How does one start down this path? What made me become the type person that willingly and happily refers to them self as a heretic? I can't speak for anyone else, for me though there were numerous events. But it all started with one person who taught me that it was ok to ask questions.
That person was Bonnie, and to be honest she herself might be horrified to find what I did with the things she taught me. Bonnie and I worked together every day. She was several years older than me. Not necessarily old enough to be my mother, but not far from it. At the time I was delighted to find that Bonnie was a Christian. I was even delighted to find that she was Baptist. Why was I happy that she was Baptist? Not because I was also. Far from it. I came from an Assemblies of God (AoG) background. I couldn't wait to introduce Bonnie to the wonders of all those spiritual gifts that we Pentecostals had all figured out.
Much to my chagrin Bonnie shot me down at every attempt to introduce her to the powerful 'manifestations of the spirit' that I kept trying to push on her. Looking back now she had lots of patience, and showed kindness that I probably didn't deserve considering how arrogant I must have sounded. When I finally realized Bonnie had no interest in becoming part of the AoG I asked her why. She told me that she simply didn't believe those things the way I did. It was the very next sentence that started this ball rolling though. She said she was OK with that. She could live with the fact that she could possibly be wrong.
From my background that simply didn't compute. In the AoG we never overtly claimed our superiority. We never brazenly called out the 'less spiritual' denominations, but the undertone was always there. The attitude that says we know more than they do. God has blessed us with more. We are stronger Christians because we believe and do these other things. We may have never really said we were better, but there is no denying we thought it. I can give you a couple of great examples in another post someday. In other words we were right and we 'knew' it. We needed to be right. It was important to believe we had it right and they didn't.
The next day Bonnie asked me a question. She asked me if I had ever really studied the things I claimed to believe. I told her I had, but she pushed a little further. She explained that she wasn't talking about listening to the pastor or some other member of my church/denomination tell me what certain passages meant or how they should be interpreted. She wanted to know if I had ever studied them myself without my denominational glasses tinting my view. At first I was a little angry by her line of questioning. I thought she was trying to debunk what I believed and bring me over the Baptist side of the aisle. Yes, I can see now how ironic it was that I got upset with her because I thought she was doing exactly what I had already done. Bonnie could see my irritation and backed off.
Even though Bonnie may have backed off, she had given me something to think about. The more I thought about what she said the more I realized I had never truly studied the Bible without a preconceived notion of what it was going to say. That notion of course came from my denominational background. The thought began to both intrigue and scare me. I finally talked to Bonnie about it again. I was careful to tell her that I was not going to become a Baptist, but I wanted to try to look at things on my own.
Bonnie pulled out a pamphlet from the AoG. She explained that she had a good friend who was part of the AoG and she had borrowed it from her. The pamphlet was the 16 fundamental truths of my denomination. These were the 16 most important beliefs. These were considered immutable truths. If you didn't believe these things you weren't truly part of the denomination. I had never looked at them for any reason other than to affirm them before. To question them was to invite derision and scorn. To doubt them was to have your Christianity called into question. Looking back now I realize Bonnie knew that was the case. So she explained right off the bat that she was not trying to get me to change my mind about any one of these 'sacred' doctrines of my upbringing. She did however want to show me how we could both read the same passages and come away with logical but distinctly different beliefs.
It didn't take long for me to understand what she was saying. She showed me there were several instances in the pamphlet distributed by the AoG itself that had statements such as "we can assume" or "it is likely that". Their were several other similar statements, but the bottom line is that by their own words much of what I had been taught as specific fact all my life was based on no small amount of conjecture. As a matter of fact there was one belief that was based upon an admitted assumption that itself was based upon another assumption.
Do you see where I am going with this? As much as I didn't want to admit it I knew something instantly. I could see where the AoG came up with their beliefs, but I could also see where the verses in question could easily be interpreted in other ways that would make just as much sense.
To be fair Bonnie even pulled out some of the beliefs from her church and showed me where some of them were just as much conjecture and supposition as mine.
I was shaken. My Christian foundation was centered on the AoG because I had always been led to believe they had it right. Now I had to admit that different interpretations of the Bible were possible by people who were both earnestly and sincerely seeking God. Not only that, but I could no longer sit idly by while those of my denomination gloated among themselves about how our beliefs made us stronger and better Christians.
That wasn't the only thing I learned from Bonnie, but it was by far the biggest lesson she taught me. I am grateful for her influence. Because of Bonnie I am no longer scared to admit that sometimes I simply have doubts. I can openly and honestly admit that I may not have it all right and I'm ok with that. I am no longer scared to admit that I have questions or to ask them. As a matter of fact I have learned that sometimes the questions really are more important than the answers.
For the record I never did become a Baptist, but it was just a few short months after this that I was no longer part of the AoG either.
For the record I never did become a Baptist, but it was just a few short months after this that I was no longer part of the AoG either.
September 29, 2009 3:28 PM
This is an excellent post. I had somewhat of a similar journey. I was raised muslim. Talk about it being difficult to question those beliefs ... LOL. Since your read my blog, you more or less know where I stand theologically within Christianity. After I came to know Christ, I my journey took me through several Christian beliefs UNTIL I was able to stand on my own and read the bible without someone telling me how or what to believe. If we can, and I know it's very difficult, leave preconceived notions aside and read the scripture for what it says, based on its historical content, whom it is speaking to, many of our preconceived notions will fall away.
Great post!
September 29, 2009 3:46 PM
tishrei - beautifully said. Agree with you 100%. I have found that the Bible makes much more sense when we understand something of the time and culture in which it was written.
Unfortunately, most Christians today don't do that. They read it and interpret it through a 21st century viewpoint. That often leads to bad interpretations which leads to bad doctrine which leads to . . . you get the point. Glad to have you here.
September 29, 2009 3:52 PM
Hi again. You are correct, Christians don't do that today. The bible was written, for the most part, from a Hebrew standpoint. Jesus was a Jew, He spoke to Jews, He lived amongst His brethern, Jews and the culture was Jewish. Western thinking was not part of the teaching of the bible. We have Westernized Christianity but there is nothing western about it.
I'm not trying to make a plug for my site here so feel free to delete, but here's a post that discusses how "binding and loosing" has been completely misconstrued and misunderstood. It was an old Jewish saying that Western Christianity has given a new meaning to it. (seriously, feel free to delete if you are not comfortable with me putting a link to a particular post on your blog.) I just think that this post is a very good example how western thinking has changed the original meaning of something in scripture. http://fruitoftheword.com/2009/03/03/binding-and-loosing-using-matthew-1619/
September 29, 2009 4:11 PM
tishrei - I have no problem with you leaving a link. Feel free.
It is amazing that you referenced that. As you have already read I grew up in the AoG which is a very charismatic denomination and believed in all the 'binding and loosing' things. Something never felt right about it to me though.
Imagine my surprise when I found out years later there was a reason that whole interpretation made me feel that way.
Post a Comment