# Debatable Christian practices and beliefs

The Bible can defend the correct stance on *many* things, and God designed [His Word](bible.md) to only give wisdom to people who [want it](bible-study.md).

- Some Christian disagreements have a clear, simple answer from the Bible, and many believers merely don't *want* to accept what the Bible says.
- Accurate beliefs will have *many* angles validated by Scripture, so enough [Bible study](bible-study.md) will reveal the truth to anyone seeking it.

Some things labeled as "Christian" have little to do with the essence of Christianity:

- A singular event of deciding to follow Jesus, making a prayer or getting baptized.
  - Following Jesus is a [journey until death](https://theologos.site/devotion-chaos/).
- A visible sense of morality and a moral conviction of sin.
  - Even secular people can be morally convicted of wrongdoing ([Acts 24:24-27](https://biblehub.com/bsb/acts/24.htm)).
- Intellectual knowledge of what Christianity believes and who Jesus is.
  - [The devil](spiritual-warfare.md) has *far* more knowledge than we do about Jesus.
- Church involvement, religious affiliation or running an active ministry.
  - There are [many cultures](people-culture.md), and they each have [their variation on practicing their faith](mgmt-church.md).

Many Christians, especially new ones, ask whether God permits something specific:

- Because of God's grace, a Christian *can* technically do anything when they first convert and for a short time afterward ([Ephesians 2:8-9](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/eph.2)).
- However, new believers will slowly discover at least some of their habits are sinful (e.g, [substance abuse](addiction.md), bad language, sexual immorality/porn, occult themes).
- *Everything* is permissible because of Christ's sacrifice, but not everything is beneficial ([1 Corinthians 6:12](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/6-12.htm),[10:23](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-23.htm)).
- The more important detail is how every [action](results.md) and [habit](habits.md) you do around people could cause *them* to [sin](morality-sins.md) ([Romans 14](https://www.bible.com/bible/206/rom.14)).
  - Don't use your freedom to sabotage others' spiritual journey ([1 Corinthians 8](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_corinthians/8.htm), [1 Corinthians 10:24](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-24.htm)).
- Loving and enduring others' weaknesses is especially critical when you don't know where they stand:
  - Specific controversial [media](creations.md) (e.g., horror movies, rock music, role-playing games, fantasy literature)
  - Observing certain days over other days
    - Sabbatarians - Saturday (or Sunday in First-Day Sabbatarianism) *must* be honored to comply with God's law.
  - Eating certain [foods](cooking.md) (e.g., pork)
  - Drinking [alcohol](cooking.md)
  - [Romance](relationships-why.md) before marriage
  - Dancing
  - [Medical care](body-4_health.md) decisions

Cessationism vs. Continuationism - The modern-day usage/validity of spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues, knowledge, and healing ([1 Corinthians 12-14](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_corinthians/12.htm)):

- Cessationism - Those gifts were necessary to validate the Church's initial authority as being from Christ, and ended after Christians canonized the Bible.
  - The completion of the Bible was the "perfect" referenced in [1 Corinthians 13:8-10](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_corinthians/13.htm).
  - Sign gifts like tongues and prophecy undermine the Bible's full authority and sufficiency for everything ([2 Timothy 3:16](https://biblehub.com/2_timothy/3-16.htm)).
- Continuationists - all the spiritual gifts the Apostles had are available today to believers.
  - [Jesus coming again](jesus-returns.md) is the "perfect" referenced in [1 Corinthians 13:8-10](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_corinthians/13.htm).
  - Nothing contradicts Scripture's application, so the gifts are still in effect for anyone who earnestly desires them ([1 Corinthians 14:1](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/14-1.htm)).
- When both sides are legitimate Christians, they *will* agree on several points.
  - Test every proclamation against Scripture ([1 John 4:1](https://biblehub.com/1_john/4-1.htm)).
  - Nobody can add anything to Scripture ([Revelation 22:18](https://biblehub.com/revelation/22-18.htm)).
  - God can give personal messages for specific Christians, even if it's not overtly Scripture ([James 3:17](https://biblehub.com/james/3-17.htm)).
- Cessationism is fine, within reason:
  - We can empirically observe that the miraculous gifts we see today do *not* express in the same way as what the early Church received.
  - God can (and does) work miraculously and outside our expectations, so we should be open to the Holy Spirit giving [understanding](understanding.md) or [power](power.md) to fulfill His purposes.
- Continuationism is also fine, within reason:
  - Every revelation and spiritual gift must be tested against conforming to Jesus being Lord ([1 Corinthians 12:3](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/12-3.htm)).
  - If speaking in tongues is still active, then prophecies and words of knowledge must also be equally active today ([1 Corinthians 13:8](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/13-8.htm)).
  - Further, tongues are for the unbeliever and prophecy for the believer ([1 Corinthians 14:22](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/14-22.htm)).
- Many Christians confuse [motivation, situation, and sign gifts](spiritual-gifts.md).
  - It's entirely possible that *some* spiritual gifts have ceased, while others are *very* active.
- The entire debate is relatively dumb, and people who speak in tongues should desire more [useful](purpose.md) gifts ([1 Corinthians 14:19](https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/14-19.htm)).

How long God's "days" were to create the universe in [Genesis 1](https://biblehub.com/bsb/genesis/1.htm):

- New/Young Earth Creationism - The six days are literal 24-hour days.
  - They must explain how a man names all the animals, gets lonely, falls asleep, and meets a woman after waking up in one day ([Genesis 2:4-25](https://biblehub.com/bsb/genesis/2.htm)).
  - Their values also must go against atheistic science (indicated near the bottom of this page).
- Old Earth Creationism/Theistic Evolution - God used evolution across millions of years to [design](creations.md) nature.
  - A middle point between creationism and [evolutionary theory](science-life.md): God still created everything, but over a period of time reflecting science cults' [projections](imagination.md) (see below).
  - Indicating that God can instantly create something out of nothing, then constraining it to require millions or billions of years is a bit silly (e.g., [Omphalos Hypothesis](paradoxes.md)).
  - "Gap theory" is an in-between compromise, where God created everything as-is, but that the earth is still millions of years old after that creation.
- One simple compromise is "day-age creationism", where the days were symbolically longer periods of time (up to millions of years), similar to how [prophecies](jesus-returns.md) are interpreted.
- God created the universe ([Genesis 1:1](https://biblehub.com/genesis/1-1.htm)), and how long He took to make the universe isn't particularly relevant as much as God having made all of it.

Rigidly enforced rituals:

- Any rituals practiced as simply a duty (especially with [prayer](spiritual-exercises-prayer.md)) don't add any significant value ([Matthew 6:7](https://biblehub.com/matthew/6-7.htm)).
  - The [spiritual exercises](spiritual-exercises.md) that strengthen us should be part of a [relationship with Jesus](https://theologos.site/devotion-chaos/).
  - We quickly lose the [meaning](meaning.md) behind [rituals](habits.md) once they start becoming boring.
- Each person [has their journey](https://theologos.site/devotion-chaos/), and God judges each one separately ([Romans 14:1-23](https://biblehub.com/bsb/romans/14.htm)).
- Judaizers - Christians must still practice Jewish ceremonies under Levitical law.
  - They tend to overlook the fact that they're placing an undue burden on themselves to honor the law Jesus died to set Christians free from ([Galatians 5:1-3](https://biblehub.com/bsb/galatians/5.htm)).
- Women should exercise modesty in church and cover their heads ([1 Corinthians 11](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_corinthians/11.htm)).
  - A woman's hair is her glory, and a man's glory is his woman, which places a veil on all believers' glory until the unveiling ([Revelation 21:1-3](https://biblehub.com/bsb/revelation/21.htm)).
  - However, in most modern societies, women should work on other elements of modesty first, like their [speaking](language-speaking.md) and shirts.
- Transubstantiation - When communion/Eucharist rituals are performed, the bread and drink *become* Jesus' body and blood (instead of simply [symbolizing](symbols.md) it).
  - The doctrine was affirmed at [an Ecumenical Council in the year 1215](history-church.md), and there's not enough evidence to indicate *what* the first church believed.
  - The communion and Eucharist are spiritual, not merely physical acts, so their consequences are spiritual, and it really doesn't matter how a believer thinks it to be.

Specific Bible translations having more authority:

- Most proponents advance the King James Version (written in Shakespeare's time) or the New World Translation (written by the Jehovah's Witnesses cult).
- The only "true" [Bible reading](bible.md) is in the original ancient Greek (both Majority *and* Minority Texts), Hebrew, and Aramaic, with a full historical context of the [culture](people-culture.md) of the time.
  - The spirit of the text is typically the same in almost any translated Bible, but [language](language.md) and [cultural](people-culture.md) barriers will *always* diminish some [emotional](mind-feelings.md) impact of specific words or phrases.
- While Christians don't frequently talk about it, the Bible's authorship requires a few extra degrees of [trust](trust.md):
  1. God inspired people in their language and time to write the Bible, likely as standard [creative inspiration](mind-creativity.md) in the flow of writing something [useful](purpose.md) for someone else (i.e., they were conscious the whole time even while God acted).
  2. The texts were copied faithfully, without any permutations, by other Jews/Christians across centuries.
  3. The texts were [canonized faithfully](history-church.md), without any omitted books, by Christian leadership.
  4. The text was faithfully translated into your local language while preserving the spirit and essence of all the important ideas.
  5. It's not too difficult to imagine that, if God has been diligently tracking the Bible's development, He'd maintain a modern version that's accessible to anyone while preserving all His ideas.
- Most of the time, people defend a specific translation because it supports ideas they want to assert.
  - The only constructive correction of translation is the original Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic, but it will only serve to clarify the already obvious-enough idea God wanted to express ([1 Corinthians 1:18-20](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_corinthians/1.htm)).
- Many people discredit specific Bible translations from their choice of words.
  - They were written to capture the spirit of Scripture for casual reading (e.g., New International Version, The Living Bible).
  - Anyone who needs [more in-depth study](bible-study.md) can consult multiple translations, a Bible dictionary, and a concordance.
  - However, some Bibles at the *far* end of the [paraphrase](bible-study.md) philosophy (e.g., The Message) use some *very* odd depictions that merge the authors' opinions into the text.
- Some believers insist Jesus' words in red letters are more important than the rest of the Bible, but it also implies the rest of the Bible isn't as authoritative or God didn't write it.

Papal Primacy - The Pope is the head of the Church and acting on behalf of Christ.

- Catholics tend to state that the Pope's authority travels a succession all the way back to Peter, with Jesus commanding him to feed His sheep ([John 21:15-25](https://biblehub.com/bsb/john/21.htm)).
  - There are very few, if any, Bible verses that point to Peter's authority relative to the other Apostles.
  - The Protestant interpretation applies the admonition to Peter to apply to *anyone* in a position of [church leadership](spiritual-discipleship.md).
- As long as the Pope says what's consistent with Scripture it really doesn't matter, but [that hasn't always been the case](history-church.md).

Contemplative Prayer - Practicing a multi-stage [prayer](spiritual-exercises-prayer.md) session:

- There's a clear set of guidelines for contemplative prayer.
  1. Centering prayer - focus on a word and repeat it over and over throughout the exercise.
     - The purpose is to clear the mind of outside concerns.
  2. Sit still and listen for direct guidance from God.
  3. Feel God's presence.
- It's not overtly *wrong*, but there's nothing in the Bible to indicate its validity.
  - Further, while it can theoretically create peace through [standard meditation practices](awareness.md), it incorporates an aspect of mysticism that's highly subjective.

Some Christians (mostly Catholics) believe we can pray to saints who came before us for their support:

- The most common idea is that they can pray for us and our needs ([Ephesians 6:18](https://biblehub.com/ephesians/6-18.htm)).
  - Most Protestants denounce this idea without any further discussion.
- One variation is to adapt Jesus' mother Mary as a holy figure who can make special requests to Jesus ([John 2:1-5](https://biblehub.com/bsb/john/2.htm)).
- There *is* evidence the saints definitely may pray for us ([Hebrews 12:1](https://biblehub.com/hebrews/12-1.htm), [22-23](https://biblehub.com/bsb/hebrews/12.htm), [Revelation 5:8](https://biblehub.com/revelation/5-8.htm)).
  - The Holy Spirit, however, makes intercessions *for* the saints ([Romans 8:27](https://biblehub.com/romans/8-27.htm)).
- Irrespective, it doesn't matter *what* someone believes as long as Jesus stays as the central mediator of all things ([1 Timothy 2:5](https://biblehub.com/1_timothy/2-5.htm)).
  - Obviously, by the time we need to know, we'll [be there with Him](jesus-returns.md).
  - As created beings, we're *all* beneath the status of God, even though some will be ranked higher than others ([1 Corinthians 3:10-15](https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_corinthians/3.htm)).

Cremation versus burial:

- We will all have a resurrected body someday ([Philippians 3:20-21](https://biblehub.com/philippians/3.htm)).
  - This is relatively trivial to God, and He could rebuild an entire body from one skin flake or absolutely nothing if He wanted.
- However, there is some controversy over cremation versus burial, often connected to the idea that our body is made "lesser" if its form is diminished.
- The only worthwhile tradition to maintain is to keep the [identity](identity.md) of that person separate, similarly to how it will be in eternity.
  - Commingling ashes together, scattering the ashes, or using the ashes as potting soil for a tree often has a [pantheistic](religion.md) implication behind it.
- As a related concept, this can apply to organ donors, where it's a legitimately [loving action](people-love.md) to let someone use [parts you don't need anymore](https://adequate.life/fix/).