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Most Christians hold to the doctrine of Original Sin and, however we dress this up for Sunday, on the street, it translates to “people are born guilty because of Adam”. This is a very damaging doctrine because it gives us a picture of God before whom all, even infants, are guilty and under wrath which is difficult to reconcile with a loving God (no matter what some theologians say). Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever wondered if everyone but the Christian Church is damned to hell? The Reformation gave us back something quite valuable by reminding us that the Bible teaches no hierarchy amongst believers. While some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers all are called to love and serve each other as brothers, in the face-to-face manner of Jesus, a great man yet who walked amongst men as friends and washed their smelly feet.
While it is clear that all followers of Jesus are called to mission, it is far from clear, from Jesus’ teaching, that only his followers would be saved. Let us set aside our black-and-white conception of the world divided into saved Christians and damned non-Christians and consider Jesus’ own words which, as will be plain, contained other categories. What emerges is an inclusive picture of people entering the Kingdom based not on religion or beliefs but on a multitude of other factors. Read the rest of this entry »
I go to a church in which the Bible is referred to as “the Word of God” and it’s inerrancy is upheld as the basis (or foundation) of our belief. Here, Christians are basically people who decided to trust the Bible and arguments on Doctrine or Practice can be solved by consulting and quoting of Scripture.
Many of my brothers and sisters know the Bible very well and can quote chapter and verse (of which I am envious) but I have several issues with this “high” view of Scripture which have brought me into some conflict in the past with some of the pillars that be. Read the rest of this entry »
Wright’s Understanding of Justification of Faith
Most people understand the Pauline doctrine of “justification by faith” to mean one is justified because of faith in Jesus. Though this is probable, N.T. Wright has argued in his Commentary on Romans (New Interpreters Bible, Vol. X) that “by” does not mean “because of” but “as evidenced by”. One has been justified and this is evident by one’s faith. As Wright is a Calvinist, faith is not something one produces but a gift of God (Eph 2:8) and this surely influence his interpretation.
Wright argues that faith is the true badge of justification (inclusion in God’s family) over and against the badge of circumcision (works of Torah). This is radically different from the common interpretation as the following example demonstrates: Read the rest of this entry »
Miracles and Proof of God’s Existence
According to pop-Christianity, believing in God is the key to salvation and God wants all to be saved. You might ask, why doesn’t He show up and prove his existence? A couple of minor miracles captured on CNN would be all it takes and the whole televised world could be saved!
Essentially we have:
- If we could see, we’d believe
- If we believed, we’d be saved
This logic is fascinating because it’s basic and, in a sense, true but terribly misleading. Why?
- Because the kind of belief which saves does not come by seeing
- Because seeing is not always believing
Seeing is not Believing
In any experience which permits doubt, people will believe what they want to believe and not what they see. Any minor miracles would always be doubted and put down to trickery especially if they were only seen on TV. Each of us would personally need to see something amazing, like a dead relative rising up from the grave in order to be truly convinced that something supernatural has happened. However, even then, some of us would later consider the experience a kind of delusion and question our sanity or assumptions (was uncle Fred really dead?).
When Jesus healed a blind man (John 9) the man and his parents were interrogated by the religious authorities and various conspiracy theories were put forward. “The man was not truly blind”, they said. “It’s not the same man!”, “He’s a liar”. The consensus was that Jesus was a sinner and a charlatan and the authorities expelled the man and ultimately lynched Jesus. Seeing is not believing but even if one believes (in this sense) it’s simply not the key to salvation.
Pop-Gospel and Blind Belief
The pop-Gospel is “believe and you are saved” and is interpreted as: blindly believe these (crazy) things and you go to heaven instead of hell. Sounds ludicrous, as if God somehow prizes intellectual dishonesty above all other virtues. Surely God prizes people who question things (skeptics) and try to live a good life (moralists) above this cheap nonsense?
True Gospel and Personal Trust
True Gospel Christianity is radically different from other religions and worldviews. Christians are neither naive nor moralists and don’t only have belief in a set of propositions but uniquely and critically trust in a person. The oft quoted John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”. The preposition “in” (Greek eis) is not accidental and the word “belief” (Greek pisteuo) goes way beyond a mere nod of a head.
To believe in someone is to be convinced that they are something good and true and worthy of our faith. When a daughter says to her father “I believe in you” she is saying “I trust you, I know you are capable, faithful and reliable”. When we are called to believe in Jesus we are called to place our trust in Him – believing his words is part of that trust but this kind of personal trust goes beyond intellectual assent of his teachings. Thus Ghandi, who thought the Sermon on the Mount beautiful and true even if Jesus never lives, was emotionally and intellectually engaged by Jesus’ teaching and nature but not personally receptive to Jesus as a person.
Jesus makes it particularly clear in Matthew 7 when he speaks of judgement day and people being separated into heaven and hell based not on their belief but on whether He, Jesus, knew them personally (“I never knew you. Depart from me,”). He radically explains that,
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
What has this all got to do with God’s hiding? We’ve said that God wants all people saved and that trust in His Son is the key. We’ve seen that miracles are not necessarily the best way to gain this trust. At best God could win our intellectual assent “Yes, you are powerful”, He could win our minds forcefully by proving his power and existence once and for all but is that the key to our salvation?
Salvation and do we want it?
Salvation is the point in a person’s life where they are rescued from the natural fate of death and brought into a new life which is from, in and for God with the promise of an eternity with Him. Imagine the person who has just seen proof of God’s existence: he’s seen the power but he’s also thought about the consequences of Christianity being true. God exists, He created me, He’s personal and just. Now, “How does God see me? I’m not such a bad person. Wait, God knows all I’ve done? He expects better of me? He demands my obedience? I must hand over my freedom to this sort of tyrant? Give me liberty or give me death!” It has been said that those who reject God would find heaven hell and not enter willingly.
Winning our Hearts
The point is that God may win our minds with miracles, perhaps even our approval with blessings but our hearts are trickier and require special treatment. His true aim is to win our hearts and as any lover knows, you can’t buy or force love because it is not love unless it’s given freely. No show of power will win our hearts as much as God patiently, progressively and lovingly revealing Himself to those who seek him whilst hiding his glory and power from those who do not seek him. God knows his face is terror to the proud and that people must first be humbled before they can look at Him. He knows that pride cannot break pride and that true humility humbles. He also knows that no love is greater than that which will die for a loved one.
The First Fruits
Thus the stage is set for God to descend to earth as a baby, to a poor family, in a backwards part of the world. A Nazarene man teaches, heals, serves, suffers and dies and the world goes on. The grave is empty and, for 40 days he is sighted. Many see, some believe. For the believers the world changes and life is never the same again. Their hearts are won. They are the first fruits. How can we moderns hear this and fail to be captivated and be left cold? Surely we are blinded! This picture of boundless love and self-sacrifice has the power to transform yet we pass on by.
Conclusion
God hides from those who are unwilling and unable to see him. He wants to woo us and win our affection. If we respond to the light we have, he progressively reveals Himself in a process only limited by our desire to know Him more. Our loving but shy God hides from those who do not wish to see Him. One day every eye will see and every knee will bow but not every heart will rejoice.
Faith must be one of the most important concepts in Christianity. After all, salvation is by faith alone as Paul repeatedly tells us. Jesus himself brings the good news that we can know God by faith in Him (Jesus) without doing anything difficult. But what is faith? Is it “blind belief” in things we can’t see or test? How do we get this faith which brings eternal life?
More Than Belief
The kind of faith Jesus speaks of is more than just accepting a proposition, it’s about accepting a person, Jesus, on his terms. Ken Boa explains:
But faith is more than intellectual assent; it is personal reception. God does not call us merely to believe a set of doctrines but to trust in a person.
Ken has also said elsewhere: Christianity is a relationship not a religion and it’s personal not philosophical.
Faith, Fidelity, Marriage
We speak of a spouse being unfaithful or betraying trust to their partner. Peter Kreeft echos Paul when he says that Faith in Jesus is like a marriage to God:
No religion outside Judaism and Christianity ever knew of such an intimate relationship with God as “faith.” Faith means not just belief but fidelity to the covenant, like a marriage covenant. Sin is the opposite of faith, for sin means not just vice but divorce, breaking the covenant. In Judaism, as in Christianity, sin is not just moral and faith is not just intellectual; both are spiritual, i.e., from the heart.
Faith Which Stands
We may all believe that parachutes bring a person safely to earth but the real test of this faith comes when we have to jump. Similarly Jesus calls us to believe in Him and His message not just when the sun is shining but when we are tested and persecuted or when God seems far off.
Reasonable Faith
The idea that faith is blind is bad rhetoric. This idea is not found in the Bible except in verses which describe how we hope for that (God, heaven) which we have not yet seen. Yet the Bible assumes that believers know God personally and have experienced Him. In fact the Bible is written as evidence of what happened so that we might believe. The Bible does not say “believe this” but “here is the evidence, we saw it happen, believe us, we’d die for this truth”. The “we” are the eye-witnesses who did, in most cases, die for their belief.
I often read or hear polemic relating to “The Problem of Evil” in which the world is described as so horrible that God must be some sort of cruel psychopath if he is behind it all. While there is no shortage of horror stories in this world I am becoming increasingly aware that by far most people, most of the time, live quite good and happy lives.
As westerners we assume that we’ve got it good and the 3rd world is suffering and, while this is partly true, it is also true that any traveller to these countries will tell you that the smiling faces are all in Africa, SE Asia, India etc. We pity these people because they live on rice and have no Nike shoes or PlayStation but we’re the ones with the high suicide and depression rates, not to mention decay of moral values and general physical and mental health. We may have the technology to “cope” but we’ve probably made more problems than we’ve solved.
My point is that most people, most of the time are not suffering horribly but that bad news is highlighted and promoted aby the media we feed on. Of the 3 million good things which happened in Smallsville today, it’s the rape or supermarket robbery which makes the newspaper and maybe even national news.
If I were to tell my own life story I’d probably devote a disproportionate amount of time to my mishaps and sufferings. I won’t even recall the quite walks and talks I’ve enjoyed or the golden hours I’ve spent with friends and family. If I stop to really take stock of my life – increasingly difficult in a world of iPods and Internet – I find I can really be grateful for my life and express joy at the time I’ve had.
In a spirit of gratitude I can thank my creator for giving me life and get a sense for the value he instills in me and the fruit he expects of me!
