroy the Bible makes me immensely angry.

I just don't understand how he can choose to disregard context. If I were to read a James Bond book without any context I would have the most distorted view of the cold war, humans and technology, but when I understand that it is a fictional book I suddenly realise it's not supposed to be an accurate reflection of humanity or a period of time.

The same principle applies to the Bible. Without a clear picture of who the writer was, when it was written, and what the overall picture is we can't begin to understand what a single verse may be trying to say.

So, the reason I've put this up is to find out what you think. Was I being unreasonable? Am I being overly strung up? Or am I completely right? What are your views?