Fashionable Theology

We like to make fun of people who are out of date with their clothing fashions. As a matter of fact people have been known to make fun of me from time to time for 'old school' wardrobes. That’s all good fun. Making fun of people for having an ‘old school’ theology is not as funny. Theology simply means, ‘the study of God’. We live in such a fluid culture…everything changes and changes fast. This keeps life interesting. That is fine when we are dealing clothes, cars entertainment etc. These things were made to be temporary. So change and change often. Who cares? But if our thinking about God becomes as fluid and changing as our wardrobe we have a problem. James calls this person the ‘double minded man’ He says of people with an unstable belief in God, ‘they waver back and forth in everything they do’. Fashion is published in magazines. That’s because it changes often and so periodicals make for an ideal medium. Truth about God is published in a book that has been around for thousands of years, the Bible. It does not change. That is where we should get our beliefs about God. Others may help us understand and flesh out what it means to follow the Bible in the 21st century but all of these thinkers’ ideas must be compared to and put up to the scrutiny of the truth that is found in God’s Word. So we should read and think…widely and than compare what we read to the only source of error proof truth…the Bible. We seem to have lost our zeal for the truth of His Word. We will become excited about a new book by (fill in your favorite author here) and yawn at the prospect of reading truth from His Word. I find myself in that boat a lot. Even when reading a Christian author I find myself reading Biblical quotations in the book rapidly and without careful thought in order to get back to the author’s Word. Why? Because I fall into the trap of believing books written recently must have more relevance than God’s Word. This is a lie that I must not believe. God’s Word is as relevant today as it was the day it was written and when we read it for what it is…error proof truth…and apply it to our lives we will be amazed at how amazing life becomes.

tags: God Christianity Bible theology