It's dreadful

I have a particular complaint today. Well, not JUST today..this is something that has bugged me for a while. Christians taking extra-biblical thoughts and teaching them as if they were the gospel truth. Don't get me wrong, there are some good ideas that are not directly from the Bible that I believe God has given people the wisdom to figure out. Where the trouble begins, is when Christians have a particular personal belief and start teaching it to others as if it were from the very mouth of God.

Having grown up in the Southeast where there is "a church on every corner" and having been in private schools the majority of my life, I have seen a lot in the way of theological conflict. I’m not talking about other religions, I’m talking about within the "Christian" community. There are whole sets of "thou shall" and "thou shall nots" that have little if any biblical basis. (and usually that is taking scripture out of context) The problem isn't that people have opinions, the problem is that people voice their opinions or convictions as if it should apply to everyone and then they warp some obscure bible verse out of context and use that as backing for there "just cause." The reason this is a problem should be obvious, but just in case, I'll explain.

First, it divides the church. It causes discord and division among the body of Christ and causes the church as a whole to be at odds with its members over silly things.

Second, it causes the church to look more like a social club. A place for like minded people to go to hang out...especially to people outside the church.

Third, it causes the church to seem like a selfish group of elitists where each member is "holier than thou" because they follow a certain set of rules that God must look at and say " funny, I don’t remember telling them that."

Fourth, it causes other Christians to stumble. It causes them to, at times, doubt there faith or various aspects thereof.

I don’t mean to sound as if I am bashing Christians...I’m not doing that at all. However, as Christians, we (myself included) should not be tripping each other, splitting up the body of Christ, and causing confusion and strife simply because of our opinions. We need to stop being legalistic Pharisees and start being loving Christians. Where things are right and wrong, yes, we should take a firm stand. But where things are "grey" ...be careful....use common sense...

1 Corinthians 8:4-9 NLT


4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.


7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. 8 It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.


9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.