This is a response to 'No longer following a false christ' by Josh Z over at A Simple Christian.
This past week I opened up. I honestly shared with a group of self-professed Christians my doubts and concerns about Christianity. There are no simple answers, and I am actively, consistently pursuing the more difficult ones.
I myself came to much the same conclusions as Josh, and Ellul, that Christianity is the by-product of Christ + traditions and extraneous beliefs - other traditions and extraneous beliefs. The end result does not directly reflect Christ, due to the additions and omissions.
In addition I have questioned and been pursuing answers at the core of the faith; the pagan undertones of the Old Testament, the deity of Christ and human nature itself. While these questions yet lie wholly unanswered, there has been some light.
My wife and I are reading Greg Boyd's 'Letters From A Skeptic' together. It's been a refreshing read; stripped bare of pretense and posturing, of pat answers and con shows of strength, it's a dialogue between father and son. The philosophical parts appeal to my head, and a few of the ideas (both orthodox and unorthodox) have got me thinking. But it is the emotional parts; questions such as 'Where was God when your mother died?' that hit where it hurts. If philosophy ultimately held the answers, it would have them by now. But philosophy and theology are incomplete, and it is the taking of humanity as a whole, and answering that which is the question. Parts of the answer then will be highly rational, for we are rational, but others will be emotive, or moralistic, or relational.
Let us then make answers to humanity; no more bullshit. It's unnecessary, and demeans people on all sides. Let us acknowledge where we are weak or at fault, hold up what is good, actively seeking what is best. At the moment one of my biggest concerns is to leap into the fray and follow a 'false christ'; so for the moment I'm focusing on what I do know: live a life consistent with one's professed beliefs, devoid of posturing and full of love. Let the rest fall into place along the way.
Monday, December 11, 2006
No More Bullshit
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Interesting post. I found it from the comments trail at JoshZ's blog.
You made a mention of the "pagan undertones" of the Old Testament. I'm curious to know why it seems pagan. Certainly Jesus didn't think it was pagan.
I should add that it's easy to offend over the internet and that is absolutely not my intent.
I apologize. I probably should have put 'alleged' in there.
The concept is as such; some have argued that aspects of pagan thought have been absorbed into the tales of the Old Testament. For example, Abraham being told to sacrifice Isaac has been considered a conflict with his pagan background (and the culture of the time; child sacrifice was quite common) and his changing theology.
Additionally, much of Genesis plays very similar to Egyptian and Sumerian tales; uncannily similar, with the primary changes being gods (Egyptian) being changed into people (Hebrew). Conceptually this best addresses some of the most bizarre narrative choices used in Genesis, and is consistent with Moses' and the Hebrew's educational and historic background. During the Hebrew's slavery in Egypt was Akhenaten's flirtation with the concept of one god, as embodied in Ra, and Abram came from Persia, after the time or Zoroaster. So it tends to indicate that these concepts did not come from a vacuum. There are a lot of arguments both ways on this, and for me the jury's still out, but there is evidence that direction. Would love to hear your response.
You've always taken a rebel's point of view on things :)
You have to remember that though God isn't effected by culture, People are, and God uses things accordingly...
God told Abraham to do something that wans't culturely out of the norm, but chalanged his faith. Pagan concepts are a perversion of Christ. Child sacrifice wasn't just for the fun of it, it was to atone for sins... it was a perversion of the paralell of Christ needing to die for our sins. If you flip the table around, Pagan rituals ARE similar, but that isn't because the Law and stories were tainted, it was because of Demonic influence that perverted the inate knowledge of the way things should be, and how to achieve it.
Another note, its a dangerous sloap to walk on there... Are these some arguing that the Bible is not perfict in its form, and needs to be modified to be "more true"?
Post a Comment