Can you be a non-Bible-believing Christian?

I grew up in a small town in Maine and in the town next to us was a church (that still exists, BTW) called, "Bible Believing Baptist Church."  It's a mouthful for sure, but I've often thought about the name of that church.  Sure, I get the "Baptist" part of it - it's a denominational affiliation.  But what about the "Bible Believing" part of it?  Clearly the intention there is to make sure people know that this church takes the Bible seriously, from Genesis to Revelation, every word, every thought, and that they believe that it is the inerrant, inspired Word of God.

Alright, fair enough.  But I want to ask this question:  Is there another kind of Christian other than one that believes the Bible?  Or, to put it another way, can you be a real Christian without believing in the Bible?

On the one hand, a person certainly need not accept, or even understand, the full-throated doctrine of Biblical inerrancy in order to become a Christian.  If you read the book of Acts, all it took for a person to become a true follower of Christ was to "believe in the Lord Jesus".  In the gospels, Jesus often told people that "your faith has made you well" or "your faith has saved you".  There is no mention of the need to hold to any particular bibliology.

However, can you be a real follower of Christ if you don't believe the Bible?  At this point in time, how do we know about Jesus?  Sure, there are some history books, but primarily, our information comes from the pages of Scripture.  We can't be true followers of Christ unless we believe who He is, and we believe what He taught, and we look to do as He commanded.  But we only know those things from the Bible.  When people say that Jesus taught us not to judge one another, from where do they get that idea?  They have read it (or most likely, they've heard it from someone else rather than reading it themselves) from Matthew 7.  When people say that Jesus taught us to love our neighbors, from where do they get that idea?  Again, from the pages of the New Testament (Matthew 22).

How, then, is it possible to believe who Jesus is and to believe in the things He taught without believing in the primary source for our knowledge about these things?  How can a person truly follow Christ apart from accepting as true the only first-hand account of Jesus' ministry and the testimony of His closest disciples?  It seems impossible.

So why, then, is there a sense out there of "I'm a Christian but I don't really buy into the Bible"?  It's prevalent, for sure.  I think it has to do with this:  people want the comfortable Jesus, a Jesus that doesn't actually point out tough things, a Jesus that challenges them.  They want a Jesus that accepts them for who they are, that whispers sweet-nothings in their ears, and that lets them live life as they see fit, but with a spiritual flavor to it.  There's a desire to be accepted as Christian but there's no desire to be held accountable by Christ.

Well, that's impossible, frankly.  When Jesus was presented with the woman caught in adultery (John 8), He told the Pharisees that whoever is without sin throw the first stone.  We want to embrace that idea of non-judgmentalism, but then we quickly forget that Jesus told the woman, "Neither do I condemn you.  Go and leave your life of sin."  He expressed love and forgiveness, but He also made sure she knew that she was living a life of sin, and that His desire for her was that she sin no longer.  In other words, in Jesus' love and acceptance of her, He made a point of calling her sin what it was - sin - and He called her to repent and change her ways.  The same is true for us.  We want Jesus' love and acceptance, but that can only come when we are honest with what He says about our own lives, that not everything we do is right or good.  Jesus has some very hard things for us to hear when it comes to our thoughts and actions.  We are not nearly as good as we think we are.  Our hearts are deceptively wicked, and we trick ourselves into thinking that we are "good people", when in reality, we are full of all kinds of sin.

Anyone who claims to take Jesus even remotely seriously has to understand this about Him.  They have to believe the Biblical records.  They have to take all of Jesus, not just the comfortable parts of Him.  To be a Christ-follower is to be a Bible-believer.  It doesn't mean that there's no room for questions or doubts or struggles as we wrestle with the text.  But it does mean that we do, in fact, wrestle with the text and seek to understand.  There is no such thing as a Christ-follower that cares not for the Bible.  It is an oxymoron.  (In my next post I will address the issue of "Do we need to take the Bible literally?")

My encouragement to you who claim to follow Jesus Christ is this:  read your Bible.  Learn it.  There's some fascinating stuff in there, things that you never knew.  There's lots that will challenge your thinking.  There's lots that will bring you shame and guilt, but that's ok too, because those are simply the areas that God wants to change in your life.  It has been said that the Bible is shallow enough for an ant to drink and deep enough for an elephant to bathe.  And it is true.  So go get wet.