A Myth About Liberals in the Church of Christ
There is a myth that is widely held by many of the more “conservative” members of the Church of Christ about what the more “liberal” members believe about doctrine. That myth is that the “liberal” members are not interested in teaching “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” They hold that the “liberals” want to make the determination of what is right by using their emotions or by what feels good or by what is popular at the time. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Though I can’t speak for all “liberals” I can speak for myself when I say that my goal with my Bible study is to be exactly dead center correct in my interpretation of it. I want to be EXACTLY right and I don’t want to vary from that standard by one nano-particle.
I have come to believe that the “conservative’s” misconception comes from the belief that the biblical principals of “salvation by grace,” “freedom in Christ” “grace is a free gift from God,” “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love,” and other similar teachings are not considered to be as important as the doctrines of “the five acts of worship,” “meeting three times a week,” “no instruments allowed,” “no guarantee of salvation unless you ask forgiveness right before you die,” “works are necessary,” and other such "high value" doctrines. In their minds, the latter far outweighs the former in importance. They believe that if you stress the former you are soft on doctrine and don’t care about the truth. I submit to you that there is more absolute truth in the former than there is in some of the contrived items listed in the latter.
The EXACT truth is that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works so that none can boast. The EXACT truth is that Christ set us free from the law of sin and death and he does not want us to be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (which comes in the form of rule-keeping and relying on rule-keeping for our salvation).
I also submit to you that it is really the “conservatives” ones who live by their feelings. They don’t feel right unless they hold on to these doctrinal issues as a way of legitimizing their existence. They don’t feel right by just accepting this free gift from God and giving their heart to him and living for him because he died for them. They don’t feel right unless they’ve done something to deserve this salvation that God has made available to them. Hopefully, before it’s to late, they will know the truth so it can make them free. God Bless. Dennis
When you really think about it the ultra-conservative is really "liberal". The conservative binds things God hasn't bound such as the rule of silence. There is no difference in binding what God hasn't bound and loosing what God hasn't loosed. Both of these concepts is being liberal with God's word. The greatest service we can do for the "conservative" is to bring them back to the Word of God. (Comment this)
R. Webb
(Comment this)
I think conservatives call others liberal when they let someone do what they wouldn't; and liberals call others conservative when they restrict things they wouldn't. But I'm not sure. And don't most of us want to get it exactly right, like you MuddyPuddles, whether we are conservative or liberal? And if we do get it exactly right, wouldn't someone still call us a conservative or a liberal anyway?
I don't really want to be a liberal, I always perceived it as a bad epithet. Those were the ones who said anything goes; you can dring cola with the Lord's Supper and so on. But I feel less and less like a conservative.
Whatever happened to, "in all things charity"?
I am not a naive idealist (I'm just an regular idealist) but I think that liberals and conservatives can co-exist together with deep affection and respect. We already do it in my home, since nobody agrees with me on any particular topic. The only thing stopping us from getting along is that we love our doctrines (often translated, desires) more than we love each other and we think that's okay. Romans says that while we were weak, sin-filled, ungodly, enemies of God, Jesus died for us - Why do we think that God does not expect us to lay down our lives for those weak, sin-filled, ungodly, enemy liberal/conservatives?
If our highest values are the doctrines listed in your post, then labels don't matter anyway. We started as a unity movement because we thought that was a higher value than our sectarian differences. Frankly, I think that the real division between those labels of conservative and liberal is love. We must agree with God that it is our highest value.
Don Morrison (Comment this)
It seems there will always remain a nagging desire to share the exhilarating liberation from law with our brothers who have yet to experience it, but our efforts might be more productive if focused elsewhere. The seeds have been planted in that field. There are other fields ready for harvest. (Comment this)