This is continued from this 1-5 article.
It’s REALLY helpful to read that part first for context, I assure you!
Now on to the next half:
6. Non believers live in fear and doubt.
It’s interesting that many from inside the Christian bubble will ascribe these attributes to non believers when a simple gaze across the church goers on any Sunday morning will show the very same thing to be true of Christians too. I don’t know anyone who does not live in fear and doubt at least from time-to-time. What some Christians won’t tell you is that the local pharmacists know a lot about their fear and doubt even if those in their small group aren’t privy to the matter. And some people just drink, shop, or puke their fattening meal to cope. What is more true? To be human is to fear and doubt. We may call it worry or concern, or a prayer request, but it’s there for Christians and non believers alike.
7. Non believers are afraid of death.
Some are not. Some Christians are not. Not everyone braves their impending physical demise well. This is not so strange, because imagining not needing or using your body anymore is really odd. Really really odd.
Even a Christian who will tell you they know for absolute sure that they will be in heaven with Jesus at the moment of death, as you probe them further and they get into specifics their ideas about all that there is a shift. Either they will often become full of fantasy (sourced in the poetic and figurative descriptions of the afterlife from the Bible which they have illogically decided to take literally [sic.] Pearly gates, streets of gold, or Jesus riding a gigantic purple horse) or that may dissolve into what becomes rather unsettling admission of mystery. Can you really know the particulars? Of course not.
It’s thoughtful to be challenged by the unknown–which is what death is. It’s important to come to your end of surety. It keeps us humble and growing. For everyone, that portion of life and death is a matter of faith, no matter what we believe will happen once our heart stops and we will soon be lowered underground. It is creepy because we are used to being alive, breathing and such. We hate it when others we love die, and leave us, and the whole thing is strange, if we are going to be honest. But, are we?
8. When they behave properly, non believers unconsciously borrow ethics from Christians.
Oaky, on this one, perhaps I’ll say “Yes and No”. In the U.S. the influence of Christianity in our common society is thick and unavoidable. Yet, unbeknownst to Christians, behaviors we (Christians) consider good Christian values and ethics are also part of a meta ethic known the world over and through the whole span of human history. (Following through and getting it right is a whole different business, of course.) This meta-ethic, which many secular anthropologists downplay, or quickly chalk up to darwinian processes, (ad hoc mind you) actually seem to point toward the transcendent. The philosophers get into this quite a bit. So, the part of us that is involved with consciousness is ever-present and point to a place off our seen “map” if you will. Call it the “Devine Spark”, “God”, Yahweh, the Universe (if something impersonal could somehow also be personal, by whatever), the “higher self” (a la Alcoholics Anonymous), or what-have-you…we are essentially speaking of the same big thing… that incidentally is no thing. The Other, the great I AM, the life force, and really when we split hair on that big point, we miss the forrest for the trees.
9. Non believers discredit the unseen world.
This is hardly ever true. Yes, there are a few full blown materialists, but like the unicorn, they are rarely seen and then, only for a few fleeting moments in the perfect circumstances like when painted on velvet or when Harry Potter is nearby.
The desire to discover the mysteries of life are ever-present. Media is a great barometer for this. For instance, witness the many horror genre movies (ghosts, zombies, paranormal stuff, aliens, etc) and all the tv shows groping for answers from the spooky and paranormal night-vision scenes from the many television shows on cable, to the mediums, psychics, and spiritual celebrity gurus and even mega-church personalities (Yes. I’m including everyone from Joel Osteen, (Joyce) Myers, Oprah, Deepak Chopra, and Rick Warren, to Billy Graham, and the Dali Lama). Our gurus and guides are plentiful and that’s because the demand for them is so high. Plus, the prophecy folks of all stripes continue their empires as the masses feeling around in the murkiness for answers.
10. Non believers are going to hell one day.
Okay, this is the one that may get me the hate mail. Just hang on! The reason that this is a misconception is because we can’t know how Grace will or won’t affect a person once they die. We trust in Grace. In the idea of it existing; in the Being that doles it. Can we know another person’s heart that well? I doubt it when our own heart is so unfathomable and fickle for us. Grace is big. As big as you think it is, you are wrong. It’s bigger. I’m always wrong about grace because I cannot fathom it for too long.
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Mostly I feel you have just watered down definitions to make them all-inclusive and fairly worthless for edification; however, I do want to address number 10 lest you follow Rob Bell into falsely affirming the deceived.
You must define non-believer. While you seem to espouse a fundamental Christian world view, that definition should be – those that have NOT been saved by Grace through faith. Therefore, there can not be grace for non-believers or they would be believers.
Secondly, grace is not a salve that is applied posthumously. Grace is extended at the moment of conversion not as retirement account we cash in for entrance into heaven.
Grace is big, it’s awesome. So awesome, it is perfect and infallible, that we can not comprehend. Something that complete and pure is never altered, it remains consistent throughout time and beyond. Grace is extended to those that have faith in Jesus as savior and declare that before men. To dispense it haphazardly after death would diminish its greatness, cheapen it like a common magic trick. God’s word is clear about salvation.
I will give you this… “Non-believers are going to hell one day” is a false statement, just not for the reason you state. We do not know what they may decide in their lifetime because salvation is open to all, and all of us believers were once non-believers!
I always feel honored when someone takes the time to read and response here. Robert, thank you.
In response…
These definitions surely must seem watered down depending on what stream of Christian faith you’ve been exposed to…and I can understand your concern.
Here’s a bit of backstory that might frame out the context better:
When you have a child with an intellectual disability, your theology shifts. If it doesn’t, God can seem like quite a monster, on the particulars.
I my case, I tended to stop thinking of salvation as “a decision” as you have put it (and how I was raised to think about it.) You stop thinking of the gospel as Good news to be understood intellectually, and start to see the Good News as the articulation of Grace, working not as mere message and belief of ascend to but rather a whole framework for understand God, his Creative and Redeeming work, and his project that is unfolding as God putts things to rights.
That means, that the sentiment that says something like “you, here, are in and you folks who haven’t “declared before men” (sic.) and said all the proper ‘get you into heaven prayers and confessions’ are sadly hell-bound” …that perspective just doesn’t fit anymore. It’s messier (from our perspective) and simpler than that actually.
Amos Yong’s theological work on the Theology of Disability (what the intellectually disabled reveal to us about the ways and nature of God and what he’s up to) is really worth a read. [Theology and Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity]
I’ve started to see Grace as Love, and Love as inclusive. Yes, we can surely reject Love and God (we can chose evil and death-eternal, spiritual, bodily, all of it), but fortunately the same God that will save me by Grace will save my son as well, and, perhaps surprisingly, in the same sort of way.
So, is it a matter of “right belief”…not exactly. that just won’t do…it’s more a matter of letting yourself be loved and graced. And when that happens we start to take on the character of God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. It’s in the transformation that salvation has it’s power. For the intellectually disabled…you can see that, or you can see that God has been closer and walking there for quite a while, even though they didn’t declare it.
Lisa, I am truly sorry you feel this this way. That you had to change your theology based on your circumstance. God did not change because of how He created your son. Nor did His message or the life that Jesus lived change.
Salvation should have never be an intellectual pursuit, because it is the head knowledge christians that are deceived and often times called out as hypocrites.
Yet the scriptures are clear, that there is a moment, a point of salvation. There is a delineation between His’ saints and sinners. In John 3:7 Jesus tells Nicodemus you must be “Born Again.” There is a moment when through Faith, not reason or intellect, that God accepts you and transforms you into a new creation. 2 Cor 5:17
John 3:7 – Jesus says if you declare me before men I will declare you by the Father. He didn’t say, those of “normal” intellectual capability… He also did not say how to declare… In a myopic ego centric world view, the declaration would be how you yourself would declare it (in words most likely). But God is bigger than that. When Jesus said those words, He already knew your child, and all children. He knew what He was saying and why. Declaration could be a hug, or a gift, or whatever, I am not the one who decides. And that applies to everyone…
This paragraph,
“I’ve started to see Grace as Love, and Love as inclusive. Yes, we can surely reject Love and God (we can chose evil and death-eternal, spiritual, bodily, all of it), but fortunately the same God that will save me by Grace will save my son as well, and, perhaps surprisingly, in the same sort of way.”
is the most problematic, and I understand why you might feel this way, but you have it backwards…
We do not reject God and therefore chose death eternal… It is ours, no choice (the book of Romans!). We must chose to ACCEPT Grace, which is born from His Love. And yes, He loves everyone, that’s why it is available to everyone but not accepted by everyone.
Now hear my heart on this… God will not automatically save your son because You or the World see him as different, special, challenged, or disabled. “the same God that will save me by Grace will save my son as well” The same God can for sure, and as a parent that is the hardest thing to come to grips with. It is not a certainty, no matter what we do as parents, that our children will be Saved!
It’s even harder to accept when the world tells you that your child is different. God made your son EXACTLY how He wanted to, he was made perfectly and to God’s specs! Why, I have no idea; why He chose to bless you with him and not me… no clue. But He is sovereign, He is just, and He loves us all unconditionally.
No words or thought or reason have ever saved anyone. It is by Faith alone.
Romans 10:12-14
‘For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “ Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher’
Don’t sell yourself, your son, or the Holy Spirit short. Teach him the Truth from the Word, and let the Holy Spirit do what He does best, change hearts!
Hey Lisa!
I really appreciate this two part article. I don’t know if these misconceptions are soully bred in the fundamental/evangelical Christian circles or aspects can be found in mainstream faiths as well. But these and many more seemed prevalent in my experience (beginning with the Kentucky Fried Christians-wink-wink).
It lays the groundwork for an “US” and “THEM” mentality which not only can lead to an uncomfortably exclusive or falsely welcoming group. And in it’s extreme it can become the seeds of a cult.
Another misconception I would like to highlight is that people of different faiths lead unfullfilling lives. It’s disquieting for an immature Christian to think that Judaism, Islam, Buddhism could actually WORK for the people who believe in them. I remember a Hindi friend of mine in college who was in a rather abusive conversation with another friend of mine from a local campus christian org. He actually tried to argue away twenty years of her life and tradition because he failed to see what her faith meant to her. When sharing one’s faith it’s important to meet people where they are and share with love and respect for the person you are trying to reach. Grrr.
Oh well I’m enjoying reading your articles. I think they are very intelligent and insightful.
Cheers
Jim
Thanks, Jim. Your observations are spot on and I’m glad you shared them. :)
(I looked at your work and website last month and it was cool to see what you are up to. So talented!)