"Christianity - Is it Arrogant?"

Christian Arrogance

The idea presented in this argument against Christianity is that the faith is invalid because it engenders a certain attitude of arrogant superiority.  Such superiority then is a plausible reason to abandon the faith and move on.  Those making that claim use a very broad brush and present as being of limited view.

Arrogance Disqualified

For example, arrogance is a part of the condition of man and is not limited to Christianity.   Who can miss the example of sports where one often observes that the participants develop and display an arrogant attitude. 

Does that mean that such a sport is should be abandoned?  Of course not!  Then why disqualify Christianity based on a perception of arrogance?  The implication of course is that Christianity is held to a different standard.  Those leveling the criticism in some sense validate the uniqueness of Christian belief and practice.

The Values Involved

Once again, as in many of these kinds of criticisms, one arrives at the question of values.  To negatively value arrogance suggests that there is something which is antithetical to arrogance.  That something then would be the value by which arrogance is determined to be wrong.

What is that opposite value but modesty?  Modesty is in the sense of humility or reticence.  That then leads to two further questions.

First, what is the origin of that value?

Second, by whose authority does one pronounce something as arrogant?

Relative Arrogance

Some consideration needs to be given to the degree to which someone or a group is arrogant.  Certainly, one man’s arrogance is another man’s humility. 

Would that not mean then that to judge something as arrogant, is simply saying that such an attitude or action is more arrogant than the one making the judgment.  By inference then to make the value judgment is to imply that the one doing the valuing is more humble than that which he is valuing.

Those of Arrogance

To be sure there are people and movements that have assumed some air of superiority.  However, such arrogance often leads to the humility of downfall.  The reality is that such groups have missed the point of Jesus message which was that His followers were to be humble servants (actually the word is slaves).

The Overall Picture

Were one to take time to view Christian history, certainly there are times of conflict and arrogant attitudes regarding others.  However, more often than not the genuine Christian was quite the opposite—often sacrificing much in the service of others.  Sometimes that “much” included the ultimate sacrifice.

Because of the sacrifice of Christians as they sought and today seek to follow their Lord there are education institutions, medical care facilities, stable governments, civil rights, women’s rights, and so much more.  However, one views the subject, one cannot easily dismiss the place of humble Christianity in these and other things.

Background

To see the list of subjects to be discussed in this series see my blog (Christianity – Is it a Faith Driven by Fear?).  Contained within that blog is a reference, 20 Reasons to Abandon Christianity and in that reference is a list which is the springboard from which this subject has been discussed.

"Something is Missing from Ministry! But What?"

What does it mean to be mighty in faith and power?

The libraries of the world could not contain all that comes in pursuit of the answer!  However, in the current discussion and pursuit of same...something is missing. 

Of recent date I engaged with another on the subject of supernatural signs and wonders that are to be normative in the Church.  Certainly I agree such is to be so.  Further I agree that these things should not be limited to some move of God here or there.

However, there is a concern!  In the course of the discussion and to no avail, I referenced what one denominational leader had said some weeks earlier, "The Scriptures provide the river banks within which the Holy Spirit flows."  Made sense to me but apparently not to the other in the discussion.

One asks, "What do those river banks look like?"  Such is currently under study for me; however, I can say that paramount is the matter of humbly aligning thinking, belief, and one's life with the principles and precepts set forth in the Scriptures.  In other words studying in depth God's Word and then applying it in the small and the great arenas of one's life!   Applying it even when one does not understand it.  Though out of fashion in many congregations the terms we used to use for such things are dedication, sacrifice, repentance, holiness, righteousness, obedience, humility, etc.

Throughout the history of the Church, known and unknown there have been men and women of power who would die rather than bring any kind of reproach upon the message of the Scriptures as lived out in their lives and situations. These are those who humbly live lives above board and who were and are on a constant hunt for a deeper life that aligns more perfectly with the Word of God and the God of the Word.

These are those who clearly understood that to fail ethically while in ministry was not a matter to be taken for granted nor lightly.   It was not a matter to be hidden but confessed.  It was not a matter to be explained away but prayed through. It was not a matter to be pridefully regretted but of which one humbly repented. It was not a matter to be arrogantly dismissed but submitted to spiritual leaders for such restoration as was possible.  Failure certainly lead to forgiveness but also it was understood that it would put blight upon a person's character and ministry.  Such seems not to be so today as such things are explained away as being "just" one's fallenness, frailty, and fallibility and that we must forgive and forget and move on.

These were men and women who clearly understood that any part of their lives that was not totally committed to being a follower of Jesus Christ would impede the flow of the Holy Spirit of worship, of love, and of power.  They were on a quest for those signs and wonders previously referenced but they understood it all began with one's life being pleasing to God! They understood that such came as one humbled one's self before the Master, Jesus Christ.

These were men and women who clearly understood that one day there would be those who touted their spiritual power and prowess and would hear, "Depart from me, I never knew you."  They purposed to not be among that number but to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

These were men and women who clearly understood that in order to have spiritual might in their lives and ministries, their relationship with God had to go beyond citing some promise or another with an "I deserve" almost prideful attitude.  Even today in conservative Christianity there are those who make demands of God and propose that they know the will of God.  It has gone so far for some that they teach, preach, and counsel that praying; "Never the less not my will but Thine be done" is wrong.  I see such praying as deferring to God's decisions and in that being submitted to His will.  Wonder what they do with the "Our Father?"

If someone cares to look throughout the pages of Church history, on every continent, in every Christian movement, in every age, there are men and women who lived exemplary lives dedicated to serving God and man.  They lived lives of prayer and the Word.  They lived lives of confession, submission, and dedication.  Often they were thrust against their own druthers into the local, national, and international spotlight.  Even so they sought with all of their hearts to be humbly faithful--trustworthy in the eyes of their Lord, Jesus Christ.

These were men and women who clearly understood that one shunned evil and the very appearance of evil.  They took seriously the injunction to "...take up your cross daily..." and thus were denigrated by even their fellow Christians.  No cost was too great a sacrifice for following Jesus Christ.  These are those who chose to sacrifice ease, personal wealth, popularity with the world, position, safety and security, a comfortable future, retirement from service, and much, much more in an eternal cause greater than themselves.  They demanded nothing of God and in fact only demanded of themselves in their service.  They knew nothing of, "You have to love yourself before you can love others."

Some years ago there was a couple at a major Christian University who though wanting to marry realized that to do so would not be in keeping with God's call upon their lives and so sorrowfully parted. There is another who gave up success, power, position, the possibility of marriage, and even his name to become a follower of Jesus Christ.  Indeed to listen to some today is to hear an opposite message. Today's message all too often is, "you deserve."  One can only wonder how that squares with, "Seek you first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness..." which is what that couple and that man did.

Thomas Cranmer Memorial, Oxford

There is great danger in this opposite and wrong message.  Yet the message of plenty, leisure, and pleasure has been foisted upon the unwise by the winsome.  The message is simply unfounded in the Scriptures.  This has been carried to the extreme, teaching that those who belong to God deserve.... (You fill in that blank).  The reality is that because of our own sinfulness we deserve eternal punishment!  That is what we deserve!  Thankfully God in His mercy and grace made it possible for us to escape that which we deserve through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

How inconsistent these new beliefs, with the lives of people such as the Apostle Paul, martyred by Rome; Thomas Cranmer, burned at the stake; David Brainerd, died at a young age, spent serving the American Indians; Jim Elliot and his 4 friends, martyred while seeking to reach the Auca Indians of South America; John and Betty Stam, martyred by the Chinese Communists; then there are those who occupy the pages of Foxe's Book of Christian Martyrs, and yes, the Christians who are even now being persecuted, enslaved, and dying in places such as Egypt, Africa, China, and Iran.

When you think about the sacrifice of these and others, it leads one to conclude that some of us ought to give up the title "Christian" for its use suggests that we with our easy faith are like they who traveled long and difficult trails of travail.  It connects us with these and others who gave so very much.  Most of us, it seems to me, are unworthy of such a connection.  Indeed as with the closing of the Hebrews 11 list of similar people, the world was not and is not worthy of them.  The degree to which the world is in us is the degree to which we are not worthy of them or the name by which they are remembered.

What does it mean to be mighty in faith and power?  That too is to be studied but there are some things we can know.  This comes of submitting to spiritual disciplines to include the following.

Such comes when one in humility seeks to perfectly aligns his or her life with God's Word through the study of the Bible, through the ministering presence of the Holy Spirit, through prayers of repentance, through humble obedience, and through long seasons of intercessory prayer.  It comes of establishing and maintaining the eternal view.  It comes with companions in prayer.  It comes as one seeks God for strength to do the will of the Lord.  It comes of Christian fellowship, and service.  It comes of having those to whom one is accountable for word and deed.  It comes of failure, confession, and restoration.  It comes of selfless obedience.  It comes of implicit trust in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, even when they seem not to make sense.

"Values Based Decision Making"

A question worth pondering is this.  "What is the basis of making decisions?"  That question could be asked in terms of one's personal life, one's family life, one's employment/business life, and any and all other arenas of one's life.  In most cases the decisions we make or might we say the choices we choose are based upon our values.

The word, "value" or "values" has the following definition available at the site referenced.

Value (n)  c.1300, from O.Fr. value "worth, value" (13c.), noun use of fem. pp. of valoir "be worth," from L. valere "be strong, be well, be of value" (see valiant). The meaning "social principle" is attested from 1918, supposedly borrowed from the language of painting. Value judgment (1892) is a loan-translation of Ger. Werturteil.

 (definition available at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=v&p=1&allowed_in_frame=0)

As you may now recognize the word gives rise to other words such a valuing, valuate, evaluate, etc., all having to do with the process of assigning importance.

Indeed, valuing is a process that begins with one's presuppositions, processes to opinions and attitudes, continues with one's perceptions (of people, institutions, and situations), and often leads to some kind of an action (either words or deeds).

Such processing is not without challenge.  For example, so very often the message sent is that one is to make decisions in terms of how it will impact a relationship or relationships.  The message goes something along the lines of, "...relationships are the most important thing we do and so you must at any and all cost maintain relationships with all who are in your pathway...."  While this may be so in many cases, there is at least one thing that should take precedents over relationships and that is the values by which one lives!

It is a poor relationship that is maintained based upon the violations of one's deeply held values or may we say convictions.  Such a view of relationships will not long endure the challenges of life and in fact will leave one at the mercy of life.  Such can only be described as chaotic and even enabling as relationships pull one in this direction and then in that. Enabling in that relationships without the responsibilities born of values allow for one to behave in less that profitable ways.

In another blog I wrote of love in terms of how one is to behave.  To understand love on the level of an emotional response is to make it fragile and at the mercy of many of the interactions, events, and circumstances of life. However to view love as humbly living out of closely held ethical values is to make it a durable love.  Thus we might see that the choice to live out of ethical values is the highest form of love for it never imposes but always chooses what is best no matter the cost, even at the cost of the relationship involved.

Then too, "What are one's closely held values?" is another question worth considering.  To not know is to leave one's self vulnerable to the winds and tides of the moment.  Attributed to Abraham Lincoln but found in many other places is the quote, "Following the path of least resistance is what causes men and rivers to run crooked."  Certainly when one does not know what one believes and that for which one is willing to suffer great loss, he is vulnerable and disadvantaged.

However, changing that same river picture a bit, we might note the following.  It is our values--our ethical convictions and our character (volitional capacity to live out those values) that provides the river banks that keep the steams of our lives flowing in the right direction.

One not accustomed to such things might counter with the impossibility of such a change.  The response to that is that all could use a "tune up" in these areas and for each of us, it is a matter of beginning with the small things as we live out the simple values and then, at least in my experience, the big issues will take care of themselves.  Then too keep clearly in mind that correct ethical values have their origin in the Divine and though opposed, one who is in right relationship with Jesus Christ is vested with the power, not to be perfect but to live out these things in greater measure.

"The Truth That Leads To Contrition"

There is a truth that leads to contrition.  There also is a truth that does not.

Imagine that a person is driving and without paying attention drives over the speed limit.  Maybe this has happened to you.  Then it happens, a quick look in the rear view mirror reveals that a police officer is following and he initiates a traffic stop.   He approaches your window and says something like the speed limit is 35 miles per hour and you were observed going 45 miles per hour.

When he tells you that you were breaking the law by speeding you have a choice to make.  The choice is in how you react.  Generally and with most people such an experience will bring forth a sense of contrition.  Another way to put it is that such an experience softens the heart.

The other choice is to respond with a hard heart.  The first kind of reaction is that of receiving the words of the officer.  The second is to reject the words of the officer,  put forth some kind of an excuse, or even argument with the police officer.

Now change the story to the person who while reading the Scriptures, listening to a sermon or a sermon in song, or simply pondering the things of God comes face to face with his failure to live by God's standards--God's truth.

Faced with genuine truth will either bring about conviction which then results in a broken and contrite heart or a heart that hardens against the truth.  The humble and contrite heart receives God's truth and remains soft before it.  On the other hand the hard hearted--the stony hearted person will on some level reject it.

Rejection takes several forms to include seeking to not be responsible with an excuse or two, seeking to rationalize one's way out of responsibility, shifting blame, denying the truth, and so on.  It does nothing more than deceive the hard hearted and such deception further hardens the heart.  There comes a point when the heart becomes so hardened that it neither hears, is convicted, nor cares that it does not conform to genuine truth.

Said again, facing truth will either soften our hearts or harden them.  That is the serious state in which we find many people today, they have traded away the genuine eternal truths of God for those things that are comfortable, acceptable, and temporal.  The consciousness they have of God is not a consciousness of God for it is only of a god that they have created.  Such temporal values masquerade as truth and it is with great danger that some have constructed a whole reality based upon a foundation that at best is subject to failure.

Truth, that is genuine truth can, if allowed soften the human heart.

If allowed it can call us to account, to realize our own failings and sinfulness, call us to conviction, and challenge us to a higher level of behavior that is the living out of our faith.  

If our hearts are soften, we are more likely to hear the voice of the Heavenly Father, more likely to take to heart the written Word of God, more likely to have a God consciousness, to feel the conviction of and communion with the Holy Spirit, and more likely to be in a position to have our hearts further softened, etc. 

If our hearts are soften by genuine truth, it adds a God dimension to life and such a view of life if allowed to germinate and grow, day by day and in greater measure give spiritual understandings to physical realities.  

Such an humble and contrite heart is key and essential for Christian growth.

There is much to be said for the one who seeks genuine and Godly truth in order to be brought to a place of contrition that results in a soft and humble heart.