Questions on Christianity

In this blog we have often talked about the fact that God made us finite and the implications of that fact.  I recently read a book written by Joseph T. Hallinan who details various mistakes to which we humans are prone [1] because we are finite.

One mistake Hallinan mentions is that as something becomes more familiar to us, we notice less information about that topic not more.  This occurs because we are flooded with information and because we are finite we must be economical with how we process all this data.  What we do is to skim the information with which we are familiar and ignore the details.  The result is that we tend to see things not as they are but as we think they should be.  Examples Hallinan uses include a misprint in sheet music for a Brahms capricco that professional musicians and publishers missed but that was found by a student.  A thirteen year old boy who corrected NASA’s estimate of the chance of an asteroid hitting the earth.  A 5^th grade boy who found an error at a Smithsonian Institute exhibit that had not been detected for 27 years. [2]  In all these examples, the professionals missed an error because they were so familiar with the subject matter that they skimmed over the error and did not notice it.

We Christians have the same tendencies.  How else can we explain the fact that there are over 70 verses in the Bible that teach salvation is through belief in God or through our conduct, pattern of behavior, motivation, use of abilities, and repentance and yet we ignore them?  (See the header on this blog titled “What the Bible Says about Salvation for a list of these verses.)  Because these verses do not fit our established doctrine of salvation which is that salvation is only through belief in Jesus and his death for our sins, we ignore these inconvenient details.  As Hallinan states”  “Facts that do not fit together . . . are forgotten, de-emphasized, or reinterpreted”. [3]

Now that we are aware of this very human tendency, what will we do?  Will we continue to ignore these 70 verses concerning salvation or will we determine a reason why God included them in the Bible?

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[1]   Joseph T. Hallinan.  Why We Make Mistakes.  New York:  Broadway Books, 2009.

[2]   Ibid., pp. 111-113.

[3]   Ibid., p. 123.

Steve Tobak is a businessman who writes a blog on business topics but occasionally addresses cultural issues.  In a recent posting he decries one behavior he sees in our society.

. . .people talk a good game but their actions tell a different story. . .of all the cultural trends that threaten the integrity of our society, the most insidious , I think, is all the talk about doing good, aiding causes, and changing the world, while our actions show the selfish greed and narcissism that’s in our hearts. [1]

Unfortunately, we Christians are part of this trend.  Our doctrine of salvation says all we need to do is to believe in Jesus and his death for our sins to be saved; all we need to do is say the right words.  Our doctrines say precious little about changing our soul so it becomes like God so we continue to exhibit “the selfish greed and narcissism that’s in our hearts”  We call ourselves Christians but are not Christ-like.

Will we continue to participate in this “culture of duplicity” that Tobak describes or will we follow the example of Jesus who did more than believe in God but who did God’s will?  Maybe a start is to rethink our doctrine of salvation.

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[1]   Steve Tobak, “A Culture of Duplicity”, http://stevetobak.com, November 2, 2016.

World Magazine recently ran an article about the problems the native Alaskans face.  Part of their problems stem from the history of injustice they suffered through the hands of the non-natives that came to Alaska.  The injustices they endured included “an educational system that separated native families and banned native languages”, sexual abuse, and the constant denigrating of their culture in favor of the culture of the foreigners. [1]

Some Christian missionaries participated in dishing out this injustice.  The question we must ask is:  Why?  In our blog of September 20, 2011 we discussed the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in1994 when Christians killed thousands of other Christians simply because they were of another tribe. [2]  And then we have the on-going story of the Roman Catholic priest’s sexual abuse of children.  Why do Christians act so unlike Christ?

Yes, we all are not perfect and we do make mistakes but mistakes of this magnitude?  Maybe part of the problem is that we subscribe to a religion that only requires that we profess faith in Christ.  As long as we say the right words, as long as we have the right beliefs we will go to heaven.  Our doctrine of salvation says nothing about how we are to live our lives.

If Christianity taught that salvation is the change of our soul so we become more like God do you not think our behavior would change?  Do you think we could participate in the injustices described above if we believed the core of Christianity is that we should love others as God loves us?

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[1]   Sophia Lee, “Way up north”, World Magazine, October 1, 2016, pp. 48-53.

[2]   Emmanuel Katongole, Mirror to the Church, Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan, 2009.

Heresies “happen whenever there is ‘any [teaching] that leaves something important out or seriously neglected’”. [1]  What has been seriously neglected in Christian theology is the more than 70 verses in the New Testament that teach salvation is through means other than believing in Jesus.   For example the following passages teach salvation is through:

• Repentance of our sins or humility – Luke 18:11-14, 2 Corinthians 7:10
• Belief in God – John 5:24, Acts 10:34-35
• Our conduct or actions – Matthew 16:27, Romans 2:6-10
• Our pattern of behavior or persistence – Matthew 10:22, Hebrews 10:26-27
• Our talents or the use of what is given us – Luke 16:9-11,

There is no dispute the Bible teaches that salvation is through belief or faith in Jesus’ death for our sins.  However, if belief in Jesus is the only way to heaven, why did God include these verses in the Bible?  Either we must ignore these passages (that is essentially telling God we know better than he does) or we must deal with the issues they raise.  If we ignore these passages, what is to prevent us from ignoring any other part of the Bible with which we disagree or have a problem?  If we start down that road, we might as well ignore the entire Bible.  God put all these statement in the Bible for a reason.  It is up to us to determine what that reason is.

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[1]   Dr. D. Clair Davis as quoted by Andrée Seu Peterson, “Unstable elements”, World Magazine, September 5, 2015, p. 75.