How Much Bad Theology Can You Believe And Still Be Saved?

Forty years ago as a brand new follower of Jesus I attended a two day conference in the Super Dome in New Orleans entitled World Evangelism And The Holy Spirit, with eight pastors largely from Calvinistic churches. This conference featured speakers mostly from the charismatic/pentecostal background, speakers from the “signs and wonders” movement, the health and wealth “gospel” and everything in between. We went because each of us truly wanted to understand the work of the Holy Spirit better and Calvinistic churches aren’t exactly on the cutting edge of the Holy Spirit’s work.

After being exposed to two full days of teaching, including sessions entitled “How To Speak In Tongues,” and “Learn To Have A Healing Ministry,” we sat at dinner try to sort out what we had learned. While we clearly heard some teaching that did not appear to square with the Bible, and some downright goofy stuff, each of us felt we understood better the work and power of the Holy Spirit and were happy we had come.

The next morning at breakfast the conversation somehow turned to the Catholic Church and some of their teachings that did not appear to have any basis in Scripture such as Mary, Jesus’ mother being sinless, or their doctrine which teaches that the bread and wine in Communion actually turns into the body and blood of Jesus. (By the way, I have matured a lot since those days and I have dear brothers and sisters in Christ who are Catholic.) But that conversation that morning led me to ask the question, “How much bad (not clearly taught in the Bible) theology can you believe and still be saved?” I still remember the answer given by one wise and humble pastor.

“I hope a lot because I’m very likely teaching some.”

He went on to explain that while he highly values correct doctrine, there were a few absolutely core doctrines all true Christians must believe passionately to be saved and he ticked off a few; “Jesus is the Son of God. All humans were separated from God because of sin. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected and is now living in Heaven. Anyone who acknowledges their sinful condition, and asks Jesus for forgiveness will be both forgiven and born again and become a child of God. True believers will commit themselves to living out the will of God as Jesus’ taught until death and after death will live with God and all true believers forever.”

He went on to explain that he believes a whole lot more than that as a Christian. However, if a person is truly born again by faith in Jesus Christ, but also believes that Mary was sinless, or does, or does not speak in tongues, that does not disqualify them from heaven. That’s no excuse for believing bad theology, but nobody thinks they believe bad theology! Just think about how many denominations there are in Christianity. Literally thousands! And just go to the Theology section of your favorite Christian book store. There are thousands of books written to instruct us on correct doctrine. They cannot all be right. Somebody, maybe everyone is unwittingly teaching bad doctrine.

The lesson I learned on that trip was, hold true to the core doctrines of the Christian faith and never compromise. Trust in Christ alone for your salvation. Hold those doctrines on which Christians differ loosely and humbly. Because you could be wrong.

In next week’s blog I’ll share a teaching I wrote years ago why some teaching in Scripture is so hard to understand. And a week later I’ll share the results of a survey I did decades ago about the core doctrines true Christians have believed for 2,000 years and will need to believe 2,000 years from now to consider themselves true Christians. Stay tuned.