Controversies

Christianity is no stranger to controversy.

In fact, it was born in controversy. Jesus said this to his disciples when he sent them out to preach the Gospel:

Even when He was still a baby, the aged Simeon prophesied over Him, as he spoke to His mother, Mary:

He himself was challenged more than once by the religious leaders of his day, who considered both Him and John the Baptist before Him to be heretics:

The ordinary people, and even some of His disciples, found His teaching to be controversial to the point of being offensive:

The final straw for the religious authorities was His acknowledgement of His divinity:

In the early days of the church there was a major controversy between the so-called Judaisers, who demanded that the gentile converts should be circumcised and be required to keep the law - in other words, they would have to become Jews in order to become Christians, while the apostles maintained that salvation is by grace through faith for everyone, whether Jew or gentile. The matter was so grave that a council of the apostles and elders had to be convened in Jerusalem to determine how best to proceed, and this is reported by Luke in Acts chapter 15.

This was the first of many church councils which met over the centuries to rule on matters that had the potential to divide God's people, and often did.

The council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. dealt, among other matters, with the fundamental Christian doctrine of the Trinity, refuting the doctrine of Arius, who maintained that Christ was not divine but was purely human.

The Nicene Creed, which issued from this council, became the standard confession of orthodox Christianity, but Arianism, which rejected it, survived and lives on today in the Unitarian denominations.

Splits and schisms have occurred often over the years, such as the divergence of the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox; the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, which broke away from the Roman Catholic church; the fragmentation of Protestantism into sundry denominations, such as the Lutherans, the Presbyterians (who are Calvinists), the Anglicans, the Methodists, the Baptists, the Brethern, the Pentecostals, which again are subdivided into the Elim, the Assemblies of God, the Apostolic Church, and countless expressions of the Church of God throughout the world.

All of these splits have occurred for one, or both, of two reasons: disagreements over matters of DOCTRINE or disagreements over matters of ORGANISATION, including LEADERSHIP.

The obvious question that needs to be asked, in view of all this, is "why can't Christians just agree on everything?"

After all, we've all got direct personal communication with Almighty God Himself, through prayer, and we've all got the same holy book, the Bible, where we can read up on the issues and find out everything we need to know. So, what's the problem?

The problem is twofold:

1. We're all at different places in our journey with God.

   Some are walking more closely with Him than others. Some have learned to hear His voice more clearly than others. Some find it more difficult to have our minds renewed (Romans 12:2) than others do, especially those who have been brought up in a tradition where any deviation from the received wisdom of the ages is frowned upon most gravely.

2. Even Christians are subject to the influence and interference of ungodly spirits, whose purpose is to deceive us and take us away from God and the clarity of truth.

   Anyone who believes that they cannot be deceived is deceived already by their own pride, but those who recognise the danger humble themselves and take steps to protect themselves from such deception.

   When Jesus was dealing with the devil during the temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13), His standard response to Satan's attempts at dysinformation was, "It is written ...". Our strategy should always be the same.

   Attempts to outwit the devil by means of your own cunning will inevitably fail. He is the master deceiver; he's been practising for centuries!

So, what is my motivation for bringing up all of these controversial subjects? Am I trying to stoke the furnace of contention and further inflame the division of God's people?

Of course not. In fact, my natural tendency is to steer clear of controversy as much as possible.

However, I believe that the issues I am addressing here are important, and that it would be remiss of me to shy away from them.

Jesus never avoided controversy, and neither should any of His disciples.

I think it's fair to say that if what I write can help to deepen someone's understanding of the subject, or help them to review what they believe, or even confirm them in their existing position, whether that be in harmony with mine or divergent from it, then I will have performed a worthwhile service for that person.

When you think about it, you'll probably conclude that just about every Christian doctrine is controversial, because there's sure to be someone somewhere who disagrees with it, and that's all it takes to provoke a controversy.

I think like a teacher, in accordance with the grace that God has imparted to me. I am also a logical thinker, having worked with software for more than forty years of my life. As a result, my starting point in relation to all of these matters is, "what does the Bible actually say about this?" and "what does it actually mean?"

If we can study the scriptures that deal with any subject, and take them simply for what God is actually saying through them, and not what our tradition says or what this prophet says or what that pastor says or what anybody else says or what we ourselves think they ought to say, then we should be able together to arrive at the truth.

Let me be clear: there are issues on which men of God who are wiser than I am, more Godly than I am, and better educated than I am, are in disagreement with other men of God of similar outstanding qualities, and I am unable to be in agreement with them both.

My policy cannot be, "so-and-so speaks in our church or is a member of the same movement, so I must agree with him". My policy must always be, "what does the Bible say about this?"

There may even be matters in this section where my understanding is at odds with the accepted position of the leadership in the church to which I belong. What should I do? Should I write what I do not believe in order to align myself with that position, and run the risk of becoming a hypocrite? Should I ignore the subject altogether in order to avoid potential embarrassment? Or should I simply say what I believe to be right in the sight of God?

My invitation to every reader is this: if you think that I'm wrong, please go into the forum and put forward your argument. As God said to the Israelites by the pen of Isaiah, "Come now, let us reason together" (Isaiah 1:18a).

Let me close with a story that I heard recently concerning George Whitefield and John Wesley.

Whitefield was a Calvinist, believing that salvation was an act of God's irresistible grace, whereas Wesley was an Arminian, believing that every man and woman must decide either to receive God's grace or to reject it.

One of Whitefield's young co-workers asked his mentor, "Do you think we shall see John Wesley in heaven?"

Following a brief moment of deliberation, Whitefield replied, "No, I do not. I am sure that we shall be so far from God's throne and Mr. Wesley so close that we should scarcely have a glimpse of him!"

Let this be the heart attitude that we all adopt towards those with whom we are unable to agree on points of doctrine.