Toward A More Complete Christian Walk: 7 Things I Learned From Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Baptists, Apologists, Pentecostals, & Wesleyans

I really enjoy reading books and studying ideas from outside my denominational framework. I believe God works through many different denominations, not just the one that I'm a part of. So I like to see, what am I maybe missing that other denominations are doing? What do they believe? How do they practice their faith?

In my faith journey I've gone from being raised Catholic, to being Baptist, and then to The Salvation Army, and I've experienced many other traditions as well in various ways, from reading books to watching sermons.

So today we're looking at the topic, how can we follow Jesus better by looking at what other faith traditions do and believe. That's a mouth full.

We're going to look at 5 groups, Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Baptist Evangelical, Apologetics movement, and Pentecostals. And a look at Wesleyan holiness.

I'm a truth seeker. I'm always looking for the truth, sifting through the word of God, seeking to understand it more clearly and practice it more faithfully. I think we should all be truth seekers. So as we consider these 7 areas, I want you to put your truth seeker cap on. Take what you can, to apply to your faith practice, so it's more beautiful and more biblical in Christ.

You see the beautiful cathedral, the beautiful architecture, the stained glass windows, the candles burning, the incense. You hear the organ playing, the altar, the paintings and statues. It's so very different from what we do here isn't it?

Catholicism and protestantism are the two major categories of Christians in the world today. We fall under that protestant umbrella. Catholicism is something completely different.

Here we find the value of liturgy, and physical manifestations of faith. The touching of the senses. Candles burning. Confessions of faith repeated over and over with the lips. The smell of incense in the nostrils. Stained glass windows with light shining through, beauty to the eyes. The wafer and the wine in the mouth, to be tasted. Statues and artwork to be seen.

I was raised Catholic, but I never really connected to it. Going back into a Catholic church later in life, I discovered a great joy in the reciting of the truths of the scriptures. It can be Spirit-filled, is what I learned when reconnecting with it later in life.

The beauty of the physical is at work in the ornate chapels and basilicas of the Catholic faith. The reciting of the truths of the Christian faith bring a fresh theological depth to an increasingly luke-warm, shallow Christianity of today based on simplistic Christian rock choruses that tend to glorify love more so than the God who is both merciful and holy. The repetition of liturgy can help guide us toward a more theologically deep and meaningful practice of our faith. Physical manifestations can remind us that God is a God of our world.

Next, Lutheranism. I studied Luther and the reformation a great deal in college at Liberty, and graduate school at ONU, and on my own, reading books, and reading his essays. I think in studying Martin Luther, the great reformer, and the reformation, when Luther really established the protestant movement, away from the Catholic church, I find the value of the all-sufficiency of Christ.

Christ is everything. Everything is about Christ. Jesus is the savior. He's the one who washes away our sins. Of the millions of sins on record, there is not even one I can scrub away on my own. I could scrub all day. I could scrub and repent and do good deeds, all day long. But I can't wash away sin. Not even one. Only Jesus can do that. Jesus is the reason. Jesus is the hope. Jesus is the atonement for sin. Jesus is sufficient. Thank you Luther, for that.

Next, we consider Calvinism. What is Calvinism? Well it's an off-shoot of the reformation movement started by Luther. John Calvin was very focused on pre-destination and developed the TULIP, the 5 main points of Calvinism.

Really today the majority of the most popular preachers and speakers in the United States today are Calvinists. These include speakers like John Piper, John MacArthur, John R.W. Stott, Alistair Begg, DA Carson, Wayne Grudem, Mark Driscoll, Paul Washer, Tim Keller, I could go on and on, basically every big name in evangelical Christianity is a Calvinist. So I found myself heavily influenced by these speakers in my faith walk.

Though I strongly disagree theologically with all five points of the calvinist TULIP, there was a lot of good to learn from Calvinism.

The most important truth I took away from Calvinism was the utterly highest regard for scripture. They call this biblical inerrancy.

How much do we trust the word of God? In my experience, our regard for the word of God is so utterly low, it's absolutely appalling. We turn up our nose at scriptures we dislike. We skip over the difficult scriptures, and emphasize the lovey-dovey ones. We white-wash and blot out the scriptures about hell and judgment. We second guess Paul, John, and even Jesus. It's sad.