Beliefs

Excerpt from How Many Beliefs Can One Abandon and Still Be Called Christian? by Michael Patton at Reclaiming the Mind Ministries

This is a question that I received from one of our readers here on Parchment and Pen. It is a good question that cannot be answered easily.

You mentioned in this blog the conversation you had with a Pastor regarding the blessing of same sex marriages. This is an issue that the denomination (Episcopal) that I attend is struggling with. We had a Parish discussion about this last year with about 25-30 out of 200 active members voicing their opinion. Myself and a few others were in the minority against blessing these relationships. I came to this conclusion after researching all the known biblical passages regarding this issue, which I plainly read as viewing homosexual activity as sin. Therefore this is not behavior we should be celebrating. I also read several scholarly papers for and against and was not persuaded by the arguments for.

I guess my question for you or anyone else who wants to comment is at what point has one crossed the line in terms of throwing out orthodox teaching. I’ve followed your discussion on the emerging Church with the charts in terms of essential beliefs for salvation, essential beliefs for orthodoxy. How many orthodox beliefs/doctrines can you abandon and still call yourself a Christian?

The reader was not asking for an actual number. It cannot be answered with a number. One cannot say everyone gets to abandon five traditional Christian beliefs, but once they throw overboard that sixth one, they also throw overboard their right to be called “Christian.” It has more to do with the types of beliefs they are abandoning.

There are a lot of beliefs being abandoned today as people question “established” traditional Christianity.

Here are some big ones:

• Can one abandon the idea of God’s eternality as openness theologians do, believing that God is in a give and take relationship with mankind and does not know the future with certainty?
• Can one say that the resurrection has already happened like the preterists do?
• Can one abandon the traditional Christian belief about the sinfulness of homosexuality and ordain homosexual ministers as many mainline churches are doing as well as bless same-sex relationships?
• Can one abandon the historic belief that abortion is wrong as many Christians are doing?
• Can one abandon belief in the exclusivity of the Gospel?

My first thoughts are that one cannot abandon these doctrines and beliefs and remain within the confines of orthodox Christianity with regard to these particular issues.

Christianity is first and foremost about who you say Christ is and what you have done with him. To be Christian means that Christ is your savior and God and you have called upon him to have mercy on you based upon what he did on the cross.

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