I hate apologetics.

So, here's the deal.

One of my best friends in the entire world is a staunch Catholic. And really, it's not a problem at all. He is firm in what he believes, which is essentially what I believe as a protestant, though lately I've been straying away from that word and just saying "Christian" in that the specific title doesn't really need to be mentioned. I say I've grown up Baptist but I'm not going to stick solely to that as I church hop. I'm not going to go to some crazy church that doesn't share my beliefs, but I'm broadening my horizons.

However, tonight I had a major discussion (it wasn't really an argument and not at all a fight) with this friend and we both contradicted ourselves and each other and got confused and annoyed and frustrated. Both of us are good with words and both of us can turn the tide on each other. We're entirely too opinionated and know far too little about the other's walks with Christ. We got too focused on small stuff, like tradition and interpretation. And both of us are agreeing on the same things and not realizing it and therefore capitalizing on the confusion of the other. We are currently on break from said discussion because we weren't getting across what we wanted to say. He thinks he did, but he agrees we need to have more conversation about it.

It's so stupid that we're doing this. We aren't going to change each other's opinion and we aren't going to "convert" the other or ever see eye-to-eye on things like who started the church and who is right and who is wrong. He's being condescending and I don't have enough knowledge about topics that I should know about. We're both at fault.

But what it boils down to is this:

We both believe that Jesus Christ came to save the earth from eternal hell. We both believe that we need a personal relationship with Christ. We both believe that grace and grace alone is the only way to eternity in heaven. We both know that we are forgiven but need to ask for it first. And if this is your true belief, God is not going to give a "flipping crap", as my friend Rachel said, about what church you attended.

What we need to really understand is that the Bible is the Word of God. Anything that the church does that is not in the Bible is not of God. Obviously, you're going to have your crazies who think that the Bible tells them to hold snakes in their hands, but that's an isolated event in which people who have not read the context clues have made their own rules. The Bible and the Church are meant to be practically the same thing.

That being said, the Bible and the Church should go hand-in-hand. But humans have run the church, so it has flaws, hence the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther. The Catholic church had fallen from it's roots in some aspects and there were disagreements. Obviously. You can't always take what people say and how they interpret the Bible as truth; you need to dig into it yourself. Be educated about it and learn from those who are masters in it, but also do some digging. Don't just take what church leaders say for fact automatically. Disagree. Get answers. Your church will always have something off, something that isn't entirely Biblical. It's sad, but, unfortunately, it's true. Even the churches who have been around for millennia. There will be answers to questions, but, the point is: are they Biblical? Where do the answers come from? Find out.

There are always going to be contradicting things in theology. Always. Among all the branches separately and within the branches themselves. Someone will always be "wrong". But refer to my paragraph about what we all, as Christians, should believe. That is incontrovertible.

Please do not think that I'm picking sides or bashing the Catholic branch of Christianity, because I am absolutely not. Yes, I'm naturally biased because I am protestant and have had my beliefs officially for the past 20 years but coherently for probably the past 4-5, when I really started digging into my faith. But the fact of the matter is that all Christians should follow Christ passionately and knowledgeably. We should not take our faith as it is. We should challenge it, especially if it's been the same for hundreds of years. We should ask questions, hard questions, and hunt down the answers in the one true book that has the answers. We should know not to take certain aspects, like "take up serpents in their hands" literally and not go around with snakes in our hands.

I can't tell you how to interpret the Bible. That's something you learn from someone who has vastly more knowledge than I do. But I can tell you to read it and to find commentary on it. Be strong. Be smart. And know Christ.