For those who have visited before, this continues to be updated to cover new questions and belief systems. I do hope the clarifications help, but readers do continue to ask questions as you need and I will keep addressing them.
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2 Corinthians 6:14, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?"
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2 Corinthians 6:14, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?"
Most everyone knows this verse is a stern warning for a Christian not to marry a non-Christian. However, lately I have been asked many many questions about beliefs and why one should stand firm doctrinally, and feel some explanations need to be made. This post is made to help explain why a Bible believer may have issues with other faiths. I shall give some ideas below, but they will not encompass all the issues, just enough hopefully to give an idea why your beliefs matter.
Catholicism (Romanists) - Romanists have removed one of the ten commandments and replaced it by splitting another one. They removed the one about not bowing down to idols. One can clearly see here that a faith who would change the Bible to fit the church belief is different than one that just believes the Bible as it is written (yes, I am aware Romanists believe the Bible comes from them and theirs is the most accurate). One other issue is their belief on forgiveness. They use crosses with Christ still on them. This is due to the fact they believe their priests can forgive sin. Christ is still on their cross for they believe his sacrifice wasn't complete, and God requires the Romanist church to give the forgiveness.
Hebrews 9:28, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Christ was offered once. There is no need for anyone to further bear sins for his offering was a one-time event, full in its completion, never requiring further action from priests.
Based on these observations, one can see why a Bible believer would struggle in a relationship with a Catholic.
Protestants - This is a wide band and encompasses all Protestant groups. One thing most do not ponder is that they all were in the Romanist church and came out, hence the protest part of their name. As their core doctrine was Romanist, each pulled away in different areas of doctrine, with some barely leaving and others pulling farther way. At their heart, however, one can still find some of the errors of Romanism.
It is important for people to
understand that anyone raised in one of the Protestant denominations and knows their belief system would struggle with any other Protestant denomination over little
or big issues. Many are very close to the Bible, but stray in one area or
another. Here again is why someone who fully believes the Bible might
have an issue with any one of the Protestant denominations. A Lutheran
and a Methodist have significant differences of belief on Communion, for
example. How one baptizes is also a subject of difference. As such,
one should be very careful when crossing these lines, and be careful about the
yoke for it may be hard to bear later, especially when raising kids and
worrying about how they should be trained. Many do not know this, but Baptists are not Protestants, hence the strong Biblical doctrinal differences.
Pentecostals - For the most part the historic Pentecostal faith, which isn't that old, stays true to the Bible for salvation. Where the biggest difference exists is how they treat the Holy Spirit. To most, the Holy Spirit's role is to glorify Christ, convict of sin, and comfort believers. They, however, teach He is here to glorify man. This may seem a harsh summary, but rolling all their healing and tongues practices together, one can clearly see nothing like that ever happened in the Bible. Peter's shadow could heal a man, but they require far more of an exotic experience for that, and those healings are not as dramatic or real as Peter's. Sadly they have also given up on the old hell-fire and brimstone preaching concentrating on salvation first, and have abandoned many solid Bible doctrines for emotionalism. The contortions done when "in the Spirit" are often taken as evidence of demonic influence, for example.
So, for anyone growing up in a traditional church, the exotic nature and type of worship a Pentecostal teach and practice would be fully shocking and not something easily accepted. While one could come to believe what they do, it would require reinterpretation of many verses to do so. As a result, any couple should be very very careful.
American, and possibly British Church of Christ - The belief started by Campbell and Stoner is one that was labeled a cult known as Campbellites. Today they try to distance themselves from their founders, but at their core they fight over true grace. They do not fully accept the Bible version of salvation. Their core belief is that one can go down the aisle to accept Christ in church Sunday morning, die in a car accident Sunday afternoon, and go to hell because they were not baptized. While some say they now accept the Bible model, like Max Lucado, he has never left the cult. The Duck Dynasty folks made this cult popular, and have confused people about how "Christian" they are. Baptism is not their only doctrinal error, and many are major. One, like Catholics, is they believe they are the only true church and the only ones going to heaven.
Since then I have learned about the Church of God, a Church of Christ spinoff. Apparently they are the same cult as the Campbellites, but differ in only that they accept instruments for church music, whereas Church of Christ does not. Church of God can also mean Armstrongites, so it gets a bit confusing.
In the Philippines, there is another cult started by one man, now called Iglesia de Cristo. While I have not dived deeply in their beliefs, they appear to be farther away from the Bible than the Campbellites in America. For example, they do not believe Jesus is God (like Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons).
These are two I know, but there may be many other differences of belief in groups called Church of Christ globally. As such, I don't wish to say they are all cults, but want to point out these two in particular. Again, anyone believing the Bible would have issues trying to step into a relationship with either of these two non-Biblical groups.
Mormons - I am forced to add this group as they are masquerading as Christians, and sadly they do not even understand the difference. Like all cults, they follow their founder's teaching (Joseph Smith) in his additions to the Bible over the Bible. They believe Jesus is Satan's brother, they believe Jesus had to work his way to being God, as do they. In their belief system, they follow this credo, "As God is, man will be. As man is, God once was." They do not believe Jesus is God, just a god. Strong caution here if you are involved with them.
Baptists - Baptists are not Protestants. This confuses many. They were killed, hated and despised by Romanists and Protestants alike. Their name is one of derision given them by Romanists. A Romanist who came to know Christ and left the church was re-baptized, for then they understood what it really meant (symbolic versus Romanist teaching of actual original sin removal). As it meant the Romanist baptism did not count, this offended them greatly. While there are many kinds of Baptists in America, such as Northern, Southern, American, General and Independents, they do not all believe the same things. The Southern and Independents are the most conservative and hold to Biblical doctrine the most, but even Southern Baptists have issues and do not all march together. Again the caution to find out what your loved one/potential loved one believes so you can prevent issues.
For those who have not read the Trail of Blood, it is an interesting history of the Baptists.
Fundamentalists - Here is a core set of Fundamental doctrines, based upon clear Biblical doctrine:
The inspiration of the Bible (both the Old and the New Testaments)
The creation of man by the direct act of God
The incarnation and virgin birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ
His identification as the Son of God
His vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind by the shedding of His blood on the cross
The resurrection of His body from the tomb
His power to save men from sin
The new birth through the regeneration by the Holy Spirit
The gift of eternal life by the grace of God.
Oddly enough, popular author/pastor Rick Warren has said anyone holding to the "Fundamentals" is a terrorist. Fundamentalists are solid Bible believers from all faiths. In the past these included Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Nazarenes, plus others. Today Baptists and Presbyterians are those few mostly left holding to Bible-based theology. Fundamentalists are also known as dispensationalists. This means, in summary, they believe what the Bible says and do not seek to change meanings of words or verses to justify beliefs.
My Last Comparison Point is Discernment -
Hebrews 5:12-14, "For when for the
time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the
first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of
milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful
in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth
to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses
exercised to discern both good and evil."
When it comes to issues like how close to the world a believer steps, this is where discernment comes in. Many many churches have folded to allow the world into the church through music, style of dress, muted Bible versions, weak sermons without mention of sin, salvation or repentance, and others. Mature Christians tend to avoid worshipping in these churches as they know with discernment the pastor has compromised or lacks the understanding to lead and teach the meat of the word. Milk is something that mature Christians have grown past, and they see the meat.
For a mature Christian to try to have a relationship with a weak Christian (meat and milk comparison), there will be challenges. While one may have many years of Christian learning ahead of another, the one who is weaker will always be doing one of two things. The difficult thing will be fighting them on a belief. The easy thing will be asking "why", and trying to catch up and learn. If the former, this relationship will not work. If the latter, this should be an awesome time for both as they continue to learn together. Anyone asked to teach another must know more about the subject than they think, meaning even a mature Christian will be blessed in relearning things.
My hope is this may help anyone starting a relationship or thinking about what may be wrong in theirs. I am sure there are many other groups to differentiate between, but this covers most of them. For those on dating sites, this little primer may help you understand why asking what someone believes is a good idea. A little prevention up front will prevent issues down the road, and a possible relationship threat. From experience, I cannot stress enough how important knowing these things are, and how ugly a split is as a result.
For anyone searching for their future spouse, please remember to pray and turn the search over to God!
Good. Tks for your explanation. I agreed.
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