Theology Check

What did he just say? I never asked that question growing up. When my pastor said something from the pulpit, I took it as the gospel truth (no pun intended). I never argued a word he said. If he interpreted a scripture a certain way, I went with it. It was King James all the way because those "newer" versions were watered down versions of the truth. No harm was meant by that teaching, it was just a lack of education. Ignorance, if you will. If we all really wanted to be true to the scripture we would have been diving into some Greek, Hebrew or even Aramaic language classes.

This isn't a slam of that pastor. I respect him as a man of God. I am certain I would have taken the word of anyone considered a man of God as truth without hesitation. It was a line not to be crossed.

Same thing for Sunday School teachers. I remember sitting in the coveted youth Sunday School class one morning and our teacher was telling us why we should not listen to contemporary Christian music. She said, "The word 'contemporary' means 'like.'" I don't remember her exact words after that, but she was telling us that contemporary music was trying to be like traditional Christian music (hymns...which I love) and would some how lead us astray. Of course, I didn't go home and look up the definition for myself. I just stayed away from that music that would send me straight to the depths. If I had taken the time to look up the word, I would have realized it means "belonging to the same period of time or of about the same age."

Hindsight, I missed out on some great worship music before I found a love for contemporary music. I can still be found pounding out the old hyms on my piano, but some contemporary music has a great message.

The other night PK and I were at a church function. A man we hadn't previously met was leading in worship. His songs were meant to be a testimony of sorts of his faith journey. He had written some songs himself and performed several favorites.

He talked a lot between songs and as it was an informal outside affair with kids running around and other noises, I didn't pay attention to everything he said. However, one thing caught my attention right away. He said, "God is everything you want Him to be." I looked at PK and he had caught it, too. I whispered, "Bad theology" and PK said, "That is why there are so many different denominations.

Yes. God is everything we need. We could understand God to be everything we want if our hearts are in tune with His will and our needs conform to His desires for us. Then our wants are what He wants for us. But twisting the idea of God and His characteristics to conform to fit our wants is not scriptural.

I'm certain the man speaking wasn't out to twist scripture or start a cult following akin to "Name it and claim it" but when spreading the Gospel or teaching from scripture semantics says a lot.

I don't know if anyone else in the audience caught what he said or not. For me, I guess it was an opportunity to check my theology