Christian Theology Details
2022 Sep 13Many Christians spend a substantial part of their Bible study efforts in the writings of Paul. However, Christianity was complete from Jesus immediately after his resurrection.
In fact, the direct teachings of Jesus are not lacking anything for a complete understanding of Christianity. Christianity did not require further elaboration from Paul or any others because the gospels are sufficient. (Do we not call it Christianity and say that we are followers of Jesus?) Christianity started and grew in Jerusalem from Jesus' direct teachings and that of his disciples afterwards.
The writings of Paul (and others) in the New Testament (NT) are are invaluable to deepen our understanding of many things in Christianity. However, it does not fill in necessary content that is missing from the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, the best way to approach the whole of NT teaching is to first understand the direct teachings of Jesus. Accept them as being complete and sufficient, then consider the letters of Paul (et al) as nuance or elaboration on what Jesus established for us as Christians. •••
The gospel message that Jesus taught is very simple and this simplicity is deceptive to those that feel that they must know how spiritual things work. They might think it is not enough, but it actually is enough!
Paul gave us additional information about the mechanisms of spiritual things (for instance: atonement). From this expanded detail, theologians have further developed systematic theologies which tie all the aspects of theology together. This knowledge can be useful, but it does not make you more spiritual.
Christian spirituality is becoming and being like Jesus in our character, especially for how we love people. (John 13:34,35, I Corinthians 12:27-14:1)
Challenge: Could you show the source of your critical Christian beliefs solely from the teachings of Jesus?
Even though Jesus consistently approached his teaching by talking about values, we don't usually teach Christianity from that perspective. Because of this, the presentation of Christianity from a value system perspective (as in writings here) is new to many people.
However, that is the way that Jesus taught people. He would often in effect say to them, "Let's look at your actions and the values that they come from. Now look at the values I am teaching and living. How do they compare?" Jesus taught his gospel using a values perspective.
Note that even with what we have from Jesus and Paul and other teachers, there still is much that we do not know. We simply have limited information from God about very many things.
Therefore, across hundreds of years people have wrestled with these concepts and how they relate to other things. Theologians have filled out their ideas about spiritual things to a great level of detail by reasoning, by philosophy and by their imagination. They taught their ideas to others, and these theological concepts then changed the thinking and actions of other people.
Sometimes the end result was not good. Bad theology usually results in bad living. However, the wise Christians would learn from these mistakes and adjust those concepts, making corrections to the theological frameworks.
This then is a good reason for why there are many variations in Christianity: the variations in Christian theology come from all the unique theological ideas that people have worked up. However, if you get the central model of Christianity right, all the other things don't matter in practice. And importantly, you will have fellowship with all other people who also are following Jesus.
The value system perspective used here is based on ideas from the work of Darren Twa.