Questions on Christianity

“God does not bodily descend into the world without changing it forever.” [1]  This is most certainly the case in the person of Jesus.  The almighty God does not do anything without a reason and without the ability to make it happen.

God is still very involved in our world.  When we are saved, the Bible teaches us, God sends us the Holy Spirit (who is part of the Godhead) to indwell us (Romans 5:5, 1 Corinthians 6:19).  The mission of the Holy Spirit is to “. . .convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8 ESV).  So how can we claim to be saved if our lives are not changed?  If our lives are not changed, is not that thwarting the will of God?  If we oppose God’s will, can we claim to be a Christian?  Does not that make a changed life a very important part of salvation?

______________________________

[1]   Janie B. Cheaney, “Cheap knockoffs”, World Magazine, July 185, 2020, p. 20.

A friend of mine recently sent me an article about Pascal’s wager.  Pascal’s wager was his argument for believing in God even though, as he acknowledged, our reason cannot prove God’s existence.  In spite of this lack of proof, we must decide whether to believe in God or not.  How do we decide?

Pascal states this decision is like a wager where we consider the probability of something happening.  If we wager not to believe and God does not exist, we might gain a few more earthly pleasures for 70 some years.  However, if God does exist, we will suffer eternal torment.  If we wager to believe in God and God does not exist we might lose a few years of earthly pleasure.  However if God does exist, then we gain an eternity of pleasure.  Which wager will we make?  Pascal maintains it would not be rational to risk losing an eternity of gain when there is just a finite chance of being in error or in losing a finite amount of pleasure in our life here on earth.

Now I believe Pascal’s wager has some merit.  However, I see five problems with it.

First, in his wager, Pascal assumes the Christian God is the God who created this universe.  If you are a Christian, you believe this to be true.  However, one can believe in a creator God, a Supreme Being, without believing in the Christian God.  Will God sent people to heaven who just believe in the Supreme Being?

Second, Pascal maintains that because we are finite, “we are incapable of knowing . . . whether [God] is”. [1]  However, Romans 1:18-22 tells us all of us have some knowledge of God.  What can be known of God is revealed to us through nature namely God’s “eternal power and divine nature”.

The problem is that while nature tells us there is a Supreme Being, nature does not tell us what kind of person he is.  As Pascal admits:  “Therefore we may well know that God exists without knowing what he is.” [2]  If we do not know what kind of person God is, how do we know that he will keep his promise that if we believe in him we will go heaven?

Third, why would a God of love and justice set up this world so that our decision of whether we believe in him or not determines our eternal fate particularly when he hides himself from us (Isaiah 45:15)?

Fourth, why would God set up our world so that we need to use the language and techniques of the gambling table as our main argument for why people should believe in God?  Is our argument for our belief in him that weak?

Fifth, what do we need to do  to go to heaven?  Is it just to believe in God?  Or is it, as we maintain in this blog, that we must change so our soul becomes more like God?

_______________________________

[1]   A. J. Krailsheimer, translator.  Pascal Pensées.  Baltimore, MD:  Penguin Books, 1966, p. 150.

[2]   Ibid., p. 149.

A few days ago I was reading in 1 Timothy and came across the following verse:  “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:1 ESV)

Paul is saying that failure to take an action (providing for relatives) is equivalent to denying our Christian faith.  Even more, failure to take such action makes us worse than unbelievers.  If you deny your faith, are you still saved?  If you are worse than an unbeliever, are you still saved?

How can Christianity continue to maintain our salvation is a one-time event; that salvation involves one action which is professing faith in Jesus?  In the above passage, Paul says that actions other than to profess belief in Jesus are necessary.

Christian doctrine teaches salvation is a one-time event—it occurs when one accepts Jesus as one’s personal savior.  However my book lists three passages which state salvation is a process over time, not an event:  “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing” (2 Corinthians 2:15), “. . .continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12), and “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14).

Our pastor recently preached a sermon on the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) and referenced another passage that indicates sometimes it takes grief to change us.  This passage is in II Corinthians 7:7-13 in which Paul is talking to Christians, not the unsaved.  He was referring to a past event where Paul reproved the Corinthians which had caused them some grief but as a result the Corinthians had changed their ways.  It it within this context that Paul says:  “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation” (2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV).  So how can “godly grief” produce repentance which leads to salvation for those who are already saved?  So maybe salvation is not a one-time event.  Maybe it is a process.

A lot of years ago, a commercial airliner with a full load of passengers was poised for takeoff.  There were three pilots aboard this aircraft and they had completed their pre takeoff checklist.  Everything looked fine but as the pilot started their takeoff run, a warning horn sounded that told them of a problem.  They aborted the takeoff, returned to the start of the runway, and ran through their checklist again.  As before, everything checked out and they began the takeoff only to be greeted with the warning horn again.  Again they aborted the takeoff and returned to the start of the runway.  Again they checked all their instruments and all were where they should be.  Evidently, they concluded, the warning horn must have a problem so the captain instructed one of the pilots to pull the circuit breaker for the warning horn.  On the third attempt, the aircraft had about reached takeoff speed when the first officer noticed the flaps where set to two degrees when it should have been 5 degrees and yelled for the captain to abort the takeoff which he did, just barely in time.

The question the crew asked themselves as they taxied back to the start of the runway was:  How could all three pilots misread the flap gauge three times?  Evidently, they concluded, they had expected to see a five degree setting and so that is what they saw. [1]

I had a similar experience in regards to what the Bible says about salvation.  All my life I was taught that salvation is only through belief in Jesus and his death for our sins.  But what about the over 70 verses in the Bible that talk about salvation through means other than belief in Jesus?  Evidently I expected to see only verses that supported the belief I was taught and so ignored the others.

What about you?

______________________________

[1]   Barry Schiff, “Rabbits on the runway”, AOPA Pilot, March 2020, p. 20.

Protestant doctrine is firm in the belief that no action is required for our salvation.  If we could do something, that might mean we earn our salvation and the Bible is very clear we cannot earn our salvation.  That is why Jesus came to this earth to die for our sins—we could not do it ourselves.

Also, there is no particular action that we can take to be saved.  What action is acceptable to God is different depending upon the person and their situation.  C. S. Lewis gives us an example.

When a man who has been perverted from his youth and taught that cruelty is the right thing, does some tiny little kindness, or refrains from some cruelty he might have committed, and thereby, perhaps, risks being sneered at by his companions, he may, in God’s eyes, be doing more than you and I would do if we gave up life itself for a friend.

It is as well to put this the other way round.  Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as fiends. . .God does not judge [a man] on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. [1]

In this blog we have demonstrated that belief in Jesus and his death for our sin will not in itself give us salvation.  See last week’s blog for an example and look at the “What the Bible Says about Salvation” tab on this blog.   So if our action and belief will not in themselves give us salvation, what must we do to be saved?

All the above reasons are why in this blog we maintain that salvation is the renovation of our soul.  God’s main concern is the type of person we are and are becoming.  Beliefs and conduct are only tools that we have used to become the person we are.  We need to use these tools to become more like God.

________________________________

[1]   C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, New York:  The Macmillan Company, 1952, p. 71.