I started writing years ago because of reading things said about what Christians believe that were simply untrue. It is why I still write today.
I read with some interest a claim that evangelical Christians are more susceptible to conspiracy theories promulgated by groups such as QAnon because we believe in the “infallibility of the Bible and the literal meaning of everything within this text.”
The inference here is if one claims to believe in something as fanciful as the infallibility of the Bible he is willing to embrace and act upon outlandish conspiracy theories.
What does it mean to be a Christian? There are many people who claim to be a Christian and to be acting on Christian beliefs who clearly have no biblical perspective of what that means.
The term ‘Christian’ only appears three times in the New Testament and given the historical context of its first appearance in Acts 11:26, it may have been used in a pejorative sense much the same as it is in American culture today.
Simply said, a Christian is one whose ambition is to be like Christ, so one of the reasons, and by no means the only reason, I believe in the trustworthiness of the Scriptures is because Jesus did. Throughout His earthly ministry when He was called on to defend His teachings he quoted from the Scriptures.
When Jesus was questioned by the Pharisees on His views about divorce He said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate,” Matthew 19:4-6.
My views on marriage being between one man and one woman are founded on the same Scriptures that Jesus trusted and taught. I do not hate others who believe differently although I believe other views of marriage are wrong. Christians trust the Scriptures because our namesake Christ trusted the Scriptures.
While Christians, especially the newly converted, may be fooled into doing things that are decidedly un-Christian, it is hoped that those who have matured in Christ will act more sensibly and be an example to younger Christians.
I no more trust the purported conspiracy theories of what is called QAnon than I do the mainstream news media to give an unbiased account of the news. Much of the turmoil and acrimony we witness in our government today are because of misplaced trust in the political process.
The political unrest we face in our nation have not been created by those who have placed too much trust in the Scriptures; our problems arise because we have not trusted Christ and the Scriptures more.
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