Top 5 Things You Do NOT Have to Believe to be a Christian
A Direct Link to the Apologetic Professor's Blog and Reader Comments is here.
There are a lot of things people think they have to believe to be a Christian. Some of those things are accurate, and some of those things are not. Now, don't get me wrong: A lot of Christians believe the things I'm listing below. But YOU don't have to if you want to follow Christ. If you want more information about what Christians DO believe, a link to Apologetic Professor articles on this topic is here.
1. The conservative Republican agenda is truth. As musician Derek Webb (one of the Apologetic Professor's favorites) says: Jesus was not a white middle-class Republican. The Apologetic Professor has voted both ways. I actually voted for (gasp!) Obama in the 2008 election.
2. Every word in the Bible is literally true. Actually, no sane person believes this. At least since before St. Augustine (who lived over 1500 years ago), orthodox, traditional Christianity has held that many parts of the Bible are intentionally metaphorical. That's because this is obviously the case. When David says in the Psalms “God is my Rock” he clearly does not mean that God is a literal rock he carries in his pocket. That would be blasphemous idolatry. The Bible itself teaches that some of it is metaphorical: For example, a large percentage of Jesus’ teachings are in parables, which are fictional stories designed to illustrate a larger abstract truth. Some parts of the Bible are obviously intended to be literally true (e.g., death and resurrection of Jesus), some parts clearly metaphorical (e.g., parables), and some parts are in a “middle” ground that is open to debate (e.g., first two chapters of Genesis). But if someone tells you that Christians must believe every word of the Bible as literal truth, they have completely abandoned traditional Christian teachings about the Bible.
3. Every word in the Bible is inerrant. This is such an unfortunate word! But “inerrancy” really seems a fairly recent invention in Christian theological history, though some folks dispute this, and I don’t care enough about it to figure out who is right for certain. What is certain is that you don’t have to believe that every single word in the Bible is completely infallible. What you have to believe is something much looser: That the Bible is the authoritative guide that God left for us of His history with humankind, that it is uniquely inspired, and that as such it is truthful. God let people write it, though, and as such it contains errors on small details. Such errors should not discourage the faithful: No one doubts the genius or accuracy of Einstein because he had a few typos! He is still rightly treated as an authoritative, uniquely inspired, and truthful guide to physics. So the Bible claims to be for spiritual matters. And so I have found it.
4. The earth is 10,000 years old or less. My wife believes this and I have no problem with it, but most Christians don’t believe in it. It is based on a rather strange mathematical approach to the Bible that I do not think makes a lot of sense. (It is like arguing that the mustard seed must be the smallest seed on earth because Jesus used the phrase “the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the garden, but when it grows it becomes the largest plant.” To make a scientific argument from a spiritual parable seems to me a case study in missing the point!)
5. Humans did not evolve from lower species. We must be careful here. You cannot be a Christian if you believe in random, atheistic evolution. That is only common sense – you can’t both believe in God and disbelieve in God. To be a Christian you DO have to believe that God created everything and did so with some kind of purpose and design. But lots and lots of Christians (including some of the ones most ardently committed to Biblical inerrancy) have believed that God used evolution to make humans. In fact, a recent Pew survey of evangelical Christian leaders showed that over 40% of them believed in some form of evolution (a link to the CNN article is here). They believe that evolution was the mechanism He used to accomplish His purposes (just like He might use the Povarello Center to accomplish His purposes of feeding the poor). There is nothing in the Bible that the Apologetic Professor can see to directly contradict this belief, and thus it is really a scientific question. It should be noted that, being a scientist himself and thus knowing a lot of scientists personally (including quite a few evolutionary psychologists), the Apologetic Professor has a lower view of “what scientists think” than most of his readers will.
There are a lot of things people think they have to believe to be a Christian. Some of those things are accurate, and some of those things are not. Now, don't get me wrong: A lot of Christians believe the things I'm listing below. But YOU don't have to if you want to follow Christ. If you want more information about what Christians DO believe, a link to Apologetic Professor articles on this topic is here.
1. The conservative Republican agenda is truth. As musician Derek Webb (one of the Apologetic Professor's favorites) says: Jesus was not a white middle-class Republican. The Apologetic Professor has voted both ways. I actually voted for (gasp!) Obama in the 2008 election.
2. Every word in the Bible is literally true. Actually, no sane person believes this. At least since before St. Augustine (who lived over 1500 years ago), orthodox, traditional Christianity has held that many parts of the Bible are intentionally metaphorical. That's because this is obviously the case. When David says in the Psalms “God is my Rock” he clearly does not mean that God is a literal rock he carries in his pocket. That would be blasphemous idolatry. The Bible itself teaches that some of it is metaphorical: For example, a large percentage of Jesus’ teachings are in parables, which are fictional stories designed to illustrate a larger abstract truth. Some parts of the Bible are obviously intended to be literally true (e.g., death and resurrection of Jesus), some parts clearly metaphorical (e.g., parables), and some parts are in a “middle” ground that is open to debate (e.g., first two chapters of Genesis). But if someone tells you that Christians must believe every word of the Bible as literal truth, they have completely abandoned traditional Christian teachings about the Bible.
3. Every word in the Bible is inerrant. This is such an unfortunate word! But “inerrancy” really seems a fairly recent invention in Christian theological history, though some folks dispute this, and I don’t care enough about it to figure out who is right for certain. What is certain is that you don’t have to believe that every single word in the Bible is completely infallible. What you have to believe is something much looser: That the Bible is the authoritative guide that God left for us of His history with humankind, that it is uniquely inspired, and that as such it is truthful. God let people write it, though, and as such it contains errors on small details. Such errors should not discourage the faithful: No one doubts the genius or accuracy of Einstein because he had a few typos! He is still rightly treated as an authoritative, uniquely inspired, and truthful guide to physics. So the Bible claims to be for spiritual matters. And so I have found it.
4. The earth is 10,000 years old or less. My wife believes this and I have no problem with it, but most Christians don’t believe in it. It is based on a rather strange mathematical approach to the Bible that I do not think makes a lot of sense. (It is like arguing that the mustard seed must be the smallest seed on earth because Jesus used the phrase “the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the garden, but when it grows it becomes the largest plant.” To make a scientific argument from a spiritual parable seems to me a case study in missing the point!)
5. Humans did not evolve from lower species. We must be careful here. You cannot be a Christian if you believe in random, atheistic evolution. That is only common sense – you can’t both believe in God and disbelieve in God. To be a Christian you DO have to believe that God created everything and did so with some kind of purpose and design. But lots and lots of Christians (including some of the ones most ardently committed to Biblical inerrancy) have believed that God used evolution to make humans. In fact, a recent Pew survey of evangelical Christian leaders showed that over 40% of them believed in some form of evolution (a link to the CNN article is here). They believe that evolution was the mechanism He used to accomplish His purposes (just like He might use the Povarello Center to accomplish His purposes of feeding the poor). There is nothing in the Bible that the Apologetic Professor can see to directly contradict this belief, and thus it is really a scientific question. It should be noted that, being a scientist himself and thus knowing a lot of scientists personally (including quite a few evolutionary psychologists), the Apologetic Professor has a lower view of “what scientists think” than most of his readers will.