What Do You Believe?

“What do you believe?”

I must have asked that question 50 times in the past couple of years. I learned to ask it as we untangled false teachings and compared them with Scripture. As we visited different churches, met different people, contacted people online… I kept asking it.

I was listening for the Gospel.

Did they understand it? Did they preach it?

The answers I received to that question were telling.

“We believe in healing!” “We believe in Holiness!” “We believe in the moving of the Holy Spirit!” “We believe KJV only!” “We believe Trump won the election!” “We believe in loving people!” One person, in response to my question, even said “Well, we don’t believe in drums.”

You would not believe the sigh of relief I breathed when we finally found a church where the answer to that question, no matter who we talked to, was consistently the Gospel.

The former answers often reminded me of my time at a Holiness Pentecostal Bible college. I was there 11 years total, and every year, almost like a “school year initiation” girls would return from town and eagerly testify in church, of their “witnessing” opportunities.

“They asked us what we believe and we said, ‘well, we believe women should have long hair, wear long skirts, and shouldn’t wear jewelry or makeup…”

They were so proud of themselves. The faculty members were so proud of them. I’m sure their parents were proud of them when they heard. These things were celebrated as growth and experience in “standing up for your faith” and “sharing the Gospel.”

Years later, I look back on this and think… “But where was the Gospel? It wasn’t there… it was nowhere. If the Gospel had been there, that would not have been the response to that question…”

After hearing such a wide variety of answers to my simple question, I eventually came to the conclusion, that whatever answer people give to that question, however they answered, that was the sincere truth…

That is what they believe.

That is their gospel.

Their gospel is healing. Their gospel is outward standards. Their gospel is a translation. Their gospel is conservative politics. Their gospel is their worship aesthetics. Their gospel is kindness. Their gospel is… you name it.

None of these answers, however, mention Christ.

He is absent.

And that is scary.

I can’t stop thinking about how many people file into a church setting, believing they are being fed the Gospel, while they obliviously receive something entirely different. It looks like a church, it smells like a church…. They use the Bible like a church… They reason it must be a church. They have altar calls and people are converted… but not to Christ.

Do you hear what I am saying?

Do you understand how serious this is?

They are converted…. But they are converted to whatever that church’s gospel is. What you win them with, is what you convert them to. If you win them with a feel good, affirming message, they converted to a feel good, affirming gospel. If you win them by telling them it’s all about how long your hair is and how long your skirt is… you’ve won them to standards. If you “win” someone by telling them God wants to heal their body, you’ve won them to healing…. If you win them with approval… you’ve won them to your approval. And once they are converted, to whatever they are converted to, they are celebrated and receive false assurance of a salvation that they don’t truly have…

If you haven’t pointed them directly to Christ, they have not accepted the Gospel.

Friends… I implore you to ask yourself this question.

Answer it honestly.

What do you believe?

How does Christ fit into that picture? Does He just fit into the picture or is He the entire picture? Is He the afterthought of the gospel preached in your church? Is He shuffled to the background while other “more important” issues are constantly scuttled to the forefront? Is His work reflected accurately? Do you know what His work was? How it affects you? What happened on the cross? Have you compared the Christ preached in your church to Christ as He is portrayed in Scripture when read in context? Is He merely a benefactor of earthly blessings? Is He merely a mascot for your religion? What about your ‘Holy Spirit’? Does your ‘Holy Spirit’ exhibit men? Or does he point to Scripture, where Christ is portrayed clearly? I have been in places where their ‘Holy Spirit’ mangled Scripture… and distorted Christ. Does your ‘Holy Spirit’ twist Scripture and bury and obscure Christ? Does it overshadow Him? Does it distract you from Him? What do you believe about Christ? Does your gospel tell you to trust Him? Or trust yourself? Your works… your striving… your personal righteousness…

What do you believe?

I ask because I love you.

I ask because the answer may surprise you.