Am I a Fundamentalist Christian? - Part VIa (Christian Living and Human Races)
I only read the first paragraph of Jaco's comment sofar. I'll answer that part so long. I'll answer the rest later.
Jaco said:
What would be the effects on society if most of its members decided to follow the teachings of literalist Christianity?
My comments are based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, not the interpretation of people like the Roman Catholic Church, Apartheid NG Kerk, some ancient European power hungry church or some other church that choose to interpret the Bible to fit their political agenda. A society adhering to the teachings of Jesus Christ will be one very healthy society. Lets assume the government will debate and implement laws according to the teachings of Jesus Christ and that it will have the necessary checks and balances to ensure this, as no man is immune to corruption that comes with too much power and money.
The population of such a society will respect rules, laws and authority. The people will respect each other and radiate unconditional love. Children will be loved and cherished but also be well disciplined. Life in general will be respected, from conception till natural death. The citizens will also take their guardianship over the rest of the creation seriously and protect the Earth and environment accordingly, but not at the cost of any human life. The poor, ill and weak will be looked after, etc.
Unfortunately such a society does not exist. We can only strive for such a society. Jesus said nothing around religious freedom. I can only make my own assumptions as to what He would want. I do not believe the belief in Jesus as Saviour or the Worshiping of the Holy Trinity can and should be enforced at all. Most of what I belief regarding religious freedom was listed on the original posting. In short pornography, abortion, etc. is neither religious freedom nor a democratic right in my mind.
Jaco said:
Would most of the people benefit from this?
For sure. Christian and non-christian alike. Criminals, people wanting to indulge in pornography, prostitution, etc. may not like it as much, but in the long run, if they except the laws of such a society, will have much better lives, especially better relationships with their wifes and children.
Jaco said:
Would most of the problems be solved and would there be more love and understanding between people belonging to different races and classes?
Many problems will be much less than it is today. People will respect life, their spouse, their children, other people and the environment much more once they understand that the laws of God and most of the laws of the country was created not to punish one if one does not follow these laws, but to protect us from ourselves and the consequences of our actions.
Jesus Christ advocated without any doubt tolerance and love between different people groups, what we would call races today. The Bible itself teaches that ALL people descended from Adam and from Noah. In fact all people were regarded as one race or group until God dispersed them after the Tower of Babel. Only then groups of people were geographically isolated from each other and were different genetic traits lost and were different genetic traits selected in different groups. The notion of different human races and the belief that some are somehow more primitive than others were brought upon by the general belief that man evolved from animals.
God's instruction to His people to invade and occupy the promised land, was a fullfillment of His promise to Abraham and to protect them from these enemies. Any person that converted to their belief or in fact any person that did not show aggression against them and negotiated peace with them, were ok. I do not doubt that there were some very ruthless practices used back then against any people that threatened God's people. The message of Jesus Christ in the New Testament was however very different towards people that are not Jewish or Christian for that matter. Thus a literalist / fundementalist interpretation of Jesus' preachings will promote peace and tolerance between nations and to be more specific respect for the value of human life.
posted by Danie Loots | 17:38
7 Comments:
It is fine to say that the world would have been a better place if everybody followed Jesus’ teachings, but how many Christian literalists would be willing to follow to the letter the advice to "Sell all you have and give it to the poor" or to "resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also"? You mentioned that the message of Jesus differed from the Old Testament’s attitude towards non-Jewish people. Perhaps the moral values of the God of the Old Testament were less commendable than the moral values of the Jesus of the gospels? Your statement "The notion of different human races and the belief that some are somehow more primitive than others were brought upon by the general belief that man evolved from animals", is obviously not applicable to all literalist creationists. Many Judaists as well as the Christian Identity people believe in the literal truth of the creation stories in the Bible as well as in the superiority of some human races, without believing in the evolutionary descent of humanity.
How many Christians would be willing to follow to the letter the advice to sell everything or to turn the other cheek? Probably not a lot, on the selling part at least, me included. The consequence is what they (myself) will have to live with. If I sold all my stuff, gave it to the poor and trusted on God 100% to provide, I would have had a lot less worries. Since I'm not (yet) willing to do it, I'll have to carry the burden of worrying about my earthly possessions myself.
Would the World (or this country) not have been a much better place if everyone (or at least the majority of people) were in fact willing to do this?
My statement "The notion of different human races and the belief that some are somehow more primitive than others were brought upon by the general belief that man evolved from animals" should be applicable to anybody that has studied the principles of Young Earth Creationists and Christian Apologetics. I guess anybody is free to call himself a "literalist creationist" and still disagree with the broad consensus of Creationists. This does not invalidate the above mentioned view of Creationists.
May I also add, that the fact that I am not (yet) willing to follow each and every law in the Bible to the letter may be as a result of one the following or a combination of:
1. I follow the spirit / intention of the law, not necessarily the letter as a non-Christian or legalist would want to interpret it.
2. I look at the law in context.
3. I still need to grow spiritually in order to "see" the reason why it is good to follow the law. In the meanwhile I'll have to bear with the consequences of not adhering to the law.
4. Any combination of the above.
How should a Christian decide which biblical laws to follow to the letter and which laws to ignore because of their context? The Bible condemns homosexuality in both Testaments. Should the following law be followed to the letter or should it be ignored? Leviticus 20:13: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." (KJV) Why was this law included in the Bible in the first place? According to the gospel of Matthew, Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). This seems to imply that Jesus’ followers should respect laws similar to the law mentioned in Lev. 20:13. Many fundamentalists believe however that some of the laws of the "Old Covenant" are not applicable to Christians because Jesus superseded the old covenant by replacing it with a better covenant. Does the Bible clearly state which laws were invalidated because of Jesus’ New Covenant, or does a born-again Christian implicitly know which laws to follow?
Each and every law in the Old and New Testament was given by God to us, for our own good. Some of these laws may not be applicable to us today, for varying reasons. For example, the eating of Pork. I believe that today we can cook this meat well enough so that pork will not be harmful, as it were for the Israelites. I may be wrong, in which case I will not end up in Hell because I'm eating Pork, but I will carry the consequences of eating Pork, if it is somehow still bad to my health.
I do not believe that God stands ready with a rod to punish us the moment we dare break one of His rules. Neither do I believe that you will end up in Hell because of your sins, if you accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour. The idea that "bad people" go to hell and "good people" go to heaven is something the Roman Catholic Church introduced and it is still believed by many (if not all) Catholics and an even some Protestants.
With regards to sexual immorality and homosexuality I have discussed this already in the first parts of this line of discussion. (http://wword.blogspot.com/2008/11/am-i-fundamentalist-christian.html). In short homosexual people can still be saved, just like all other sinners, if they accept and believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. They will however not be able to enjoy the life of abundance, joy and piece if they do not seek to be healed and strive towards a heterosexual marriage. I have to state as well, that people living in heterosexual marriages, that engages in sexual immorality, adultery, pornography, etc. will also deny themselves the pleasures of a godly marriage.
Sofar I have mentioned only the practical consequences of sin to our life here on Earth. But I also believe there is an effect of accountability before the Almighty God. Some of this repenting may happen before one's death, but I believe that one day, either at one's death or at Jesus' second coming, we'll stand before an Almighty God, that is 100% Perfect Love, Righteousness and Power. And we will be filled with regret and repentance for all sin that we committed and all deeds we did against God's other children (saved or not). This is another reason to avoid sin.
How am I supposed to know which laws apply and which ones not? We are guided by the Holy Spirit of God. He guides us softly, warns us gently when we're sinning or contemplating doing something bad. God will reveal to me which of the things I'm doing today, is against His will and bad for me and my family. But God's will never contradicts the Bible.
If true believers are guided by the Holy Spirit to help them in knowing which laws should be adhered to, most of them should agree with each other when questioned about the validity of biblical laws and beliefs. There are, however, major disagreements between Christian literalists. Some of them believe that apartheid is sinful and unbiblical. Others believe that good works as well as faith are important. The major Afrikaans Protestant churches can’t even agree on which rules and rituals should be followed at church services. They can’t all be right. Perhaps the believers who are unclear about some biblical laws have communication problems with the Holy Spirit? Or perhaps they just pretend to be true believers. Can the authenticity of true believers be tested by their "true" understanding of biblical laws? If that is the case, only a very small number of people will eventually be saved.
Jaco said:"Perhaps the believers who are unclear about some biblical laws have communication problems with the Holy Spirit?".
This is true for many believers if not all believers. If we were able to ALWAYS suppress our own sinful nature and ALWAYS listen to the Holy Spirit of God, we would have been a mighty army in God's hands. Christian societies would have been better than what even Plato and his mates could have dreamed up. Any Christian truly seeking the will of God, gets confronted with this question, "When is it the Holy Spirit speaking and when is in my own desires?" I have personal experience of this, and are constantly reminded of my own inabilities.
Jaco said:"If that is the case, only a very small number of people will eventually be saved."
If I did not know any better I would think that Jaco is Catholic or something. Let me state categorically (I thought had done so previously): "Nobody gets saved because he adheres to God's laws. Nobody gets saved because he can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Nobody goes to hell because he does not follow God's laws. Nobody goes to hell because he does not listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit."
The only reason one gets saved is because you accept that on your own you cannot be saved and that the only way to get saved is by accepting Jesus Christ as your Saviour. Once you've done that, there is nothing and nobody that can keep you out of Heaven. But without accepting Jesus Christ as your Saviour, there is no way whatsoever to be saved. I also believe, although some Christians (especially NG Kerk and the other two sisters) will disagree with me that children and people that does not have the mental capacity to understand the above, will still be saved by God's grace.
Back to the topic of hearing the Holy Spirit. I know that each and every human being are been spoken to by the Holy Spirit of God. The problem lies in KNOWING His voice. When you know deep down that you're doing something wrong, you're hearing His voice. Sometimes however, when you're feeling guilty of something you did, it is not God, but the devil that tries to tell you how useless you are and that God somehow loves you less. He'll remind us of our own experiences as children from our own fallible fathers, and makes us believe his lies that he (and He) does not love us as much anymore.
I can only pray that everyone reading this gets better and better at recognizing the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit of God.
Post a Comment
<< Home