March 21, 2006

• "christian atheist"

  Chew on this quote for a minute -

  "There is an important struggle going on for the soul of Christianity, which should be of concern to everyone, Christian or not. The debate is not just at the level of arguments over whether, for example, certain Old Testament passages should be interpreted to condemn homosexuality. The deeper struggle is over whether Christianity is to be understood as a closed set of answers that leads to the intensification of these boundaries, or as an invitation to explore questions that help people transcend boundaries. Such a struggle is going on not only within Christianity, but in all the major world religions."

  The quote is from Robert Jensen, a self-professed "Christian Atheist" in Texas.   Fascinating to read his whole article, if you get a chance.

  I think his quoted words are correct, in a sense, although he comes to the wrong conclusions and uses bad wording to describe the phenomenon.   Here's how I would put it instead:

  "There is an important struggle going on for the soul of Christianity, which should be of concern to true Christians even more than anyone else. The debate is not just at the level of arguments over whether, for example, certain Old Testament passages should be interpreted to condemn homosexuality. The deeper struggle is over whether Jesus Christ is to be understood as The Way, The Truth, and The Life, to whom all people across the globe desperately need to turn in repentance and belief, or whether he is to be regarded as merely a good moral teacher and his religion One Path Among Many, whose only taboo is 'intolerance.' Such a struggle is going on not only within Christianity, but also within Islam, Judaism, and to a lesser extent, Hinduism."

  Indeed, the major religions are undergoing liberalizing influences.  Christianity has been experiencing it for centuries.  Postmodernism has only exacerbated this trend.  But it was Jesus Himself who divided the entire world into "he who is for Me" versus "he who is against Me," who spoke of "My sheep" versus those who were "not of My sheep", and who said, "Unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."

  "Exploration of questions that help people transcend boundaries" is all well and good, unless it causes people to leave the pure Truth given to them by the Creator God, in search of sophistry and philosophy that lets them live their lives whatever way they want - trying to get rid of 'that pesky God' with His 'strict and antiquated rules'.

  Exploration of questions is a great thing, but the answers to the questions are most important.  Holding to the wrong answers in this case... will lead to Hell.

  • 11:07 pm
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