When did the church decide that they should always be on the defense? Who decided that one of the central ideas of the bible was that God hated Darwin and evolution? When Jesus talks about the gates of hell, I suppose those are used as an offensive weapon in the afterlife?
When I look around at the Christianity I was raised in and that I came to love, I see a lot of defense. I see people that are quick to point out why others are wrong. I see groups that are more worried about losing something than gaining the whole world. I see a sad state that makes me a bit depressed sometimes.
In basketball and most other competitive sports, a good defense can win most games for you. If you can keep the other team from scoring, you can usually win... obviously. Usually defense is more about fundamentals and execution. And I guess that is why a defensive model for church is so popular in the United States.
If we run around telling people who and what ideas are looking to steal their soul, then we can maneuver them as we please. People are terrified of losing things. They think "Gee, if I give in on this point, if I admit that God may not have created in six literal days, then how can anyone trust that Jesus rose from the dead?" or "If we admit that our politics are not right all the time, then people may think they are wrong all the time." But neither of those is coherent.
Of course, God could have created all that exists in 6 literal days. But why couldn't he have used millions, billions of years? Does it really have any bearing on who Jesus was and is? And what if, as Christians, we were wrong to believe in capitalism, or democracy? Would that mean that we would suddenly have to abort every baby? We are making connections that do not exist, because we are playing defense only.
The church started as a radical, dangerous movement. People were uncomfortable with Christianity because the people who believed it were so loving, they embraced community in such a way that it made people see what was lacking in their own lives. What if, instead of letting culture decide what we think, or political parties, what if we evaluated everything against Jesus? Would Jesus really have set up a weird video series of "Evolution vs Creation"?
I think we need to push the tempo, encourage innovation, embrace learning. If we really believe that God created the world, then God created the science the governs the world. And if God is true, then won't it become, at least somewhat evident? Defense wins championships, but offense sells tickets. If we believe the Easter story, the championship is already won. What we need to do is show people that it is a life worth living, or, in a way, a show worth attending.
3.26.2010
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2 comments:
More good stuff. Keep it coming.
If I understand your post correctly, part of what you are saying is that we should not be afraid of the truth no matter where it leads. You said, "I think we need to push the tempo, encourage innovation, embrace learning." Sounds you advocate being willing to learn knew things about God and the world, even if it is different from what we believed before. Most people, Christians and non-Christians alike, do not want to do this with things that upset their system of beliefs. Some become hostile if you tell them they are wrong or challenge their traditions. The Pharisees were offended with Christ because He challenged their traditions (Mark 7:1-13). Some of the things Jesus taught seemed so strange and "different" that many of His own disciples left Him, even after witnessing His miracles (John 6:35-66). But later, the Bereans received this testimony of God, that they were fair-minded, because they did what they were supposed to do - they checked the scriptures to see if something taught to them was true and did not assume that new teaching is wrong just because it is different (Acts 17:10-12).
Actually, there is a connection between belief in the six literal days of creation and Jesus Christ. Both have their roots in the Bible, that is, the Bible is the source of knowledge both about Jesus Christ and creation. What we know about Christ must be based on the authority of God's word, and if one approaches the Bible with an attitude of skepticism, he will not have the faith and trust to let the Bible correct him in doctrine and behavior. Yet that attitude of skepticism is encouraged by the theory of evolution from the very beginning of the Bible, in the account of creation as described in the first chapter of Genesis.
As I point out in my website, the six days of creation are six literal days, yet the earth existed prior to the six days. The six days describe a renewing or a refreshing of the surface of the earth, and the life that was made in those six days could have been a restoration of the same species that had existed previously. There is no contradiction between a literal understanding of Genesis and the evidences of fossils and genetics. The life that existed prior to the condition described as darkness and water covering the earth could have come from common descent from a single ancestor over millions of years, and that would not be in contradition to the Bible.
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