A Better Theology

I AM a Christian, a 'little' Christ, I strive to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, not believing everything the WCF ( Westminster Confession of Faith ) or the creeds say you need to believe in order to be a 'Christian', but DOING what He did ( trying to ), religiously living according to my beliefs ( everybody believes SOMETHING )!

More importantly, I AM a part of 'We', the Body of Christ! Even here, according to the WCF & most of the creeds, I cannot BE a part of the Body of Christ because most often that is equated ( as it should be, truly ) with being a Christian, plus, since my brethren do not interpret Scripture according to the WCF or the creed, we cannot be considered part of the Body because we do not believe all the things they say we should though we strive to do what is right!

As believers in Fulfilled Eschatology, we believe that we have a better understanding of, say, Jesus' words in Matthew 24:34, 'Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.' We believe that when Jesus told His disciples this, He said it in answer to ALL of their earlier ( 24:3 ) questions! This belief consistently has quite the 'domino effect', affecting most every doctrine in Scripture & felling most if not all man-made doctrines!

The question has been asked ( rightly so ); 'what effect does this 'better theology' have on our life?' Are we better Christians because of it? In this day & age, it seems like 'Christians' are a dime a dozen! One may believe according to the WCF & the creeds, yet be one of the worst Christians. Don't get me wrong,; I'm not saying that merely believing what the WCF or the creeds say makes you a bad Christian, much of what the WCF & the creeds say is Scriptural. No, what I'm saying is that, when the rubber meets the road, it is what one DOES, not what one BELIEVES that really matters!

Now, EVERYONE believes SOMETHING; if one doesn't believe ANYTHING, they won't do ANYTHING: belief IS important! However, as we can all bear witness to, not everyone who SAYS a thing DOES accordingly, but everyone that DOES ( or practices, more rightly ) a certain thing truly believes that way. It's easy to say ( 'talk is cheap' ) that one believes a certain thing but it is hard to do accordingly. I'm not saying that just because one does not always do according to what he or she believes that they do NOT believe what they purport, though this is often the case, but 'men are weak'; we all make mistakes, to a greater or lesser extent!

Back to the question of 'a better theology'; does what we believe affect what we do? Most assuredly it does! If we believe that Jesus came back ( in judgment ) when & how He said He would, along with all the 'domino effects' that belief carries, it should have an effect on the way we live our lives. For instance, that, like Jesus said 'salvation is of the Jews' ( John 4:22 ), we understand, not that one must be ( come ) a Jew in order to be save, but that salvation, in Scriptural terms, is something that happened in the first century, not just to the Jews, but to Gentiles as well. Because we believe that the Resurrection occurred in the first century, we live freely, not in expectation that all our works will be burned up, but knowing that, in our Father's Good Providence, they will endure the ravages of Time!

We DO believe, but more to the point, we act on that belief, we DO accordingly! One can say ( till they're blue in the face ) that they believe this or that, but unless &until they actually DO it, their words are useless & less than worthless. It is when we DO things ( for the most part ) that others know what we believe! If we say we believe a certain thing but do not do accordingly, our words can actually be harmful, especially in a religious context! As for me; I believe I'll go next door &have a cup of coffee!

Charles Haddon Shank