Short and sweet. It goes..God is not a belief system or scriptural truths to be defended,He is the Creator , a Savior, and empowering Holy Spirit to be experienced.
The basic question of life is this: is God a reality to be experienced or a belief to be remembered? The basic question of the Christian life is this: Is Christ Jesus a living personage to be experienced or a historical figure to be reckoned with?
Three particular areas of such religious proceduralization are (1) Doctrinal definition (2) Behavioral standards (3) Institutional polity and policy. Christianity is not a belief-system. Christianity is not an ethical system. Christianity is not an institutional system. But the world-system will always try to systematize Christianity into such man-made systems. Fundamentalists create precision of doctrine. Moralists and legalists create ethical behavior guidelines. Management specialists create functional institutions which they call "churches." But Christianity is an anomaly that will not fit into such categories. Christianity is "not the same"; it is of an entirely different order. Whenever man tries to take Christianity and "screw it down tight" in human understanding in order to "get a handle on it," you can be sure he is no longer dealing with Christianity. Christianity is alive with the Spirit of Christ living and functioning in receptive individuals, and cannot be contained in man-made parameters, thus to be manipulated by man. We may attempt to "describe" the manifestation of the character of God in man, as Paul does in the "love chapter" of I Corinthians 13 or by the "fruit of the Spirit" in Galatians 5:22,23, but precise "definition" is to create an entity that is less than Christianity. To explain it is to lose the essence of Christianity; to define it is to lose the dynamic of Christianity; to systematize it is to lose the Spirit of Christianity. Christianity is not an "it" to be objectively defined and systematized by man. Christianity is alive with the Life of Jesus Christ and must be free to be directed by the grace of God.Part of Jim Fowler's Testimony: "If I may be afforded the privilege of personal testimony, I know whereof I speak. I have seen and experienced the fallacy of doctrinal definition having studied "dogmatic theology" and the "philosophy of religion." I ended up "chasing my tail" in academic intricacies and semantic confusion, jumping through the scholastic hoops of mental, cerebral gymnastics, and was never introduced to the dynamic of Christ's life. It was also my privilege to "chomp at the bit" within those fundamentalistic and legalistic churches which define Christianity by behavioral "dos" and don'ts" and codes of conduct. Another diversion found me on another camoflagued treadmill seeking the perfectionistic behavioral expectation of so-called "deeper life" or the "victorious Christian Life." It was just another techniquism of behavioral "how-tos." When it comes to institutional definition and ecclesiastical formation, I was a participant in "Christian religion" for longer than I want to admit. The arguments over polity and church order are most assuredly a disgrace, and ecclesiastical politics are the most despicable of all."Read the rest of Jim Fowler's testimony. http://www.christinyou.net/pages/anomxnty.htmlBe blessed in HIM,Pilgrim
