TWO CRUCIAL QUESTIONS for CHRISTIANS …

Greetings, one & all!

To start with I would like to sincerely thank all of you who have — both publicly & privately — responded to my last few posts. Quite a few of you are Christians who devoutly disagreed with my views, and many of you expressed a seemingly sincere concern for the future of my Soul. Personally, I choose to believe that your comments were founded in Love and sincerely well-intended, and for such sentiments, I am deeply grateful.

That having been said, I present — from the same place of warm regard and profound Love — two VERY IMPORTANT questions for your consideration.

While I cannot state with any certainty that my Biblical interpretations are “best” or “better” or “right”, said beliefs are — at the very least — an equally valid way of reading the Bible and putting its wisdoms into practice. Essentially, there is on the one hand the valid belief system that says that everyone who worships Jesus Christ as their only Lord & Savior will enter an eternal paradise after they die. On the other hand, there is the equally legitimate belief system that focuses on THIS LIFE; “worshiping” whatever notion of God one happens to believe in by actively Caring for others — by Loving one’s enemies — by forgiving one’s wrongdoers — by actively & selflessly serving the downtrodden; and all of this regardless of whether he or she gets into Heaven thereafter or not. The former system sees God as a judge and a meter of punishments, while the latter sees God as pure, unadulterated, perfectly unconditional Love. The former requires subservience and obedience to attain personal reward in the hereafter, while the latter gives that Peace to everyone & everything, all of the time.

Both ways of believing are soundly supported by hundreds if not thousands of verses of scripture in the Bible … Both of them are perfectly valid — albeit extremely different — ways of being a “Christian”.

And with this in mind we come to QUESTION #01: If both of these beliefs are equally valid, why on Earth would you choose the former rover the latter?  If they are both supported by Scripture, why in Heaven’s name (literally) would anyone choose to worship a God of imperfect, judgmental love, when a God of perfect, unconditional Love is waiting nearby?

It is not important for me to know your answer, of course, and yet I think it IS important for you to know it.

And now, QUESTION #02: Let is start by assuming that you are RIGHT: that worshiping Jesus Christ as the only Lord & Savior is indeed the only way to enter Paradise after our death, and that everyone who does not do so (worship Jesus) is not allowed to do so (enter Heaven). If this is the case, then you and all those who believe as you do (at this point in time, some 2.5+ billion humans) will be “saved” upon your death, while the rest of the human population (and all of the animal population) will either be eternally bored in purgatory or suffer in Hell.

That having been established, the all-important question remains: How will you be able to live with yourself?  How will your conscience be able to let you feel at Peace when billions upon billions of mostly good people (certainly as good as you or I) have been denied entrance into the Paradise that you occupy?

Indeed, what is the moral response to such patent injustice?
What would a noble man or woman do when rewarded by such a God?

Let’s say that there is only one country on the planet, and that this country is ruled by a dictator, a tyrant who treats his subjects well as long as they do not protest or “believe incorrectly”, but who imprisons & tortures those citizens who do not “tow the line”? What would you do in such a situation?  Would you simply shrug your shoulders and keep a low profile because “there’s nothing you can do” — because he is “the boss” and is therefore allowed to make all the rules?

Or would you have the courage to stand up to that dictator and demand that the imprisoned go free?  Would you have the guts to gently yet sternly raise your voice and demand that the torture stop?

I think I know what Martin Luther King, Jr. would do …
I think I know what Thomas Merton would do …
I think I know what St. Francis of Assisi would do …
Heck, I think I know what Jesus himself would do.

And I think you know what they would do too …

PEACE … is ACCEPTANCE … is KINDNESS … is LOVE.

PEACE to you all, my Friends!

Filed under: Questions for Christians by Scaughdt