For discussion: What happens when your theology catches up with you? What happens when all the books with long words, endless debates about the nature of the Trinity and parsing of Greek verbs finally comes home to roost?
In other words, what happens when theory meets reality? What bends? What breaks?
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Not sure if this is what you were looking for when you posted but here goes…
For me the prosperity gospel which I would have agreed with to some degree fell flat on it's face when my life was rocked with a child born with a birth defect. I mean after all, I was a giver, and a believer in Jesus Christ, this isn't supposed to happen to me!! He was my father, my savior, and my creator so everything is supposed to be fine. I'm supposed to be blessed with every spiritual blessing and have the healing power of Jesus rule and reign in my life, and if something else is happening, I just need to have more faith and rebuke the devil more because God is not going to let this happen to me!!!
Well my theology caught up to me, and my son was born with a heart defect. Half of his heart was not forming and because the heart is a muscle it actually begins to shrink when it is not “worked out”. Surgery at 7 days old was the only thing that would save his life and even then it's only temporary, because 2 more surgeries would be needed before he turned 3 and even then its only temporary, because at some point his weak little heart would need to be replaced… it's just easier to replace a 10 year old's heart than a newborn baby!
My theology caught up to me because I had prayed all the right prayers, I spent 5 months preceding his birth fasting a great deal and crying out to my God to heal my little baby boy… I prayed and I cried and I prayed… but when it was time for him to be born… the heart was still not forming and the surgery was still the only thing that might save his life! After Micah was born I stared my theology in the face asking really hard questions, and wondering… what now? He had a very successful surgery and was at home doing well or so we thought… 2 Months later my son's heart stopped working and he was gone… casting a huge shadow of doubt upon ALL of my theology. Everything I had been taught and even taught myself was subject to scrutiny and serious doubt… and some of that is still going on today!
My theology meets me everyday, and I pray that my theology NEVER again gets ahead of Tony! I pray that God and my theology always meet me and those God give me to touch with his love right where we are in the reality of what we face as followers of Christ everyday! The second my theology gets ahead of me again and I start running my mouth like I have all the answers I hope and pray God does whatever it takes to humble me… I can assure you more harm has been done in the name of Jesus by people who claim to have all the answers, but their answers don't work for the people who are suffering for no good reason at all! I pray the Church gets to a place where having all the answers is less important than pointing people to the answer and His name is Jesus… He didn't give me all the answers, but what I found as I asked the hard questions was God was with me, and I was not alone… and this was better than having ALL my questions answered!
Pece
Tony
Not sure if this is what you were looking for when you posted but here goes…
For me the prosperity gospel which I would have agreed with to some degree fell flat on it's face when my life was rocked with a child born with a birth defect. I mean after all, I was a giver, and a believer in Jesus Christ, this isn't supposed to happen to me!! He was my father, my savior, and my creator so everything is supposed to be fine. I'm supposed to be blessed with every spiritual blessing and have the healing power of Jesus rule and reign in my life, and if something else is happening, I just need to have more faith and rebuke the devil more because God is not going to let this happen to me!!!
Well my theology caught up to me, and my son was born with a heart defect. Half of his heart was not forming and because the heart is a muscle it actually begins to shrink when it is not “worked out”. Surgery at 7 days old was the only thing that would save his life and even then it's only temporary, because 2 more surgeries would be needed before he turned 3 and even then its only temporary, because at some point his weak little heart would need to be replaced… it's just easier to replace a 10 year old's heart than a newborn baby!
My theology caught up to me because I had prayed all the right prayers, I spent 5 months preceding his birth fasting a great deal and crying out to my God to heal my little baby boy… I prayed and I cried and I prayed… but when it was time for him to be born… the heart was still not forming and the surgery was still the only thing that might save his life! After Micah was born I stared my theology in the face asking really hard questions, and wondering… what now? He had a very successful surgery and was at home doing well or so we thought… 2 Months later my son's heart stopped working and he was gone… casting a huge shadow of doubt upon ALL of my theology. Everything I had been taught and even taught myself was subject to scrutiny and serious doubt… and some of that is still going on today!
My theology meets me everyday, and I pray that my theology NEVER again gets ahead of Tony! I pray that God and my theology always meet me and those God give me to touch with his love right where we are in the reality of what we face as followers of Christ everyday! The second my theology gets ahead of me again and I start running my mouth like I have all the answers I hope and pray God does whatever it takes to humble me… I can assure you more harm has been done in the name of Jesus by people who claim to have all the answers, but their answers don't work for the people who are suffering for no good reason at all! I pray the Church gets to a place where having all the answers is less important than pointing people to the answer and His name is Jesus… He didn't give me all the answers, but what I found as I asked the hard questions was God was with me, and I was not alone… and this was better than having ALL my questions answered!
Pece
Tony