The Importance of a Broad Theology

I was on YouTube recently searching for information about the emergent/emerging church. I was shocked by the hate I saw spewing forth from people who claim to be Christians.

These people believe a narrow theology that picks and chooses which parts of God's Word they want to pay attention to and ignores the rest. Then they have the gall to attack others (emerging/emergent Christians) who dare to express slightly different theological views which I'd say all in all or more consistent with the words of Jesus.

The problem is that these "christian" haters are winning the battle. Most people do not have the interest (and therefore the time) to really read and study the bible. Therefore, most people miss out on the great broad diverse theological views that historically have made up the Christian church. If people really studied the Word they would know that God is bigger and greater than these narrow Christians make Him out to be.

They would know for instance that the Bible has plenty of support for the Calvinism and also Free Will. In other words there is ample scripture to support the idea that Jesus died for all and also that He died only for the elect. This is just an example.

Another is the faith vs works debate. There are so many examples like these.

To the fundamentalist, these things are scary; to me they are wonderful because they illustrate how great God is and how we can't quite grasp His truth. This makes God all the more real and believable since our world is also similarly grey (not black and white) and full of ambiguity. It's wonderful.

But, this truth scares the dickens out of the narrow "Christians" and they lash out against it.

I've taken those folks on in many debates and the good news is they ALWAYS flee in panic when I begin to quote the words of Jesus (the Words they don't want to hear).

Anyhow, just a few rambling thoughts for the day. I really think we'd all be so much better off if church leaders had the courage to tell the truth about the Word of God. And if people would really take the time to study it for themselves. Unfortunately, that's rarer and rarer in today's "christian" church.