FLEX or FIRM, Your Choice

In the last few months I have been hearing and learning about some serious problems the evangelical church is facing. It seems that many in our world see the evangelical church as irrelevant because it follows a strict set of beliefs from a book that is over 2000 years old.  It seems that church attendance is not what it could be because church leaders are insisting on imposing their moral code on the church’s membership. What’s more, the next generation is finding the church, how can I say this, boring. They aren’t used to being lectured or told what to believe. They want to mix and match belief systems. The church is just too intolerant. Everybody knows that.

Irrelevant, in your face, and intolerant; the church has got a big problem doesn’t it? After thinking about this for a while, I believe I have come up with a simple solution. The evangelical church needs to adopt a FLEX theology. FLEX implies something is to be pliable, flexible and easily molded to fit a situation, a culture, or a worldview. With this approach almost all of the church’s problems go away. Allow me to demonstrate with a simple acrostic.

F – This stands for forget as in forget what you have heard or heard preached. It’s a new day.

L – This stands for loophole, as in look for a loophole, to make the Bible say whatever you want it to say.

E – This stands for experience as in let your experience, what you feel, govern what you believe.

X – This stands for expand as in expand your beliefs to include all faiths and beliefs; they are all right in some way, aren’t they?

Right away you can see how FLEX theology could work for you. You feel ostracized by your gay and straight friends because they believe your church and you are judging their sexuality or sexual behavior. No problem. With FLEX theology you can alleviate their fears. By Forgetting what you’ve been taught you can be open to new interpretations. We know better now anyway don’t we?

Your church teaches that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and that people who don’t accept Christ go to hell. They quote verses like John 14:6 and Acts 4:12. This seems to be to narrow of a view.  How can it be true?  Don’t sweat it. FLEX Theology to the rescue. Use the ”God’s too loving to sentence anyone to eternal hell” Loophole. See how FLEX theology gives you some awesome wiggle room?

You know that sex outside of marriage is forbidden in Scripture, that marriage in the Bible is between a man and a woman and that according to the Apostle Paul’s teaching, giving in to same sex attraction is a sin. Your experience though tells you something different. You know many unmarried couples, gay and straight, some dating with no sexual restrictions, others living together without the commitment of marriage….. they seem happy enough.  What could be wrong with sex outside of marriage? Don’t worry about it. With FLEX Theology you can follow your heart. You can determine what is acceptable through your own Experience. It’s a better guide than any old Book anyway right?

You find yourself giving in to sin and compromising in your own behavior. No problem. With FLEX theology you can just eXpand what you consider to be right and wrong.  This will ease your guilty conscience and let you sleep at night. Aren’t you grateful for how easy FLEX Theology makes things for us?

When not seeing the Bible as a powerful, divinely inspired, authoritative, life-changing book but thinking of it more as just a collection of old but pretty good suggestions, we’ve found the secret to FLEX theology. When we are able to see the commandments found in the Bible not as being there for us, but only for the people of their day, we become enlightened enough to adopt FLEX Theology.  When we believe that we have evolved beyond the ancient religious concepts proposed in Evangelical Christianity, then FLEX Theology is for us.

Finally, here’s the best thing about FLEX Theology. It allows us to be seen as tolerant, gentle people who, in fact, believe in nothing passionately enough to stand for anything. This will allow everyone to like us and we will fill our churches with people so we can share with them that we, in fact, really believe in nothing and they can too. They can hold to whatever views they want to and live as they please unencumbered by an irrelevant, in your face and intolerant faith taken from an ancient Book that worked in the past but couldn’t possibly work now. It allows us to basically be the masters of our own lives —- and after all—– isn’t that what life is all about?

FLEX Theology is amazing isn’t it?

But on the other hand if you are uncomfortable exchanging your Christian faith for the man-centered wasteland of FLEX theology there is an alternative. If you prefer substance over nothingness, if there is a yearning in your soul for a God who has revealed Himself to man, you have another option. You could choose to embrace a set of truths that are unchanging. I’ll call this FIRM Theology. It is what for at least two centuries the serious Christian community has indeed embraced.  Embracing FIRM theology doesn’t lead us down an easy road. It is challenging, yet rewarding. It will require the following from us:

F – As in Foundational. I need to see the Scriptures, the Bible, the written revelation of God, as foundational to Christianity. This God- given book reveals to us the truths we need to have a healthy relationship with God as well as with others.

I – As in Investigate. I need to find out what the Bible really says. It is incumbent upon me to read it, study it, meditate on it and live it .

R – As in Rely on it. I need to see the Scriptures as my “go to Book” for advice. I need to hold on to it in times of suffering and distress as well as use it as a guide in the midst of life’s confusion. It is our authority for faith and practice and should be relied on as such.

M – As in Meaning – Find the meaning of life we all are looking for through a relationship with the God of the Scriptures. Understand the meaning of life through the words of the Scriptures. Share the meaning of life with others through the Scriptures.

The Revelation of God has been passed on to us almost as a legacy from those before. The Scriptures are the once and for all faith delivered to us that we are to earnestly contend for (Jude 3). The teachings of the Apostles found in the Bible are the essentials to what is called Christianity.

Everywhere these holy writings have gone they have dramatically changed the world around them for the good. They have been miraculously preserved and translated by men like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale literally giving their lives to make sure you and I could have a copy for ourselves.  The result of their efforts is that this Book, ancient as it may be, has changed whole cultures and families as well as individual lives. If we will embrace the Scriptures, we will find them to be our anchor in our storms, our medicine for our wounds, our light for our path, our wisdom for our decisions and our nourishment for our soul.  The Bible is capable of changing us from the inside out once we embrace and live out  FIRM theology.

Blessings

Pastor Dave Watson