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November 21, 2007
Faith : I was a teen-age heretic
My journey of following Jesus started when I was ten years old. In that first year of faith I devoured every source I had to understand the gospel. I read the Bible through in under a year; I listened to audio tapes of sermons; I went to every church service I could get to (thanks, mom). By the end of the year, I had a fairly clear understanding of what Christianity was all about.
Only, a lot of that understanding has later proved to be incorrect or at least incomplete.
As an example, later in my life I discovered that a key part of my understanding of the Trinity was incorrect. There were in fact passages in the Bible that didn’t quite make sense if my understanding of God’s nature was accurate, but I had always glossed over those inconsistencies. When I realized my error, I did some research and corrected my thinking. In the process, I discovered that my error was declared a heresy by the church in the 3rd century. What’s more, the chief proponent of the view was kicked out of the church for his teaching.
I’m not going to go into detail on the doctrine of the trinity here or the nature of my error – that’s not the point I want to make. Quite the opposite – the observation I want to focus on is that for several years of my walk with Christ, I believed a heresy. What’s more, I almost certainly talked to other people about what I believed, so I event taught a heresy. Yet, I am hard pressed to find any way in which my relationship with God or His ability to work in and through me was affected by this error.
During that time I was a “heretic”, I still had a close relationship with God. He was active in my life, performing His slow work of transformation. He was able to guide me and use me to minister to others. That’s not to say there were no benefits to correcting my understanding. There are things I never quite understood that suddenly became clearer once I corrected my misunderstanding; but the quality and effectiveness of my walk was never affected as far as I can recall.
I have spoken before how God’s work of transforming us into His image is a gradual one, and that the course of that transformation follows His path, not one of our choosing. I said this in reference to our faults and sin, and how God deals with the issues in our lives according to His schedule, not ours nor the schedule dictated by others in the Church. I believe the same applies to points of doctrine.
Just as we have many ways in which we do not act as God desires, so we also have many misunderstandings about Him and the nature of the world around us. Just as God has a plan to work with each of us to correct our actions according to His own priorities, I believe He also has a plan to work with each of us to correct our doctrines according to those same priorities. Just as holiness is an absolute standard which can never be compromised, yet we must all find a way to be compassionate and patient with those who have not achieved it, understanding that we ourselves have not reached that goal yet. In the same way, orthodoxy is an absolute standard which can never be compromised, yet we must find a way to be compassionate and patient with those with whom we disagree, understanding that our own doctrines may too have some errors remaining.
Good doctrine remains a goal; but the path to reach it must be paved with humility.
Posted by Steven at November 21, 2007 01:32 PM
