Neither Do I.....

I recently came across a snippet in an article on Doug Trudall’s site. The article is called Core Essentials and in it Doug expresses his views on some of the accepted doctrines of Christianity. Can I be a Christian if I don’t believe……fill in the blank….virgin birth, the Trinity, inerrancy, the penal substitutionary view of the atonement. He is a bit off the beaten (Christian) path in many of his views.

Near the beginning of the article, he tells the story of a woman in his group who was troubled by the direction they seemed to be heading:

As we were getting started this lady took the time to express what was on her heart. It doesn’t do her words justice to give you the short “Coles notes” version, nor does it convey the tenderness of her heart but she simply stated that with all the changes we have been discussing and experiencing, she doesn’t want to walk away from the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, nor does she want to walk away from Yeshua (Jesus) etc. She is concerned that the changes may lead us away from the faith found in the Bible, as she understands it.

In  Passion For Peace Thomas Merton says:

"The dread of being open to the ideas of others generally comes from our hidden insecurity about our own convictions. We fear that we may be "converted" – or perverted – by a pernicious doctrine. On the other hand, if we are mature and objective in our open-mindedness, we may find that viewing things from a basically different perspective – that of our adversary – we discover our own truth in a new light and are able to understand our own ideal more realistically.

Even though I seem to have no qualms about boldly going anywhere…ANY WHERE….the Spirit seems to be leading, like the lady in the snippet above, I don’t want to walk away from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I never want to stop being a Christian, yet I do want to “discover my own truth in a new light.” I will not discount another’s faith journey or the path God chooses to lead them back to Him, yet I know in my heart that I am a Christian…and I always want to stay a Christian.

I may borrow some of the mindfulness principles of Buddhism or acknowledge that Christ is not confined to the King James Version, 66 Chapters, bound in leather….but Jesus Christ has won my heart. With a deeper understanding of what it was he actually taught….more now than ever. And with a deeper understanding of the Father he came to reveal….more now than ever.

He is the Father to me…Abba. And even though I know he cannot be pegged as one sex or the other…. along with Jesus, I choose to call him Father. He is the love of my life…the sustainer of my life. I do not limit God or Christ to Christianity, however, at this point, contrary to appearances and opinions expressed in this blog and elsewhere, I consider myself a Christian.