Recently I got into a debate or discussion with someone who had recently spoken to a Mormon family member. This person I spoke with grew up catholic and had Evangelical family members as well. They are dubious about the full-blown Evangelical Christianity that we would seek to practice here at Grace and these “theological” debates usually hinder rather than help.
The person I am referencing is a past contact of mine and does not go to our church so I feel very confident in sharing this as an example but to protect their anonymity while also making my writing a little smoother I am going to give them the name Ferris. Ferris is retired so all their days are days they take off. Also, I looked up unpopular names hoping I wouldn’t make you think of anyone you know!
Ferris brought up two issues with me that their Mormon friend mentioned. Baptizing people who are already dead so they can go to heaven and caffeine being a sin to drink… Now I am not an expert on Mormonism and I know for a fact neither was Ferris’ family member. To be blunt we are not worried about the accuracy of Ferris’ view or the other person’s view on Mormonism. I tried my best in this conversation rather to steer things to the truth as quickly as possible rather than getting into endless debates about bad views of how God works. I know Ferris well and so I hoped instead to share the truth and use this rare window where he was asking me about “theology” to instead give the Gospel and remind him of things he has heard taught about God in the past.
I shared that baptism has always been performed by Christians while they are living and whether they are an infant or better yet a consenting believer that baptism itself did not put them into a right relationship with God. I shared that only believing Jesus’ death on the cross to cleanse us of our sins and his resurrection after three days to give us power over death so that we could live with God forever is what brings us into that right relationship. When we trust in Jesus’ work of death and resurrection and only that to save us from our sins so we can live with God forever then and only then are we able to be in God’s presence after we die here on earth.
There is a funny story about how Christianity gave the OK to coffee but since very early in Christianity other caffeinated drinks have been accepted and celebrated amongst the faithful believers. We all know a little coffee can make us significantly more pleasant to be around and I for one thing celebrate His creation giving us a boost. Just remember to thank Him for it!
This all got me thinking about the core of who we are as Evangelicals and very briefly I am going to share the answer from the National Association of Evangelicals. Our group of churches the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches is associated with this national organization and the FEC actively keeps up ties with the NAE.
Don’t think the acronyms are the most confusing words I am about to lay down. According to the NAE, on their website, they mention these four historical distinctive; Conversionism, Biblicism, Activism, and Crucicentrism. I thought to myself… get better words guys! The meaning of all those words are great and I will go through them but they are really awkward words!
Conversionism means that we are born again into a new life after we trust Jesus’ death to wash away our sins and that we believe in His resurrection as the power that gives us new life and through faith in that and only that we gain a new life or new birth into God’s family and we get access to live with God forever when we die.
Biblicism means that we believe that the Bible is the ultimate authority of anything regarding faith or how we should live. The Bible won’t tell you what care to buy but it will tell you how to think about money. It won’t tell you what person you need as your friend but it will tell you how to love them, forgive them, or ask for forgiveness yourself. Anything we need to know about God to have a relationship with God is in the Bible and anything we need to know to live a life that gives God joy in how we are living is in the Bible too.
Activism means that we are active in sending out missionaries to tell others about Jesus and that we engage ourselves in sharing the Gospel with others. Our own values as a church say “We are the church—each one of us has a unique responsibility to share the gospel in our circles of influence and beyond. No exception.” Wherever God sends us as a group or you as an individual. The Gospel is our greatest joy to share.
Crucicentrism means that the Cross of Jesus, His sacrifice for our sins, Him giving us His righteousness that we did not earn, is at the center of everything we do and everything we think about. We do not earn anything by our sacrifices. We worship Him for His and we celebrate it through things like baptism and communion. We do not shy away from sacrifice though when called upon because He was our example to do so.
Hopefully, those poorly constructed words but the beautiful ideas behind them encourage you to spend a minute reflecting on the great truth God has passed down to us and you get a small break from all the untruthful ideas everyone is hoping to pitch to you every day.
Grace and Truth,
Will