Karl 07/01/01
A few thoughts
So � Ben has asked me to take to my soap-box, and so I shall. Thanks Ben.
Regular contributors to Ben�s message board will know that I am a Christian, but may have noted that I often don�t take an evangelical line on things, and so often am arguing against the other Christians there! This needs some explanation.
I used to be an evangelical. I used to hold many of the views that evangelicals hold and which I now argue against on the message board. So lets take a look at a few of these and see why I don�t believe in them any more.
Biblical Infallibility
Or inerrancy � shades of the same thing in effect. Why don�t I believe this?
Because it is manifestly untrue � that�s why. Come with me a moment to the second book of Samuel:
2 Samuel 24
1 Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah". 2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, "Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are."
And now come with me to the book of Chronicles
1 Chronicles 21
1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, "Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are."
Tell me who it was that got David to take the Census? One of these is wrong, if they are to be taken literally. If on the other hand they are different records of the same event given different interpretations by the writers, the problem is solved. But if scripture contains the writers� interpretations, and those contradict each other, then it is not infallible, or inerrant.
I believe that God reveals Himself through those interpretations, but His revelation is ongoing, imperfect and refined gradually as the canon of scripture develops.
Hence:
Exodus 20
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me�
Ezekiel 18 19
"Yet you ask, `Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?' Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. 20 The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.
Exodus represents an older understanding of God; Ezekiel�s insight is that this is unjust, and God cannot work that way.
This revelation meets its perfection only in the person of Jesus Christ, God in human form.
Substitutionary Atonement
To be fair, I do believe in this, but I don�t think it is an absolute truth. I think it is a model, and an imperfect one. So I see it as one way of seeing the atonement, but only one way. The truth is, I think, beyond human conception and language, and can therefore only be approached by models.
Here is an alternative model that has more meaning for me:
In a nutshell, I believe that Jesus' very person embodies reconciliation of God with man, inasmuch as Jesus is both.
However, in order to fully reconcile all that being human entails, this God-man needs to suffer, at least in part, all the crap things that happen to people. Injustice, innocent suffering, persecution, intolerance, and so on.
Therefore, only by Jesus' death in the manner in which it occurred is the reconciliation between God and man fully made.
Further, having joined God and man in His person, Jesus� ascension as still a man and God takes humanity permanently into God. We have a stake in God�s nature. What this means can only be worked out by the individual�s own walk in faith.
Eternal Conscious Torment in Hell for the non-saved
I object to this on a number of grounds:
1. If God is just, then He cannot punish finite sin with an infinite punishment
2. If Jesus� suffering is sufficient �punishment�, as it is in evangelical models, for the sins of the world, how can eternal torment be the just punishment as well. Jesus� suffering, terrible as it was, was finite.
3. The images of Hell in the Bible are of destruction.
4. The �lake of fire� is called the Second Death. Death and conscioussness are not generally considered synonymous.
Salvation only for Christians
This comes from an image of God as unable to let anyone into heaven unless they sign on the doctrinal dotted line. But it is not what the Bible says!
Firstly, it is clear that God is looking for reasons to save, not to condemn, any given person:
2 Peter 3
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
How can it be otherwise, if God loves people?
Jesus� statement �I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me� is often quoted in this regard. But we must look at this in the context of John�s gospel (where the saying occurs), which has, at its opening:
John 1
9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
Lights every man - Not just those who believe a particular set of propositions. But wherever folk are enlightened to what is right and good, it is this Light who enlightens them. And when they follow that enlightenment, they follow that Light. Yes, access to God is through this Person, but we do not have to know His name.
Go to the message board!
