Piecemeal Theology

Despite Paul's plea for Christian unity in 1 Corinthians 1:10, the universal church (worldwide body of all Christians) has been divided beyond belief. There are many theological areas on which these denominations differ, and maybe I'll write about some of those at a later date, but there is one area of disagreement that must be discussed first and foremost. You see, among the many differences in denominations, some of them are no more than personal preferences rather than Biblical teachings, but God's plan for salvation is the most important and applicable subject in the entire Bible. Since this is such an important part of Scripture, we would like to think it's the one subject all believers can agree on. Unfortunately, our 21st Century piecemeal approach to studying and understanding Scripture has divided the church even on this most important subject.

Our modern-day culture tells us that we should do whatever it is that makes us happy. In the context of studying God's Word, that means we should take a piecemeal approach by picking apart verses and passages until we create answers that make us comfortable and happy. This couldn't be further from the way God intended us to study Scripture! Not only does this approach cause even more division, but instead of actually learning about God and His teachings, we separate ourselves further from the truth. God's inspired teachings, which have been preserved at great cost throughout history, were given to us as a package. This package was not meant to be taken apart and to have us use only the pieces we like the best. To better illustrate this point, let's look at how detrimental this approach is when applying it to understanding God's teaching on salvation.

I'm going to do my best to accurately represent two different interpretations of the Bible's teachings on salvation. Although there may be variations to these, or even more than two major interpretations, I'm going to focus on the two that I see as the main ones. There are some (I would say most0 believers who interpret the Bible in a way that teaches salvation is given to anyone who simply believes in God and "accepts" Him into their heart. (Romans 10:9) The other interpretation of Scripture teaches that a person must submit to God in an obedient faith and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. (Acts 2:38, 8:26-40)

It is true that Romans 10:9 says anyone who believes in God and confesses that belief with their lips will be saved. However, is that the only verse in the whole Bible that discusses salvation? Absolutely not. In Acts 2, we read about Peter and the other Apostles preaching to a crowd gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. The crowd consisted of many of the people who did not believe Jesus was who He said He was and put him to death. After hearing what Peter and the other Apostles said, the people in the crowd finally believed the things Jesus said and realized what they had done. They were sorrowful for what they had done, and they asked Peter what to do to obtain salvation (forgiveness for their sins). "Peter replied, repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38)

It is clear that the people in the crowd did in fact believe in God and Jesus as the Son of God simply by their sorrow and desire to be forgiven. If belief alone was how one obtained salvation, why did Peter tell them to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins? You see, if we take a piecemeal approach to understanding God's plan for salvation, we could easily be led to a false teaching. However, if we take ALL of God's teachings about salvation and combine them to get the entire package, we see a much different picture. When we do this, we see that a person is saved when they 1) believe 2) repent 3) confess their belief 4) obey God's command to be baptized. Although belief and an oral confession of that belief is part of how a person enters a saved state, by itself it is only a part of the whole equation.

I usually like to write articles that challenge or encourage us in our daily walk with God, but sometimes we need to get back to the basics and get a firm understanding of the fundamental principles of Christianity. There are many, many people in the world today who are teaching piecemeal theology. I urge you, I plead with you, I beg you to read God's Word for yourself. Never should you trust what someone says about the Bible simply because they say they know what they're talking about. God used simple people to write His teachings in a simple language so that all of us could easily understand them. The only thing we have to do is read the entire package.