Apr 3, 2011
You Were On His Mind
4-4-11
Another Lenten contemplation.
A recently released book is raising dust in Christian circles. Frankly, the controversy probably is bigger than the book itself, but so it goes. Love Wins by Rob Bell presents the argument that most people, or all people, will eventually be redeemed from hell, if there is a hell, because Jesus’s death was an atonement for all of creation. Eventually, in this life or sometime in Eternity, souls will be persuaded to accept Him.
I believe I have summarized the book properly. One of the author’s tenets is that God is so loving, it seems impossible that He would let people go to hell.
If I have not properly summarized the book, then I have properly summarized dozens of very similar heresies and distortions of scripture from the past 2000 years. In brief, there is a theological proposition called Universalism, generally meaning that everyone since Calvary has been or will be “saved” from punishment – from the penalty of sin and rebellion against God. And maybe even retroactively, before Calvary. Some call it Universalism. I call it Wishful Thinking.
The Lenten season is useful to believers as we contemplate the implications of our sins, our need for salvation, the concept of Jesus’ substitutionary death, the triumph of His overcoming the grave, and the meaning of His ascension to Heaven. The truth of it all.
Another new book attracts attention: Megashift. Author James Rutz presents data to claim that the fastest-growing religion on earth is… Christianity. Counterintuitive to some of us. We sense that Christianity is declining in America and Europe. It is. We are aware that Christians are being persecuted with increasing ferocity in other parts of the world. They are. (This is partly a reaction to Christianity’s growth; and it partly inspires Christianity’s spread) We observe that “mainstream” denominations are shrinking. They are. (The rising tide of believers is mostly independent, Bible-believing, First-Century types; “New Apostolics” is Rutz’s label.)
I believe I have accurately summarized that book’s documentation. These two books illustrate the irony, or at least the evolution, of Christianity today. Many people from predominantly Muslim and Buddhist and Hindu and animist lands, and even from demonic traditions… are now on-fire Christians. These new believers send more missionaries, year after year, to the “Christian West” because of perceived spiritual needs! And traditional white-bread, culturally elite, and intellectually pretentious “Christ-followers” and “communitarians” and “emergents” (they can’t seem to say “Christian” for some reason)… no longer “get it.”
“It” is the way of the cross, the plan of salvation. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Our self-inflicted unrighteousness, which denies us entry to the presence of a holy God, has a provision. We cannot earn it, but Christ offered it: believe in Him and accept His loving assumption of our sins and guilt; and we will be reconciled to God.
Is that hard? It depends upon our response. Are there details about it that we don’t understand? Of course; we are not God. Do we deserve this crazy, illogical, outrageous, unspeakable “pass” against a lifetime of spiritual shortcomings and rebellion?
Of course not. That’s called Love.
That is the love that wins. By God’s grace, He provided a way. If there is no need for repentance, the Bible lies; no element of forgiveness, then Jesus suffered foolishly; no salvation decision, the cross is ridiculed. If mankind will go to Heaven en masse just because we all have pulses, the Easter story is a joke. There would be no reason ever again to sing Amazing Grace.
I will advance a theory of my own, and I hope I properly am consistent with scripture: Jesus was a man who suffered like no other; but as God incarnate, He had the ability to focus His thoughts as He was on the cross. And with all the torments and betrayals, all the billions of people who did live and will live in history, when He was on the cross, I was on His mind. And so were you.
When He looked down, He looked – through eyes encrusted with blood, but also through the years and through many generations in many places – into the individual faces of you and me.
Why in world (literally) would the Son of God endure all this, and offer all this? So that we might accept – believe, confess, and be transformed. Salvation is free, but not cheap, as many have said. Neither should it intentionally be cheapened, not in this Lenten season, or ever.
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Click: You Were On His Mind
Rick, love the fresh taste in music. These kids really put their hearts into it! Jesus, keep us near the cross.
Eternal truth and a contemporary expression of it. Well done Rick.
So true Rick, the gospel is being attacked more by luke warm Christians than other faiths. God created man with a free will otherwise we would just be robots, and as you rightly say there would be no need for free will if we are all are going to heaven. Jesus made it so clear that believing in Him was a choice given by His grace and mercy but choice it is. Heven and hell are therefore a choice otherwise Easter was pointless. In Ireland where I live one of the common sayings that I hate the most is ‘Ah sure it was meant to be’.. Not everything is ‘meant to be’ as then we are excused our actions no matter what they are. It is time for the Western Christian church to go back to reading the four gospels and re-examine what real Christianity is.. Keep up the good woork..
Chris, you have hit me with a bombshell. I will expand this when I process it more — but you have nailed the spiritual crisis of the age. We see Christians being persecuted and killed around the world, and we know (see this week’s message) that the Western Church is adrift. We see the way to define the crisis:
* Much of the world is attacking Christians; but
* Much of the church is attacking Christianity
Thank you for this clarity!
Amen! God bless you and thank you Rick for sharing my music video “you were on his mind” on your blog. I respect all your work you do for the Lord, I will keep you and your ministry in prayer.
In His Service,
Joe The 4th Man
facebook.com/joethe4thman
youtube.com/jothe4thman
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/joe-the-4th-man/id291770031