While some may see this series as me “church bashing”, I worry this comic in particular would even more so solidify that thought. I assure you that is not my intention at all. The whole point of this series is to point out many misconceptions that I have been a part of or witnessed in my years in Mainstream Christianity. I would be bashing myself if it was my intention to bash. My hope is that people that read will stop and think and pray and read about what I am posting to see if God shows them if I am true or if their current belief system is. My worry is that people will do what I used to do and just scoff and “know” that they are right and not do any of the reading/praying/thinking.
This comic is pointing out the fact that I believe most churches have their foundations wrong. They are founded on what the world believes, then applying that to the Bible, then applying that to what church is. The picture on the right and Scriptures I would say 99.9% of Christians would not have issue with and even say they are doing. The Bible is our Truth, our Foundation, our Lens on what we should see in the world, not the other way around.
However, as I said, I have seen the opposite. Let’s take a particular subject for example. Before I mention it, I want to make a disclaimer: I do not hold to one side or the other on this topic. It is not one that interests me, nor changes my walk with God so I choose to stay out of it and not look more into it. I can see points on both sides and I feel one side has more Scripture backing them up than the other, but again, I haven’t researched for myself.
The topic? The shape of the Earth. I imagine you already have a flair up just me mentioning it. So many people seem more sold on Earth’s shape and have more feelings toward it than anything else I could bring up. The thing I see with this topic though is that people on both sides get in their trenches and won’t even question their beliefs.
-Someone brings up a Scripture that shows the Earth is flat? You’re twisting Scripture!
-Someone brings up a Scripture that shows the Earth is a circle/globe? You don’t understand the original language!
Then you have all the outside of Scripture talk. This part is the most concerning for me and the reason for this comic. I ended the Scripture references with Proverbs 3:5 for a reason. God’s Word is our Truth. We START there. Anything we see, hear, read, whatever should be filtered through that, we don’t rely on our OWN understanding. For example, planets. No where in the Creation account (Genesis 1-2:3) are planets mentioned. Does this mean planets don’t exist? Obviously not as they can be seen, some without a telescope. However, does God see them as separate planets or are they still stars to Him (as they are not the Sun or the Moon)?
This is what I am talking about when referring to filtering and foundations. I see too many people, especially on this subject, but also many others, take a world-view (a view not founded from the Bible) and then applying it to the Bible when reading it, even to the point of finding Scripture to support that view. Why else can we have a wide spectrum of people who consider themselves Christian? (40,000 denominations last count I heard). In those denominations you have people that are on both sides of the fence of the Earth’s shape.
I know there are things that the Bible doesn’t speak of and we have to utilize our God-given senses to interpret them, however, if there is something mentioned in Scripture about a subject, shouldn’t we take it at its word instead of trying to spiritualize it or find a way to interpret it to make it fit our view?