Sometimes I feel like I’m the last Christian fundamentalist standing: an island of one in the acceptance of Scriptural truth. I know, in my more composed moments that this isn’t really true – there are many, many Godly and good believers out there – but how often I’m amazed and even shocked at what I hear and read from the minds of professing believers in Jesus Christ.
I’ve no stomach for legalism, and were you to know some of my grey areas – the things I see no Scriptural condemnation for – you may in turn be disgusted with me. However, when it comes to plain Biblical statements and sound doctrine and logic, it’s time to follow the word of truth.
Genesis (the book of) to the enlightened Christian, has become nothing more than a poetic picture of the idea that there’s a greater power who had something to do with our origins. There’s an entire spectrum of opinions on how much God was or was not involved in the beginning of life, ranging from “God was an alien’, through theistic evolution – the conviction that humanity has evolved over millions of years with the occasional poke from God – all the way to what I am certain of, which is that as Moses observed, God created all things in six literal, twenty-four hour days. The determination that mainstream scientific opinion “must be right” is to put the word of man above the word of God – a huge mistake, and a sin.
The Old Testament has taken a blast of hits from those who are sure it’s irrelevant to us now; that all that really matters is some of the things Christ said, and that one day we will be welcomed into heaven-if there is one. Never mind that Jesus himself quoted extensively from what we call the Old Testament. Never mind that some Old Testament prophecies pass right through his time and ours, into the fulfillment of the ages, giving us a view of our ultimate future. The opening chapters of Genesis are fulfilled in Revelation.
The things the Bible calls “sin” – that is, the things that got us all into this mess in the first place – are regularly practised by Christians as though they don’t really matter any more. Living with our lovers, divorcing even several times, treating our children like burdens and not the beautiful gifts that they are, and letting the things God has gifted us with go unused, like last year’s Christmas presents.
Personal accountability seems to have all but vanished, like the drivers I see flying by me at 20 or 30 mph over the speed limit, with a little fish on the back. “Those who forsake the law praise the wicked”, says Proverbs 28:4. Yes, this may be speaking specifically of the law of Moses, but God has instituted human government to give us an ordered, sane and safe society. Law is law, unless it opposes the will of God.
Within the part of the Church which claims to believe Scripture is a cacophony of contradictory beliefs, accepted by millions because very few people are encouraged to be Bereans. The false apostle rakes in tithes, offerings and adoration from his audience; the ardent Reformist quietly holds the conviction that God is bringing billions of people into existence only to send them, intentionally, to hell forever; the preacher of a pre-tribulation rapture soothes his followers with the notion that while millions of believers “over there” across the other side of the world are persecuted and oppressed, we in the West will be whisked away to heaven before anything bad happens.
The word of God is there for all to discover, to search and digest, and many Christians, I trust, are quietly doing just that. I’m not the last fundamentalist standing, but if I were, I would proudly remain so.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 