Tag Archives: Jesus

Twisted Theology

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in christian, gay, Jesus, Uncategorized, whosoever

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What makes you a Christian is whether or not you really are in accord with biblical theology and whether you know Jesus Christ as your Savior.  Walter Martin

Sometimes I wonder what happened to honest, true biblical theology.  In society today there are all types of theology.  Even in the Christian community there are several types of theology.  Basically what happens is someone takes a point of view, searches for scriptures to support that point of view and then they have a “theology”.   A few types of theology are … fundamentalist, mainstream, King James only, gay, feminist, Red Letter, etc.  The troubling part about this is while in the Christian church we need to celebrate diversity with the love of Christ; many times these differing theologies create a wider division rather than creating a harmonious, loving community.  In doing so each subset often implies they have a better understanding or a clearer revelation of the truth of scripture.

This creates a huge problem.  First, we as mere humans are trying to interpret and know the meaning and mind of an omnipotent, all-consuming, all loving God.  Second, each and every interpretation of the bible has to be read with the knowledge that the individual interpreting the Bible, at best, was biased by their own person experience.  There are meanings to certain words in the Bible that not even the most learned theologians agree.

Salvation, the very root of Christianity, is one such theological sticking point.  What exactly must one do to be saved?  It is amazing to me that such a simple question can get so muddied in translation.  The Bible clearly states in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Romans 10:9 is very similar “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Christianity is the only religion I know of where you are saved or redeemed prior to and regardless of performance.

The bottom line is God demands 100% faultless, perfect obedience. If you can’t do that, you’d better find Someone who can do it for you.   Consequently, God sent Christ as the perfect and powerful Savior we so desperately needed.  An individual, ANY individual, who accepts Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice on the cross as sufficient and total is adopted into God’s family.  End of story.

Many Christian communities insist on adding to the requirements for salvation.  One of the hottest topics and most sensitive issues we face today is that of gay Christians.  How many times have you heard God hates gay people?  Gays are not going to heaven.  Gays are an abomination and beyond redemption.  There is no such thing as a “gay” Christian?  Being “gay” is proof positive God has turned his back on and given up on an individual.

Some are a little more compassionate and say you can be “gay” before your relationship with Christ began, but once you are saved you can no longer be gay.  Their theology will say if you remain gay after salvation you are not really saved and are bound for hell.  There is even disagreement and division within the gay Christian community about whether or not it is required for a gay person to be celibate in order to go to heaven.

The terrifying danger of what is being taught is the adulteration of the message of Christ substitutionary work on the cross.  If ANYTHING is required in addition to Christ’s death on the cross for salvation, then what we are saying and believing is that Christ’s death on the cross is NOT sufficient.  Think about it, if Christ’s work on the cross is not enough, if it is not the sole means by which to obtain salvation, then Christianity is a fraud.

Some will disagree vehemently with what I am about to say, but anything short of you denouncing Christ as your Savior; cannot “void” the salvation contract.   In short, heaven will be chocked full of people no one expected to see there.  A more disconcerting truth is heaven will be filled with people some Christian “theology” aggressively rejects.

Of course there is more to the Christian life than salvation.  There is discipleship, justification, sanctification, faith, grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, being molded and changed into the likeness of Christ … But all of this BEGINS with salvation.  The problem is many people do not move into the Christian life because they are discouraged from becoming “saved” in the first place.  Once a person allows Christ into their lives and heart; God can then go to work and do as He pleases.  He can make any changes He wants to make, transform and revitalize lives and hearts as He sees fit.  Not make the changes we as Christians believe He should.

Ask yourself, has anything of eternal value ever been accomplished by a theology of exclusion?  Has any amount of demeaning, picketing, protesting, yelling or being hurtful ever saved a single soul?  Are we being more like Jesus when we as a Christian community do those things?  And if not, why are we doing them?

As a church community we MUST stop excluding people from heaven by teaching salvation is not equally available to all.  As a church community we owe an apology to the individuals we push out and force to live in the margins of the faith community by trying to steal away or discount the authenticity of their relationship with Christ.  We owe an apology to those individuals who have to fight and are made to feel uncomfortable for simply trying to find a place to worship; trying to find a faith community to which to belong.  We owe an apology to those individuals who in an act of total despair and hopelessness, directly related to what we told them, have turned to addiction, or worse suicide.  We owe an apology to the family members and friends of those who we marginalized for our lack of compassion and understanding toward them.  Most importantly, we need to repent to God for diluting the sacrifice of His only Son on the cross.

It is amazing the Christian community is unwittingly playing directly in to the hands of Satan by destroying itself from the inside out.  By beating, bludgeoning and battering each other with the Word of God, we are doing his job for him.  I think it is time the church started to further the kingdom of Heaven rather than the kingdom of darkness.  How about you?

Heaven’s Prerequisite

12 Thursday Sep 2013

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“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” C.S. Lewis

Heaven has been defined as a place where God lives. It is often described as paradise, a place to spend the afterlife. It is defined as the polar opposite of Hell.

A prerequisite is something that is required or necessary as a prior condition. So Heaven’s prerequisite by definition would be something that is required or necessary as a prior condition for entering Heaven.

You want to get a group of fundamentalist up in arms begin a Q & A on this topic. Pose this question, “What is required to enter heaven”? “What is required to secure a reservation in Heaven?” Those dragnet type folks who just want the bare facts sometimes ask “What must I do to avoid going to Hell?” All very good questions … all eternally important questions.

If you ask these questions you will receive a variety of answers with a plethora of biblical scripture to back up each point of view. This can be confusing at best and damning at worst. For instance, have you ever heard you must be baptized to go to Heaven? Many believe baptism is the right of admission or adoption into the family of God. Some believe you should be submerged in water to be baptized, some believe you need only be sprinkled with water, others believe you must be sprinkled with water as an infant and then at the “age of accountability” you must determine for yourself when is the appropriate time to be submerged in water baptism. As you can see the debate can be confusing.

Others believe you must not die with unconfessed sin in your life. I would agree confession is good for the soul. I would further agree that admitting to God we have fallen short of the mark is invaluable as a possible change agent. In order for change to take place, we must have knowledge that something needs changing right?
Others believe you must have a member of the clergy issue you last rites. Last rites are generally given to people who have knowledge of an impending death, i.e., those awaiting execution, mortally wounded or terminally ill. This has its origin in scriptures that talk about praying for the sick and anointing them with oil.

Some believe you must belong to and be an active member of a local church fellowship. Hebrews 10:24 says “do not forsake the assembling of yourself together”. I think most would agree church attendance can have a positive, life changing effect on a person.

Each one of these “prerequisites” is valid and good in their place. Baptism is a good thing. It is a choice, an outward behavior that signifies an inward change. It is a public acknowledgment that we are a new creature in Christ.

It is good to confess to God sins or shortcomings when they occur. This keeps honest people honest as they say. Admitting fault is a sign of maturity that signals a readiness to grow or change.

Laying on of hands and anointing with oil is good also; whether it is the sick or the dying. It is a display of faith. It is a signal of our acceptance that God is in control and our belief that He will do what is His best for the situation.

Belonging to a church fellowship is good. It surrounds you with a built in support group and allows you to be supportive of others. It provides an environment to grow and mature.

Each of these is important in the proper place, however; none are a prerequisite for Heaven. The ONLY prerequisite for Heaven is to accept and acknowledge the need for a Savior, recognized the one and only Savior is Jesus the son of God, believe he died on the cross for every sin ever committed or that will ever be committed in the future, He resurrected three days later and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. Nothing more … nothing less.

The Bible is full of scriptures about behaviors that can be added to make the Christian life more rewarding, more intimate, more productive, more fulfilling, more effective, more joyful. But there is nothing that can be added as a prerequisite for heaven. Nothing.

Some people are troubled by what happens to individuals who have never heard the name of Jesus. Which is difficult to understand in our Western world, but the very person we so often take for granted, the salvation we take so lightly was given freely by someone of whom some have never heard. In this case I believe the Old Testament holds the answer. For those whom have never heard the name of Jesus it is as if Jesus never lived and most importantly never died or rose from the dead. It is difficult to believe on the topic of salvation a loving God would hold a person accountable for knowledge he/she do not possess.

Having said that, we are each born with an innate sense of right and wrong. Some call it a conscience. Abraham in the Old Testament was called righteous and faithful without the blood of Jesus. So was King David, Moses, Noah, Ruth, Elijah, Elisha, Queen Esther, etc. None of these people could be cleansed by the blood of Jesus, as it had not been shed and many of them committed egregious sins. However, God called them righteous because of their faith and their desire to do good. Their willingness to follow and be guided by their God given conscience. I have even heard some say it is better to have never heard the name of Jesus than to have heard it and rejected it. But that is a topic for another day.

The good news is, thankfully for those of us who have heard the name Jesus we can choose to have absolute assurance. Once you have heard the name, once who He is has been explained to you, then the decision is yours. Jesus + Nothing = Salvation. #whosoever