don't be stupid (revised)

When Evangelicals, Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses pay you visits with messages from God, you (rightfully) ask them how they know that their messages are from God. When an Atheist makes a truth claim (such as 'there is no god'), you (rightfully) ask for the reasons why Mr. Atheist believes such a thing. We all have not only the right but the responsibility to put dogma to the test.

I came across a web page recently that I found helpful. It has a list of what are now considered bad arguments for creationism. I hope that it will help me stay current on the conversation that the creation scientists are having with the evolutionists.

In addition to scientists, apologists such as Josh McDowell, N. T. Wright, William Lane Craig, and F. F. Bruce have put together some phenomenal, scholarly works on the resurrection of Jesus. These guys are inspirational. What I want to strive to avoid in my lifetime is becoming complacent in my walk relationship with God, or my relationships with others. It seems that having a ready answer for my beliefs would be important for the latter. May God's grace help us all meet the challenges of this era.

I saw this Oprah episode where a bunch of "experts" were discussing "spirituality". This cheesy middle-aged fundegelical Christian woman in a floral dress with puffy sleeves stands up and talks about Christianity (a good start). But she tanked almost immediately when she distinguished Christianity only by saying that it is the only religion based on love. Needless to say, the Pluralists in the room ripped her to shreds. The Christian ethic is not the essence of Christianity, nor is Christianity the only religion that teaches its followers to love each other. This makes me a little bit sad, because it reflects the fact that so many churches ignore doctrine for the sake of teaching ethics, while both are important.

You know something? Bless her heart. It sort of reminds me of when I was a child and though I had a relationship with God, I couldn't always intellectually defend His existence or give justification for my beliefs. To be honest, I really don't think I can get very far today, either. But surely I don't have arbitrarily selected beliefs..? There is something else that assures me of my Lord.

I have a somewhat unrelated thought. And to put it in a really weird way it goes like this: I am not really committed to Christianity. I am committed to the truth. I am ready to abandon any belief I have for something that I am persuaded is true if the two propositions contradict. As of right now, I happen to hold some beliefs (e.g. God exists, Jesus is God, Jesus was raised from the dead, etc.) that fit me into the category "Christian" - but thats just a label. Am I religious?

In clarification let me bellow a resounding 'yes!' to the question 'are you committed to Christ?'. I don't know if I am articulating this whole thing very well, but maybe some explanation of where it is coming from will give you some insight into my mind.

I have been reading about religion a little bit lately. Most of the critiques seem pretty valid. Most religions place their beliefs in an untouchable box that is safe from criticism. Either it is wrong to question the religion, or they choose beliefs that are not falsifiable. In general, most religious beliefs and practices seem really fishy to me. Even traditionally "Christian" things smell funny and even horrify to me at times.

But despite this, I am firmly convinced of a set of propositions that the family of Christian faith has traditionally held to be true. I feel like, from one perspective, Christianity has been falsely labeled as a religion. The Bible encourages us to question and test what we are taught (check out the Epistles). We have Biblical precedents for even questioning God Himself (check out Psalms, Jeremiah, Lamentations, et al.). Sure, the Catholic church got the whole Papal authority thing wrong, which led to some disastrous beliefs and practices, but that's not what I'm talking about.

I have heard a lot of speakers distinguish Christianity from religion, or from other religions in a number of other key ways, too. Christianity isn't concerned so much with orthopraxy as it is with orthodoxy. We don't even pretend we can earn salvation on our own merits or make our way to God, He had to purchase our souls Himself, and it is He who comes to us by His grace. Christianity is concerned with what the Living God is like. Which God do we worship? Well, the one that exists. Our God is distinctly ontologically independent, a se, and transcendent. Yet He is immanent. He has chosen too reveal Himself through generally revelatory ways (nature) and specifically revelatory ways (the incarnation and the Bible). He is personal, and engages each of us in a one-on-one relationship. The list of distinctions goes on - check out Colossians (and Josh McDowell's "The Evidence for Christianity" is really good. I am sort of working my way through it right now).

To be balanced I feel like I should mention that from another angle, I think Christianity is a religion, and a good one at that. We have indeed built up some good habits and helpful traditions. Jesus Himself told us that we should repeat the Last Supper, as often as we do, in remembrance of Him. We have a hall of witnesses that have gone before us (Hebrews 11-12). It sort of wearies me when my local church talks so harshly against religion. I agree with their points (cf. Erwin McManus' "The Barbarian Way", or our most recent sermon - its a free podcast on iTunes, just look up "Mosaic"). But, I think we should be more focus on hypocrisy, legalism, and false doctrines within religion.

So what is this all to say?

That people have a responsibility to test propositions,
That it is helpful for us to have a ready defense of what we believe,
That it is neither by evidence nor by arbitrary faith that we relate to Christ,
That Christianity is very distinct from what is conventionally called "religion",
And that religion, broadly defined, isn't always bad.

Please please please forgive my previous version of this post. I do in fact struggle with both being and sounding condescending, and I am very sorry. Nor did I ever mean to say that I have obtained an untouchable platform from which I can easily defend Christianity. Nor did I ever mean to deny that it is important to, or that I am, committed to Christ. I just meant to say that I am committed to finding out what is true, and aligning my life with it as best I can. Right now I believe that Christianity, properly understood, is a description of some very important true propositions.