My hat's off to you if you can read all the way through this rambling rant, whether or not you end up agreeing with it.
I've come to believe we too often let ourselves become victims of our own wealth.
Like many of you I've seen churches split and believers shun fellowship with others over doctrinal disputes that, at least quite a few of which, are somehow considered unquestionables of the Faith when it's doubtful they really are.
What, for example, did the Corinthians have as far as doctrinal references goes? The Jews who converted and the righteous Gentiles had the O.T., then the revelations from Christ to Paul. The out and out pagans who were saved pretty much had Paul's letters, and probably gained some exposure to the O.T. but in some cases, maybe not. They also had the gift of prophecy, etc, but as fundamental doctrine they had what Paul revealed to them, which was predominant. This goes for the rest of the Gentile churches Paul ministered to. Some of the letters (Ephesians, iirc) were intended to be passed around church to church. But even then, many may never have known EVERYTHING Paul wrote -- only what he and his associates preached and wrote TO THEM.
So what direct exposure would most ex-pagan Gentiles during the Acts era have had to the content we have in the four gospel accounts, or to what we have recorded in Acts or the general epistles? Probably little to none. Word of mouth relayed by the apostles and their associates, or those who'd seen and heard, but the wealth of data we have in the N.T., most of them would have lacked. It is possible there are elements of Pauline theology that some of those to whom Paul ministered never learned, or never learned clearly, because they simply never heard or read of them directly.
And guess what. They were saved anyway.
Because what did they all have? The good news of the grace of God seen in the empty cross, the empty tomb and the glorious throne.
Did Paul foresee a day when even unbelievers the world over could potentially own at least one copy of the ENTIRE WRITTEN REVELATION OF GOD? I wonder.
I am not questioning, diminishing or regretting the Bible in any way when I say that, nor what follows.
But it is a fact: the joy of the simplicity of Christ and Him crucified for us is often lost to most of us, myself included. No one does it to us, we do it to ourselves. We let ourselves get caught up in THOUSANDS of Scriptural details, and debates internal and external about those details, which fog much of our thinking. It CAN stumble our walk and that of others. It CAN mar our testimony of Christ. Fellowship based on our certified union in the Gospel is obscured or derailed in disagreements, or even in the name of "agreeing to disagree."
Sometimes we even engage in forms of self-righteous doctrinal vengeance upon any disbelievers (disagreeers!) when ALL vengeance is forbidden us as belonging to God alone...and do so over things that really may not matter much in the end. If you've been on TOL longer than ten minutes, you all know this as well as I do.
Again...overall it is unquestionably a blessing that God has allowed us to have it all. It's what we end up doing with it that's the problem.
We know from Scripture that God is going to grow up into the image of Christ those who believe the Gospel of the grace of God. He is GOING to do it, sooner or later. More to the point: He is going to do it whether an individual believer realizes it or not. I know I can and should fellowship with anyone who says he/she believes the saving Gospel. I don't need to let any doctrinal disagreement supersede that, for IT is the power of God to salvation, not whether they are 12 In/Out or Calvinistic or Soul Sleepers or Universalistic or laser-straight down my line of what it means to be Triune.
Whatever I may disagree with them on, if they are saved THEY ARE SAVED. God will deal with their error (as I may perceive it), as He will deal with my own errors which are perceived by them. And if they're lying, God will deal with that too.
TOL is a blessed microcosm of all this, none of which is new. Paul even had it back in his day when exposure to everything God had revealed was limited. So I'm not surprised it's only gotten worse since the middle ages.
And having said all that, I know that I will sooner or later allow my flesh to lead me back into stupid disputes with (a) believers, which will likely solve nothing or (b) unbelievers, in which case I'm wasting my time if I'm not focusing them on Christ and Him crucified.
