What Does Your Church Believe?

Church and presidential candidates have had a rough ride in the primaries. Barack Obama has finally resigned his Chicago church after videos of his former pastor’s prejudicial and anti-American comments were viewed by millions and a visiting Catholic priest caricatured Hillary Clinton as an entitled racist. John McCain also had his problems, eventually rejecting endorsements from two pastors whose public statements embarrassed him.

All at once, some church beliefs have zoomed into public awareness, stunning millions and revealing their relative ignorance of what their churches really believe. While it is true that some church beliefs may be distorted in the selective media reporting, the sweeping surprise really reveals a troubling ignorance of church beliefs.

In the case of Obama, one wonders how he could sit in a church for 20 years and only now object to blatant racism from the pulpit. We can only conclude that some sit in church and ignore what’s preached, or they don’t understand what’s said, or they may have slept through it all, making Sunday a unique day of rest.

I’m reminded of a story where a man asked a church-goer what he believed. He answered, "I believe what the church believes." The follow-up question was, "And what does your church believe?" "The church believes what I believe," answered the church-goer. "And what do you both believe?" The evasive answer was, "We both believe the same thing." That probably sums up millions of church attendees in America. There is a vague awareness of some core belief somewhere, but what that might be is unknown with any precision.

Many evidently sit in church because that’s their family tradition, they like the friendly atmosphere, the pastor is an engaging speaker or they need some religious status for whatever their purpose in their town, their culture or their political aspirations. As someone put it, "They come at 11 o’clock sharp and leave at 12 o’clock dull." Dr. Robert Cook used to say that churches ought to place a chair in the front for rigor mortis to set in. It’s like the lad who asked his father about portraits hanging in the church foyer honoring the war dead. "They are the men who died in the service," the father explained. The little boy asked, "Was it the 8:00 or 11:00 service?"

All kidding aside, I hope you know what your church believes lest you reinforce spiritual ignorance. Does it hold the Bible as the supreme authority, or does it include other authorities? Does it believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God or does it merely "take the Bible seriously but not literally"? Does it believe that one can get to Heaven by good works, adhering to the Golden Rule or making a try at keeping the Ten Commandments, or is salvation obtained by simple personal faith in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection? Is Jesus God in the flesh or merely an evolutionary apogee or a unique human? Is Christ risen, ascended and returning? Does it believe that all religions are created equal with many ways to heaven? Is there a Hell to shun and a Heaven to seek? Will all men stand before God and give an account of their acceptance or rejection of Christ? Is the church an engine of political activism or a soul-saving station?

Does your church have a doctrinal statement? If so, what does it say? Does the church really believe it and preach it?

In summary, do you know what’s going on, and do you care enough to be involved? If not, don’t criticize Obama.

Check out these Scriptures on some of the areas I outlined above: Bible – II Timothy 3:16; good works – Titus 3:5; salvation – I Corinthians 15; Jesus Christ – John 8:24, 14:6; future judgment – Romans 2:16, John 5:29; Christ’s return – Acts 1:11; I Thessalonians 4:17.

Dave Virkler