In the Refiner's Fire - There's Nothing Wrong with Me, I'm Just Lutheran!
Something I have been struggling with for the last few years, as I have done more reading in the "Christian" realm is the "Christian Worldview". Not that I think there's anything wrong with the "Christian Worldview" itself, the problem I have is assumption that all Christians have the same worldview.
So much of the Christian literature out there comes from presses that come from Calvinist, Anabaptist, or Catholic backgrounds and while the stuff is good, there's usually something that I disagree with. Something that bugs me. Something that sticks in my mind and I chew on it for a while and get all "het up" over it and make myself frustrated.
We've been struggling with so many things at our church this last year, some of them theological but most of them not. And in the midst of all of this, I've been coming off two years of serious and undiagnosed illness that made me delve deep into my faith and my own personal convictions.
Now, I have a pretty good theological background and have a very clear Biblical (theological) understanding of why I believe what I do, so I the thing that has bugged me through all of this is why I have such a hard time with things. These different views.
I don't believe in infallibility or absolutism. I believe in God and anything else is not absolute because everything else comes from humans in some form or another, who are not God and therefore fallible. I understand perfectly that other people disagree with this and I'm perfectly okay with that.
This whole idea of one right way to be Christian bugs me. I don't believe that at all. I believe that each of us has to be the Christian that God calls us to be and that is going to look different for each one of us.
I have had a terrible time articulating it. That was what was bugging me.
Not that I disagree with others or that they disagree with me.
This is the crux of Lutheran theology and this is what I believe. And if I can't wrap my head around the "Christian Worldview" or the absolutism that's out there. That's okay.
I found a book this week that articulates it far better than I ever good. And now I realize something:
Soli Deo Gloria.
Always.
Amen.
So much of the Christian literature out there comes from presses that come from Calvinist, Anabaptist, or Catholic backgrounds and while the stuff is good, there's usually something that I disagree with. Something that bugs me. Something that sticks in my mind and I chew on it for a while and get all "het up" over it and make myself frustrated.
We've been struggling with so many things at our church this last year, some of them theological but most of them not. And in the midst of all of this, I've been coming off two years of serious and undiagnosed illness that made me delve deep into my faith and my own personal convictions.
Now, I have a pretty good theological background and have a very clear Biblical (theological) understanding of why I believe what I do, so I the thing that has bugged me through all of this is why I have such a hard time with things. These different views.
I don't believe in infallibility or absolutism. I believe in God and anything else is not absolute because everything else comes from humans in some form or another, who are not God and therefore fallible. I understand perfectly that other people disagree with this and I'm perfectly okay with that.
This whole idea of one right way to be Christian bugs me. I don't believe that at all. I believe that each of us has to be the Christian that God calls us to be and that is going to look different for each one of us.
I have had a terrible time articulating it. That was what was bugging me.
Not that I disagree with others or that they disagree with me.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9
This is the crux of Lutheran theology and this is what I believe. And if I can't wrap my head around the "Christian Worldview" or the absolutism that's out there. That's okay.
I found a book this week that articulates it far better than I ever good. And now I realize something:
There's nothing wrong with me, I'm just very, very Lutheran!
Soli Deo Gloria.
Always.
Amen.
