What Exactly Do You Believe?
Have you ever heard the phrase “it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe”? I’ve recently heard that or something similar to that said by many professing Christians and even by a couple famous Christian pastors.
It usually starts with a mea-culpa apology for all the wrongs professing Christians have done in the history of the world. Then it moves to insults of those who are dogmatic about their belief in Christ calling them bigoted, exclusive, intolerant and holier than thou. From there we hear their definition of religion which includes a description of a belief in “something bigger than us” who they just happen to believe is the Christian God but, they add, others might call that bigger something by another name and that’s fine. At the end of this soft and fuzzy declaration, we inevitably hear that Jesus told us we are to love each other and that it is very loving to be tolerant of differing beliefs.
Here’s a condensed snap shot of how a couple famous pastors said it on Meet the Press and Larry King Live recently: I happen to believe that Jesus is God and I put my trust in Him, but I also understand that others have differing beliefs and I respect that. My goal, they continue, is to show my love for others by seeking to solve the world’s problems by joining together with all religions to work toward a better society for all.
I don’t want to sound bigoted, exclusive, intolerant or holier than thou… but spewing this heart-warming, open-minded belief that all religions should be supportive of each other and work together for the common good indicates to me two things: 1) you don’t believe what you say you believe and 2) your stated love for your fellow man is hooey.
If I told my son that I believe that fire will shoot from his eyes, burning him and everything around him if he touches my belt buckle; then I give him unrestricted access to my belt rack telling him that it doesn’t matter to me if he believes my belt buckle even exists, as long as he continues to believe the lie that grabbing mom’s purse strap will cause rabid dogs to break into the house and bite everyone… If I say that and I do that, that will prove one of two things; either I don’t believe what I say, or I don’t love my son enough to protect him from being burned by fire shooting from his eyes. If I truly love my son and believe he will be harmed if he touches my belt buckle, then I would do everything I can to keep him from touching my belt buckle.
It usually starts with a mea-culpa apology for all the wrongs professing Christians have done in the history of the world. Then it moves to insults of those who are dogmatic about their belief in Christ calling them bigoted, exclusive, intolerant and holier than thou. From there we hear their definition of religion which includes a description of a belief in “something bigger than us” who they just happen to believe is the Christian God but, they add, others might call that bigger something by another name and that’s fine. At the end of this soft and fuzzy declaration, we inevitably hear that Jesus told us we are to love each other and that it is very loving to be tolerant of differing beliefs.
Here’s a condensed snap shot of how a couple famous pastors said it on Meet the Press and Larry King Live recently: I happen to believe that Jesus is God and I put my trust in Him, but I also understand that others have differing beliefs and I respect that. My goal, they continue, is to show my love for others by seeking to solve the world’s problems by joining together with all religions to work toward a better society for all.
I don’t want to sound bigoted, exclusive, intolerant or holier than thou… but spewing this heart-warming, open-minded belief that all religions should be supportive of each other and work together for the common good indicates to me two things: 1) you don’t believe what you say you believe and 2) your stated love for your fellow man is hooey.
If I told my son that I believe that fire will shoot from his eyes, burning him and everything around him if he touches my belt buckle; then I give him unrestricted access to my belt rack telling him that it doesn’t matter to me if he believes my belt buckle even exists, as long as he continues to believe the lie that grabbing mom’s purse strap will cause rabid dogs to break into the house and bite everyone… If I say that and I do that, that will prove one of two things; either I don’t believe what I say, or I don’t love my son enough to protect him from being burned by fire shooting from his eyes. If I truly love my son and believe he will be harmed if he touches my belt buckle, then I would do everything I can to keep him from touching my belt buckle.
Now I realize that some will analyze the above analogy and point out that it breaks down in several ways… let me help you with the most important example of its inadequacy: There is a chance that my son, even with unrestricted access to my belt buckle, may never touch it and therefore remain safe. But no one will escape the righteous judgment of the Lord. You will stand before Him and He will ask you to give an account for your beliefs. He has revealed Himself to you; did you receive that revelation or reject it?
As a Christian I believe what the Bible says: that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and that I cannot have access to the God the Father without Him. I also believe that Christ died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for my sin thereby granting me access to eternity in Heaven when my body dies. And I believe that if any man were to reject Jesus, they would then be destined to spend eternity in hell. Now, if I then told you that you can believe on whatever you want because whatever you believe will happen after you die will happen to you, doesn’t that just prove that I don’t believe what I say I believe? It’s either one or the other, it can’t be both. Jesus is either the only way or He’s not… we’ll either spend eternity in Heaven or Hell or we won’t.
To those professing Christians who insist that it is intolerant, exclusivist, or spiritual snobbery for me to lovingly tell another person that their belief on a false god for their salvation will exclude them from access to the One True and Living God… I need to ask… what exactly do you believe? Because here’s what it sounds like you believe: that Jesus is just one of the many roads to a god-like being to be defined by the individual. It sounds like you believe that belief on the atoning sacrifice of Jesus is just one key to open the gates of a nice place where you’ll have a good time until you maybe go to another place or possibly become another life form. And it appears to me that you believe that only those who don’t believe in anything will spend eternity in a bad place… that is if they believe there is a bad place… if not then they may actually come back as a lower life form or just float around as a spirit until some future unknown time to be determined by the individual god-like being.
For those who insist on holding to this squishy gooey belief system… you need to be bluntly told: You don’t believe what you say you believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment