I'm right : a blog by Fiona Spencer

Over the past few week I have been in situations where people have been arguing over issues of faith or parts of the Bible. Not just disagreeing but arguing - as if what their say is the only way to look at it.

 

But is there only one answer to every issue concerning faith or the Bible?

 

I grant you there are many things where there is only one correct view, such as: Jesus is the only way to get to God. However, what of other issues like how worship is conducted, how to pray or the meaning of a Bible passage.

 

There are lots of different denominations of the church, each with different styles of worship and prayer. This is clearly due to the fact that one style of worship that will be great for one person, will not be beneficial for another.

Furthermore, worship is not just the music. Worship can take on many different forms. It can be creative: through art, theatre and dance; through serving: meeting regularly with other Christians or doing jobs in the church like steward, cleaner or elder; and practical: sharing your testimony or reading books to help develop your understanding of Christianity.

There as so many different ways of interacting with God, that surely we don't have the right to force our way of doing it onto someone else? We should allow others to experiment to then find a way that they feel they can connect with God.

 

Bible passages can be interpreted in different ways, but yet I find that we can be determined that all passages have only one meaning. Take for example the parable of the Lost son from Luke 15:11-32. It tells of the younger son in a family, who obtains his inheritance from his father. This son leaves for a distant land, where he squanders all him money. He has to take up the work of herding pigs, and is even reduced to hungering for the food of the pigs. He finally comes to his senses and decides to return home, if only to work for his father as a hired labourer. As he nears home, his father runs to welcome him home, and holding a feast to celebrate to return of the son.However, the older brother, who had remained at home working, resents the mercy shown.

This parable can be interpreted in three different ways:

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Firstly, that it is about the fact that God is willing to take us back when we have ran away from him.

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Second being that if we turn from God there will come a point where we realise we need him.

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And lastly that we can act like the older brother, but no matter what wrongs people have done we should welcome them into the Church.

So is one of these interpretations right and the other two wrong? All are just different ideas that people have got from the same passage.

 

Everyone is different which must be why we all worship differently, and can get different ideas from the same passage. We must therefore be more willing to to see others points of view of faith and the Bible, instead of thrusting ours on them as the only right way.

Fiona is on the yfc one program based at Nottingham YfC

She works in Radcliffe and is based at St. Mary's Radcliffe

Fiona's home is north of the border in Glasgow.