Questions on Christianity

Many years ago, I worked for a company that utilized a large plant to make their products.  The plant was so large that I could not recognize a person who was at the other end of the plant.  However, I soon learned to recognize a person who was far away by their walk and other mannerisms.

Why do I bring this up?  My wife and I were talking about how, after we die, we will recognize our friends and relatives.  Our physical body will decay but God could make a duplicate spiritual body.  But what about those with physical deformities?  If God corrects those it might make recognizing them difficult.  I think a better solution is that we will recognize each other by our souls.  After all our soul is the sum total of our existence; it is more than our physical appearance.

We spend much time addressing the needs of our physical body including making it look as attractive as possible.  Do we spend as much time improving our soul?

I have been going through my Dad’s paperwork and came across a small book of catechism published by the General Conference of the Mennonite Church of North America in 1937.  In a section titled “By Way of Introduction” it contains the following observation.

One of the great heritages of the Mennonite Church is “The right of the individual to his private interpretation of the Scriptures under guidance of the Holy Spirit”.

Private interpretation of the Scriptures leads to diversity of interpretations.  This need not be a weakness, but may become a source of strength, provided that charity prevails, and diversity of gifts be recognized. [1]

God has given us free will which means each of us is responsible to ensure we interpret the Bible correctly because our beliefs help determine our actions.  At the judgement seat of Christ, we will not be able to blame others for our actions (2 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 20:13).

And part of our judgement will be on how we treat those with whom we disagree.

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[1]   A Catechism.  Berne, IN:  Mennonite Book Concern,1937, p. 5.

WORLD recently published an article on faith and politics.  In the article they quoted a political scientist at a university as saying:  “. . .the label ‘Christianity’ doesn’t mean much anymore, at least when it comes to politics: while a majority [of candidates] claim to be Christian, defining what that means is complicated.” [1]

Why is it so difficult to define what it means to be a Christian?  What is complicated about being a Christian?  If God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), he would not make it complicated.  Instead, we have a multitude of different Christian denominations, and each denomination has pages of doctrinal statements each of which they claim is God’s truth.

True, Jesus does say the way to destruction is easy and wide and the way to life is difficult and narrow.  He did not say the narrow way was complicated (Matthew 7:13-14).

God is not the one who makes being a Christian complicated; we do.  One reason is that everyone wants to use Christianity to their material advantage.  Our Christianity is defined by what provides us with the most advantage in our material existence.  Instead, we should be striving to remake our soul so it becomes more like God.

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[1]   Elizabeth Russell and Christina Grube.   “Faith and politics”.  WORLD, September 2024, p.19.

John 3:16 might be the most famous verse in the Bible. We see it displayed at sporting events and Christian organizations are named after it, but have you read John 3:36?

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36 ESV)

However, other translations give a different interpretation.  For example:

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36 KJV)

Why is there such a difference in how this verse is translated?  Why does one translation say “believe” and another says “obey”?

In the original Greek, we are dealing with two different words.  In the first half of John 3:36, the word translated as “belief“ is correctly translated in both of the above translations.  However, the word translated “belief” or “obey” in the second half of the verse implies obedience that can be observed and is produced by belief. [1]  This is what the whole book of James teaches.  “. . .Faith apart from works is dead.” (James 2:26 ESV)  If we truly believe something, there will be consequences of that belief in terms of our conduct.  As Christians has our beliefs changed our conduct?

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[1]   Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, copyright 1985.