Tag: John Mwafise Woloko

T0009 Can Christian Factions Disagree About Theology and Remain United?

Posted on by John Mwafise Woloko

 

Can Christian Factions Disagree About Theology and Remain United?

This is one of those questions that seldom enters our minds as we engage in different Christian activities within conflicting Christian movements. This question is particularly important because God builds a unified Christian movement called the Body of Christ, and demands that we dedicate considerable spiritual resources to maintain that Body’s unity and vitality. To respond to this question properly, we need to explore some important facts about genuine Christians that many overlook.

 

All True Christians Belong to a Single Movement – The Body of Christ

Contrary to the common belief that everyone who calls themselves Christian shares the same identity, true Christians form one organization called the Body of Christ. In Ephesians 4:1-6, the Bible states, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” It is plainly obvious that anyone not acknowledged by God as part of this united body is not a true Christian. In light of this reality, labeling ourselves or identifying with any denominational affiliation is less important than meeting the obligations of belonging to that group. Sadly, many individuals caught in different Christian religious cycles feel compelled to defend their belief system instead of focusing on doing God’s will in their context. As a result, numerous so-called Christian organizations worldwide adhere to and promote conflicting doctrines, preventing unified progress.

 

 

All Genuine Christians are of the Same Mind

Genuine Christians belong not only to one body but also share spiritual unity with each other. Naturally, this is not obvious when observing the current chaos within the divided Christian groups we have formed. Attending a Catholic Church service will never leave you feeling the same as leaving a Pentecostal service. You also won’t have the same feelings and beliefs when you attend a Methodist, Charismatic, and Oneness Pentecostal fellowship. These movements not only exhibit diverse forms of worship but also contain conflicts within their core doctrines and schools of thought. As a result, leaders in these Christian groups hold their own unique agendas and interpretations of God’s message for the world. The encouraging news is that despite the chaos, God preserves a remnant that discerns and obeys His will, despite suffering under biased and subjective ideas and patterns in their system. God reaches out to sincere inquirers everywhere in the world, including among Buddhists, Muslims, atheists, pagans, and even scientists who deeply seek the truth but are unsure how to find it. By His mercy, He always finds a way to reveal Himself to these people and lead them to a community of true Christians who will help them develop spiritually.

 

 

 

 

The imperfection of human systems stems from our fallen state, yet this should not be used as a reason to pursue self-centered goals, as many theologians suggest. A few Christian denominations possess a real and concentrated manifestation of the Holy Spirit within their community. Others experience only a superficial presence of the Holy Spirit, influenced mainly by human theological methods and traditions that lean more towards religiosity than authentic worship of God. Of such the Bible describes as, “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” Moreover, the Bible sternly warns, “And from such people turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:5). Most modern Christian groups are loosely formed assemblies guided by their own desires, with clear examples including inclusive, progressive, socialist, cults, occult, and new age Christian communities.

 

If genuine Christians were brought together from their various contexts to a single location, they would easily participate in any type of fellowship, like worship or prayer, something the current self-centered movements cannot achieve. This is because the Holy Spirit directs all genuine believers and inspires no kind of self-centeredness, contradiction, or conflicting ideologies among them. The Bible captures this in Revelation 7:9-10, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

 

Genuine Christians are not Many

Following Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 7:13-23, we see that throughout the whole church era, only a small portion of the world’s population is truly Christian. This is plainly obvious from today’s materialistic and selfish trends worldwide. Believing the common statistics on search engines that claim genuine Christians number in the billions would be a fatal mistake. These statistics overlook the Bible’s focus on genuine repentance and a life of obedience to God as key criteria. If you’re reading this article, you should aim to be one of the few chosen from the many who are called.

 

Answer

“Can two walk together, unless they agreed?” (Amos 3:3). “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand” (Mark 3:24). Based on what we’ve observed, Christian factions differ in their beliefs, disagree on theology, don’t share the same core doctrines for their spiritual journey, and aren’t always guided by the Holy Spirit. Because they differ on these core matters that define the authentic Christian movement, they are not united. For sincere inquirers, it is more beneficial to identify as a Christian rather than seek denominational affiliations. Since most true believers belong to various Christian denominations, your principal goal should be to follow God’s will wherever you are. Nonetheless, you are responsible for verifying that you belong to a fellowship with a genuine emphasis on the Holy Spirit and whose activities are inspired and led by Him.

Share this message with individuals in your community who find it challenging to understand the relationship between the Bible and theology.

Study, explore, gain wisdom, and remain blessed in the Lord!

T0007 How Can Christians Spot Bad Theology?

Posted on by John Mwafise Woloko

 

How Can Christians Spot Bad Theology?

Besides misunderstanding the role and purpose of theology, many Christians struggle to distinguish between the Bible and theology. As a result, it becomes difficult to recognize when a theology is undermining the faith. Let’s examine six approaches to spotting weak theologies that might jeopardize the faith of believers in various ways.

 

The Theology is Crafted to Defend a School of Thought

To keep it simple, a school of thought is the engine of every theology. It influences the way theology handles the Scriptures and shapes how a person or group interprets the Bible and develops doctrinal conclusions. Each worldview has its own school of thought that allows it to interpret the Bible. For example, Calvinists interpret the Bible believing that God exercises His absolute sovereignty through His grace rather than free will. Armenians believe that humans possess free will and can choose to accept or reject God. These two groups never reach a consensus. Other Christian groups approach the Bible with the perspective that Jesus is not God, or is simply a prophet or an ordinary human being. Others deny the trinity, opting for their preferred theory and reading the Bible through their unique lens. For anyone wanting an accurate interpretation of Scriptures, the sole guidance to depend on is the Holy Spirit. The Bible depicts Him as the sole guide to all truths (John 16:13).

The Theology Begins with an Assumption then Looks for Verses to Validate it

Assuming things or forming suggestions and theories in life is perfectly fine as long as we conduct sincere research. The sole purpose of assuming something or creating a theory should be to conduct research aimed at uncovering the truth. The research findings have the potential to validate or invalidate your thought. Here is where the difficulty usually occurs, since many engage in research to validate their theory or assumption at any cost, despite insufficient evidence. The appropriate response upon assuming something is to carry out sincere scientific investigation and concede when evidence is insufficient. Individuals who consider their viewpoint infallible and avoid critical evaluation are entirely mistaken. They are often the ones who create problematic theologies with contradictory interpretations of the Bible.

 

The Theology Relies on Selected Scriptures, not on the Entire Bible

A major issue in Bible interpretation within the Body of Christ today is depending on selected Scriptures to construct theologies for Bible doctrines. This is evident in various areas like marriage, tithing, sowing financial seeds, prosperity, healing, women ordained to lead men, the trinity, and more. Many randomly select Bible verses from both covenants, neglect to interpret them within their context, and construct theologies that inadequately explain the doctrines they aim to clarify. A lot of imbalances arise from this, as many prioritize their own desires and go their separate ways, neglecting the Bible’s calls for unity.

A major reason Calvinism and Arminianism will never agree is their reliance on selected Scriptures. We must not casually dismiss God’s sovereignty, nor assume that God created us as robots with no ability to make decisions. God’s sovereignty and free will operate side by side, a mystery we struggle to clarify. But He made things that way to ensure we remain humble. We can conduct a similar analysis for all the other aforementioned areas of misinterpretation. Christians who base their theologies on selected Scriptures seldom let the Bible interpret itself, unless it supports their preconceived beliefs.

 

The Theology Wants to Maintain Certain Christian Traditions

There is nothing wrong with having unique Christian customs and approaches to worship and service. God structured the Christian faith to ensure His gifts to us manifest in a variety of ways. Nevertheless, we need to be cautious in differentiating human traditions from God’s doctrines. Many Christians perceive their denominational loyalty through a traditional lens, believing it to be more scriptural than other denominations. The question emerges whether God is responsible for creating denominations with conflicting doctrines. Clearly, our different geographical locations and cultural backgrounds will lead to varied forms of worship and service. Nonetheless, these human and geographical diversities should not conflict with God’s doctrines. It is alarming when people mix cultural, geographical, and traditional alienations with the doctrines of the Bible. These kinds of actions always cause confusion since people focus more on their traditions and human patterns than on the Word of God. A major issue with such tendencies is that they result in extreme religiosity.

 

The Theology Doesn’t Distinguish Between the Old and New Covenants

We briefly mentioned this earlier by noting that the Bible has two covenants, and a Christian who fails to differentiate between them will face limitations in their spiritual journey. The Word of God in the Old Testament paves the way for us to understand the New. To genuinely understand the New Testament, we must first carefully analyze the Old. Although the Old Testament is considered obsolete, it is presented as a copy or subordinate version of the New, with many principles and doctrines repeated within the New. Undoubtedly, the New Testament can be confirmed as having a much greater standard than the Old. Not differentiating between the Old and New Covenants when interpreting the Bible inevitably results in misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

 

The Theology Doesn’t Point to Christ and Him Crucified

Theology that doesn’t center on glorifying Christ is pointless. Throughout the Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, there is a unique message that directs attention to Christ. Our theologies should concentrate on research efforts that improve our understanding of that message. When theology emphasizes wealth and worldly achievements without Christ directing it for His purposes, it becomes nonsense. We are here on earth with one mission: to know God through Christ, by the Holy Spirit’s help, and to lead a holy life in obedience to His Word by carrying out His will. Hence, we can look forward to living forever with Him at His return, since we are merely temporary in this fading and corrupt world that holds no hope for the lost. Anything that doesn’t follow this line of thought is a waste of time on earth.

Don’t forget to share this message with anyone grappling with the relationship between the Bible and theology.

Delve into study, research, and meditation on the Word, increase in wisdom, and remain blessed in the Lord!

B0001 What Makes Biblical Interpretation Reliable? Part 2

Posted on by John Mwafise Woloko

 

What Makes Biblical Interpretation Reliable? Part 2

In Part 1, we talked about the Holy Spirit, Logos, Rhemas, and context. Let’s move forward with the other essential interpretation protocols to keep in mind.

 

Prayer

When you depend on the Holy Spirit to interpret Scripture, you establish a foundation for consistently reaching the truth. Once you can tell the difference between interpreting the Bible to understand its message and doing so to generate Rhemas from the Logos, you have laid the key groundwork needed for interpreting Scripture. The other tools that follow are designed to help you finetune everything, with the initial one being prayer. You cannot learn about God without having a communication protocol with Him. Not only does God insist on prayer, but it also enables Him to act upon our obedience to His promises, eliminating every obstacle from the dark world that hinders our understanding of the truth. A researcher without prayer depends solely on reason, which alone is too feeble to engage and prevail in the spirit realm.

 

Linguistic and Cultural Challenges

When we read the Bible and its stories, some communication patterns might not be immediately clear unless we examine the culture and language of the era when that passage was written. It’s unclear what the expression “a camel going through the eye of a needle” signifies. That was something recognized by those living at the time. Additional examples include city names that have vanished over time or been changed to entirely different ones because of the progression of civilization. Sometimes, we have to revisit and study those ancient periods to grasp the meaning of those things in their original context. It’s only then that we can genuinely interpret what the writers meant in today’s context.

 

Translation Challenges

Translating certain Bible passages from one language to another is quite difficult, particularly when we lack sufficient understanding of the culture and context in which the author wrote. Occasionally, the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages contain idioms and ancient phrases that are entirely lost or whose meanings are scarcely understood nowadays. The situation worsens when the language we are translating into lacks an equivalent word or phrase. Therefore, it is essential to consistently consult the copies of the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic manuscripts when studying the Bible to get as close as possible to the original meaning intended by the author. We know that the Holy Spirit always fills the knowledge gaps during research to help us grasp what the authors intended.

 

 

What Jesus Does and Says

The entire Bible points to Jesus. His primary purpose is to reveal the Father and guide us to know Him by relying on the Holy Spirit’s assistance. While not disregarding the literal meanings of the stories and passages throughout the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we must always remember that God’s primary purpose in inspiring humans to compile the written Bible is to understand Jesus’ mission on earth. Any interpretation that ignores this central understanding deviates from genuine wisdom. Thus, Jesus is at the heart of both the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament looks forward to Him and the New Testament looks back on His finished work on the cross. Consequently, everything Jesus says and does regarding the new Kingdom life sets the standard for how we should live our Christian lives on earth.

 

What the Apostles and Early Christians Do and Say

Given all biblical evidence points to Jesus, it was the apostles and Early Christians who first inherited the heavenly Christian traditions taught by Jesus and were the pioneers in practicing them in this world. Therefore, all their words, actions, behaviors, attitudes, and life approaches deserve careful study to guide us in this church age. This is why the Book of Acts and the apostles’ letters to the churches exist—to bring a historical understanding and offer crucial direction for Christians today.

 

When interpreting the Bible, one should consider all these additional factors.

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Learn, explore, acquire knowledge, and stay blessed in the Lord!

 

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