Church Co-dependency & Naming the Elephants: Tradition
In my previous post on Co-dependent Churches: A Major Barrier to Change I talked about how we have several elephants in the room. Let’s talk about them more specifically. We have a real problem with tradition. It shouldn’t be this way because we have always been about the scriptures and criticized other groups for their […]
Regaining Our Certainty in Churches of Christ
We used to be a certain bunch. We were certain about pretty much everything. We were certain about our doctrine. We were certain about our identity. We had things locked down tight to a fault. Part of this had to do with a backwards hermeneutic that was self-perpetuating of our pre-determined conclusions that always guaranteed […]
Christianity, Creeds and Churches of Christ…No Creed But the Bible?
The last post looked at who the inspired apostolic writers saw as “false teachers.” Next, let’s look at where things went after that in the early church and then spend a few minutes on Churches of Christ. This post is longer than usual but I hope by the end it has made sense out of […]
What the Bible Actually Says About False Teachers, Heretics and Apostates
I have heard the words, false teacher, heretic and apostate more times than I would like to think about. These terms can have a place in our discussion but not typically in the ways I have seen those terms used. As best I can tell these words are often used as code for “anyone who […]
The Church of Christ – Embracing Both How and Why Questions
In Churches of Christ we are well known for our discussions on “how”. How do you baptize, how do you sing, how do you interpret scripture? These are all very important things, things that should require study and prayer and the answers we reached must be firmly rooted in the pages of scripture. What I […]
What are the non-negotiables of the Christian Faith?
There is constant discussion online about who is in and who is out. There is discussion over certain issues that people conclude put people outside of fellowship because they have left the faith because a congregation has done, in their opinion, the unthinkable. Obviously, there are things that set apart Christians from the rest of […]
Finding Grace in the Sermon on the Mount – Wrong Teaching Does Not Automatically Make One An Eternally Condemned False Teacher
In the previous post, I pointed out a few places where Jesus actually used the word typically translated “grace”. In this post, I want to point out a passage that I have read dozens of times but only recently has it stood out to me in an unexpected way. The verses I am talking about […]
God in a Box and Our Inability to Dream or Act
Have we locked God down so tightly in our logic and doctrine that there is no room left to dream…so developed the pattern and forumlated a “thus saith the Lord” on every conceivable matter so that there is no room left for wonder? Have we replaced all the “?” with “.”? In our desire for […]
The Art of Having Conciliatory Theological Discussions – Suggestions
It has taken me a while to figure a few things out when it comes to discussing a disagreement with someone. Here are a few observations I have made over the last few years that set a positive tone for a healthy conversation. Assuming the best until you find out different When we have theological […]
The Art of Having Conciliatory Theological Discussions – A Little Background
When I went off to Harding in 1997 I moved into Armstrong dorm with a roommate who I didn’t see eye to eye with theologically. One thing that brought our differences front and center was the fact that not only did we share a room but we also shared our very first college Bible class […]