I'm constantly intrigued by the way people connect with God outside of Christianity.
Why?
Because, for so long I thought it was impossible to connect with God outside of Christianity.
Even as I write this, there will be a couple of you who cringe at the thought that someone outside of the fold could be praying right now to the same God you are - yet, they don't ascribe to the values of the Christian faith.
I
want to keep this post as simple as possible, but unfortunately for
most of us, the layers and layers of learning will probably prevent us
from receiving such simplicity.
But, here it is. Maybe it'll stick.
Believing that Jesus is who the scriptures say he is, is, a Christian ideal. Actually, it's a Judeo-Christian ideal adopted by the early Christian church, and shaped and molded since.
It's not a Muslim ideal. It's not a Buddhist ideal. And, it's not a Hindi ideal.
Which means . . .
There are other ideals besides the ones we call Christian.
I'm a Christian, which means that I believe that when I look at the Jesus of scripture, I see what God is like and I see what a life full of God is like. As a result, I want to be like the Jesus I read about, and I have an "inner knowing" that my sins are forgiven and that God loves me.
And,
the Muslim woman believes that when she looks at Muhammad she sees what God is like and what a life full of God is like, and so on.
For the longest time, I thought Christianity was the only game in town. Maybe it's because I live in the deep south of the Bible Belt. Maybe it's because I never knew anyone who claimed anything other than Christianity.
What I forget about the most when I'm reading the scriptures is: Jesus was Jewish. He thought Jewishly. He acted Jewishly. He talked Jewishly. Everything he did and said fell in line with what a good Jew would do and say at that time in that culture.
When we read the gospels, we're reading about a Jewish author's take on what God was up to. So, Jesus was the one they were waiting for. The one through whom the One God would rescue the exiled (the Jews), forgive (those who believed), and redeem (those who were chosen).
Honestly, I think the authors' put alot of words in Jesus' mouth that the Jesus I believe in never would have said. I don't think Jesus was so arrogant to think that he was the only way to God. Of course, we can rebut that simply by saying he was God, therefore he wouldn't get all puffed like we would if we were to say the same thing. Could you imagine your friend announcing at church that he was the only avenue in which you could connect with God? Would you think he was just a little arrogant?
So, when we say things like, "You can only have peace through Jesus," and, "Jesus is the only way to God," and, "If you believe in Jesus your sins will be forgiven (which, by the way, would completely contradict the point of the cross as the scriptures stand)," we are declaring specifically Christian ideals.
We are laying out the truth of Christianity,
which is not a universal truth. It's an inherently Judeo-Christian truth.
I've been really blind for a really long time to the fact that there are people outside of Christianity who connect to the same God that I do.
I used to feel threatened by "those crazies" who merely thought they were worshiping God. My Christianized intellect told me they were pagans, full of idolotrous urges, nowhere near the path that I was on.
The truth is, they were very gracious. They let me judge them without consequence. They let me hiss my condescension. They let me rattle their minds with my "one way" theology. Yet, they listened patiently, probably praying to "their God" to open my mind to the beauty of spiritual diversity.
To think that everyone else must adhere to Christianity in order to find/explore/connect/worship God is like saying everyone must drive a Cadillac in order to really understand driving.
This kind of thinking shuts me off from the ability to have any helpful kind of conversation with those who don't follow the same faith as I. Instead of trying to find out how I can connect to God with them, I'm trying to figure out how to connect them to the right conception of God.
So, thanks to all of you who've put up with my small-mindedness for so long. You've taught me how to start smashing the borders of my God box.
Why?
Because, for so long I thought it was impossible to connect with God outside of Christianity.
Even as I write this, there will be a couple of you who cringe at the thought that someone outside of the fold could be praying right now to the same God you are - yet, they don't ascribe to the values of the Christian faith.
But, here it is. Maybe it'll stick.
Believing that Jesus is who the scriptures say he is, is, a Christian ideal. Actually, it's a Judeo-Christian ideal adopted by the early Christian church, and shaped and molded since.
It's not a Muslim ideal. It's not a Buddhist ideal. And, it's not a Hindi ideal.
Which means . . .
There are other ideals besides the ones we call Christian.
I'm a Christian, which means that I believe that when I look at the Jesus of scripture, I see what God is like and I see what a life full of God is like. As a result, I want to be like the Jesus I read about, and I have an "inner knowing" that my sins are forgiven and that God loves me.
And,
the Muslim woman believes that when she looks at Muhammad she sees what God is like and what a life full of God is like, and so on.
For the longest time, I thought Christianity was the only game in town. Maybe it's because I live in the deep south of the Bible Belt. Maybe it's because I never knew anyone who claimed anything other than Christianity.
What I forget about the most when I'm reading the scriptures is: Jesus was Jewish. He thought Jewishly. He acted Jewishly. He talked Jewishly. Everything he did and said fell in line with what a good Jew would do and say at that time in that culture.
When we read the gospels, we're reading about a Jewish author's take on what God was up to. So, Jesus was the one they were waiting for. The one through whom the One God would rescue the exiled (the Jews), forgive (those who believed), and redeem (those who were chosen).
Honestly, I think the authors' put alot of words in Jesus' mouth that the Jesus I believe in never would have said. I don't think Jesus was so arrogant to think that he was the only way to God. Of course, we can rebut that simply by saying he was God, therefore he wouldn't get all puffed like we would if we were to say the same thing. Could you imagine your friend announcing at church that he was the only avenue in which you could connect with God? Would you think he was just a little arrogant?
So, when we say things like, "You can only have peace through Jesus," and, "Jesus is the only way to God," and, "If you believe in Jesus your sins will be forgiven (which, by the way, would completely contradict the point of the cross as the scriptures stand)," we are declaring specifically Christian ideals.
We are laying out the truth of Christianity,
which is not a universal truth. It's an inherently Judeo-Christian truth.
I've been really blind for a really long time to the fact that there are people outside of Christianity who connect to the same God that I do.
I used to feel threatened by "those crazies" who merely thought they were worshiping God. My Christianized intellect told me they were pagans, full of idolotrous urges, nowhere near the path that I was on.
The truth is, they were very gracious. They let me judge them without consequence. They let me hiss my condescension. They let me rattle their minds with my "one way" theology. Yet, they listened patiently, probably praying to "their God" to open my mind to the beauty of spiritual diversity.
To think that everyone else must adhere to Christianity in order to find/explore/connect/worship God is like saying everyone must drive a Cadillac in order to really understand driving.
This kind of thinking shuts me off from the ability to have any helpful kind of conversation with those who don't follow the same faith as I. Instead of trying to find out how I can connect to God with them, I'm trying to figure out how to connect them to the right conception of God.
So, thanks to all of you who've put up with my small-mindedness for so long. You've taught me how to start smashing the borders of my God box.
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