Christianity without Christ
This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together.
Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The
Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids,
MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 6: Christianity without Christ
Opening Thought: So far, Zacharias has been relatively diplomatic in each
chapter, but this one draws the line in the sand. It affirms that Christ and
Christianity are truth, and anything that differs from this core truth of
Christ is wrong. Though in Zacharias’ elegance, he says it in a way that is less
crass than I just offered. The chapter ends with the reflection question, “Why
is the belief that Jesus is the unique Son of God a nonnegotiable in the
Christian worldview?” Well, I can say with certainty that there are proclaimed
Christians, and even Christian ministers who do not adhere to this make-or-break
definition of Christ.
Now I will not dive in too deep through the variance of Christian
doctrines and deviations, but what I will do is open my devotion time with a
question, how far can you deviate from certain beliefs in Christ until you end up so far
from it that you should no longer be called Christian? Now for some people I
feel this question would cause some distress. How can one judge another
person’s belief or categorize them?
It is challenging, and normally I wouldn’t outwardly encourage
it. However, there are times and places where it is necessary, if one engages
in apologetic, to name one. Also, more and more I notice that people prefer to
not challenge other’s views and beliefs because it protects themselves from
having to look at their own beliefs. It is safer to hide on the edge of faith then
become vulnerable within it.
The devotional begins with: Colossians 1:19-20
God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and
through Him to reconcile Himself all things, whether things on earth or things
in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Second Thought: There are some disagreements about Jesus by scholars, ministers
and lay people, for sure, and if I were to try to tackle them all in this blog,
I would die of old age long before I could completely summaries them all. So,
to keep this brief I will give my perspective on points of belief, within my
understanding of the Bible and what Jesus taught, that I believe are
non-negotiable points one would have to believe in to call themselves a
Christian. These are also the same points that if I no longer believed myself,
I do not believe I would feel comfortable calling myself a Christian. I will form
a little list for easement.
1) Jesus believed in God
2)
Jesus believed that He had a unique relationship with God, where
God and Jesus were intently connected.
3)
Jesus taught a message that was intended to save people from
themselves
a.
Which has five key points:
i. Faith/Belief in God/Jesus was key
ii. People are corrupted by sin and mislead by the
world and Christ had come to restore the world and bring the kingdom of God.
iii. Morality and Ethics (and the Law) needed to be
executed with the understanding that these things pointed to the glory of God
and the love of neighbor.
iv. The event of the cross was a part of the
overall plan to connect Salvation with points i,ii,iii.
v. We are to share the gospel which tell the
story off all these points and we should bring others to the faith.
These in my opinion are the core elements one would have to take
from the bible. There are of course many nuances and complexities to each point
and a long list of systemics and
doctrine to expand on however, these point are in a nutshell the key point that
I believe one would have to believe in, (or at the minimum see the
philosophical value in) to consider themselves a Christian.
Now you or someone else my not hold these statements to be true
and you or they could still use the title Christian. People can call themselves
whatever they like. For me this is the minimal I see as the baseline for a
Christian faith because the points are built around clear declaration from
Jesus Christ. If one claims to be a Christian, it would be assumed that they believe
as Jesus believed and or taught. Since these are the basic point (tradition and
doctrine removed) then we would have to assume you hold to these points too. If
one does not hold to these and calls themselves a Christian, it would have to
be for a reason other than faith or belief in Jesus and what he taught, which
in my opinion would go against one of the key tenants of Jesus’ teachings.
Meaning you would have to void his teaching to claim you were a follower and Christian.
Some may argue that you could simply follow the moral teachings
of Jesus and still call yourself a Christian. There are a few problems with this
premise, one being that Jesus’ understanding of his moral teachings was that both
morality and the law (moral and ceremonial) served a higher purpose which was
to illuminate the spiritual kingdom of God. In addition, the philosophical
framework for the morality was based on the existence of God, and that God had
sent Christ to save. This means that everything that Christ taught and did is
interconnected. So, if one was to cherry-picks a few moral lessons from the
wider narrative that is Christ’s life, works and story, than not only do they
plagiarize Jesus’ teachings, but they also insult him by saying the teaching
can be remove from the larger context. I could not in good conscience cherry pick morality from a wider context, and then brand myself with the title of founder, that's just rude in my opinion.
Continual Work: I do not expect anyone to just agree with my positioning, if
someone was to agree with me, I hope it would be from some dedicated study and
personal reflection with God. What I do hope is that people of faith and those
outside of faith take more time to really think about what they believe in, why
they believe it and how they would justify it. If we don’t take effort to
understand our truth claims, why have them. To claim a truth and a title like "Christian" to go with it, means something. It is not just empty words. My challenge for you today
and always is to be critical to what you believe, think and claim to be.
What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I am always re-evaluating my thoughts and
beliefs. Lately I have been trying to find a resting point in God and
conscience for some theological and political debates. Where do I stand, and
what are my reasons why? I wont get into all the details but know the debate
wages within.
Rev. Jacob’s Scripture time: Matthew 23:1-3 [CEV]
Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: The
Pharisees and the teachers of the Law are experts in the Law of Moses. So, obey
everything they teach you, but don’t do as they do. After all, they say one
thing and do something else.
It is one thing to have a good understanding of what you
believe, but we wont internalize it unless what we believe is lived out. I
think this is why “religion” moved toward “spirituality”. You know the “I’m
not religious, but I’m spiritual” types. It is easier to have a general
spirituality because it will often be more vague in definition. The more vague
and general the definition, the less you need to defend your position or be
internally critical. The Pharisees understood their laws well, but it was
challenging to a) live by them, and b) to understand their purpose. So, it
would have been easy for the Pharisees to move away from righteous living to
just ceremonial living. Understanding is important because it keeps us from
being needlessly traditional or contemporary. Often the wises place is the
place in the middle, and in this case the middle comes with much study, care,
reflection and discipline.
Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it
is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God
into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through
the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.
Prayer for your day: Lord, give us the strength to critique our hearts
and mind. Let us be bold enough to accept our short comings, wise enough to
wonder and humble enough to welcome discernment into our lives. In the end our
journey is in Your hands, and we look to You for guidance. In Christ name,
Amen.
Artistic Close: I love the look of owls, animal faces designed
to be aware. Their eyes and ears can catch the stimulus the need to feed. Let
our faith be like the owl’s design.
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