Monday, March 15, 2021

When the Holy Spirit Leads People Elsewhere

 All too often, whether we're conscious of it or not, we are taught to adhere to the idea that our denomination of Christianity is the only one to which the Holy Spirit will lead people. If someone really wants to "get saved" they need to come to "our church." They need to listen to "our pastor" preach. They need to adhere to our theological bullet points. They need to be a part of our tribe and not someone else's. The truth is that this sentiment is the very definition of heresy and one of the primary things Paul was trying to combat in 1 Corinthians.

The Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit leads people to Jesus Christ. There are dozens of denominations and churches out there where a person can draw closer to Jesus Christ, fall in love with Jesus Christ, and be discipled to follow Jesus Christ. Do any of them have it all exactly right? Does the Catholic? No. Does the Orthodox? No. Does the Lutheran? No. Does the Calvinist? No. Does the Mennonite? No. Does the Baptist? No. Does the Mormon? Certainly not. Does the Evangelical? No. If someone slavishly adhered to the theology I've written about, would they have everything completely accurate? Nope. I try, but I'm not that good. But each one of these does have Jesus Christ. Someone can get to know Jesus Christ through each one of these. Someone can start the journey of drawing closer to Christ, walking with Him, learning from Him, and remaining with Him through all of these.

History bears me out on this. There are saints and saintly writings and accounts of the intervention of the Holy Spirit from all of these denominations and churches, and have been over the last two thousand years. Questioning one's devotion or even salvation because they're "not a part of our group" or because their practice or theological framework looks a little bit different than yours is the beginning of the very factionalism that Paul was trying to combat.

Yes, there were some doctrinal issues which Peter, Paul, and John explicitly touched on in their letters. There were people that Paul got really upset with because of what they were teaching. Let's look at that for a minute. The biggest one he got upset with was when people were teaching that following the Jewish Torah and being circumcised was necessary. This of course was nonsense because the Torah had been fulfilled by the New Covenant and was no longer in effect. There was no Torah to which to return. It was pointless. He wrote specifically about the resurrection because either Jesus rose from the dead and was taking us with Him or it was all for nothing. There was no in between. Another which John explicitly wrote about was the idea that Jesus hadn't actually been a physical, biological human being. To John, this was absolute nonsense too. He had seen Him, known Him, ate with Him, probably slept around the campfire near Him. He had seen Him, heard Him, touched Him, heard him belch and so on. The same was true with those who declared that Jesus wasn't the Son of God. John himself had seen Jesus display powers only God or a god could have and humble the gods of Rome on their own turf. It was ludicrous and blasphemy of the Holy Spirit to tell people that Jesus wasn't the Son of God when those who saw Him knew perfectly well that He was. Also realize that John was writing when Jesus was still within living memory for a lot of people, and he was writing to combat propaganda being spread among the Jewish people by the Sanhedrin about Jesus.

The differences between most churches and denominations have nothing to do with any of this, but tend to veer into the differences of practice, worship, church leadership, and minor arguments of theological mechanics that no one can actually verify and don't actually affect one's devotion to and practice of Jesus Christ in the long run. Yes, the Mormon church teaches that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate beings. Yes, it's contrary to the Ecumenical Councils, the Nicene Creed, and the testimony of both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon itself. But in the long run, even this really isn't an obstacle for someone to devote themselves to and become a disciple of Jesus Christ. God's big enough to handle even a misunderstanding like this. There's a reason why the disciples never really tried to nail down the Trinity or Hypostatic Union in their writings. It just wasn't important enough to them. It was enough to know that Jesus was both a flesh and blood human being as well as Yahweh, as well as being distinct from His Father. The details of the when and how just weren't a thing; probably because Jesus Himself didn't elaborate.

Our focus should never be to lead people into "our church," but to help people learn to love Jesus Christ and be His disciple; to encourage them to Love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, intellect, and strength, and to love the people next to them like themselves. This is the priority and should be the priority. They need to know that He died for their sins, was buried, raised on the third day, ascended, and plans to take them with Him. They need to know what He taught and how to put it into practice. They need to know that they need to stay put in Him and not walk away. They need to know that, in order to be His disciple, they can't trust their own physical or biological responses, but they have to step aside for Him to live His life through them.

The external trappings of Christianity are going to look different with different people, and so are some of the explanations. That's actually okay. We don't need to bring them into line with our theological or cosmological frameworks in order for them to benefit from Christ and be His disciple. But what always needs to be present is the devotion to Christ, the remaining in Him, and the practice of unconditional, self sacrificing love towards God and every other person. If God wants to correct their theology, that's His prerogative.

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