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Should we have our convictions set in stone?
May 7, 2008 |
Posted by ben hind · Filed Under Postmodernism, Theology, Random thoughts
I was getting ready for my house group today, which is a cool new thing we’ve just started up where some of us get together round someone’s house. And what we usually do is sit and have a chat, cup of tea (we’re English btw… and we all wear black top hats and walk with canes!) and discuss a Christian book we’re reading. We read a chapter a week and that gives us time to sit, and think it through, and come back with some questions.
I didn’t like this weeks chapter.
I found so much I disagreed with. Not so much in what it was saying, just the fact that it was using bible quotes completely out of context. One of the bible verses was quoted to support the idea of being ‘filled with the Spirit’ everyday… only in context it was talking about not getting drunk? Interestingly enough as soon as I got to the house group I immediately stopped caring so much that it wasn’t using the bible properly and was very accepting of what it had to say, despite it’s bad use of ‘hermeneutics’.
I get this a lot with theology. I can find so much I disagree with in some doctrines, and so much I want to make a stand for. So long as I’m on my own. But as soon as I get with someone else, my convictions change. I’m not as strong on some things as I am when I’m around someone else. I’m not saying that my views change… I believe the book in that chapter was using the bible out of context whether I’m with someone or not. But my conviction and certainty about something changes.
When I’m around homosexuals I’m very uncomfortable about making a stand against it and saying that I’m absolutely sure that it’s a sin, even though I still believe it’s wrong. When I’m around charismatics I don’t speak up about some practices of the spiritual gifts that I disagree with, because I’m not as convinced that I’m right in their presence (though I still believe the spiritual gifts are for today). And on the other side of the coin I get very argumentative for absolute truth around postmoderns, and very convicted of an inability to know everything for certain around moderns.
Sometimes I’ll listen to someone speak on a certain issue and they’ll be so convincing I’ll almost completely ‘convert’ to their position on an issue. And then a few weeks down the line I’ll hear someone else’s position on the issue and it’ll unsettle me again. I get this every time I listen to someone speak on the Calvinism/Arminianism issue. I’m Arminian. But sometimes after listening to a very good argument for the 5 points of Calvinism I wish I wasn’t!
How certain I am of different theological issues changes depending on who I’m with, and who I’ve just listened to.
I was reading Michael Patton’s post on ‘Where I Stand‘, showing where he stands on a lot of different controversial issues. I left a comment stating where I was on the issues. But the thing is, if I were to state how certain I am on these issues tomorrow I would probably give a different answer. Maybe not a completely different answer, but the answer wouldn’t be exactly the same.
Is this right?
Am I just too postmodern for my own good? Should we have our theological convictions set in stone? Or am I just human?
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Ben,
Interesting thoughts - I think you may just be human though. ;^)
I can sympathize with your thoughts. Except for Tea. I dont do tea. Family was English some time ago so I’m sure it’s in there somewhere. ;^) Since you brought up the top hats and canes… do you also sound like John Cleese then too? And if so, which one (Fawlty Towers, MP, Frost Report) or is it more like Bertie Wooster? ;^)
Not picking on you, promise!, just enjoyed your post and your writing style.
cheers,
-steve
Steve,
No no John Cleese is way off I’m afraid. In England we don’t all speak the same… it’s not like America where everyone speaks with a Texan accent ;). I’m from the north-east around Newcastle if that helps!
Thanks for the comments, how far back was your family English?
- Ben
Ben,
Oh, Texas eh? Ouch. That is cold. You had to go right for the jugular! At least I had given you a few options. I mean, I didnt say you sounded like Thermoman or anything. No, I grew up near Wash., DC so I speak proper American. ;^)
Family was fairly far back, we came over on the Juneflower and wandered the swamps of the eastern shore of Maryland and Delaware ever since (though I have since escaped to North Carolina). My fathers side: Predominantly English, but a little Irish and Scottish mixed in too. My Mom’s side, German mostly, a pinch of Dutch, and one sneaky Frenchman. ;^) Yes, that means I’m a mutt.
…and if being a mutt is a sin, it is covered by the blood of Christ and in no way diminishes my standing before God. Just to bring theology back into it. ;^)
-steve
You make very good points, Ben, and I prefer people like you to people whose opinions cannot and will not change, even if all around them have shown them why they are wrong. I am a lot like you! Sometimes, though, I really do need to land somewhere on a position. I believe that Jesus was born, crucified, rose again and that he has made it possible for us to know God and to follow God’s will. I believe that we are to love God, our fellow human beings and ourselves and to treat all as gently as possible.
I love the British humor that I see on TV. And the British mysteries. And the British writers. Hmmmmm…One grandfather came over from Liverpool but the Scots say he would have been Scottish originally with the name he had.
Joanie D.
Steve,
Nothing wrong with a bit of mixed blood. Some say I speak oddly since all my relatives and my parents are from Derbyshire right bang in the middle of England… but even when I go down there to visit relatives noone thinks I talk properly, I just can’t win!
Theologically speaking, this was all predetermined anyway… so I don’t really have any say in the matter
.
- Ben
Joanie,
British mysteries?? Enlighten me!
Sometimes I think it’s healthy not to be too set on something… but I do think we need to live with our feet on the ground rather than floating in a sea of uncertainty. Like that bit of British writing?
- Ben
You know… mysteries, like Johnny English! ;^)
-steve
British mysteries like the shows on Masterpiece Theatre, Rumple of the Bailey, the TV series “Mystery”, Rosemary and Thyme, the Sherlock Holmes series of stories. I only recently discovered Rosemary and Thyme as they are showing the reruns.
Joanie D.