Compulsory faith?

There are many religions where faith is not a matter of personal choice. It is either a matter of following the cultural norms or of coerced acceptance. This is common in many parts of the world, but in most nations nowadays this doesn't apply to Christianity, though it has in times past and still does in some places. But I assert that this is anathema to the Gospel of Christ.

Let's start with considering compulsory religion

Some religions take the stance that it's better to compel a person, for the sake of their eternal soul, to hold to a faith; participation is not just expected, but the consequences of deciding one doesn’t believe can be literally life threatening. But while you can compel an outward adherence to a required set of behaviours, you cannot proscribe a person's thoughts or state of heart. So, I can only make any sense of such a religion if it is based on maintaining outward behavioural standards: "keep these rules and you will be saved, regardless of your thoughts or the inclinations of your heart".

How different was Jesus’ approach!

For some reason Jesus did not take the route of compulsion or coercion. He took it upon himself to come to Earth as a human being to tell people about God the Father’s saving love. And not just to tell them, but to demonstrate servant-heartedness, dying in the place of those who were at best misunderstanding, and at worst disinterested or disbelieving.

When you look at His life, it was lived out as an example of service and sacrifice, not of power (at least, not as usually conceived by human beings). His life and words were certainly challenging, but there was no ‘take over’, no hard sell, no manipulation, no compulsion – merely an offer that each one could take or leave. No robbing people of their personal responsibility.

But why, given that He said the consequence of our decision was either eternal life or eternal separation from God? Why is personal responsibility so important to God, when He, of all Beings, could certainly compel?

The answer lies in the nature of love, for God is love. Love includes giving people the freedom to make up their own mind, to turn away from Him, and sadly many do!

Compulsory faith is a contradiction in terms.

Implications for Christian mission

It’s been said that ‘mission is seeing what God is doing and joining in’. So, Christians involved in mission - and how can you be a Christian and not be involved? - have an example to follow in Christ's life. We are to tell people about God’s love and demonstrate this through a life of sacrificial service. Our responsibility is to inform and to show by example, but never to force.

Are we really content to leave each person to freely make up their own mind, or are we tempted to go beyond that and add subtle manipulations, incentives or veiled threats?

Even where the pressure is more informal - a cultural expectation of compliance - then it becomes hard for people to distinguish a personal belief from merely conforming with others. Many 'Christian countries' will have fallen into this position. If the great majority go to church, where is the personal challenge to consider one's own faith as we go along with the crowd?

Love demands giving those we love the freedom to say "no". Otherwise we are exerting power, which puts us 'over' the other and is the opposite of servant-hearted love.

However, we should be clear that when others reject our loving approach, it is not simply a matter of saying to ourselves: "Well it's up to you; now I've done my job". It also leaves us open to the deep pain of others choosing to go their own way and reject Christ - a grief that is shared with Christ Himself.

So, be very wary when you see people of whatever religion - including Christians - trying to force others to believe. That is not of God; it's not His way.

The Devil's Top 10

It is easy to assume that the devil's work can be easily seen, for we expect him to speak or do such blatant evil that it will be patently obvious. In fact, much of what the devil does looks reasonable, logical, and perhaps even good, and so we miss the concealed half-truths and the appealing lies. Below is a selection of very common devilish deceits; perhaps we should start with the most basic:

The Devil doesn't exist
The devil says: "Surely you don't believe that old nonsense about me existing? I mean, if God exists, why would he allow there to be a devil to mess things up? And if God doesn't exist, then sure as hell, neither do I. No, really, that idea is just ancient fear of the unknown, or a convenient way of blaming someone else for our own failings."
Rationale: If people don't believe in the devil, they'll be off guard.
But the Bible says: "Your enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" 1 Peter 5v8

If heaven exists, everyone's going there; hell certainly doesn't exist
The devil says: "God's a very forgiving sort of chap; after all he made human beings and knows what they're like. And he's already done everything necessary to accept people into heaven. So you can be sure that everyone will end up there."
Rationale: Remove the fear of God's judgement or any need for repentance.
But Jesus said: "I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me all you evildoers." Luke 13 v27

The real world is the material world, what we can see, touch and measure
The devil says: "Come on, you don't believe all that spiritual nonsense do you? It's time you stopped believing all that hokum and accepted that the world is what we can see, the real physical stuff under our feet and all around us. Science has explained most things and it's only a matter of time until we understand the rest; there's certainly no need to resort to a God to make everything work!".
Rationale: It's based on the lies that everything is material, and that 'God' is only that which we cannot explain.
But the Bible says: "God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and truth." John 4 v24

Money makes the world go round
The devil says: "We all need money. Actually, we all need a bit more money. So, if we work a bit harder and earn a bit more we'll be able to buy that item we've wanted for a while, and then we'll be happier and better able to look after ourselves and our families."
Rationale: If we can seduce much of the world into thinking that materialism is normal and good, then a lot of the planet can be trapped at one fell swoop - and all in the name of progress!
But the Bible says: "You cannot serve both God and Money" Matthew 6 v24, and "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." 1 Timothy 6 v10

It's all about being good and decent
The devil says: "What we need is to be respectful of each other; everyone knows that we can do as we like so long as we don't harm others. So long as you're not a murderer or paedophile, then all will be well."
Rationale: If people merely compare themselves with each other, rather than by God's standards, they'll feel secure.
But the Bible says: "All our righteous acts are like filthy rags". Isaiah 64 v6, and "There is no-one righteous, not even one." Romans 3 v10

Sex outside marriage is normal
The devil says: "In this day and age everyone accepts that there's nothing wrong with sex - it's normal and healthy, and we shouldn't be ashamed or prudish about it. Of course we've all had a variety of sexual partners, who hasn't? In fact, the more the merrier. There's nothing wrong with me!"
Rationale: This is a particularly good way of confusing sex with love, with people ending up feeling like objects and wary of anything called love.
But the Bible says: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Matthew 19 v5-6

You're worth it
The devil says: "Who does God think he is to tell you what is right or wrong? You know yourself and your needs better than anyone else, so decide for yourself what is right and wrong, and what you will do and what you won't. Just so long as you're happy, all's well".
Rationale: This plays well to the individualistic Western world!
But the Bible says: "Those who trust in themselves are fools." Proverbs 28 v26

It's all in the mind
The devil says: "Religion is all a trick of the mind, a mental crutch; really it's all psychological. In fact, nowadays we have therapists and the like to rid people of this kind of neurosis, and help people towards greater self-confidence and well-being."
Rationale: Replacing religion with psychology puts 'salvation' back into people's own hands.
But the Bible says: "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God". Romans 5 v6

Keep people busy
The devil says: "Keep people fed with interesting, important, good, engaging and relevant information and things to do, along with up-to-the-minute news, entertainment and hundreds, if not thousands of social network friends; then they will feel loved. Give people 24/7 access to business contacts, and then they'll feel important."
Rationale: Give them anything, just so long as they don't have time to read the Bible or pray.
But the Bible says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength" Isaiah 30 v15

All religions are the same
The devil says: "How intolerant Christians are to say Jesus is the only way to God! They need bringing down a peg or two. In these days of equal opportunities all religions deserve a level playing field. Don't they know there are sincere and good people from many other faiths?"
Rationale: We can despise the exclusive claims of Christianity - and appear to care for people of all faiths or none.
But Jesus says: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14 v6

Sacrificing children

In some ancient religions it used to be the practice to sacrifice children. Our minds recoil at the thought! Who could do such a thing? It isn't possible to contemplate it in this day and age! Anyone doing so today would be hunted down amid a media fury, condemned and imprisoned, with the key thrown away.

We don't sacrifice children any more, but instead we do the following:

• We use up the world's natural resources that took millions of years to lay down, in just a few tens of years, without a care for our children's future.
• We use carbon resources as if they were renewable, when they are not (within any reasonable timescales).
• We mess with the planet's climate to such a degree that within our children's lifetimes there will be irreparable change.
• We drive cars and ship goods from one side of the world to the other, in order to gain the materials goods we like, and so pollute the planet for our children.
• We put our own happiness and sexual lusts first, lightly putting aside any commitment to marriage and family and the care of our children.
• We over-fish the seas to the degree that our children will have little left, when so many populations depend on the sea for food.
• We live in debt, not just personal but national, to enable us to live the lifestyle we desire in the present, without a thought for our children, who will have to pay this debt back - financially and in terms of their lifestyle - in decades to come.
• When economic downturns occur and unemployment rises, we allow this to particularly hit the young, so that we can continue to maintain our comfortable lifestyle.
• We assume in the West that equality and fair trade is about enabling the developing world to rise to a Western lifestyle, rather than living our lives much, much more simply in order to sustain the planet's resources for our children.
• We argue and protest about our rights, never for a moment thinking about the needs of our children.
• And meanwhile most of our churches squabble over minutiae but say nothing about greed, colluding with all the above.

And in these ways we rape the world and steal from our children, sacrificing them on the altar of our greed, smiling all the while and saying how much we love them.

Maybe this doesn't apply to everyone.
But I'm ashamed to realise that much of it does apply to me...

What about you?

Proposition: there are many paths up the mountain

Many people take the view that all religions are really much the same, so it is simply a matter of taste to pick the one that works for you.  The choice is of minor consequence as they all lead to God; it's just a question of which route you choose to take to get there.  Hence the proposition: there are many paths up the mountain.

Assumption 1: There is one god who shows himself in different forms.  And yet:
a. While Christians, Jews and Moslems say there is only one God, other religions say there are many gods.
b. Other religions say the way to salvation is through successfully following a particular set of lifestyle rules; Jesus alone said salvation is by grace and cannot be earned by any amount of following rules.
Conclusion: The god at the top of this mountain is inconsistent; therefore is not God! Sorry, I can't make the proposition work with this assumption.

Assumption 2: There is one god who shows himself consistently, but people are confused.
a. People are often confused, so that seems entirely possible, even likely.
b. But if god cannot manage to communicate well enough with confused people to get his message through, he's not much of a god.
Conclusion: A promising start, but I'm sorry, I really can't make the proposition work with that assumption either.

Assumption 3: There are actually many gods at the top of the mountain
a. But we already know that the God of the Christians, Moslems and Jews has clearly said 'There is no God but me". As other religions disagree about this, they can't all be right. Either the one God is wrong and so isn't God, or the other religions are wrong.
b. Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me", but the Jews and Moslems disagree. They can't all be right.
Conclusion: I'm sorry, we're definitely having problems with this 'many gods' assumption...

Assumption 4: There is actually no god at the top of the mountain, but it's still good to climb for the journey and the view.
a. This would certainly develop our 'muscles' of discipline and persistence.
b. But it's ultimately deceptive, so we would learn disappointment, disillusionment, and distrust. Yet this isn't the experience of the great majority of climbers.
c. Moreover, those who have already climbed the mountain could reasonably be expected to have communicated that they found no god!
Conclusion: I'm sorry, we need a better response than that!

I'm definitely struggling to make this 'all religions are really much the same, so take your pick' proposition work.

Afterthought: Another proposition: people prefer nice cosy ideas to uncomfortable truth...
Conclusion: Umm ... that might work...

Navigating by the stars

We all have some internal way of setting the course of our lives - though we may not think much about it - and this is likely to include having some role models whose lives we aspire to emulate.

Role models are not necessarily people we admire; they may simply be people who have 'gone ahead' of us, such as our parents. But we are also likely to look beyond them to others who are outside our immediate sphere. In our culture, which worships celebrity, we may well look to the rich or famous, to pop stars or Hollywood stars, or to 'celebrities' who have no other role than to be celebrities. These appear to be the successful and beautiful people, when our lives can feel humdrum and plain.

So we emulate their looks, their ideals, their behaviour; we make believe. And why not? Doesn’t this lift our eyes beyond our small horizons and introduce a bit of glamour?

Given that it is impossible to see things with much objectivity (see my last post: 'We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are'), we need some way to maintain a course through life when all else shifts - our moods, our circumstances, and as we move from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and to old age, our perspectives on life change.

Ancient mariners navigating by the stars knew that they needed to find the Pole Star to find true north, for even the stars appear to move round on their axis, with the Pole Star alone giving a reliable course. So, we too need to look much further, much deeper, to a fixed and unfailing point in order to set a true and reliable course over a lifetime.

But Hollywood stars and celebrities come and go; they may be shooting stars, but they certainly do not offer a sure means of navigation for life. Moreover, in emulating them we haven’t fooled anyone, least of all ourselves – our dreams remain only make-believe while our lives continue as humdrum as before.

If they do not offer a reliable means of navigating life, what does?

Many look to the ancient religions, which purport to offer a timeless wisdom, the promise of fulfillment and bliss in the life hereafter. Moreover, these bear witness to having sufficient benefit and wisdom that they have survived over countless generations. There is a selection of such religions to choose from according to taste!

But pause before rushing on, for choosing one's Pole Star is no small matter. In fact therein lies the problem: one cannot choose the Pole Star - there is but one! Choosing any but the true Pole Star will gradually but surely lead us astray.

So what do you navigate by in life, and is it a true and reliable guide when all else is disorientated?

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are

We cannot help but see the world through our own eyes - what else can we do? Yet our point of view is so familiar that we usually blind to it and so are sometimes taken aback by the difference of another's viewpoint.

At some levels this is easy to accept. Your liking certain foods or fashions that are different to my tastes, and having different interests to my own - that is easy to handle. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" we think when we are aghast that someone else could find that attractive!

But the issue cuts deeper that this. Consider our values, the things we take to be right or wrong. Now we are not talking about our taste in food or style, but our 'taste in truth'. Arghhh! - a contradiction in terms, for truth is truth is truth, surely?

And you may think that here I am becoming one of those 'woolly liberals' who are apparently prepared to accept anything and everything as equally valid. No, I'm not. But nor am I going to fall into the opposite trap of assuming that my version of the truth is the result of my perfect vision and insight! For I cannot get away from the fact that what I see in front of me is a product of my own (no-doubt-biased, partially-ignorant, completely-sinful) mind.

And I'm afraid that this is true, even when, perhaps particularly when, we come to reading the Bible. We can only see it through our own eyes, and what we see says as much about us as about the Bible.

I was struck a while back in a Bible study group when we were looking at Mark 1 v1-13. When asked what the focus of the passage was, we got the following answers:

• John the Baptist baptising Jesus (which is in v9)
• God confirming Jesus as his Son (v11)
• John telling people that Jesus was coming in order to baptise people with the Holy Spirit (v8)
• That after a time of blessing there comes a time of trial (v13).

So, what have we learned from the passage? That the first speaker notices actions, the second is concerned about identity, the third about the purpose of life, and the last has probably learnt this lesson from painful experience. And each had picked out what was relevant to them.

We can - with some validity - say that God had spoken to each one. We can also say - with some validity - that all saw but a small part and missed a very great deal.

So, what was the passage actually about? What is God telling us through this section of his Word? Which of the above answers is true? Each of the above answers contains truth. We learn not just about God, but the way we see His Word (like everything else) also tells us about ourselves.

[NB. Although there may be many right answers, some answers are wrong! For example, the passage does NOT say the Jesus is one of God's many sons, nor is this said or implied elsewhere in the Bible. So we could confidently challenge such a statement if it were made. Not everything goes!]

But it remains the case that we don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

----
Title is a quote from Anais Nin who, though not a heroine of mine, expressed this thought beautifully.

Doing more than half the work

Here are three suggested guidelines related to helping.

They can be applied in just about any setting – practical help, offering guidance, third-world development work, Christian mission…

1. When we do for someone what they can do for themselves, we diminish them and rob them of their dignity.

• How often we demonstrate our ‘helpfulness’ by doing for others what they can do for themselves! But usually we are just demonstrating our pride and our lack of respect.
• And all we are really showing is our own neediness – our need to be ‘top dog’, our need to be needed, our need to be seen as helpful…
• We also show our lack of listening or discernment, our lack of understanding of the other person’s knowledge, skills and capabilities. And so we miss the opportunity to learn from the other and so grow ourselves.

2. Where a task is heavy and some assistance might be appreciated, we may offer to help but we shouldn’t take control; our role is to serve under their leadership; it is their task.

• Where we think we can help, there usually comes an assumption that actually we could do it better than they can. And so we say we are offering to help, but actually are offering to take over!
• But when it comes to knowing what needs to be done, who knows better – the outside ‘expert’ or the person who lives within the situation and brings a lifetime of experience to their situation?
• Just occasionally – though much less frequently that assumed – the outsider may know something that is genuinely useful. But this should be offered very tentatively and humbly, with the decision over whether to take it forward left firmly with the person whose task it is. If it is imposed it will not be adopted or owned, merely tolerated for a while.

3. Even where a person really cannot do something for themselves, don't do more than half the work, as this creates dependence and robs them of learning.

• How much easier it is to do the task for the other, rather than go through the lengthy process of working alongside someone who does not understand!
• But this merely feeds our ego, until we become bored and tire of helping and depart, leaving the other worse off than when we began.
• Rather, work together, offering your skills or understanding, but also listening and learning from the other, so that together you create something which is better than either of you could do alone.

Helping is a difficult task, and not often encountered.