Liberal Christianity: What it is to me

Lately I've been having conversations with other Christians about how I read the Bible and how I view Christianity as a whole. I've also been reading some blogs that have really opened my eyes to the fact that the whole Liberal Christianity issue needs to be clarified. Now I'm not saying that I've got this all figured out, I'm still growing and learning every day. I will say that I used to sit on the other side of the fence and I used to believe the Bible was completely perfect and inerrant. But these days, I've discovered that I believe otherwise.

To help define what I believe Liberal Christianity is, I went to Webster's to seek a good definition of Liberalism: "a movement in Protestantism advocating a broad interpretation of the Bible, freedom from rigid doctrine and authoritarianism."

Now I would like to sarcastically point out that this definition has no mention of devil worshippers, nose pickers, and downright stubborn people who refuse to obey the commands of Jesus Christ. But this definition does say that Liberal Christians seek freedom from rigid doctrine and authoritarianism, and this is the point I want to focus on. In light of this, I reserve the right to read the Bible for myself and decide for myself what the Holy Spirit is saying to me through the words on the page. I assume that I have the right to read the Bible critically and put it into historical context, translation context, and chronological context. I see nothing wrong with this, because there are only three members of the Trinity. And the Bible is not one of the three. The critical anaylsis of the Bible does not change who God is, it is who the Bible points to that is the thing of utmost importance. The Bible cannot save us, without God it is just a bunch of words on a page.

John 5:39
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you posess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.

I will say, however, that I do not simply read the Bible and make the words it contains to fit my own agenda or motivation. In my eyes and according the verse above, all Scripture must point to Jesus. Because all Scripture must point to Jesus, my relationship with Christ must be so tight that I am able to understand the Bible and what it is saying. Through the voice of the Holy Spirit in prayer and reading the Bible, I am able to understand how each piece of Scripture points to God. This is how I can read the Bible freely without "rigid doctrine and authoritarianism". I have the right to read the Bible and figure it out for myself, without having a preacher tell me what I'm supposed to believe.

So where's the disobedience if I am seeking the Holy Spirit to interpret the Bible for me? Where's the blasphemy of criticizing the Bible if it is not a God? Where's the wrong in this?

There is no wrong in this, that's the only answer I have for you.

The heart of the issue

Whew, what a busy week. School has been pretty crazy lately and I've been stuck in a whirlwind for a while. Hopefully things in my life will eventually slow down.

Anyhoo, God has been teaching me about what really matters. What really matters to him is the heart of his children. He doesn want my actions, he wants my heart. If my heart is with Jesus, then the rest will come out okay. I think sometimes that Christians can get so wrapped up in rules and regulations and debating over what the bible says, but its the heart that matters.

Isaiah 29:11
And so the Lord says, "These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me of amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote."

Our worship of God is completely useless if our hearts are not filled with Christ.

It's not about the technicalities about what exactly what the bible says about controversial issues. It's also not about how much one knows about the Bible, its about what is in our hearts.

It's also about how big God is and how we view him. The biggest question of all is how big is my God? That all depends on the limits I put on Him. He can be as big or as small to me as I let him.

Now this is where I might offend people, because I view the bible differently than some people. The Bible is inspired by God and is a glimpse of who God is, but it is not perfect. There are many translation mistakes because Hebrew and Greek are not easily translated into English. There are many copying mistakes from the old days when they used to copy the Bible by hand. In Judges and other books, there are chronological mistakes. The Bible has human fingerprints all over it, but it still remains as a major glimpse of who God is. It is what we have and we have to use it as imperfect as it is.

I will also dare to say that the Bible does not contain God. This is because God cannot be contained. It is simply impossible. This also means that the Bible is not God. The Bible will not be and I refuse it to be the God of my life. It gives me direction, consolation, convictions and a peace that no other book can give me. But it cannot take the place of God himself. God is bigger than the Bible. I regret to say that I feel like there is a tendency to elevate the Bible to a level that it should not be elevated to, and by doing this we are putting God into a box.

Believe me, God doesn't like boxes.

Now I'm not saying that we need to add to scripture, that's not what I mean. I just think the Bible should not be the God of our lives, that is not its purpose.

Its not about how much scripture you know, its about where your heart is. Not that scripture is a bad thing to know, but its about your heart. God needs to be the God of your heart, not a book that is full of human finger prints and is not perfect. The Bible has awesome truths, and it can help focus your life, but ultimately it has to point to God. Some passages are full of human opinions and fingerprints its hard to know where God fits in. This is why God has to be God, not the Bible.