Today I want to write about some things that divide followers of Christ that really shouldn’t. I want to write about things I have been hearing, or heard, in my life as a believer in Christ. Maybe some of these things will be familiar to you. This is not going to be a Bible study today. My life has been pretty chaotic lately taking care of my elderly chronically ill cat among my other duties. That doesn’t mean I am not continuing to study, but it does mean I haven’t had the time I would like to get my thoughts assembled and written into my next blog post. It will come.

First of all I want to make anyone reading this to be aware that whatever I say here will be my observations and my opinions and my criticism, if needed. I am not asking anyone to agree with me. My blog is not a place for arguments or judgement. My blog is a place for my thoughts, my opinions, and hopefully encouragement to others to be in a close relationship with Christ, every day of every week. I do short Bible studies here on things that have interested me that I want to share with others so that you may dig deeper yourself. If you find something different than I did, okay, that’s fine. My goal is for you to read the scripture, in it’s context to get the true meaning of what it is conveying.

There are some really tough deep dives that I would love to write about here, but I’m just not ready yet. As it is, things I might say in this post may not be easy for me to write about. However, I think it could be beneficial, maybe an encouragement or something that you’ve heard and didn’t feel like anyone else was on your same page. Maybe it’s something you need to hear because you’ve been guilty of getting into these types of arguments with fellow believers.

Here are just a few that I will briefly explain.

1. Seven literal days of creation/age of the Earth : This argument is likely never to go away or ever be resolved. Some explain creation days as 7 literal 24 hour periods and some say longer time spans between each. Both sides attempt to use other scripture to support their view and even looking at the Hebrew words which the original text was likely written in. Whatever the view seems to shape how old a person believes the Earth to be. Are they 7, 24 hour days, or is a “day like 1000 years” to God? Does this matter? Not one bit. It’s not worth the argument. Both can be right or neither. Who cares? If you can support your view with scripture, wonderful.
2. Hymns vs Contemporary music: This frankly just needs to stop. This argument is so bizarre to me. If you haven’t seen my post on Worship, maybe this is a good time to go read it for you to know why I think this and what I believe “worship” actually is according to scripture. To claim that only hymns are worship is a strange one for me.
3. How to dress for church: Here’s another “old-fashioned” way of thinking or maybe a “rule” that you need to dress a certain way to attend church. On one hand some believers will chastise anyone who comes not decked out in a full suit or a dress or some other semi-formal or even formal attire. Where does Jesus say he cares how you dress? Can someone in a t-shirt and jeans not still be attending the local church who is a true born-again Christian? Of course they can. It doesn’t matter if your church is formal or casual. Come as you are, but be respectful is what I’d say. Modest dress is probably a good idea, but if you’re broke and all you have is itty bitty shorts and a cropped t-shirt, you should still be allowed to attend.
4. The act of communion: I know there are different ways of doing this, or different trains of thought. I am really only familiar with one and heard about others. I have some opinion on what communion is, or ought to be, but this is about differences between Christ followers. Does this matter in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely not. If your church does communion every Sunday, fine. If your church does communion once a month or only at “Easter”, fine. It’s important to understand what “communion” was in the scripture and I know between churches and denominations this is hot button issue. Why? It need not be.
5. Views on “end-times”: Oh boy, this is a touchy subject, isn’t it? We’re talking pre-trib, post-trib, pre-wrath and everything in between. How about interpretations of Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation and also quite frankly Matthew (specifically chapter 24) and Thessalonians. This is why we need to read our scripture in the proper context with the who, the when, and the why, always in our minds as we read. Let’s remember to find something revealed to us about God in the pages. Is this an issue affecting ones salvation? No way. Is the argument worth it? No. Whatever God has planned for this Earth, for his people (which that’s another issue, who are God’s people? It’s my opinion God’s people are those who are believers in the Son and placed their trust in him), will come to pass, rest assured, exactly as he planned in exactly the timing he planned. Let’s not forget what we are supposed to be focused on.
6. Denominational differences: There are so many and some are already listed, but think about baptism as being one and good works. Think about the idea of “predestination” or what happens when you die. Depending on your denomination there’s a good chance there is some differences here. Does any of this affect our salvation? Nope. Therefore it’s not worth the argument.
7. What sin is and what sin isn’t : So many churches like to place rules on believers about what is a sin. Not necessarily according to the Bible, but according to them. Here’s an example, growing up my church told us it was a sin to go to the movie theater or to watch Disney cartoons like the Little Mermaid. I was also told a lot of other things that are not biblically sound but of the Pastor’s and elders opinions about how we should live our lives. We should live by God’s standards. What movies you are watching might matter because of what you might be filling your head with, but the act of watching a movie is not a sin. Remember, we are ambassadors for Christ and we need to conduct ourselves appropriately.
8. Can one lose their salvation? : This is another debate likely never to be resolved between believers. Does this matter? Maybe not. I would say what it can do is make you live in a state of fear without assurance and that certainly isn’t the picture we see in scripture. By grace we are saved, not by our works. Therefore it is my belief the only “sin” that keeps you from eternal life is the sin of rejection of Christ as the son of God, the redeemer, who paid for the consequences of our sin on the cross in his blood.
9. Politics: Another hot button issue among Christians. Some people like to bully others telling them we, as Christians, absolutely need to be involved in our government process. Some argue that we don’t. The bottom line, no matter where you live, you’re under the government of men on this earth and that does not mean they are doing the will of God. It is up to each individual how involved they want to be in the process of their system. Nobody should be bullying anyone about this.
10. What Bible translation to use : How many times have you personally seen or heard this, “King James is the only correct translation”. This is false for one thing and you need to be pretty ignorant to say that because you clearly have no understanding about how we got the mountain of translations we have today. I’ve heard even worse, that the King James is the “only” authorized translation from God. If you love reading the King James, that’s great for you, but please don’t be that person that thinks you know more than I do because I choose to read a different version. If you really are confused about the different ones, please do yourself a favor and study it. Look into how they were commissioned and why others were printed and maybe you can even find out the men behind the translations. Does any of that even matter? No. Most translations are very similar to each other. Use a website like Bible Gateway to compare.

What we need to agree on

So those were only 10 things that I know Christians argue over. Do any of those affect our salvation? No. Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us the truth. “8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.” (CSB translation) Nowhere in scripture do we ever see anything about what we believe about “end-times”, for example, affects our eternal life with Christ. If you are that person (and believe me, I’ve heard it), that differs in their interpretation about the “last days” from someone else, do not call that other person “unsaved” or a “heretic”. That person is not a “false prophet or false teacher”. When the scripture speaks of false prophets and false teachers it means those who preach a different gospel or deny Christ. They are also not “uneducated” because they read the scripture with a different lens when it comes to such things.

Believe it or not, there are different ways people read scripture. Some like to insert ourselves into every book of the Bible, into every account we read and find how it is describing our modern day events. Others view in a more historical timeframe and see a different picture, a picture of Christ, of scripture showing us God’s plan of redemption. Some read everything literal when in my opinion it’s not meant to be read that way. (By the way, Faith Womack explains this in her book, No More Boring Bible Study which I reviewed. But she didn’t teach me that and the 2 of us aren’t the only ones who think this way.)

So what should we agree on? We should agree on what Christ told us about redemption. There’s a really strong picture in scripture of what that looks like. It’s one of my digging deeper posts, Calvary. Go and read it. Read the scripture references I included there, yes, in whatever translation you read and understand. For further reading you might want to check this out as I have to agree with how they worded it. I am not endorsing that website or know anything about the church that posted it. I do however agree about agreeing with the essentials and what is essential.

When Jesus ascended to the Father and gave the commission to the disciples were any of those things I mentioned part of it? No. They were tasked with preaching the name of Yeshua to all the nations. They were building the body, or the “church” of believers. They were commissioned with spreading the good news of the the Gospel to others to continue the mission of Christ. While the Bible doesn’t say so, historians claim that each of the apostles, minus one, were all killed for their faith, for their preaching about Christ and specifically about his resurrection. John they say lived to old age. Jesus does say that the world would hate them because of their love of Jesus and the world hated Jesus first.

John 15:18-25: 18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. 20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 The one who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But this happened so that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled: They hated me for no reason.

What should our focus be on then? We should be focused on Christ and speaking about our faith to others. We should be doing the same thing the apostles were commissioned with doing; continuing the work of Christ and showing love to others. We should focus on living for Christ in everything we do. Bickering about non-essentials is exactly what the early church was scolded about in Paul’s letters. It isn’t worth the time or effort when it should be placed elsewhere.

BONUS: “Jesus Christ is the ultimate model of holiness. His life exemplified perfect obedience to the Father and complete separation from sin. Through His sacrificial death and resurrection, believers are not only forgiven but also empowered to live holy lives. The Apostle Paul writes, “For God did not call us to impurity, but to holiness” (1 Thessalonians 4:7). In Christ, believers are a new creation, called to live in a manner worthy of their calling.” “A holy life is marked by love and compassion for others. Colossians 3:12 instructs, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Quoted from BibleHub

It’s awfully hard to show love, kindness, compassion, humility and patience when you’re bickering about nonsense things like those I listed above. There are so many other things Christians argue about that they need to let go. Recent events have brought “end times” theology to the forefront and it is one of those issues Christians will seethe about. I’ve witnessed the vitriol myself. Remember, it does not matter what your personal opinion is on that topic because it does not affect your salvation and obsessing over it becomes your idol. There is no place in scripture that tells us to focus on that or any other topic outside of what we believe about Christ and how that affects our eternity.