Ben Cartwright, February 16, 2001
Religion is a funny thing. Throughout history, religions have had to either change with the times, or die. Many religions have shot up, only to die away a few years later. So what is it that makes a religion successful?
Some religions (probably in this case called �sects� or �cults�) are successful because they brainwash. These religions have no respect for human beings whatsoever, and seek only to gain more adherents. We can probably all remember David Koresh and Jim Jones. Although there is admittedly some brainwashing involved in almost all religions, most religions have respect for people�s humanity and to not seek to destroy their lives.
Some religions are successful because they operate primarily out of fear. I know that in some countries, to leave the religion of your family means death or, at a minimum, ostracism from your society. In the West, we have little understanding of the power of these types of religions, since we are more individual-oriented here. In such a culture, to leave your religion means to leave your friends, your family, and everything that defines who you are and to plunge out into what seems like a great blackness. One can see how such religions can keep adherents through the years, even if many or most are only nominal followers of that religion.
Finally, there are religions which are successful because they evolve. They change with the times. And Christianity is one of these religions. Its success lies in its ability to reinterpret things to fit the contemporary culture. I write this article to show how this revelation makes many things about Christianity which seem to make little sense suddenly have meaning. Allow me to illustrate.
In the Old Testament, God required sacrifice. People regularly offered �burnt offerings,� which means an animal would be burned and offered to God. In the time when these rituals began (which was before the Bible was written), this was a common practice in all religions. Why? It�s very simple, actually. Long ago, people tended to anthropomorphize their gods, and actually thought the gods got hungry! So they would offer them food to keep them from getting angry and doing crazy things like opening a hole in the ground or flooding the whole world. The reason the offerings were burned is also obvious. Gods, like men, prefer their food cooked.
Now, by the time the books of the Old Testament were written, people were still burning these sacrifices to God, but had by then forgotten why. You see no mention in the Bible of God�s being hungry or needing sustenance. This is what I refer to as �contemporizing� a religion. By the time the Bible was written, the pulse of the times was not that God got hungry, but simply that God required sacrifice in order to cleanse sin and to demonstrate that one�s faith was strong (if one is willing to give up an animal to God rather than selling, eating, or making use of it, he is very serious� many rams, bulls, etc. were offered up in these times). By this time, no one remembered why it actually started, as the ritual had been naturally �contemporized� as people�s views of the world changed. Now, the key here is that if they had still thought of God as being hungry in a time when no one really thought that anymore, their religion would probably had died. Religions must evolve or die out, and the people of Israel had no intention of dying out. After all, theirs was the one �true� religion, and they were God�s �special, chosen people.�
Let�s continue to follow the evolution of animal sacrifice, because it did not settle there. People went on for many years sacrificing animals to atone for their sin. They began to believe that somehow, since the �life is in the blood,� that somehow explained why animals had to die for their sin. The idea of substitutionary sacrifice began to develop in its earliest form. The God of the Old Testament was still somewhat unpredictable (the Bible says he got jealous, changed his mind, killed people for touching the wrong things, etc.), so people began to be concerned about their �sin� (essentially something humans do that God doesn�t like). These animal sacrifices were a way for people to feel that their sin had been forgiven, and thus began Christianity�s somewhat strange idea that God forgives our sin based on someone (or something) else�s sacrifice. This is part of what makes Christianity continue to be successful today� people seem to enjoy sinning, so any religion that wants to compete has to somehow allow people to keep sinning. The way Christianity reconciles this is to say that yes, God hates sin, but he provides a way for it to be forgiven (in other words, you can keep sinning because there is a sacrifice that has taken care of it).
Now let�s travel to the New Testament. By this time, society had grown even more in understanding, and the idea of animal sacrifice was probably starting to get a bit out-of-date. The religion of the people of Israel needed to either change or die. So it evolved again. When Jesus died on the cross, this came to be seen as the �perfect sacrifice.� [Now, admittedly, most of the Jewish people did not follow Jesus, and this was a pivotal time in which two religions formed from one. However, Jewish people do not today sacrifice animals, so their religion had to change or die as well. Here, we will continue to trace the evolution of Christianity and leave Judaism for another time.] Suddenly, all the sacrifices in the Old Testament made sense because they were pointing to something. They were foreshadowing the sacrifice that Jesus would someday make on the cross. The New Testament, in the book of Hebrews, clearly states that the blood of animals could never cleanse sin. So here, the �contemporizing� happened by changing the original purpose of animal sacrifice yet again and saying that all along, it had never cleansed sin. It had only pointed to Jesus, who would truly take our sin upon himself. Sure, those people in the Old Testament probably thought their sacrifices were actually cleansing their sin, but they weren�t. So again, Christianity changed with the times to stay alive.
Notice what this �contemporizing� does to ordinary people. Have you ever noticed the odd emphasis in Christianity on the �blood of Jesus�? People sing, �Oh, the blood of Jesus, that washes white as snow!� Is this a gory image to anyone else? We tell our children all about how Jesus was beaten and whipped, and a crown of thorns was placed on his head� then stakes were driven through his wrists with hammers!! Typically, a person living in our modern times would never place such a focus on blood, and would certainly never sing about how wonderful someone�s blood is! But it makes sense when you trace it wayyy back� long before the Bible�s first jot and tittle was penned� and see human beings, scared to death of their surroundings and trying to appease whatever gods were responsible for their sufferings� deciding to offer the gods some nice, cooked food. I�ll bet they never knew that, thousands of years later, people would be singing about a �cleansing flood� of blood. But this is what happens when religions forget their roots and become �contemporized.�
Many other themes in Christianity have also evolved and no longer make sense. So the next time you�re wondering� �Why does the Bible say women should wear hats in church and be silent?� or �Why does the Bible say homosexuality is wrong?� or even, �Why do I sing about someone�s blood?� or moreover, �Why is the Bible so confusing when read in its entirety?� (I am convinced, by the way, that at least 90 % of Christians who will fight you tooth-and-nail over the infallibility of the entire Bible have never read the entire Old Testament)�anyway, the next time you�re wondering any of those things or something similar� just know that Christianity has been �contemporized,� and can�t help but carry with it some of the arcane, antiquated beliefs of earlier generations.
Think for yourself! Christianity, like any other religion that wants to stay alive without using fear as its primary motivator, has changed through the years to meet the needs of contemporary society.
Epilogue:
Incidentally, �creationism� is one of the places where fundamentalist Christianity has been unwilling to change with the times� they insist that a literal interpretation of a creation myth written at the same time as many other creation myths of other religions must be the accurate, scientific description of how the world began. If they are unwilling to �contemporize� their brand of religion to meet the demands of today�s society, they will eventually die out.
Go to the message board!
