What Christians Believe

It isn’t necessary for Christians to believe that other religions are completely wrong. They can be near or far from the truth, like a

math problem can be near or far from the answer—which only makes sense if a true answer exists.

We must admit that all religions contain at least some hint of the truth.

That hint is the crux of book one: a spiritual, theistic worldview.

In contrast, an atheist must believe that most men who have ever lived were completely mistaken about the universe.

The first major division of humanity is into two groups Theists and atheists

Theists can be further divided: Pantheism—God is beyond good and evil; good

and evil are human constructs dependent on context. From this point of view, a cancer cell is just as much “holy” as a newborn baby

Monotheism (Judeo-Christian view): God is good, and anything in opposition to his goodness is evil.

Pantheism: God moves the universe like you move your body—from within. This view (very Oprah-ific) is impersonal—God

does not rule the universe so much as He is the universe, like you are your body.

J/C Monotheism: God created the universe from the outside, as a man paints a picture.

This is an important distinction, because only the second view allows for evil to be outside the will of God

A pantheist, when confronted with evil, consoles himself with the thought “If you could see from a divine point of view, you would realize that this, too, is God.” This gives rise to radical environmentalism,

and all sorts of other gibberish. A JC Monotheist, when confronted with

evil, sees it for what it is, and tries to stomp it out.

If God made the world, then why did it go wrong? This question is probably unanswerable, no

matter how many sermons you’ve heard. What no one notices is that the question

presupposes the existence of God— If the world is too cruel and unjust for you to

believe in the existence of a good and perfect God, then…

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS AND MERCY ARE UNLESS GOD EXISTS?

You can’t call a line crooked, unless you have some idea of a straight line.

Yet this is what atheism proposes: God doesn’t exist, because the universe

doesn’t fit my notion of what the universe would be like if God existed…If God existed, then things would be better, even though without the existence of a higher power, there’s no reason to call anything “better” or “worse.”

This is classic circular reasoning, revealing the ironic truth that atheism is actually too simple to make sense.

Christianity is not a simple religion at all…Lewis defines it as a “fighting religion.”

I think what he had in mind is that Christianity hinges on our willingness to tackle complex mental and spiritual problems, rather than resort to simplistic evasions.

In Lewis’s view, Christianity is not simple because it is very true…and real things are very often complicated.

The universe contains much evil—which is a problem, because it contains many creatures (us) who are aware of the evil and wish it to be different.

Only two views can account for the existence of evil: JC Monotheism proposes that this world,

although originally good, has since gone terribly wrong.

A dualistic view proposes that this world is locked in a struggle between equal powers of good and evil.

For the same reason atheism doesn’t work: If the universe is at war between equal forces

of good and evil, how do we know which one is the good side?

This is the same question dealt with in book one: to identify the two powers as “good” and “evil” requires the introduction of some other, even higher Power…which means the higher powers aren’t really powerful at all.

Dualism requires that the “bad” power be evil simply for evil’s sake—which we don’t experience in reality

This is a challenging statement—is anyone evil simply for evil’s sake? In reality, people are bad because they get

something out of it—money, or pleasure, or safety—all of which are good things

Badness, then, is actually the act of pursuing a good thing in the wrong way…playing a note at the wrong time (remember?)

The conclusion—goodness exists by itself—badness does not.

Ever seen a darkbulb? Just as darkness is the absence of light,

badness is the absence of good. This makes evil a parasite…and doesn’t the

Bible define Satan precisely in this way?

JCM still believes in a dark power—but an inferior one, fighting a losing battle.

An important point—the Biblical record bears witness to this battle…you cannot be Biblical in any meaningful sense without seeing the universe as the battlefield of God and Satan.

How can a sovereign God allow evil? Does he allow us to choose? If he does, is he sovereign? If he doesn’t, does that mean he causes evil? Then how can we call him God? This is the Christian version of “I can’t believe

in God because the world isn’t nice.” EVERYONE has to deal with this question at

some point in their faith…or cram their head in the dirt and ignore it.

You can deal with this now, or you can deal with it later…but you’re going to deal with it, and your faith won’t be mature until you do.

God’s will makes possible the occurrence of things that are not his will. Your parents do this…how? What about your

teachers? Free will makes evil a possibility, and God

has chosen to let us choose. Why? If you could make someone love you

forever, would you? Only love freely given is worth having. God could have created automatons…but

forced love isn’t really love.

Satan—chose to be his own god. The second mistake was when Satan talked us

into reenacting the first mistake Mistakes number [N, N+1, N+2…] are all

variations on the same theme. All of history’s mistakes are the simple record

of man attempting to be happy without God.

We can’t do it. Some of us are really good at faking it.

We are designed to run on God like a car runs on gas…anything else doesn’t work.

I challenge you to find me someone you actually know who is happy, well-adjusted, and thinks they have life figured out without God. If you want to see how much they know, ask them to define evil, or why it happens.

He gave us a conscience What does the fact of Adam and Eve’s

conscience presuppose about God’s knowledge? He sent us what Lewis calls “good dreams”

Have you ever read ancient mythology? Did you know nearly every culture has a creation

story? A flood story? A salvation story (often involving a righteous son)? Even cultures that were born, lived, and died out before the birth of Christ

He picked a people (Israel) and used them to spread the word about Himself

Jesus showed up among the Jews. Why is it important that Jesus arrived in Israel?

If Christ had appeared in ancient Egypt, or Greece, or to the Aztecs, claiming to be the Son of God wouldn’t have been nearly the talking point it was in 0AD Jerusalem. “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is

one.”

He claimed to forgive sins (which shows up NOWHERE in mythology.

He claimed to forgive sins which WEREN’T COMMITTED AGAINST HIM It’s one thing to forgive someone that hits

you, but what if I hit you in the face and some guy in the street tells me he forgives me? You’re the one with the black eye, right?

The only way Jesus felt “offended” by sin was if he honestly believed he was the God whose laws were broken

Have you ever heard anyone accuse Jesus of arrogance? Think about what he said…

Yet you hear things like “I don’t think Jesus was the Son of God, but I do think he was a great moral teacher, and we should definitely follow his example.” This is sheer idiocy.

He was a liar, he was a lunatic, or he was a Lord. Those are the only options.

Do not ever take that lukewarm, cheesy middle ground.

Re: “Liar, lunatic, or lord,” I read a book this summer that proposed that Jesus’ message about humility and mercy consisted of his actual words, but the “Son of God / Resurrection / Way, Truth, Life” part was added by his followers after his death…like the game “Telephone.”

There are some problems with this hypothesis:

Four texts, by four separate men, scattered by the persecution of the Roman Empire, agree as to what Jesus said… The best bios of Alexander the Great postdate

him by 400 years…but we believe in him…. At least five non-Biblical sources confirm

significant details related in the gospel account of Jesus’ life.

That’s more confirmation than we have for Homer, or the battle of Thermopylae…so if we chuck out the words of Christ, those have to go as well.

If we conclude that Christ was God, we must then ask why he bothered to come to earth

A common misconception—to teach us how to live…THIS IS NOT WHY HE CAME It was, however, something he discussed

If you want to know why he came, look at what he says Jesus refers, over and over again, to his death

and resurrection—in fact, he appears to orchestrate it.

It appears that the primary reason for his arrival was to suffer and die.

According to Jesus, somehow his suffering and death is able to save us…to confer grace on us. We don’t have to know how it works. You’ll drive yourself crazy thinking about it,

and it’s not necessary. You eat all the time, and you feel better, right,

even if you can’t sit down and diagram the Krebs cycle.

To some degree, we should approach our salvation this way

We have arrived at the foundation of Christianity: Christ was killed for us. His death washes out our sins, or pays our

debt. Somehow, by dying, Christ disabled death

itself.

Our mistake: acting like we owned ourselves We are not simply imperfect—we are rebels, every

minute of every day. We must surrender…Christ calls it repentance Repentance is brutal—a surrender of the will, or ego

—and it never, ever stops. Going to God without repentance is like trying to go

back without going back—it is impossible. Repentance requires a good person—the worse you

are the more you need it and the less you can do it But if God became a man, then he could give up his

own will and die perfectly And if he submitted perfectly, then we could share

in His submission—and become His again.

Well…from the Biblical account, it appears that it’s more than following Christ’s teaching It appears that it has something to do with

actually becoming his kind of man. The logical question, then, is how do we

go about acquiring the ‘Christ-life’?

The natural life is spread by sex, and food, and breathing, and other actions, all of which are mysterious and strange and not something you would have guessed or invented on your own.

Likewise, the Christ-life is spread by three seemingly arbitrary actions:

Belief, baptism, and communion Although they seem arbitrary, they can’t be—for

they were all identified and participated in by Christ himself, and identified as contributing somehow to his will—we believe these things on his authority

There’s a large contingent of humanity who scoffs at the idea of believing things on “authority,” choosing instead to insist that they only believe things that they can verify themselves…

Yet these people confidently assert the existence of George Washington (or George Bush, for that matter), despite having never seen him in person or touched him.

The fact: nearly everything you think you “know” is really simple belief and trust in another person’s authority on the matter. We don’t know very much on the evidence of our own senses.

Lewis was not part of the ‘eternal security’ crowd…he believed that continued action on our part was necessary to maintain our salvation.

The typical compromise: we cannot maintain our own salvation, but continued action on our part is, rather, evidence that we are truly saved.

It’s clear from the gospel that Christ expected us to come to faith in Him, and then keep doing stuff about it…not sit down and relax

Lewis promotes constant care of the Christ-life Just like your body consistently repairs itself when

it’s hurt, a healthy Christian is one who is able to consistently repent and begin again each time he damages the Christ-life

You cannot have this life by being good; you can only be good by having this life.

Yes, on the Biblical account, we really believe that God is somehow, mysteriously, actually within us, operating through us.

Yes, on the Biblical account, we really believe that the life of God is spread somehow, mysteriously, through physical things like bread and wine and water.

Lewis: ‘After all, God likes matter; He invented it.’

According to Lewis, God has not told us what his arrangements are regarding people who haven’t heard of him. We know three things:

Paul writes that pagans who fulfill the law without being aware of the law are proof that the law is written on our hearts—our conscience—and that their thoughts will either accuse or defend them on the day of judgment.

Christ says that the one who knows his father’s will and ignores it will be judged more harshly than one who doesn’t know the will of his father

We know that Jesus, in his last words on earth, told us to talk about him…we should trust him to take care of the rest.

It is one thing to say that it is only through (BECAUSE OF) Jesus that one can be saved.

It is another thing entirely to say that it is only by hearing the gospel and saying a certain prayer that you can be saved…Consider Job, or Cornelius, or Abraham, or any of the tons of people that appear to be ‘approved’ by God without actually knowing the name or person of Jesus Christ…if you check their lives, you’ll find that they fulfill the law of love…

All of history since the fall is basically God giving us the chance to join his side freely… His return will not be the time for choosing…it

will be the time when we learn what we have already chosen.