One of my “readers” (which both cool and weird to think about people writing me emails about my thoughts!) sent me an email about my “Living Hell and Living Well” podcast. His thoughts are both personal and thoughtful so I thought I would post them (with his permission) to continue the communal wrestling. I don’t know about you, but this whole thing of “categorization” of who is in and who is out is both tiresome and confusing. Any similar feelings or stories out there? How have you reconciled similar thoughts as mine and Chris’ ?
Hi Jeremy,
I too wrestle with the questions you’re bringing up in the “Living Hell and Living Well” pod cast and wanted to share my thoughts.
First off, if you haven’t already, I recommend reading Michael Spencer’s recent essay, “Abandoning the ‘Invisible Lifeline’,” because I think you would like it, and also because he touches on the fact that many view salvation too simply. It is not just an invitation to the front of a church somewhere, and we don’t do people any favors by presenting it this way.
This is, at least for me, part of the issue I deal with when thinking about people like your friend’s mother. Honestly she sounds like my mother, who has never walked down the aisle of a church in response to an invitation to “receive” Jesus. Furthermore, she doesn’t do any of the typical Christianese activities we normally associate with believers–like listen to Christian radio, abstain from alcohol, and go to church–yet she fears God in word and deed and is a very moral, loving person. She doesn’t read the Bible much but knows truth when she hears it. She gives more than most people ever will via her work as a volunteer firefighter, etc. I could go on and on.
By contrast my father, the man who lives in church, is the one who is least loving and giving. Visits with him are not nearly as pleasant, and he always finds a way to criticize his “heathen” of an x-wife for not getting herself to church. She is going to hell, you know.
So believe me, I completely “get” what it means to have this sneaking suspicion that things are exactly the opposite of what we think. I know what it means to feel, deep in the pit of your stomach, that there is some irony here somewhere. God is rather poetic like that, after all.
We know what the Bible says in 1 John about love–if we hate our brother then we don’t know God. In that same vein of thought, the book of James says if we have no works then we have no genuine faith. Of course we know this well since many preachers seek to remind us that many professing believers fall into the “faith without works” category.
I guess the confusing part for me is what to do with the people who display evidence of having faith in Jesus but are not consciously pursuing Christ and/or not consciously aware of believing in anything. This brings me to more extreme thoughts like the time one of my agnostic gay friends became overwhelmed with compassion for a lady with car trouble and made me pull over onto the side of the road to help her. Without his insistent prodding I wouldn’t have. Situations like that really get me thinking.
Plenty of professing Christians do nothing great, and plenty do great things for selfish reasons. I am guilty of both at times. Do we think knowing Jesus and having a heart that is truly undergoing transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit is the only way to do the right things for the right reasons? Do we think people can have pure deeds and completely pure motives without knowing the gospel and having a “relationship” (loaded term, I know) with God? I am not entirely sure, but then again, I am not so sure Jesus died on the cross so that I would be a good man. I’m not sure that redemption was so that I would abstain from alcohol and R-rated movies.
The only conclusion I have is what I have observed–that it is a powerful thing when people know who they really are and who God really is. We are told “God is love,” and that we are sinners who have fallen short. This leads us to one amazing story about grace, love, forgiveness, and repentance. It is a strong foundation for doing great things for great reasons. If I believed there was a better story, I would be following and studying it so as to be inspired and changed by it.
Well? I know I haven’t answered anything brother. I guess that is why we call it “wrestling.” I’ll stop just short of making a circle with my thoughts and rambling. Thanks for reading this and for writing everything you do. Feel free to post this or portions of it in the comments section for dialogue purposes; I decided to email you because of the length.
Sincerely,
Chris
