Since I wrote and shared my testimony over a year ago I’ve grown in my faith tremendously. A huge weight has been lifted and is now being carried by Christ. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how people interpret the bible and how we trust preachers and teachers that bring their interpretations to us on a regular basis. I won’t name names here but there is a popular protestant evangelical preacher in the United States who based on my understanding of the sermons I’ve heard seems to be so obsessed with the afterlife that he can’t help but focus on the lifestyles and sins of other people – particularly believers that he often threatens with a ‘you might not really be saved’ thought provoke and rarely leaves his legalistic fundamentalist attitude at the door. While this preaching style may be motivating for believers who are struggling with sin in the present moment, its not at all helpful, inspiring or motivating to Christians who are born again new creations who have repented and aren’t actively choosing a daily lifestyle of sin. It’s almost as though this man wants you to think that if you ever happen to stumble again, all is lost. Previous repentance doesn’t matter and grace and forgiveness no longer apply to you. I believed that and walked that tightrope for decades. Of course this is nonsense, borderline bullying and certainly isn’t furthering the Kingdom.
There’s a lot of stuff in the Christian bible. Metaphors, parables, Semitic poetry, mythology, stories, suggestions, instructions, commandments – its all in there. The biggest challenge Christians face in my opinion is not turning away from sin. It’s trying to perfectly interpret an ancient text that has been translated into hundreds of languages over thousands of years, and then flawlessly apply it to their own present day lives. So many of our Christian denominations genuinely believe that we have our theology right and that everyone else is wrong. We point fingers at each other and make accusations of false teaching as if we are the ultimate authority, spending more time condemning our own brothers and sisters in Christ to eternal separation from God after death than we spend praying, worshiping, loving and serving.
Some believers are so fixated on the bad news of evil and sin that they forget about the good news, and hardly even talk about it, but if you’re in Christ there is no reason to live in fear of eternal separation. If we can’t move beyond our past sins, how are we ever going to accomplish the work God has set out for us to do here and now? Its almost impossible to fulfil our purpose if we’re so busy remembering sin that God has already forgiven and anticipating a hypothetical future stumble that has already been bought and paid for as well. I’m so tired of bad theology tormenting people and making them feel unworthy of grace.
My previous post and testimony was about a life full of fear and insecurity. Writing it took courage I didn’t know I had and required that I push past the insecurity of people not understanding where I was coming from or the idea that I didn’t have a ‘better’ story to share. My testimony wasn’t that God delivered me from an addiction, drugs, alcohol, sex, greed, disbelief, satanic worship or witchcraft. My testimony was that God delivered me from bad theology. God literally delivered me from church.
Chelsea from the music box 