What Should We Believe?

I had someone tell me once that they think the important thing is that one believes whatever one was brought up believing. I have a problem with that, personally, and not just because I no loner believe what I was raised to believe. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, I was raised in a Christian denomination, and I am still a Christian, but I now belong to a non-denominational church. Some might not consider that a change in beliefs so much as a change in emphasis, but it seems to me that if God requires people to continue to believe what they were raised to believe, then I am in trouble. Let’s consider, for a moment, though, that the members of the early church were mostly raised to believe in Judaism. Now, again, one could say that the difference between Judaism and Christianity is more a change in emphasis than in belief. After all, the Jews believe in the Messiah, they just don’t believe that He’s come yet. I suppose that there is something to be said for that, but then a lot of the early church came from some form of paganism, if not what is now known as Roman mythology, then Greek. Surely those can’t be considered the same belief. That was different, though; God was beginning a new religion, making it available to more people. “For what purpose?” I would have to ask. Those people already believed in something. If the important thing is believing in something, and not so much believing in the right something, then why would God bother? The crucifixion was a pretty horrific experience; I don’t think that I would have even wanted to watch it, much less go through it. And yet, so many people think that Jesus went through that just to give us another option. I can’t accept that. Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He also said that no man comes to the Father but by Him. I also have to question, “What if I had been raised as an atheist?” Would that be okay with God if I disregarded all that He has done for me, simply because my parents didn’t believe in Him? Would Jesus’ sacrifice then be meaningless, because I didn’t believe? Am I absolved of doing anything for God because I don’t believe? Would I be welcomed into Heaven because I kept the teachings of my parents, even though those teachings excluded all of God’s teaching? I don’t mean to down any other religion. I have known many Buddhists that were good people. Some of them are better people than some of us who call ourselves Christians. If you know anything about Buddhism, though, you know that Buddha never claimed to be God, or even that he knew the way. He only taught that one should search out the way, and he tried to teach what he had been able to learn about the search for the way during his life. He was certainly right that we should seek the Way. Even those of us who have come to know that Jesus is the Way should seek to know Him better, and allow Him to guide our steps and direct our paths. We should never take His sacrifice for granted. If it’s possible for any living human being to be held responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, those are the people that take His suffering for granted. Those of us who have come to love Him for what He has done for us have been absolved, as long as we keep the faith. Karl Marx said that religion is the opiate of the masses. If it doesn’t matter what you believe (other than, perhaps, that it be the religion of your parents), as long as you believe something, doesn’t that make religion the placebo of the masses? Of course, I don’t believe that at all, but I think part of the problem is that people don’t think of religion as real, so they think it just doesn’t matter what you believe—one sugar pill is as good as another. The problem is that a substitute religion can never replace the truth, any more than laetrile can take the place of a good cancer treatment protocol.

My Father Is a Jewish Carpenter

I have blogged in the past about Judaism, and two days ago I posted about trying not to create offence. Today I heard about a new way of creating offense that I had never heard of before: It seems that there is a Christian family living in a predominately Jewish area that just recently discovered Christianity's Jewish roots, and are now adopting Jewish customs. I can see how that could be fun and interesting, and might even help one to understand some of the references in Scripture that so many people not familiar with Jewish customs have a hard time with. Still, there are better ways to bond with Jewish people.

Quite frankly, there is a peculiar relationship between the three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three religions believe at least some of the same things. Jesus was born a Jew, and the Koran mentions Jesus as having been sent as a Savior to the Jews. There are, of course, major differences in the religions; with each of the three teaching that the other two are, although close, somewhat wrong. Usually the big objection to Christianity (from the other two religions) tends to be that all through the Old Testament (or Tanakh), there was one God; then Jesus came, and suddenly there are three Gods. Even if you accept Jesus as an additional God (which you shouldn't--He is not another God), where did this other God come from? Both Christianity and Islam look at the Jews as having been God's chosen people, but they rejected the savior that God sent for them (at this point, there are two divisions, though; a lot of people want to just write them off, while some of us still see a great deal of potential in the Jews). Islam, on the other hand, in some ways seems to follow along the lines of Judeo-Christianity, but in other ways, seems to have taken a sharp left...

In any case, to simply adopt the customs of another group of people can be annoying, or insulting. I understand that the Jewish neighbors at least know why this Christian family is suddenly trying to act Jewish, and they know that it is not attempt to mock them. It occurs to me that a better way to bond with Jewish neighbors would be to ask questions about their customs and their faith. Not to imitate, but to gain an understanding. It helps if one has a legitimate question regarding an Old Testament Scripture that is referred to in the New Testament (such as "What was David referring to in the 22nd Psalm?" knowing that he was describing the Crucifixion; or "What child was Isaiah talking about in Isaiah 7:14?" but be prepared that they are going to tell you that he was talking about his own child--Isaiah's wife became pregnant shortly after that), but ask for help in understanding, and then wait for an opportunity to explain why that explanation is important to you (and if it isn't important, keep it to yourself).

We, as Christians, have a bad tendency to behave as though we are better than non-Christians. God so loved the world... He doesn't have a special love for us, He loves all of His creation; He would like to save more people, but it is up to us.

Politics

Normally, I try to stay away from politics in this blog, but there are some things that have happened lately that I feel I must comment on:

First, I would like to thank Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Mr. Reid wrote a letter to Mark Mays, of Clear Channel Communications, essentially passing on a baseless accusation that Rush Limbaugh called military members that didn't agree with the war in Iraq 'phony soldiers.' In point of fact, the phrase 'phony soldiers' came from an ABC news report about people protesting the war claiming to be veterans of the Iraq war, when, in fact, they had not been to Iraq at all, and some of them aren't even veterans. In any case, the letter was auctioned off Friday, and leveraged into a 4.2 million dollar donation to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation--a charitable organization set up to help the survivors of Marines and Law Enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. This is the sort of thing that we like to see happen in the name of 'supporting our troops.' So thank you, Mr. Reid.

In other news, we are taking up a collection to buy Ann Coulter a shoe horn. It needs to be a very strong shoe horn, because her foot is so much bigger than her mouth, and it needs to be durable, because she manages to get her foot in her mouth so often. She made a comment last week saying that she wanted the Jews 'to be perfected.' As if that made them any different than the rest of us... She has caught a lot of flack about 'these are the kind of comments that led to Auschwitz.' I have to disagree. The Nazis weren't trying to perfect the Jews, they were trying to perfect themselves. A lot of Germans believed that they had been weakened by Jewish influence, Hitler preached that the Jews needed to be eliminated in order to recover the 'master race'--the blond-haired, blue-eyed people that God intended for us to be... The criticism, of course, stems from the fact that the Nazis and Ann Coulter both seem to think that the Jews are inferior. I don't think that Ann Coulter would advocate killing Jews because they are imperfect (and if she is advocating killing people who aren't perfect, then she should set the example by getting in line for execution first--and people like me will just have to hope that once she's gone, the push to kill imperfect people will die down). I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "There are no perfect people." We also need to get her one of those bumper stickers that says, "Christians aren't perfect--just forgiven."I think I understand what she meant. The plain and simple truth is that the Jews have been waiting for a savior for over two thousand years. Some of them set out an extra chair and set an extra place setting at meals, in case the Messiah shows up. Meanwhile, we Christians know Christ. We are waiting for Him to come back, and take us Home. The Jews are inextricably linked to our salvation, and they don't even see it. Some people cry that they killed Jesus; my salvation was bought with His blood--I say, thank God for the Jews! I would like to see as many of them in Heaven as possible. I don't want to see them threatened or browbeaten; that's not effective anyway. Side note: Recently some sociologists discovered some Latino Roman Catholics in the United States that celebrated Chanukah, Purim, and Passover. They only did this in the privacy of their own homes, they never talked to anyone at church about it, and all are descendants of Spaniards that lived during the Spanish Inquisition. Apparently these people have been (secretly) practicing Jewish rites for over 400 years...

To be honest, Ann Coulter illustrates an unfortunate aspect of Christianity. We, as Christians, think of ourselves as 'chosen.' Well, okay, we don't just think of ourselves as chosen, we are chosen. But we have a bad tendency to think that we are somehow special, that God chose us because we have some talent or ability that was instrumental to His grand scheme--as opposed to God giving talents and abilities to people who are willing to follow His direction. But our 'specialness' comes from our obeisance, not from our abilities, or our looks. If any one of us decides not to follow God, he will simply raise up another. We are recipients of Grace; not because of what we have done or even could do, but because God is a loving and merciful God. God would like to extend His Grace even further, but is often limited by our failings as Christians. If the Jews are not saved, it may very well be because of us. Apostle Paul wrote about not 'boasting against' the Jews...

Reality

I have been curious as to what the brouhaha was about as far as the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ that is being proposed in Congress. The liberals want fairness in media, the conservatives have been complaining for years that the main-stream media is too liberal, but they are fighting the Fairness Doctrine. WIRED magazine reported on the fairness doctrine, and there, in the third paragraph, is the explanation. Conservative talk show hosts exposed the liberals attempt to grant amnesty to the illegal immigrants, even though the main stream media ignored the bill. People found out, and a lot of the members of Congress got a lot of angry communication from their constituents. I wonder what sort of E-mails and letters they would have gotten if they had actually gotten the bill to pass. It strikes me as particularly odd, since George Clooney’s movie, 'Good Night, and Good Luck' quotes the journalist Edward R. Murrow as saying that sometimes you just can’t present both side of an argument and still be fair to the facts. I guess this Congress hasn't seen that movie.
If the 'Fairness Doctrine' becomes law, does that mean that anytime Al Gore's movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth' is played, that the BBC's documentary, 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' will be played also? BTW, out of a sense of fairness (if you'll pardon the expression), I feel I must point out that I found out about the BBC's film because one of the scientists (perhaps the only scientist), Professor Carl Wunsch, has since said that his statements were taken out of context and that he absolutely believes in global warming, but that some things that have been presented as fact by the media are really just theories.
How would the 'Fairness Doctrine' play on the subject of honor killing? Newsweek ran an article on the Juha sisters, who were killed in Gaza, allegedly after having been found guilty of prostitution in a considerably less than formal court. Now there is a man being held for murder, but there isn't much hue and cry about three girls being murdered, because it was an honor killing. It's tradition. Newsweek quotes the man who found the bodies as saying that this is not their religion, but it is tradition. I am not familiar enough with Islam to know, one way or the other. I do know the Jesus talked about men making the law of God of none effect by their tradition...
Really, though, what's on my mind is this: People either think that once you become a Christian, then you become perfect, and you never have any more problems, or people think that Christianity is *obviously* not the true religion, because it has so many imperfect people in it. I guess that's really kind of the same thing, but neither one is true. People tend to be, whether Christian or not, generally those type of people generally referred to as human beings. We make mistakes. When you stop making mistakes, then you are no longer human. Human people have a hard time relating to people that are not human, so God leaves us human after He redeems us. Much as I would like to stop making mistakes...
Let me just throw in 3 quick links: Two for commentaries in Christianity Today magazine: one, and two; and one in Newsweek here.
Somebody told me recently that he had noticed a sign of political correctness creeping into the church: Where we used to talk about 'Saints and Sinners,' we now say 'Churched and Unchurched.' I don't think that it's got anything to do with PC, I think it's just a casting off of naiveté. We used to think that when people became saints, they stopped being sinners. We have come to realize that we still fall short. Apostle Paul wrote extensively about his own struggles with sin in Romans 7.
It has been pointed out that, during the early years of the United States, it was common practice for preachers to preach using passages of Scripture that talked about servants pleasing their masters to justify slavery. In retrospect, that was obviously wrong. On the other hand, who were the abolitionists? Do you know of any abolitionist that wasn't a Christian? We can look to the Spanish Inquisition, and see what a horrible thing that was, done in the Name of Jesus. We can even look to the stories in the Bible. Scripture tells us that David was a man after God's own heart, and yet David had an affair with Bathsheba, and then had her husband, Uriah, killed, to cover it up. Does that sound like something God would do? Of course not; but it shows that even the best and most blessed of us make mistakes. No wonder David said that he was shapen in iniquity.
I've commented before that we, as human beings, are capable of great monstrosities. Even those of us who call ourselves Christians sometimes make horrendous mistakes. I've known people that were 'unchurched' who lived better lives than some of us who are 'churched.' Why does God allow such things? God gave us free will. We are free to do what is good, or what is evil (as melodramatic as that may sound). The nice thing about freedom is that it makes it pretty easy to tell who does the right thing simply because it is the right thing, as opposed to those who do the right thing simply out of a sense of obligation. Unfortunately, it also makes it easy for some people to just not do the right thing at all. If you can come up with a system in which all human beings have free will, and yet no one ever wants to do anything selfish or just plain wrong, I'd love to hear it. Or better yet, explain your idea to God (but try not to talk down to Him too much).