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I am amazed at the diversity of opinion and the lack of faith in the Jesus of historic Christianity among pastors.

In the 1980s, one of my doctoral professors thought my belief that Jesus actually rose from the dead placed me in the dark ages. He was a process theologian in the school of Whitehead. He was enamored with the historical critical method of interpreting Scripture, which considered very few words as authentic.

In seminary, I was trained to honor the Christ of the Holy Scripture and then to ferret out the truth from each Greek and Hebrew word from the original text. For three years, I carried my Greek New Testament and my Biblica Hebraica to class.

On one extreme, we have New Testament scholars, professors or pastors who do not honor the Christ of the Scriptures, and on the other extreme those who worship the Bible but not the Christ of the Bible.

In 1984, in one of my doctoral classes, I quoted the Gospel of John. A classmate rebutted, “That is only John’s opinion, what I think is ... ” I quickly discovered that many of the pastors (it was a multi-denominational class) did not accept the Holy Scripture as the word of God.

Recently, I attended a workshop on the theories that are being taught in some seminaries and are practiced by religionists in our culture. The following theories helped me understand what is happening today:

• Classical — A truth exists for all time, and we seek to understand the truth of God.

• Modernity — With enough study a person can determine what is the truth. The modern method of viewing religion was based upon the power of the individual in determining the truth.

• Postmodern — Postmodernists say all reality is interpreted reality and that images and ideas were constructed within a culture. Therefore religious images of any of the world’s religions are to be looked at as “culture based” and not for all time.

The popular “lay” religion that I have heard from people for years says: “There are many interpretations; in fact, you can’t even trust the Bible since there are so many translations. Besides it was written by men.” Therefore, truth is unknowable outside of my truth.

• Deconstructionists and Reconstructionists — This theory is presently in the forefront of Bible studies.

Deconstructionists do not see truth as individually based but in the context of “we.” It is very relational. For example, Desmond Tutu’s statement highlights this trend when he said, “I am because We are.”

For deconstructionists, God is as indeterminable as determining when light is in a wave or like particles in waves. They say all reality is interpreted reality. What actually exists is determined by how it is interpreted.

The modernists could say there are many paths to God, and it doesn’t matter what path you take. The deconstructionists and post modernists could say we are all deconstructing and reconstructing our reality which might have a path to God or not.

I am thankful that we can have this conversation and that people come to the table with their ideas. What bothers me is when people don’t come to the table and discuss their conception of God, morals and ethics. I encourage you to have this conversation in your church.

Faith in a loving, caring and forgiving God helps those who come for counseling at Samaritan. We have noticed over the years that people who are grounded in their faith do better than those who have no grounding.

As for me, I am a classical theologian. I believe that the truth of God is revealed in the sacred Scriptures and that my Lord and Savior Jesus rose from the grave on that first Easter Day so all believers can have forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

I pray that you will evaluate where your religion is taking you. Everyone has a god, that which is most important in your life is your god. I pray that you have a God that will help you love, respect, forgive and guide you and others into a healthy and moral life.