Life in the Body

May 10, 2007 09:24

I've been thinking lately about something my friend Joe (www.xanga.com/mediocresavant) brought up. What beliefs bring one to no longer be a Christian? This is something that is highly interesting to me. Part of that is because I'm at a very intellectually focused seminary. It focuses a great deal on theology and its application to daily life. This is good for me. It is something that I feel will be a most important part of the ministry that God calls me to. Many people hear the word "theology" and think of boring discussions that are utterly abstract and have no bearing on things that really matter. This is so far from the truth!

But that is not where I am going. I suppose my thought is at what point does theological lack affect one's salvation. I'm thinking along the lines of, maybe, the old Aryans in fourth, fifth and sixth centuries. Were all of them condemned because they did not believe that Jesus was fully God? I mean, of course, I can never know the answer, but is there some light to understand?

This mainly comes out of a discussion that I sat through with some guys from the seminary. They were talking about a former professor, a man who had spent forty years in Africa as a missionary and had actually buried some of his children there. The story behind his comment is this:
They were in class talking about theology and missions (I guess, but anyway). The Prof. said:

"And you, you theologians, always sitting around discussing stuff and never doing anything. Let me tell you, while you theologians were sitting around discussing the Trinity and fine-tuning all the details of theological concepts, the Aryans were carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth in Christ's name and giving their lives for His sake! I tell you give me an Aryan with a heart for God over a theologian any day!"

This comment sent me into a whirlwind of thought for a number of days. How does one understand a misunderstanding of, say, Jesus' divinity and that person's salvation? Sometimes things like that make me wonder about theological accuracy. We will never get it all right anyway, but how much being right is necessary for salvation? Is any really needed for salvation (in this I mean the finer things, not things like sin, God in the basics, believing in Christ, etc.)? Apparently, there is need for theology and its teaching, but sometimes I wonder about it. Of course, if people were more willing to really seek God about these things in our culture, instead of our window shopping spirituality, maybe thoughts about things of this nature would be a little easier. I don't know.
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