I have only been reading the Bible independently for about two years. In that time, I have read the New Testament (several times) and also the Psalms, Proverbs, many of the prophets, and some of the Mosaic Law. Aside from my love of Jesus, and my quest to read all Scripture through the lens of who He is, I have spent almost no time studying Biblical culture, church history, or theology of any kind. Basically, I know nothing except that Jesus Christ is exactly who He says He is. He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:1). The more I believe Him, the more my heart and my life are being transformed by Him (John 7:17). Regretfully however, I also find that the more I believe Jesus, the more disillusioned I feel by the Church.
While I still share many of the Church’s core beliefs; such as that Jesus Christ is the Divine incarnation of God in the flesh, that His death atoned for sin, and that He was literally, physically resurrected; when it comes to concepts like salvation, blessedness, heaven, and hell, I find Jesus to be teaching something quite different from what the Church is teaching. And while I am deeply thankful to the Church for continuing to proclaim Jesus’ name and identity, for its service to its members and the greater community, and for the ways it has blessed me personally; when it comes to making a choice between following the Church's teaching and following Jesus' teaching, I choose Jesus. In this post, I will share just a few of my laments and criticisms of the capacity of mainstream Christian theology to over-complicate, undermine, and even negate the words and core teachings of Jesus Christ.
Under the view that one group of people (non Christian) is destined to burn in hell, while another group (Christian) is destined to spend a blissful eternity with God in heaven, the Beatitudes for example, lose much of their power and practical significance. In the beginning of Matthew 5, Jesus begins His ministry saying:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God…" (Matthew 5:3-9)
Now I am no master of logic. But it seems to me that if the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit; but only Christians can enter the kingdom of heaven; then we must conclude that only Christians can be poor in spirit. If the merciful obtain mercy; but only Christians obtain mercy; then we must conclude that only Christians can be merciful. If the peacemakers shall be called the children of God; but only Christians are the children of God; then we must conclude that only Christians can be peacemakers, and so on.
In fact, I do believe that it impossible to embody the qualities Jesus describes in the Beatitudes apart from Christ. But there is no plausible reason to believe that only people who explicitly identify as Christians experience the blessedness Jesus describes. So what gives? Does the kingdom of heaven belong to the poor in spirit as Jesus says? Or does it only belong to Christians?
If I receive genuine forgiveness from a person whom I wronged, such that the break in our relationship is restored; but the person who forgave me happens to be a devout Jew; does that person receive mercy as Jesus says? Or does his non-Christian status nullify his show of mercy, leaving his eternal soul in hell? If one commits murder, and is subsequently so devastated by the guilt and pain of what he has done that he has all but given up on his life; later, the family of the deceased expresses forgiveness to the murderer; the murder receives the family’s forgiveness and in doing so, finds within himself a new hope and reason to live; but the murderer has never heard of Jesus. As Jesus suggests in the Beatitudes, did the murderer’s spiritual poverty provide an entrance into the kingdom of heaven? Or does the fact that the murderer never heard of Jesus damn him to hell anyway?
I imagine there are at least a dozen very impressive theological formulations out there attempting to answer these questions. But I couldn't care less. Jesus already answered these questions several times over. And what I really want to know is: Why can’t we just believe Him? Why can’t we just believe that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit? That the peacemakers are the children of God, and so on? Why do we need a complicated theology to ‘make sense’ out of what already makes perfect sense on its own? Why should we resort to lawyer-like reasoning and bargaining with definitions to determine who Jesus was actually talking to or what Jesus actually meant in the Beatitudes, when it is already plainly obvious who He was talking to and what He meant? Why can’t we just believe that Jesus meant exactly what He said? Why does mainstream Christian theology force us to believe instead that Jesus began His earthly ministry with a series of convoluted ‘truths’ containing subjective definitions and undisclosed contingencies? And all for the sake of avoiding coming to the obvious conclusions that Jesus’ words would have us make…
In Matthew 7, Jesus warns His disciples about false prophets saying,
"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:16-20).
In a previous post, I shared some logical conclusions and practical implications of this parable. In this post, I lament the terrible tragedy that most of mainstream Christianity either A) does not understand its meaning or B) does not sincerely believe what Jesus is saying.
If we believe what Jesus is saying, then we believe we will know who belongs to Christ by their fruits. And if we believe we will know who belongs to Christ by their fruits, then we can stop using every other parameter imaginable for determining who comes in His name, and start following the instructions of our Lord!
Mainstream Christianity offers a whole slew of detailed systems and prescriptions for identifying false teaching and for determining who comes in the name of the Lord. And yet it largely fails to observe and apply the very simple prescriptions Jesus actually gave:
Mainstream Christianity offers a whole slew of detailed systems and prescriptions for identifying false teaching and for determining who comes in the name of the Lord. And yet it largely fails to observe and apply the very simple prescriptions Jesus actually gave:
"Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16).
and...
"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).
What if the truth really is that simple? What if the kingdom of heaven really does belong to the poor in spirit? What if those who mourn really will be comforted? What if the meek really do inherit the earth? (What a lovely thought!) What if the merciful really do obtain mercy? And what if the peacemakers really are the children of God? What if Jesus really meant exactly what He said? And what would happen if we set aside our precious doctrines and overworked theologies long enough to simply believe Him?
We could start by considering Jesus words immediately following the parable of The Good Tree in Matthew 7:
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
For many, this is one of the scariest parts of the Bible. But I think that’s because we A) forget what it means to do the will God, and B) fail to recognize that this verse contains not only a warning, but also an encouragement. While it should indeed trouble us to learn that not everyone who professes Christ’s name will enter the kingdom of heaven, it should also give us great assurance to hear Jesus tell us exactly who will enter. Is it “Christians?” No! “But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
Can we believe Him? Yes! We can believe every word Jesus spoke! But will we believe Him? Does our theology even allow us to believe Him? If we do choose to believe Him, then we must also believe that anyone who has ever sincerely, sacrificially loved another person has already entered the kingdom of heaven. That’s right! Jesus didn’t leave us to wonder what it means to do the will of God. He taught us that to love our neighbors as ourselves, is to love God (see Mark 12:31-32, Luke 10:25-27, Matthew 22:37-40, Matthew 25:40-45). And so we must conclude that anyone who has ever loved in this way has every bit a claim to the kingdom of heaven as we Christians have. And as much as it might make us squirm to accept it, this must be true regardless of whether or not the person identifies as “Christian” (see Matthew 21:28-31, Luke 10:36-37, Romans 2:28-29). Astonishing, isn't it?! What’s even more astonishing is that Jesus actually went around saying this kind of stuff for three years before the Romans got hold on Him and killed Him! Truly…astonishing.
You may be thinking, “Well not everything that looks like love, is love. So we can’t just say that anyone who appears loving has entered the kingdom of heaven.” That's true. Thankfully, Jesus didn’t leave us to wonder what love looks like. He demonstrated it with every moment of His life and even with His death. With His life, He fed the hungry; cast out devils; made sick people well. He showed mercy and grace to people that no religious man would have ever been caught talking to in the first place. He washed His disciple’s feet. Even after His disciple, Peter's repeated bouts of faithlessness and his outright denial of Him, Jesus remained faithful to Peter. With His life, Jesus loved the unlovable and He told us to go and do likewise.
Have you, out of sincere compassion and love for others, fed the hungry; been a healer of the sick; been merciful; been a caregiver; been faithful to one who has been unfaithful? Good. According to Jesus, you have already entered the kingdom of heaven.
Have you, out of sincere compassion and love for others, fed the hungry; been a healer of the sick; been merciful; been a caregiver; been faithful to one who has been unfaithful? Good. According to Jesus, you have already entered the kingdom of heaven.
You may be thinking, “But didn’t Jesus say that whoever does not believe on Him will perish.” Yes, He did. And since we know that everything Jesus said is true, this statement and others like it must be understood within the context of everything else He said. In the context of Jesus words in the verses explored here, I think we have good reason to reassess our understanding of what it means to “believe on Him.” Could it be that even we who call ourselves “Christians” do not actually ‘believe on Him’ as much as we think we do? Is it possible that we too are guilty of what Jesus calls “unbelief?” And if we too are guilty of unbelief, are we too not perishing? The third chapter of John’s first epistle contains some rather difficult statements that I think provide key insights for us as we seek to answer these questions. 1 John 3, verses 6 and 9 say:
“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him...Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Whoa! Unless we are prepared to claim that we have no sin, we must acknowledge that despite whatever we consider to be our ‘belief' in Jesus, the truth of the matter is that to whatever extent we sin, we “hath not seen Him, neither known Him.” Let that sink in for a moment...
And furthermore, if whoever is born of God cannot sin; and yet we do sin; then we must conclude that where we are sinful, we are not born of God. And if we are not entirely born of God, we ought to wonder: What else are we born of? John answers this question saying “of the devil" (1 John 3:8).
Whoa! Unless we are prepared to claim that we have no sin, we must acknowledge that despite whatever we consider to be our ‘belief' in Jesus, the truth of the matter is that to whatever extent we sin, we “hath not seen Him, neither known Him.” Let that sink in for a moment...
And furthermore, if whoever is born of God cannot sin; and yet we do sin; then we must conclude that where we are sinful, we are not born of God. And if we are not entirely born of God, we ought to wonder: What else are we born of? John answers this question saying “of the devil" (1 John 3:8).
As the stories of Creation and the Fall so accurately tell us from the very beginning, we are deeply, tragically broken. We are fractured, not whole. We are divided, not One. So when I read all the scary stuff in the book of Revelation about the fate of the devil and all who belong to him, I must believe that to whatever extent my heart is born of the devil, my fate is the same as his.
Isn’t this exactly what Jesus teaches? Doesn't He warn not only the Pharisees and religious elites, but often His own disciples about the reality of hell? Doesn't He tell us exactly what will happen if we fail to abide in Him (John 15:6)? Doesn't He tell us that He will indeed come and render to every man, not according to the name of the god he claims to believe in, but according to his works (see Matthew 16:27)?
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).
And isn't that what we want? Not that we should be cast into the fire, but that by whatever means necessary, our sin and every work of the devil would be destroyed? Even if it means suffering the pain of having Jesus tear out and destroy all the rotten pieces of our hearts? Shouldn’t our hearts be crying out to Him still, "Even so, come Lord Jesus?”
What if Jesus really meant it when He said, “behold, I come quickly..." Revelation 22:12
To behold means to “see” or “observe” something. Jesus is telling us to behold His coming! This isn't phrased as if His coming is something that will happen one day in the future, but as if it is happening right now. What if Jesus really is coming? Not just at ‘the end of the world’ as we think of it, but at ‘the end of the world’ within ourselves? What if Jesus has actually been coming this whole time? And we are simply failing to behold Him?...
I don’t have all the answers. As I said in the beginning, I don’t know anything about anything when it comes to church history or theology. But based on Jesus’ teaching alone, I can’t help but believe that the Church must have taken a very wrong turn somewhere along the way, probably several. This is the only explanation I can think of for why the people who bear Christ’s name, the Church could have embraced a theology that ignores, undermines, and robs practical significance and meaning from the very teachings of the One it claims to be following.
I still love the Church and I still believe in its overall goodness. I know from experience that the spirit of God is still very much alive in the hearts of its people. But it makes me really sad that in a place where I ought to feel comforted in being surrounded by 'fellow believers', I actually feel more and more disturbed by what it is the Church seems to believe.
I still love the Church and I still believe in its overall goodness. I know from experience that the spirit of God is still very much alive in the hearts of its people. But it makes me really sad that in a place where I ought to feel comforted in being surrounded by 'fellow believers', I actually feel more and more disturbed by what it is the Church seems to believe.
Maybe the Church doesn't have everything figured out. Maybe the kingdom of heaven really is a mystery, as Jesus said. And maybe what He came to reveal about the mystery of the kingdom of heaven is actually a lot more marvelous and profound than simply “only Christians can go there.” Maybe that’s why Jesus began His ministry with such foolish words as these,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven… (Matthew 5:3-12)
