I liked this reading. Mostly because it allows me to talk about one of things that most infuriates me, that being evangelism for the wrong reasons. It might be more accurate to say evangelism of the wrong thing. What infuriates me is that in much of modern evangelism, we talk about what Jesus has done for us, or how He has a wonderful plan for your life, or how he wants to bless you, but we do not say that we should believe simply because it is true. Lewis says that, “If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all.”
You can talk about how your mother has a wonderful plan for your life, our what LSD did for you, but that is not at all a reason to listen to your mother or to use LSD. Lewis says, speaking of whether Christianity is true, that “Isn't it obviously the job of every man (that is a man and not a rabbit) to try to find out which [is true]”. In God and the Dock, Lewis says "I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity." Wanting good life is a horrible reason for believing in Christ. I do not think that having the wrong motives will keep you from Christ's grace any more that any other sin, but that does not make it right.
Sanctification will give us better reasons. Lewis as always puts it well; “We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy.” To say that Christ is a means to an end, whether it is money, or social standing, or being a good person is despicable. I am as much a hypocrite in this as anyone, and I have no excuse. I hope that as I mature I will become more of a man and less like a rabbit. I am sorry if this post sounded like a rant.
This is very true. It seems like the main message of most Christianity at this point in history is on the loving aspect of God (a very important true aspect in it's own right) but we should believe and follow God, because, He is God-the ruler of the universe. I do not want to take away the power of God's immense love, but It is important to realize we are not following God so that we can live a better life, we follow God because He gave us life in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe same thing irritates me about modern evangelism. It we need to deal in truths not it pithy truisms. We obviously need to do so with love, but it is difficult to watch as such an emphasis is put on certain people's personal experience and not the truth of the gospel.
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