Saturday, November 26, 2005
Is This True?
Sometimes, I think C.S. Lewis really did know everything, then there are other times. The Thinklings quote his essay Man or Rabbit this way:
Then I thought some more. Christianity certainly is not patent medicine, but I am not sure even I would rush to embrace it were it simply true, yet did make my life better today through the tranformative power of the Holy Spirit.
So what is the "attractor" to Christianity? No wait, should we even ask that question? Here's the problem, any time we attempt top attract someone to faith with some simple aspect of Christianity, that person does not necessarily respond to the totality of it, and Christianity is, above all, a totality.
Think about it for a minute. Genuine Christianity is all emcompassing and completely consuming. It is more than intellectual ascent, it is based in faith. It is more than good behavior, it is motivational. God doesn't want our agreement; He doesn't even want our effort -- HE WANTS US, all of us, our thoughts, deeds, words, emotions and our eternal souls.
Giving to Him so totally demands total self-repudiation. While I don't think that calls for "turn-or-burn" evangelism, but I do think we need to re-learn and to begin to teach afresh about sin and self-denial. We need to create a desire for the totality of the Christian experience. I don't think God is satisfied with anything less.
One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing. When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human. As a matter of fact, I don?t believe any of you have really lost that desire. More probably, foolish preachers, by always telling you how much Christianity will help you and how good it is for society, have actually led you to forget that Christianity is not a patent medicine. Christianity claims to give an account of facts?to tell you what the real universe is like. Its account of the universe may be true, or it may not, and once the question is really before you, then your natural inquisitiveness must make you want to know the answer. If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all.When I first read that, "Amen," rang through my head, I was reacting to the swipe at non-expositional preaching. When I re-read it, I began to question the premise, "One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing." In my rapidly advancing middle age, I am constantly amazed at people's capacity for self-delusion. I increasingly think that people shy away from reality. One of the few bottom-line facts of a Christianity is our need for Christ. Increasingly, people just do not want to come to terms with that. They want to hide and think that everything is "OK."
Then I thought some more. Christianity certainly is not patent medicine, but I am not sure even I would rush to embrace it were it simply true, yet did make my life better today through the tranformative power of the Holy Spirit.
So what is the "attractor" to Christianity? No wait, should we even ask that question? Here's the problem, any time we attempt top attract someone to faith with some simple aspect of Christianity, that person does not necessarily respond to the totality of it, and Christianity is, above all, a totality.
Think about it for a minute. Genuine Christianity is all emcompassing and completely consuming. It is more than intellectual ascent, it is based in faith. It is more than good behavior, it is motivational. God doesn't want our agreement; He doesn't even want our effort -- HE WANTS US, all of us, our thoughts, deeds, words, emotions and our eternal souls.
Giving to Him so totally demands total self-repudiation. While I don't think that calls for "turn-or-burn" evangelism, but I do think we need to re-learn and to begin to teach afresh about sin and self-denial. We need to create a desire for the totality of the Christian experience. I don't think God is satisfied with anything less.
