The Christian music community has experienced shock after Dove-award winning musical artists Michael and Lisa Gungor announced they no longer believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
The duo, known for popular worship songs like "Dry Bones" and "Beautiful Things," released a blog post on their website titled "What Do We Believe," revealing their changing views concerning Biblical truths.
"Over the last year, I have had so many questions asked of me about what I believe. Just tonight I had a conversation with someone extremely close to me that said that he wouldn't consider me a Christian anymore," explained Gungor in the post.
Why? Not because of my life ... Not because my life looks like Jesus or doesn't look like Jesus. But because of my lack of ability to nail down all the words and concepts of what I exactly BELIEVE. Because I've lost so many of the unconscious assumptions that I used to have and have no ability to un-see what I have seen," he explained.
"I have no more ability to believe, for example, that the first people on earth were a couple named Adam and Eve that lived 6,000 years ago. I have no ability to believe that there was a flood that covered all the highest mountains of the world only 4,000 years ago and that all of the animal species that exist today are here because they were carried on an ark and then somehow walked or flew all around the world from a mountain in the middle east after the water dried up," he continued.
"I have no more ability to believe these things than I do to believe in Santa Clause or to not believe in gravity. But I have a choice on what to do with these unbeliefs. I could either throw out those stories as lies, or I could try to find some value in them as stories," he added.
Gungor went on to say that he has tried to express his views to "traditional" Christians-but they are not very accepting.
"If you try to find some value in them as stories, there will be some people that say that you aren't a Christian anymore because you don't believe the Bible is true or 'authoritative.' Even if you try to argue that you think there is a truth to the stories, just not in an historical sense; that doesn't matter. To some people, you denying the 'truth' of a 6,000 year old earth with naked people in a garden eating an apple being responsible for the death of dinosaurs is the same thing as you nailing Jesus to the cross. You become part of 'them.' The deniers of God's Word," he said.
I"'ve decided to think about my 'beliefs' in terms of how I live rather than what my unconscious assumptions are. Because there are lots of people that have all sorts of beautiful 'beliefs' that live really awful lives. If I'm on the side of a road bleeding, I don't care if the priest or the Levite have beautiful 'beliefs' about the poor and the hurting ... Give me the Samaritan. The heretic. The outsider who may have the 'wrong' 'beliefs' in words and concepts but actually lives out the right beliefs by stopping and helping me. That's the kind of belief I'm interested in at this point," he noted.
"What do I believe? Look at my life. That's what I believe. And that's the kind of belief I'm interested in for my friends as well. I don't care so much about what their words and unconscious assumptions are (even though that can make for some enjoyable pub conversation). I care about what kind of lives they live. Do they believe IN the underdog, or do they BELIEVE in the underdog? Do they believe in loving their neighbor or do they believe by loving their neighbor?" he continued.
"So you believe in God? So what. You believe Jesus was the Son of God that will someday come again to reconcile all things? Big deal. So do most serial killers," he wrote.
WORLD Magazine first revealed Gungor's changing theology, saying the group had "drifted from biblical orthodoxy."
Writer Jeff Koch noted that while Gungor certainly value the person of Jesus, their transformed theology "limits an appreciation of God's fullness."
"Gungor is clearly still animated and inspired by the person of Jesus," write Koch.
"But it was Jesus who upheld the authority of Scripture and whose recipe for divine connection was fairly simple: "Our Father, who is in Heaven, hallowed be your name ..."
