My impression has been that “Bible believing” is a synonym for a literal interpretation of the Bible, so that would imply YEC. I would guess the term was coined to distinguish that point of view from Christians who accepted the ideas of Bible scholars of the 19th century who found that the first part of Genesis had been borrowed from ancient Babylonian myths.
Hi,
I’m sorry you’ve had that experience. To share from my life, I’ve only been apart of one bible-based church (in sister congregations in different states), having left the Catholic Church to become a Christian shortly after graduating college and remaining with that group since, so my experience may be a bit myopic. I’ve yet to run into a YEC in our fellowship, but the topic of evolution/origins rarely comes up and I don’t know with certainty where the vast majority of my friends in the church stand on the issue, though I would guess that most don’t believe in evolution, however that is changing, especially with the younger generations. There is no requirement to hold to any particular view of origins here and it’s never brought up at the pulpit, and thus overall it’s not seen as important part of our faith. We stress on living a Christian lifestyle through personal righteousness, Godly-relationships and evangelism.
So to answer your question, at least this church isn’t full of YECs.
OUCH!! At a Mormon funeral I was approached by a woman (who knew I was Catholic) who said she was a former nun. She invited me to convert to Mormonism so I could confidently say I was now a Christian. Not effective evangelizing.
Al Leo
They claim that the Christian church largely committed apostasy and that Joseph Smith was called to restore the one true church.
If you and Al want to discuss Mormonism, please take it to PM. Thanks.
I’m not the one who brought it up. Anyway, what is the rule?
Stay mostly on topic, or start a spinoff thread if it is faith-science related, or continue your discussion with PM if it is not.
@David_Lee, so…I’m having trouble articulating how awesome that post was.
You use the word “doctrinally sound.” I don’t know what that means to you. I think I would find most Christian churches to be “doctrinally sound.” You believe in God and believe in Jesus and accept him as your savior. Everything else is “ruffles and flourishes.” Whether baptism is sprinkled or immersed, that is human defined ritual. Take your choice.
I remember hearing a statement years ago from someone that went: If you are looking for a very fundamentalist church look for ones with the words “Bible” or “Grace” in the name of the church. If they use both names, they are really into it." All the people probably sit in the pew with an open Bible in their lap. In that church you might find “literalist” members and the YEC crowd.
Hi Walter.
You wrote:
I’m going to go on record to state that I very strongly disagree with: One, that a person merely has to, “accept” Jesus as savior and all else is, “ruffles and flourishes”.
And two, that baptism is a, “human defined ritual”.
I know that this isn’t the forum to go to war with these, but a couple of quick points. Jesus and Peter both demanded that people be baptized, Peter making it clear that we are forgiven and receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at that moment, thus saved. To follow, every detailed conversion in the NT ends with an immediate baptism. Hardly a human invention.
Also, “accepting” and/or, “receiving” Jesus as savior is a 19th century American invention - nowhere in the bible or in church history can you find this before then. Similarly, baptism as an, “outward sign of an inward grace” also is not found in scripture or anywhere other than relatively recent church history (not exactly sure when on this one).
Some points to ponder!
Hi Albert,
Sorry if that hurt you, that was not my intention, it’s a part of my story.
That said, I do have convictions on what a Christian is, and would be happy to discuss this with you PM, as Christy recently suggested to someone.
BTW, what is PM?
Richard
Private message.
If you click on anyone’s avatar (the circle next to their user name with the letter or picture), one of the options is to send a message.
Richard, that is not what I meant. Baptism was established by Jesus and is a key point in Christianity. Where “human defined ritual” comes in is “how” you do baptism. Whether you believe that immersion or sprinkle is the “correct” way to do baptism is a creation of human rituals. I’m sure Jesus doesn’t care how you do baptism. It is what is in your commitment in your heart and mind that counts.
There are many “rituals” in the practice of Christianity that are the product of human interpretation of how someone thought it should be and not backed up by the Bible. Take for example the long period of time that Roman Catholics were forbidden to eat meat on Friday. That had nothing to do with Jesus and the Bible.
Richard, I really took no offense. I commend you for making the move that made you more comfortable in your relationship with the Lord, just as I commended the ex-nun who found more solace and more purpose in the Mormon community. And @Christy, I did not mean to go “off topic”, but I did want to point out that there is some danger that this (and related) topics can lead to a childish exchange of: "Nyah, Nyah, my church is more Christian than your church." It is not unusual to hear evangelicals (not on this Forum, I hope) declare that _Mormonism is a non-Christian cult.–ignoring the fact that Jesus Christ is a part of their official (and preferred)name and designation.
And, Richard, I would welcome a PM discussion focusing on the reasons you felt compelled to leave the Catholic church for one ‘more Christian’. Some years ago I conducted a Confirmation Class for Adults, and I welcomed the attendees to share with me their temptations(?) to go that route. As for myself, the greatest temptation/attraction as I matured and chose a career in science was to become an atheist/agnostic. I see that as fairly common in the responders to this Forum.
Al Leo
Jesus is also an important figure in Islam. He is one of their most important prophets, is called the Messiah, and is honored as the son of a virgin. But he’s not considered divine.
I am aware of that and that Islam holds that Jesus was not crucified but was transported live into heaven. But there is no Islamic Church of Jesus Christ. It took a couple of centuries for the Church Fathers to specify the nature of Jesus’ divinity in an agreed upon Christian Creed. And still the nature of “Born” in the phrase “born of the Father before all ages” remains a mystery to me. I wonder what it would be like to have reached such a level of assurance and understanding of such doctrines that all doubts are dissipated.
Al Leo
And the Christian Science church certainly has the right name and designation.
I can’t tell if you are being serious or facetious.
Al Leo
Hello Walter,
That is merely your opinion, the logic of which breaks down almost immediately. There are many wildly different ideas as to what baptism means and how to do it, and they can’ possibly be all correct, like all religions can’t be. Again, baptism is from the bible so we should at first assume that there is a clear meaning of it and how to do it. I myself believe that the bible is clear about what baptism is and how to do it, and I’ve provided a short lesson below to show this.
The word, “baptism” comes from the Greek, “baptizo” which means to plunge or immerse. The translators of the original KJV decided to transliterate the word rather than translate it since by then most people were sprinking infants.
Scriptural examples:
Mark 1:10 (NIV), “Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water”
Acts 8:38-9a (NIV), “And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water”
Colossians 2:12 states, “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God”.
So we’ve already established that baptism is an immersion (which makes sence since that’s when we are buried with Jesus) and is not available for infants since you need faith. Jesus told people to be immersed, that’s how he and his hearers understood it and that was the example Jesus left in the gospels from his own baptism.
Obviously not everyone will agree with that, but to say that all ways of baptizing and meanings of it are equally biblically valid is just as obviously not true.
I agree with you that there are a lot of meaningless, unscriptural rituals in Christiannity. More broadly and importantly, there are, IMO, a lot of false doctrines in Christiannity, and as a result of that, meaningless rituals.