One of the biggest things that drives me up the wall are when people decide that one standard is not good enough for the world. Imagine if we had changing standards for basketball. Come on, moving the hoop with every individual that came along higher for the tall guys and lower for the shorter ones… it would make basketball boring.
I noticed the same thing with the different sects of some religions, they all profess to be ‘christians’ but in some cases they are not christians. What truly is the difference between the Christ of the Baptists and the Christ of the LDS (Mormons)? Nothing that I can tell, the firm walls of legalisms seem to create rifts between religions that really are not all that different. We are honestly getting as bad as the Judiasims I am learning about in my New Testiment class. Some are more reactionary, like the pahrasees that fear anything different. You could have the priestly Sadduces that were wealthy landowners that believed that temple were where the ‘real’ religion was, and cooperated with the Romans. Some like the Zealots believed that everyone was getting too far from Torah so they decided to stop going to temple because it was ‘corrupted.’ They ended up trying to kill each other off and succedding in destroying all of the Sadduces. What makes this so different from our quabbling sects of Christianity? If we are Christians should we not believe that our Christ that saved is the same ? If we do not, then I guess there were several grand teachers and prophets that showed up in the historical record at the same time and never mentioned the other’s existence. (and yes I am aware that the real difference is actually in the details about the godhead or the trinity, but it’s still an interestingly silly docterinal issue in my opinion.)
I agree…I find it difficult how often the LDS church is excluded from the world of “Christianity.” As you mentioned, this stems from a divergence in beliefs about the nature of the Godhead/Trinity, but even so, we all believe in Christ as our Savior and His teachings. There are a lot more similarities in our beliefs than many realize.
What are some things we have in common with most Christians?
-believe the Bible to be the Word of God (interpretation/translation issues aside)
-believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior
-Resurrection and Judgment
-values: faith, hope, charity, forgiveness, compassion, among other virtues
I find the more I talk with Christians outside my church, the more I see similarities in our deep beliefs or desires; it seems we often get caught up in seemingly minor details with not so minor implications. Who has the authority to decide what’s true and what’s not?
The New Testament is a good example to go to. None of the dissenting groups within Judaism during the time of Christ had all the truth- it had been lost, and they were left to dispute over what remained of the original doctrines- particularly the intent of the Mosaic Law. While each claimed the authority to decide religious truth and establish scriptural interpretation, Christ came and essentially overruled all.
So when it comes to determining the truth of certain doctrines today, where should we look? I believe we need to go to God for the answer. No group of learned men has the right to decide for God who He is and how He operates. I personally find it rather arrogant. Like in Christ’s time, we need to acknowledge His absolute authority to interpret scripture- or to be above scripture.