Friends, Is there anything about Christianity (Christ) that is not controversial?
For example, Can you say which of these controversies are interesting to you, and which of these controversies you don't know about or care anything about?
Calvinism versus Arminianism stupid argument created by people applying the bible to their 'truth', not allowing the bible to teach them Truth/ Meridoc, I agree with you on this. SRH
Roman Catholicism versus the various Protestant denominations (Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian-Reformed, Methodist) The Roman Catholic in its basic core doctrine is not christian as it does not believe in the finished work of Christ(requirement of confession and mass, purgatory, etc) and they have idol worship Mary and the saints. /Meridoc, I am not Roman Catholic, but I would say Rome believes in the finished work of Christ, but adds non-Biblical requirements. I do not believe they are idol worshippers, but they have a wrong doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary, which is a false idea. SRH
speaking in tongues Pentecostalism/charismatic renewal versus cessationism of spiritual gifts Paul says to desire spiritual gifts with no expiry date, conservatism is a tool of the devil to try and keep christians from experiencing true christianity/ Meridoc, The real question is not whether or not there are spiritual gifts, but which gifts are valid gifts, and what is the true meaning of speaking in tongues: identifiable human languages, or nonsense psychological gibberish. SRH
infant baptism versus Baptist beliefs Infant baptism isn't biblical it is a practice that started during the black plague/ Meridoc, that is perfectly absurd. Where do you get that idea? In the book of Acts, whole households were baptize, and there is no presumption against households holding infants. It is wrong to presume that the word "household" in Acts by necessity excludes children, especially when Christ said, "Let the little children come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." SRH
pre-tribulation rapture versus mid tribulation or post-tribulation rapture Firstly it doesn't matter, secondly another thing that people try and fit the bible to their 'truth'/ Meridoc, Of course it does matter. False doctrine is always false, and it is always bad to believe a false doctrine, even if the matter seems small. It is true, people try to make the Bible say this false doctrine, but this doctrine was not taught until the late 1700s and really not much before 1830 AD SRH
dispensationalism versus covenant theology Arguing over nothing
Meridoc, I would say these two are probably much ado about nothing, you may be right about that. SRH
justification by faith alone versus justification by faith which worketh by love (faith and works) Bible is very clear. Salvation comes by faith, faith brings about obedience/ Meridoc, that is true, but you did not explain whether or not or why the word "alone" is required, and you and I need to remember James 2:24 when we look at where the Bible says "faith alone", it says justification is NOT by faith alone. SRH
Eastern Orthodoxy versus Roman Catholicism (or versus Protestantism) same thing as above, denominations are an evil created by people, designed by satan/ Meridoc, This is typical bigotry, and does not account for the fact that Eastern Orthodoxy is in no doctrinal error, whereas there are major errors in Protestantism and Catholicism. SRH
seven sacraments versus two sacraments Childish argument over which things are important enough to be called sacraments, but all are useful and biblical so stop arguing over nothing.
/ Meridoc, You didn't answer the question. SRH
single procession of the Holy Spirit versus double procession of the Spirit (Filioque) There is One God so no argument/ Meridoc, There is not doubt what the Scripture says (single procession) if you care to read and pay attention to Jesus Christ's our LORD's words in John 15:26! That's the Gospel of God! SRH
single predestination versus double predestination (Calvinism) This is just dumb, predestination is used in the bible that means something very different from what people try to make it mean. / Meridoc, You got this right, if you realize that double predestination is not taught by the Bible, but predestination is a Biblical concept. SRH
existence or non-existence of free will If we do not have free will to accept God's gift or not, then we are nothing better than robots programmed to be saved and our worship and love for God has no value and there is no real relationship despite God's desire to have one. /Meridoc, Amen, free will is a gift from God Himself. SRH
existence of God and proofs for this, versus believing in God without needing proofs Also very dumb argument, there is nothing wrong with apologetic work to help those that consider christianity to be a group of uneducated idiots, to understand you can have a brain and believe. The Apostle John was the first apologist, so unless you consider his books useless then you don't really believe apologetics to be useless. / Meridoc, While it is true, we must be humble before God and always realize that human minds are finite and cannot hope to understand the essence and nature of God in Himself; we can know He exists, but we can't comprehend God. He is known in His attributes, but we can't know everything there is to know about God. SRH
the truth or falsity of the Shroud of Turin Who cares, the cloth Jesus has no extra value, is not to be honoured or worshiped. It is just cloth. / Meridoc, Without Church tradition, you will not know how to find the correct answer to this; with Church tradition, we can know the Shroud of Turin is a genuine relic and gives us an actual picture of what the face of Christ looks like. SRH
the truth or falsity of the visions of Our Lady of Lourdes or Our Lady of Fatima or Our Lady of Medjugorje The only questions that matter is does these vision edify the body of believers or just lead to saint worship AND are any messages consistant with what the Bible teaches? If they don't edify AND aren't biblically consistent then they are satanic. / Meridoc, I would agree with you that these visions are false and therefore it's not a stretch to say they are satanic in origin. SRH
Sunday worship versus Sabbatarianism (Seventh-day Adventist belief) God asks us to have a day of rest, check the meaning of the word sabbath. God did not set a day for christians to come together, this was created by men. We should be coming together regularily for fellowship and worship, whether it is sunday or saturday is not important. /Meridoc, The real question is still what the Bible says, but we can worship God on both Saturday and Sunday. SRH
creationism and intelligence design versus evolutionism and even theistic evolutionism Research work done and reported by apologetics.com(I think thats the website), evolution has all but been disproven. As well look at our universe to believe the complexity of it all happened by accident takes more faith than believing in God / Meridoc, Yes, Amen. Evolution is false; creation by God is true. SRH
the age of the earth young versus old The bible doesn't include this information and thus isn't important. We don't know that God who has no need for time used specifically a literal six 24 hour days or not. We also don't know if Adam's listed years is the totality of his lifespan as before man was kicked out of the garden time had no meaning.
Meridoc, I think you may be right about this. It's unknown in any case. SRH
the six days of creation 24 hours or long evolutionary periods? Again only God knows, but God created and said it was good so evolution as mankind claims(despite it being basically disproved) isn't true. Meridoc, Amen, I agree with this. SRH
icons religious artwork versus no icons Icons are basically idols for many so not good. Meridoc, Absolutely and unequivocally false, as the person who wrote the Gospel of St. Luke, St. Luke, made the first icon of the Mother of God. It's iconoclastic bigotry to reject sacred icons. Since God made matter sacred by becoming a man in Christ, we can make pictures of Christ and His saints, as matter has been redeemed by the Incarnation of Christ the LORD. Since Christ is a man, He can be depicted visually. His Divinity shows through His humanity, and is inseparable from it. SRH
how many books in the Bible 66 only, or 76/77 including the so-called Apocrypha 66, check the extra books and you will find inconsistencies with the 66 thus they are not God breathed as only books inspired by God can be consistent and true.
Meridoc, Faulty logic. The 66 books don't tell us that there are only 66; this is Protestant, man-made tradition that follows Judaism for its canon, and Judaism rejects Jesus Christ. How would the unbelieving Jews know what the real Bible is? SRH
nephilim the children and Seth's s and Cain's daughters, or children of humans and fallen angels (demons) Pointless argument, that isn't important. / Meridoc, It is important that we don't believe that fallen angels can mate with humans, and it is important not to believe that! It is very false to believe these sensationalistic myths of fundamentalists who say these things. SRH
the papal infallibility versus no papal infallibility There was only one perfect man that was the God-man Jesus Christ our Saviour. Take a look at the state of the Roman Catholic church over the years they often apologize for previous popes choices and rules, so yea. /Meridoc, Amen, only Jesus Christ our LORD GOD and Saviour is perfect. All Christians can make errors of some kind. SRH
Scripture alone versus Scripture and (in) Tradition Scripture stands alone as God's word, to claim that man-made traditions are as important is evil and laughable./ Meridoc, Scripture alone does not say the Bible alone is all that Christians go by, and the Bible itself refers to and commands our allegiance to spoken apostolic traditions (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:15). SRH
Jesus Christ is God versus Jesus Christ is not God The Bible is very clear that Jesus is God, John was particularly clear on this. Also if he is not God then he was not perfect as he would then have been born into sin, thus no salvation, no christianity and no debate. / Meridoc, Yes, you're correct on this; Jesus is GOD and LORD and the Bible says that clearly in John, etc. SRH
God the Holy Trinity versus Oneness of God God is one, but three. Just because with our pitiful human brains can't quite grasp how this works that doesn't mean we shouldn't take God's word for it./ Meridoc, Amen, we can't comprehend the Mystery of the Trinity, only believe God as He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, believe it with the faith and trust of our hearts. SRH
capital punishment versus no capital punishment Remember when the Jews brought Jesus a woman to be stoned, Jesus said "let the one without sin cast the first stone", seems God desires mercy to be shown to the world. / Meridoc, Amen. I agree with you completely on this. SRH
just war tradition versus pacifism An unimportant secondary issue of christianity. I am a pacifist as I believe we should be men and woman of peace. But don't argue with those christians who voluntarily serve in the military./ Meridoc, You're write Christians should seek peace. But absolute pacifism isn't required of Christians. Nor is military service. SRH
born again by water baptism (baptismal regeneration) versus born again by personal decision for Christ (decisional regeneration) Also a stupid argument. Read John 3, belief is all that is asked. Baptism is a outward sign of an inward belief.
Meridoc, Some people make a big thing about altar calls. If that's being saved, why doesn't the Bible say that coming forward in a church or Billy Graham Crusade is all that's necessary for Christians? SRH
Eastern Orthodox versus Oriental Orthodox controversy The only question is either or both of their teachings truly biblical. Not them applying the Bible to what they think is true. Again denominations are a man-made disaster. /Meridoc, These two traditions are so close that the difference may largely be one of terminology and language difficulty, and not of any actual difference in the substance of their faith, which may be the same Faith. SRH
traditional Christianity versus non-Christian cults (Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Armstrongism, etc.) Christianity based on a biblical truth. AGAIN denominations are man-made and fallible. / Meridoc, Cults twist the Scriptures to their own destruction. SRH
Any other controversy you are actually interested, or do you try to avoid all controversies?
Or do you admit that somebody is bound to find some Christian belief or claimed to be Christian belief controversial or uncertain?
God bless you.
In Erie PA USA Scott R. Harrington