One Easy Way to Get Christians to Admit They Are Not Seeking Truth

It makes me wonder why they believe in the first place

A few days ago I wrote an essay (link below) discussing theological differences among various faith groups in Christianity. My main conclusion is that it seems the supposedly omnipotent God cannot even communicate well with His believers about who He is and how He behaves. How is this possible? … Unless He does not exist after all.

Will the True Church Please Stand up?

There are so many Christian denominations. Which one is the right one?

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Not surprisingly, Christian readers on Medium have trouble agreeing with my reasoning and conclusion. But it’s how they argue against my essay that throws me off. For some reason, they are completely fine telling me that Christianity is, after all, not about seeking truth, so it’s ok to have many theological systems and multitudes of denominations among believers.

I am serious. I am not making this up.

Apparently, if you want to get Christians to admit they are not seeking truth, you can just ask them why there are so many denominations and theological schools that teach contradictory doctrines.

No, they will probably not use the exact wording, but their arguments will lead to the conclusion that seeking truth is not the focus of their religion, with or without them being aware of it.

In the rest of this article, I list three arguments Christians raise against the essay I discussed above, and how those arguments directly or indirectly deny that Christians are truth seekers.

1. Propositional statements are not important; living out the faith is what matters

This is a very common response to the question of why there are so many faith traditions. The people who come up with this response, unfortunately, may not be aware of the full implications of what they are saying.

Essentially, they are saying that, as Christians, they are seeking to live a certain lifestyle and to have a relationship with Jesus. Doctrines and theologies don’t matter; they are divisive.

But this is absurd. How do you know how to live a Christian life? Who is the Jesus that you want to have a relationship with? How do you practice Jesus’ teachings if you don’t have a clear understanding of what His teachings are? All of these involve propositional statements. “Jesus is the Son of God.” “Jesus teaches that humans are created in the image of God.” “The most important two commandments are to love God and to love each other.” Christians can’t just say that accurately understanding who Jesus is and what Jesus teaches is irrelevant…

unless they don’t care about what is true.

Saying that “truth” lies in Christian living does not fly either. As I explained above, how do you know what Christian living looks like? It has to be rooted in certain propositions about truth. If you take away that root, what you are left with is a subjective understanding of faith. You are basically saying that Christian faith is all about living out what you feel is right, so there is no point arguing over the details of doctrines.

Furthermore, such a concept is simply not representative of Christianity, past or present. If every Christian agrees that living out the faith is where the “truth” lies, and propositional statements like doctrines are secondary, we would not see thousands of denominations in the world, each holding its unique faith statement.

There are reasons why we have different belief systems in Christianity, and the most common cause for split upon split, schism upon schism, is theological differences (Anglican Church is the exception, not the rule). People don’t split from their original denomination and start a new one just because they think a new denomination can help believers live better Christain life.

There is always a thought system underneath that drives the differences of opinions on how to conduct outward Christain living.

In fact, “Propositional statements are not important; living out the faith is what matters” IS a propositional statement itself. The person emphasizing this concept is, in turn, criticizing other Christians for wrongly emphasizing doctrines.

As it turns out, church history is filled with believers who held strong to their doctrines that they were willing to kill people for it. Correct belief was taught in catechism classes, creeds were formulated as the rule of faith, and those who taught otherwise were labeled heretics. Heretics were either excommunicated, imprisoned, or killed, not tolerated, for the majority of church history.

In the end, people who claim that theological propositions don’t make the true church cannot be sincere about it. It’s like Watchman Nee’s ecclesiology. He believed that the existence of multiple denominations is not biblical, so he criticized all denominations to be schisms of the body of Christ, and then started his own movement of local churches, which, ironically, was just another denomination.

2. God gave Christians freedom to develop their doctrines

This response tries to save God’s face by saying that it’s not the case that He is unable to communicate clearly, but that He intentionally allows people to come up with their understanding of who He is. We see a variety of belief systems within Christianity because each founder of a denomination or theological school has a different take on what the Christain faith is about.

This response reminds me of a common theme in comic books. A guy fights his opponent and loses. With bruises all over his body and a black eye, he says, “You think you won? I restrained myself and let you win because I did not want to hurt you too badly. You won’t be this lucky next time.” And then he flees.

Come on! God giving His believers freedom to formulate doctrines? Seriously?

In effect, you are saying that the faith statements, the creeds, and all the fundamental doctrines are man-made! You are saying that what Christians are pursuing is not truth, but an artificial construct of what past church leaders “believed” to be true.

What’s the point of holding fast to those doctrinal formulations then, if they don’t come from the revelation of God, but merely from people’s attempts at describing their religious experiences?

Christians may say that it’s not that they don’t seek truth, but humans are incapable of grasping the whole truth. But this explanation is inadequate. It is one thing to not comprehend the full extent of spiritual truth; it is quite another to disagree about almost all the fundamental aspects of faith such as the nature of Christ or the doctrine of salvation.

3. Denominations are like music tastes; there is no right or wrong

This response I got is a direct declaration that there is no truth involved in Christianity. I don’t need to explain to my dear Medium readers that music tastes have nothing to do with what is true or factual; they are just personal preferences.

So according to this response, Christians believe in God because it’s their personal preference, having nothing to do with what’s true or factual.

I don’t want to chastise or make fun of Christians admitting they are not seeking truth. In fact, I hope they realize that’s exactly what they are doing, so they will not be dogmatic about it. The world would be a better place if Christians admit their faith is just personal preference so they would not appeal to their faith in making important choices in their life (e.g. pray for healing instead of going to the doctor) or force their religious values on other people.

But I may be too optimistic. I can imagine that the same Christians who tell me that denominations are like music preferences would, in other contexts, adamantly declare that certain subgroups of Christianity are not “true Christians” because they don’t follow certain “biblical” teachings. In my experience, Christians trying to be consistent in their belief are rare species.

You don’t agree? You are certain that a true church is characterized by members living out the love of Christ, not about holding a correct set of propositional statements? Ok, let me ask you, “Can a church that permits gay relationships, gay pastors, etc., be a true church?” Many conservative Christians will say “No!”. And that proves my point. But if you are a bit progressive and say “Yes, gays in mutual loving relationships live out the love of God. That’s good Christian living”, then my next question is: “Are those churches that prohibit gay relationships, forbid women to speak in services, or encourage parents to beat their children, true churches?” Please let me know your answer in the comment section.

Conclusion

So what do you think? If you are a Christian, is the pursuit of truth an important part of being a practicing Christian? If yes, how do you handle the fact that there are so many denominations and irreconcilable theological viewpoints in the realm of Christianity? (Check out this story by another Medium writer) How do you know that your current belief system or your church is the right one? If you don’t really care whether you got it right or not, why?