True Christianity is Unique Among all Religions...

If one is to look at the various world religions one finds a common core.  It is centered upon the notion that one must perform in a certain fashion and in doing so work their way into the good graces of their particular deity.  Of course this notion in Buddhism is that such leads to good karma in the next life.   

This is often described as a works theology.   Of the many problems attendant to such a notion, three are as follows.  To begin with if acceptance is based upon good works, then those incapable of same are immediately eliminated.  Second, is the matter of what constitutes an acceptable good work.  Who really knows?  Then there is the quantity problem in that no one is quite sure how much is necessary.

There is but one exception.  That exception is found in genuine Christianity. 

To be sure there are many facsimiles of Christianity which in reality are distortions of the genuine.  The problem is not with what Jesus Christ taught and lived nor is it with what the Bible teaches.  The problem lies with what man has attempted to add.   In some sense it is the idea that one can improve upon genuine Christianity.

This amalgamated "christianity" does two things.  First, it simply does not work as God had intended and thus eventually will self destruct and fail.  History teaches such is so.  Second, it presents a wrong picture of what Jesus was all about and thus gives much fodder to His critics such as Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and the like. 

Mahatma Gandhi was such a critic.  Upon his departure from South Africa he said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”   Jesus Christ was genuine, while the Christians Gandhi had in mind were the facsimile. It is said that he frequently read the Sermon on the Mount and had in his immediate possession a copy of the New Testament.

What sets the unique and genuine Christian faith apart is this.  One does not add some performance or another in order to work his way into a right relationship with God (salvation).   Such is quite impossible and most certainly leaves a wrong impression of what being a Christian is all. 

However, having said that,  there are expected changes in behavior.  One such change is the move from "selfishness" to "otherness."  As a part of that change a person begins to look outward from himself.  In that "otherness" one sees and is touched by the needs of others.  Thus his behavior toward other people moves from a selfish intention to that of the best interest of the other.  History is replete with example of those who gave their all in service of another.

A study of such things will reveal that almost all of the helping agencies and social movements are the result of such Christian "otherness."  Even leaving Christian "otherness" aside for the moment, few if any helping organization start without a concern for the needs of others.  They all pretty much began with an "otherness" attitude. 

The summary is this. The performance of good works is not to earn one’s way into the good graces of the Divine but it is the expected outcome, indeed the change that takes place when one enters into that right relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

More to follow...

“A Letter to a Skeptic”

“A Letter to a Skeptic”

(It is not often that I post two times in a day but as I read the following from a Facebook interchange, I thought it well to go ahead and post it.)

Again XXXX, I agree that there were excesses and reprehensible things done in the name of Christ and in that respect philosophic Christianity does not differ in large part from other movements who've impressed their will through violence, coercion, and manipulation.  However, if you give an honest reading to history, you find that these were cases of institutional Christianity far different from the born again, heart changing Christianity that Jesus taught.

The reality of Jesus is that He changes the hearts and lives of those who give themselves to Him. Those people do not do the things of which you speak. You see, in the vast majority of cases those things were done out of selfishness and for political purposes. The real deal Christian lives on a much different level.

Indeed it is the real deal Christians who have sacrificed and given not taken. It is the genuine article that has gone where no one would go (to serve and care for the dying during the black plagues), give beyond one's capacity to give to the needy, provide for the betterment of children (the first education of factory children was by real deal Christians), going to primitive tribes in order to give them a written language and thus access to written information, and so much more.

However as someone observed, "The atheist is better at smelling rotten eggs than laying good ones." The reality is that all you can do is disparage Christians based upon the excesses, however, if you gave history a fair reading (not some revisionist view) you would see that it is the genuine Christian that has done far more good than any of the extreme examples of egregiousness that you cite.

However, I cannot change what you choose to believe. Those are choices you make and the sad part is that there is always a consequence to what one believes. Believe and build on a foundation of truth and one derives one kind of outcome. Believe and build on a foundation of false information and one derives another kind of outcome.

Time is the test and true Christianity has been tested and has stood the test of time. The only way that one can disparage such veracity and validity is to focus upon the exceptions and not the realities of what coming to faith in Jesus Christ has done through the centuries.

XXXX, the reason that Christians have challenged your thinking is that even though we’ve never seen you, each of us in our own way cares about you. We are not here to harass you or degrade you. We are here to as accurately as possible share Jesus Christ with you with the hope that you find the genuine real deal truth about Him.  To decide upon Jesus based upon misinformation and the view of the cynical skeptic is to make a less than informed decision about Him.

Sincerely,

Alvie