Questions on Christianity

Surveys taken over the past several years reveal that over two thirds of Christians/church goers never read their Bibles. [1]  Now there are people who do not know how to read and throughout history many depended upon the clerics of their church to read and interpret the Bible for them.  However, that is not the case today for the vast majority of people.

We do not seem to realize all the great benefits our technologically advanced society has given us and one of which is the ability to read.  A T-shirt I have quotes Mark Twain as saying (and I paraphrase):  A person who does not read good books has no advantage over a person who does not know how to read.  And the Bible is a good book.  So why do not we read it?

In Luke 12 Jesus gives his disciples a parable in which a servant is instructed to be ready for his master’s return and part of being ready is to fully utilize the talents and abilities he has been given.  The point of the parable is that:  “. . .Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48).  We have been given so much materially and spiritually.  Are we using these gifts rightly?

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[1]   Ken Staley.  “Illiteracy in the Church”, Tulsa Beacon, October 20, 2022, p. 3B.

I read Pilgrim’s Progress a very long ago and really don’t remember the details of the story.  What prompted me to read it again was reading the version from “the minds behind ‘The Babylon Bee’” titled The Postmodern Pilgrim’s Progress.  I highly recommend both.

I guess you could say these books are dark; they mainly talk about the problems Christian faces.  When faced with problems such as times when it seems that God is so far away or when we realize that we do not have answers to the problems we are facing, then the advice given several times in Mann and Berry’s book is very appropriate:  “Sometimes, all you can do is move forward.” [1]

If we have decided our goal  is the Celestial City, the Golden City, if we have put on the whole armor of God, if we have decided the type of person we want to be, then there is nothing else to do but to  move forward toward our goal, regardless of the circumstances.  It is in these dark times that we live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4, Hebrews 10:38).

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[1]   Kyle Mann and Joel Berry.  The Postmodern Pilgrim’s Progress.  Washington, DC:  Salem Books, 2022, p. 63.

If you have read my book The Renovation of Our Soul (and from looking at the sales numbers it is obvious most of you have not), you will know that I have been profoundly influenced by the Christian philosopher Elton Trueblood.  In his book A Place to Stand he gives a reason for believing in Jesus that I have not heard before.  Christ is the only historical figure who was sufficiently revolutionary to justify us following his teachings and to change our soul so it is like his.

“Because we are dulled by familiarity we forget, sometimes, that Christ provides the most revolutionary of conceptions, in that He sees each individual as an unconditional object of divine concern.” [1]

Can you imagine what our world would be like if we followed this teaching of Christ?  How many problems would it solve if we treated each person we meet as an unique creation of God.  What if we not only believed but also put into practice that well known phase:  “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”.

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[1]   Elton Trueblood.  A Place to Stand.  New York:  Harper & Row, 1969, p. 44.

At a recent church service we were singing the hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be” by Frances Ridley Havergal.  One phase of this hymn states:  “Take my will and make it thine, It shall be no longer mine”.  This phrase struck me because I could look at it in two different ways.

The first is what Jesus experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane:  “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.  Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42-43 ESV)  There are times when our will conflicts with God’s will and we must submit to God’s will.

The second is what we have consistently stated in this blog and that is our ultimate goal is that our soul is to become like God which means our will should be like God’s will.  We should desire the same things as God does.  So if we are constantly telling  God “not my will but yours be done”, then something is wrong in our relationship with God.  Our will should not be in constant conflict with God’s will, instead it should be in the process of becoming the same as God’s will.

It happened in the Auschwitz extermination camp in World War II.  There was an escape from the camp and as was the custom at that camp, for every escapee 10 other prisoners were selected at random and placed in a cell without food or water until they died.  On this day the tenth person chosen was a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek who began to sob because he had a wife and children in the camp.  From the assembled prisoners a Catholic priest named Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and requested the camp commander allow him to take Gajowniczek’s place.  Kolbe’s request was granted.

Gajowniczek never forgot Kolbe’s sacrifice.  Every year he went to back to Auschwitz to say thanks to the man who died in his place. In his back yard there is a plaque he made himself to honor Kolbe. [1]

I have heard a lot of criticism of the Christian churches over my years.  Some of my  friends have given up on churches and no longer attend.  God knows there is much the church needs to change and improve upon but in spite of all their failures, I still think it is important for me that once or twice a week I meet with other Christians to thank the one who took upon himself my sin and gave me eternal life.  To remember again the one who:

“. . .was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”  (Isaiah 53:5 ESV)

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[1]   Max Lucado.  Six Hours One Friday.  Nashville, TN:  Thomas Nelson, 2004, pp. 45-47.

In the exploration of the source of the Nile river in the late 1800’s, one explorer quoted a minor chief in central Africa named Comora as saying:  “The good people are all weak:  they are good because they are not strong enough to be bad.” [1]  At first I thought this  was in reality a justification for the chief’s evil ways but then on further thought it appeared to me to contain an element of truth.

Bad people are stronger than good people and the reason is because they must be in order to survive.  An example of this is when the explorers broke camp at the start of the day.  Their last act was to torch the grass huts they had built the previous day.  My question was:  why go to this extra work?  “The huts, of course, might have been useful for other travelers, but one left no gifts for strangers in this hostile world.” [2]  In a world where everyone is potentially your enemy, it would make sense to destroy anything that would benefit your enemy—a scorched earth policy, even if it required extra effort to do so.

Another reason bad people are stronger than good people is because we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27 and Psalms 8:4-5).  If this is so, then it would require an effort to be unlike God.  Just think of all the money and effort that those who fail to follow God’s standards impose on the rest of the world (e.g. prevention of theft, personal protection).  What a waste!  Why do we work so hard to be unlike God?

On the other hand, there are good arguments to support the idea that bad people are weaker than good people.  Good people do not conform to this world (Romans 12:2) and it takes strength to be different from the norms of this world.  Just consider all the martyrs for the Christian faith.  Bad people simply conform to whatever the rest of the world does.  Is it because they are too weak to oppose the world in which they live?

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[1]   Alan Moorehead.  The White Nile.  New York:  Harper & Row, 1960, p.147.

[2]   Ibid., p. 30.