Christianity for the Next 100 Years: 95 Theses

In the beginning, God created skies and earth.

            Welcome back.  I hope you got a kick out of my first twenty-six thesis.  Below are twenty-six more.  I really believe we should all write our own 95 Thesis.  Why stop at 95 and why not write it more than once in our lives just to see how we are changing.

     27.   Christian growth today is measured by how devoutly Christians believe absurdities.  The more assuredly I believe a snake and a donkey talked in the Bible, the stronger is my faith.  That kind of faith is an absurdity.

     28.  Fables are stories set among talking animals.  Most cultures, ancient and modern, have fables.  So did the Hebrews.

     29.  All cultures use symbolic language to talk about their gods.  The Bible also uses symbolic language.  We should appreciate its literary quality and themes for therein lies a word from God.

     30.  All scripture is inspired not dictated by God.

     31.  For a Christian the life of Jesus is the light by which scripture and God glow.

     32.  The Bible says in many places that the earth does not move because God has fixed the earth in its foundations.  That is lovely poetry expressing the Biblical world view.

     33.  Ancient Hebrews did distinguish between planets and stars.  They were all lights in the sky.

     34.  Hebrews did not know about Japan, Cuba, or Canada.  They did not know about germ theory, the circulatory system, placental birthing, cervixs, clitorises, the tail bone, homologous anatomic structures among species, natural selection, and soap. 

     35.  That’s right.  There was no such thing as soap from Abraham to Jesus and on to the 12^th century.  Being kosher had little to do with being sanitary clean.

     36.  The biblical world view does not know that stars are suns. 

  

     37.  Underlying all biblical thought is a cosmology that posits a sky, earth, and heaven.  God and God’s heavenly host live in the sky.  People, plants, and animals inhabit earth. 

     38.  It is not too far to travel if a heaven dweller wants to visit Jerusalem in order to deliver a message.

     39.  All biblical doctrine is best understood when the biblical world view serves as the context of every word.

     40.  It is absurd to believe the poetry that expresses creation is science.  There is not only the problem of explaining how our vastly vast universe that we know today was created in a week, but how life emerged again after being destroyed by a flood that covered the entire planet.

     41.  God may be the same yesterday, today, and forever in some way, but God as God is revealed to be evolving in the Bible.  God begins as a corporeal sky Man who lives just beyond the clouds with his heavenly host.  He becomes a presence in a tabernacle and then a presence in a temple, and then a presence in hearts.  In the later books, God is revealed to be Lord of all nations.  Finally, Jesus comes along to reveal God who loves.

     42.  One reason why theology often seems absurd is because it is based on ancient categories of what being is. 

     43.  Theology must always be contemporary and gospel. 

     44.  Any theology that ignores or denies the ongoing discoveries and explanations that come from scientists has already become a superstition and is thus idolatrous.

45.  All theology is useful to study and can contribute to spiritual growth.

     46.  Reading or writing theology is a form of prayer.

     47.  We have only poetry and theology to express what the word “God” means.  Theology is poetry abounding in logic.

     48.  We do not know what Jesus would have thought about the modern world.  We know that his philosophy of love and justice can illuminate any generation. 

     49.  If we do not change our faith into the love movement it was meant to be, Christianity will die as a superstition.  The more scientific each generation is, the more impossible an expectation of the literal interpretation of Biblical texts will be to them.

     50.  At the turn of the last century, there was a huge expectation among many Christians that Jesus would arrive from the sky with a posse of bullet proof saints.  It did not happen.  It will never happen.

     51.  The Bible says Jesus will hold seven stars in his hands.  That is either poetry or the largest human hand ever seen.  Where would one stand to take in such a sight were it literally true?

     52.  Again, ancient people thought the stars were little lights in the sky.  Those were not helium and hydrogen burning suns in Jesus’ hand.

     Thanks for visiting my blog today.  I'll post some more theses tonight.  Until then, blessings...