Author: Bob
To: Steve and John
In my last piece, I responded to Steve’s
request that we complete the following: I can’t believe unless… The gist
of my answer, including a bolded part was:
This piece today attempts to elaborate
further on this statement, and illustrate why it’s important to me, or at least
why I find that this statement helps me understand or explain the gulf that
exists between me and literalist interpretations of the Bible and
fundamentalist Christian belief. Because truthfully, I believe that if I shared the above statement (of
what I can’t believe) with many Christians, I think their reaction would be
that my statement seems to set the standard or bar for my requirement for
belief at a pretty minimum level, perhaps at a level that even seems ridiculous
to them. “Our God from the Bible,” I
think they might say, “doesn’t just break those requirements in relation to the
best human being(s) among us. Our God
shatters those requirements. Our God is
perfect.
An Analogy:
Several years ago I was at a local
electronics chain store, and was about to make a purchase of a new television
set. As we got to the point that the
clerk was preparing the ticket, the clerk asked me if I wished to purchase an
extended protection warranty, and I said that I did not. The clerk was a very earnest fellow, and so
he began to explain to me all of the things that might go wrong with my
television in graphic detail. Didn’t I
understand the sensitive circuitries that this television had, the possibility
or even likelihood that something might go terribly wrong, the high cost of
repairs, etc., etc., etc. And finally I
said, “Please stop. I do not think that
you will be able to convince me to buy this extended warranty. But you may convince me that I’d better not
buy this television.”
And so it is, sometimes, when I hear
the traditional Christian message about sin and forgiveness. It basically goes about like this. The dear and earnest clerk of Christ says to
me, “I think it is fine that you believe in God, and that you are at least
seeking to be a good person and seeking a path that you think might generally
please God. I think it is fine that you
think that God sent Jesus here to preach a message of love and the need for
human beings to relate to God. I think
that it is fine that you think that Jesus had a special relationship with
God. But you have not been
baptized. You do not accept that Jesus
Christ died as a sacrifice or a demonstration of God’s love, to rescue all of
man from original sin, and to rescue you from your sin. You have not been born again. Seeking God’s forgiveness of sin through
Christ has not been a centerpiece, or even a small piece, of your life. You feel somewhat uncomfortable about prayer. Don’t you understand that the one and only
path to God is through these things? Don’t you know:
- That Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me…” (John 14:6)
- That Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3)
- That Jesus said, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only son.” (John 3:17-18)
- That Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit’, said “Salvation is found in no one else [Christ], for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
- That Romans says “That if you confess
with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
My earnest clerk continues, “If you do not believe these things, my friend, I hate to tell you this, but the end is near for you. You are like a broken television set with no extended warranty.”
And I would reply:
“Please, stop. For reasons that would take too long to
explain today, I do not believe that Jesus said the things that you have
stated. I believe that these words were
placed on his lips by a Christian community understandably seeking to claim and
gain some pre-eminence for someone and something that they had experienced as
wonderful, and through whom they felt they had experienced God. But I absolutely agree, if God really is who
and what you say he is, then I am up the creek without a paddle. I will have no chance. I will stand before God in all of my
brokenness, having failed on numerous counts, and I will have no extended
warranty. The gig, as they say, will be
up."
“But in all of your earnestness about the only path to Salvation,
how can you not notice the nature of the God that you point to?”
“How can you tell me that illiterate
parents in a third world country, whose central pre-occupation has not been
seeking forgiveness from God, but rather desperately trying every day to find
food to feed the bellies of their children, have been given no path to God?”
“How can you tell me that a Jewish
teenager, having heard much about Jesus, but not worshipping him -- not as a
decision to walk away from God, but rather as a choice steeped in the faith of
her father, her father’s father, and her father’s father’s father, and as a
choice that seemed to her to affirm a wonderful religious tradition – does not
have the proper path to God and no chance for salvation? How can you tell me that this teenager has
no chance for salvation, as she perishes in the death camps while the Vatican,
constantly seeking forgiveness from God through Christ every day, scarcely says
a public word?”
“In a world where most religious
people are not Christians, not because of some big decision to reject Christ,
but rather because we all tend to be indoctrinated and immersed in the
religious culture and traditions in which we are raised, including for some, a
doctrine of skepticism, how can you tell me that salvation through Christ and
Christ alone is ‘good news for modern man’?”
“How can you tell me that God, our
great God, is not pre-occupied in all of these human matters with calling us
forward in love and calling us away from true evil, but rather is pre-occupied
with the extent to which we adore and depend on him, and how we choose to
worship him? How can you tell me that
our great God is a jealous God (Second Commandment, Exodus 20: “For I, the Lord, am a jealous God,
punishing the children for the sin of the father to the third and fourth
generation for those who hate me”)?”
“How can you not see that this God you
describe is not only less just, less fair, less compassionate, less loving, and more troublingly arrogant
than not only the best human being(s) among us, but most human beings that we
encounter every day?”
“So you are right, my dear sales
clerk. My concept of God does differ
from some Christian church teachings. And you are also right, that if your concept of God is correct, I will
lack an extended warranty, and it’s the junk heap for me.”
“But I am going to buy the
television. It seems to be a good
set. I’ve put some thought into the
purchase, and I’ve got some faith in it. Its value seems worth the price. But the extended warranty you offer – well, the cost I’d have to pay to
worship that is way beyond its value.”
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