How Wrong Can You Be?

There will always be things that we just can't know about God until we reach eternity. There will also be things that we are going to understand incorrectly. There are wonderful, intelligent Christians that if I were ever in doubt about some theological matter, I would completely trust their analysis of it, but with whom I disagree on certain issues. What I'm saying is, every person who claims to be a Christian is going to be wrong about Christianity to some degree.

So my question is, how wrong can you be and still be all right? A speaker at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) (man, these guys can provide lots of material) General Assembly in Memphis says we can talk about Christ without necessarily seeing him as the incarnate God, according to this Baptist Press article. If one doesn't believe in the divinity of Christ, that is not the Jesus of the New Testament, the Jesus that the Apostles preached, the Jesus that orthodox Christianity has proclaimed from its beginnings. The speaker insists that this Christ is still Savior, but a non-divine Jesus is not the Jesus who can save people's souls and give people life.

Jesus Himself lets us know that not everyone who claims to be a Christian, not everyone who call Jesus "Lord," are actual Christians. In fact, in Matthew 7:21-23 He describes the Christian ministry work these people perform, and yet will be completely rejected from the Kingdom of Heaven. They call Jesus "Lord," they prophesy in Jesus' name, they cast out demons in Jesus' name, they do miracles in Jesus' name, and yet Jesus' accusation of them is apparently that they do not do the will of the Father. How can this be? These people who are turned away seem completely surprised. I would suggest that perhaps one reason is because they had made up their own "God" and "Jesus" with characteristics and commands they were comfortable with, so that when they were confronted with the real Jesus, He says He never knew them.

I am working on a sermon series called "The Danger of Almost God" based on Exodus 32. While Moses is up on the mountain receiving instruction from the Lord, the children of Israel build a gold calf. Notice in verse 5 that in the presence of this calf they are having a festival to the Lord, and also in verse 8 that they are attributing to this calf their rescue from Egypt. Some in our day might defend the Israelites, saying they were worshipping God as best as they understood Him. But this is a case where "almost" isn't good enough at all, for God's response in verse 10 is a desire to destroy Israel, and in verse 35 He instead sent a plague on them.

How wrong can you be about God or Jesus and still be recognized by Jesus in the Kingdom of Heaven? Let us cling to the revelation He has given us about Himself in His Word. Anything else is playing with fire.