Differences of Belief

Differences of Beliefs

This past week the church I attend, Crestwood Baptist Church, found out that our pastor was leaving for another church. This whole situation got me to thinking about the tension between Christians, churches, and denominations. It got me thinking about this because I was upset about his parting. This was obviously a selfish thought but none the less it crossed my mind. I do not feel I am alone in this thought either. I bet that inside most of the members of Crestwood are not happy about this situation. Mostly because we are human and don’t like change and the coming months and years are going to be about change. God never wants us to be to comfortable and it could be possible it was too comfortable at Crestwood.

So after spending some time being upset at myself for my selfishness I was led down the path of are denomination bad or good? but I am not exactly sure how I feel about this situation so it is hard to really talk about it. On one hand I understand the particular need, in style and presentation of the gospel, that different churches and denominations fill. But in same, how is a clearly defined division healthy for the Kingdom of God. Shouldn’t we all be putting up a united front instead of divide front to the “world”? One of the biggest problems is that we let the non-kingdom defining differences drive us to a point of dislike for each other. Some might say I am wrong but they are just not opening there eyes and really seeing what these differences are doing. What differences? I will name a few.

1 Is the bible the literal word of God?
2 Is Baptism a requirement for Salvation?
3 Can and/or should women be ministers?
4 Is the church equal to, higher, or under the authority of the bible?

Now I confess that some denominations I do not understand. How they come up with some of their views and theology that they teach is beyond me. But I also attend a Baptist church and really agree, mostly, with the theology as taught in most Southern Baptist churches. But some denominations are so closed that they think they are the only one with the opportunity to go to heaven. Obviously they aren’t reading from the same bible I am.

So the basic question is can people who can’t/don’t agree of things such as the issues listed above put up a united front and not seem hypocritical. The surface answer is no. But chew on this. All Christians are hypocrites. Dave Matthews Band has a song that I think has one the best descriptions of Christianity I have ever heard. But basically it says that what we are is something we can never be because we can’t give life. Christ gave us life and no matter how many people God allows us to witness to we can not give them life, we can only show them the path. So could one say that the term Christian is fundamentally flawed since Christ gave life and we can never give this? And thus in this do we have a common ground and a possible place to set up a united front?

So I am back to a previous statement because I still haven’t figured out what I feel about separation of churches and denominations so I am just going to stop there.