(…continued) One of the main goals in the formation of the Nicene Creed was to come to some agreement on the understanding of the exact nature of this ‘God and man’ Jesus Christ. Can a person be saved without understanding all this? Of course. If we had to understand everything about God in order to be saved, we would all be lost. What the creeds did was define the basics and set the parameters. And within those parameters, there is room for great diversity. Visiting other churches will tell you that much. The universal Christian Church on earth is a big tent. We can believe a lot of different things and still, all be in that tent. The creeds say nothing about how to structure the worship service, or what kind of music to have, or even if music is required. The creeds say nothing about how to organize congregations, church councils, vision boards, or church staffing. The creeds say nothing about ordination, certification of pastors, or how to call a pastor. The creeds do not say how often to receive Holy Communion, or when children or adults should be baptized. The Bible gives much guidance on many things that the creeds say nothing about. But the creeds allow great freedom for Christians to interpret the Bible in a variety of ways—and we sure do, don’t we?
However, the Creeds make it clear that you cannot believe anything and everything. The creeds do define the basics of what we believe as Christians. And definitions are needed. We live in a time when in the name of inclusivity and freedom, many people want to take down all fences and erase all dividing lines. But that is just plain foolish and impossible. Of course we should strive for unity and good will, but when there are differences, we need to acknowledge it. I will tell you what I mean with a story.
Several years ago, I was teaching an eighth-grade confirmation class. We were talking about the third article of the Creed where it says we ‘believe in the resurrection of the body.’ An intelligent girl named Becki raised her hand and said she did not believe in this resurrection business and heaven and all that. I asked her what she did believe in, and she said she believed in reincarnation, and that when you died your spirit immediately passed into another life form on this earth. Then Becki asked if she could believe in reincarnation and still be a Christian.
I said, “Well, it is not for me to judge who is and who is not a Christian, but you most certainly would be a very confused and mistaken Christian. Reincarnation is not a Christian belief because there is not a word of it in the Bible. Christians believe in the resurrection of the body, your body, where you will wake up and still be you. That is something very different from reincarnation where you may come back as a person, but an entirely new one with no memory of your previous life; or perhaps you will come back as a cow, or some kind of rodent, or maybe even as a maggot, depending on what good or bad karma you have accumulated in this life.”
At this Becki got very upset with me and said, “Don’t you know this is a free country, and I can believe whatever I want, and why is Christianity so narrow-minded, and besides, that is just your opinion, and who are you to judge me?” She really got on a roll.
I said, “Yes, you are free to believe in whatever you want, but that doesn’t make it a Christian belief. You are not free to pick and choose from other beliefs and make up whatever you want and call it Christianity. The Christian faith is defined by the Bible and the creeds, and while we may have different interpretations of some parts of the Bible, we are not free to believe something completely different and call it Christianity. This is not my opinion. This is what Christianity is.”
“You are mean,” Becki said.
Seeing I was getting nowhere, I thought I would try a different approach. I said, “Becki, you are a vegetarian, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am,” she said firmly.
I said, “You believe in that strongly and are committed to it, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” she said again.
“So,” I said, “that means no hamburgers, no meatballs and gravy, no beef jerky, and no steaks on the grill for you, right?”
“Right,” she said.
Then I said to her, “Did you know I am a vegetarian too?”
“You are?” she said, genuinely surprised.
“Yes,” I said, “But I am a vegetarian who likes to eat steaks from the grill, pork chops, summer sausage, and roast beef sandwiches. That’s okay, isn’t it?”
“No,” Becki said, “That’s not okay. That’s stupid. Being a vegetarian means not eating meat. You cannot be a vegetarian and eat meat.”
“Well,” I said, “That is just your narrow-minded opinion, Becki, and besides, who are you to judge me? Didn’t you just tell me this is a free country?”
“But,” she said, “The very definition of a vegetarian is someone who does not eat meat.”
“Oh,” I said, “so we can talk about definitions, and not just accuse each other of being judgmental and mean. Good, now we are getting somewhere. You are right about being a vegetarian, Becki, and I am right about being a Christian. Being a vegetarian means not eating meat, and being a Christian means believing some specific things about God and Jesus and life now and life forever, and one of those things is the resurrection of the body, not reincarnation.”
Definitions are important. The first thing I learned from my high school debate team coach was to define your terms and to define the issue. The creeds define the Christian faith. They tell us who we are and what we believe. And they connect us to the whole family of believers, the whole Christian church on earth, past, present, and future. The church must be local—that fellowship of believers that gathers together every Sunday. The church is also universal, extending over all times and places. We belong to a big family, united by some common beliefs, beliefs that are summarized in the three ancient creeds.
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Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. –Mark 9:24b (KJV)
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