A new series premieres tomorrow night on the Sunda…
December 12th, 2006 | by Jeremy |A new series premieres tomorrow night on the Sundance Channel called One Punk Under God. It follows the life of Jay Bakker, pastor of Revolution, a very non-traditional church in Atlanta.
I downloaded the first episode for free on iTunes and found it interesting. Jay looks like your stereotypical “punk”, complete with tattoos and lip ring, Revolution meets in a bar (hey, who wouldn’t want to drink beer at church?), and it’s a group that welcomes anyone, no matter where they’re at in their life.
With Christmas around the corner and all the changes I’ve been going through over the past couple of years, I’ve recently found myself reexamining my beliefs, what I put my faith in and why. Lately I’ve been reading up on everything from different viewpoints on who Jesus is and how the Bible we use today came into being to religion in general and what different people around the world believe. (Did you know there are 2.1 billion “Christians” in the world, 1.3 billion Muslims, 900 million Hindus, 376 million Buddhists but only 14 million Jews? It’s true. I think half of them live in Beachwood.)
Christians are often accused of being judgmental because they take how the Bible tells us how to live, point at others and say, “See, you’re not living this way! You’re going to Hell.” But the reason those instructions for living even exist in the Bible is because God was trying to instruct us how to live in peace and love with one another. Jesus Himself said the second most important commandment is to love your neighbor as youself (Matthew 22:39) followed only by loving God above all else. (some would say that Jesus was summarizing the 10 commandments or perhaps even transcending them with this statement) Yet somehow, the means (following the law) has become an end to itself for some people. They get so wrapped up in following a commandment that they forget the reason the commandment was established in the first place. So you have people who brag about their righteousness and yet don’t truly love others at all. This is one of the things Jesus spoke about against the Pharasees.
If all law exists because you should love your neighbor as yourself, then all sin comes from selfishness. Being self-righteous and judgemental comes from selfishness. Humility comes from loving others.
7 Responses to “A new series premieres tomorrow night on the Sunda…”
By Anonymous on Dec 13, 2006 | Reply
Actually, Jer, the law is not a means to anything but awareness of our need for a savior. The pertinent passage is Romans 3:19-24:
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
21But now righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
It is foolish for a Christian to tell a non-Christian “Stop sinning or you’ll go to Hell” because none of us will ever stop sinning and if they did stop one particular sin (lying, stealing, being gay, parking illegally, ect.) they would still go to Hell anyway because they don’t believe in Jesus as their Savior. Just trying to be a “better person” is putting lipstick on a pig.
The dude from the ATL is right, Jesus accepts us right where we are. But when we believe in him, he doesn’t leave us that way. He works to change our heart first and our actions follow naturally from that. If we do show love to our neighbor, it is a sincere reaction to the love Christ first showed us.
Looking down on others is one of the easiest temptations for Christians to fall for (or looking down on others because they look down on others…) But it’s important for us all to remember that we’ll never meet anyone more sinful than we are ourselves (only equally sinful.) And, if we know Christ as our savior we should have the compassion that wants to see others find that same love and forgiveness and not the contempt that says I’m better than them.
-mfel10
PS. Here’s a good one for you: Ted Bundy is in heaven and Gandhi is in Hell. Discuss.
By Jeremy on Dec 13, 2006 | Reply
I don’t disagree that the law shows us we need a savior. I was just touching on Jesus placing loving God and loving each other above all the other commandments. God wants us to love and the law shows how to do that. I guess the thought process works something like this:
God, what’s most important to you?
“That you love me and love each other.”
Okay. How do I do that?
“Don’t steal from your neighbor, don’t kill him, (etc..)…”
Wow, that’s tough.
“Exactly. That’s why you have a savior. You’re not under the law anymore. You have righteous through faith, apart from the law.”
Yay, I’m happy.
You’re right that it would be silly for a non-Christian to brag about refraining from a certain sin. But it’s just as silly for a Christian to brag about being righteous, because as Paul said, it’s not because of us. We can’t boast about it.
As far as Ted Bundy and Gandhi, I don’t think I’d ever be so bold as to say where anyone is spending or will spend their eternity…
By Anonymous on Dec 14, 2006 | Reply
I didn’t say a non-christian shouldn’t brag about stopping a particular sin. (although I guess they shouldn’t) I said a Christian is taking the wrong approach when they say “don’t do (whatever) or you’ll go to Hell.”
So, I think we’re generally in agreement on the topic (I just wanted to make the narrow theological point about the purpose of the law) I think and hope that we would both say that:
1. We’re all sinful.
2. Since we are all sinful no one should look down on others.
3. We can all be saved from the consequences of our sins if (and only if)we have faith in Jesus.
4. It would be a lot cooler (and God would like it) if we were all nicer to each other.
5. Point 3 is more important than point 4, if for no other reason that eternity is longer than our short lives.
6. Point 4 is still pretty darn important.
As for the Bundy/Ghandi thing, you make a valid point that I can’t be sure (since, to my best recolection, I’m not God) where anyone will spend thier eternity. However, if we take their public statements about thier beliefs at the time of their death at face value, according to scripture we can make a really good guess. I’m just trying to illustrate that a person’s morality doesn’t get them in to heaven. No one would ever claim that Ted Bundy lived a more moral life than Ghandi. But, when Ted Bundy was in prison, before he was executed he became a Christian. He talked about it in an interview he did with Dobson. If righteousness comes by faith to all who believe, and Bundy believed and Ghandi didn’t, I think it’s fair to guess that Ghandi is in Hell and Bundy is in Heaven. I also imagine that thief on the cross next to Jesus was kind of a scum-bag through most of his life but he believed at the last minute too. By contrast there will probably be a lot of people who were fairly pleasant that end up in Hell.
Anyway, we can finish this discussion on the 27th.
-mfel10
By Anonymous on Dec 15, 2006 | Reply
“law”
By Anonymous on Dec 26, 2006 | Reply
Mr. 10,
I agree with most of your points. And even the Bundy-Ghandi thing is interesting, and I know you mean no harm, but throwing something out there could take a way from the balance of you post. Detractors could latch on to the ‘Ghandi is probably in hell’ point. If you understand the way “progressives” think they will find the Ghandi part more controversial than the ‘Ted Bundy in heaven’ portion.
I’ve had some intersesting religious/spiritual debates recently and used something similar to what you did to summarize the point. This usually leads to an excellent point being torn to shreds.
By Anonymous on Jan 18, 2007 | Reply
True, detractors might say that. Ghandi was a great man in many ways. He sure did a lot more to help other people than I have ever done in my life. But the Bible says that believeing in Jesus is the ONLY way to get to heaven, not good works. If we take Ghandi’s own statements at face value, we can surmise that he did not have faith in Jesus as his savior. Thus he did not go to heaven. I use the examples of Bundy and Ghandi because they are such shocking extremes of lives on the opposite ends of the good works spectrum. The extreme nature of the example is supposed to drive home the point that it is the atonement that Jesus has made for our sins and not our actions that get us into heaven.
I’m not so worried that “progressives” will disagree. What makes them “progressive” is that they question the validity of scripture. That’s fine. Anyone who does not think that the Bible is true will obviously disagree with me. That doesn’t mean my point has been “ripped to shreds” just disagreed with by people with a different point of view.
mfel10
By Artie Lang on Jan 26, 2007 | Reply
What is wrong with you people? Because you know the way to “heaven.” You know. All other good done by people is negated because they didn’t read a book?! Idiots. Do some research…The Bible is a book, not the Truth. It was written by people. I find it humorous while you right-wing xns think you’re saving the world, you’re responsible for destroying. Nice work.