Christian Philosophy and Personal Theology

By Ben Smith

A friend recently asked me what I believed. It's the kind of question that provides an open door to discuss the things that you hold most important in life. I'm a Christian, and there is a time where I would have jumped for joy that someone had asked this question. As a sold-out, fired-up, born-again, Spirit-filled, God-fearing, Jesus-loving, sin-hating Believer, this question would spark a very thoughtful sales pitch about the salient doctrinal points of my personal theology. The goal, of course, was more to convince and convert the person to The Correct Way of Thinking than to answer an honest question.

However, time has passed and I have changed. The important things about my faith have changed. This time, instead of selling Jesus as a product (as though He were that special detergent that can wash away that stubborn stain of sin), I answered the question. I even managed to do so without being as militant as I would have been in the past. Hooray for progress.

I was born into a Pentecostal Christian family. The theology of Pentecostalism is beyond the scope of this piece, but suffice it to say that Pentecostals believe that the kinds of things that happened in the time of Christ, such as miracles, are still available today in the life of a Christian. My father was a pastor for the first several years of my life, and as I grew up I became very familiar with the claims of Christianity, not to mention its faults. I have seen a lot of things that people have done in the name of Christ that are disingenuous and shameful, to say the least. Where many people lost their faith over these kinds of issues, I did not.

I think the basics of Christianity are sound. I also think that God cares a lot less about things than we think he does. Christians as a group spend a lot of time and effort trying to conform to the standard that they feel God wants them to live, and ultimately I feel like it's a bunch of pointlessness for the simple reason that if God doesn't care...they're going to a lot of trouble for nothing.

Christ said that the entire law is built on two concepts - loving God and loving others. If you live your life according to those two concepts, you will not be sinning. The Christianity taught in church today is a far cry from that simple statement, and it is all done in the name of avoiding sin.

When people become Christians, they have so much that they have to learn. Christ's yoke is supposed to be easy, but all the restrictions laid on people are so far from the freedom that they were promised. Instead of being told that they are a new creation, people are given tons of new things they have to do in order to stay on God's good side. Read your Bible. Pray. Go to church. Tithe. Give in the offering. Don't associate with the wrong crowd. Don't drink. Don't smoke. Don't, don't, don't.

Paul said that if you add anything to Christianity aside from Christ, then it is not Christianity. The Christianity that Christ taught and that Paul wrote about seem to be very different from what is practiced today. I am naturally a skeptic, and I've had experiences with God that I can't explain away. Right now I'm trying to figure out for myself what is good about Christianity and should be kept, and what is just man-made garbage that should be tossed to the side.

I do realize why Christians are taught so many restrictions. It's easier.

Instead of a new convert being told that it is up to them and their conscience and God to figure out what is morally acceptable, it is so much simpler to hand them a list of dos and don'ts. It is the path of least resistance, and sadly it leads to the very kind of bondage that Christ sought to end.

My friend's question was a valid one. I no longer wear my faith on my sleeve (actual or metaphorical), hoping that people will notice so that I can pitch The Gospel Message to them. I drink alcoholic beverages. I prefer to spend time with people who are not Christians. I currently do not attend a church. I do not look for ways to insert Jesus into every conversation.

So what do I believe? I believe that I should love God, and that I should love others. Rather than defining my spirituality by the things I refrain from, I choose to define it by the actions I take in my relationships with others. After all, if Christ set me free from the bondage of sin, why would I willingly take it up again by a different name?