I was thinking about the typical Fundamentalist Christian notion of the necessity to "Accept Christ" in order to gain salvation.
Aside from the obvious concerns of people who had never heard of Christ I was wondering about what specific requirements they believe must be met in one's understanding of Jesus for your acceptance of him to be valid.
Most non-Mormon Christians say Mormons aren't Christians, which assumes they haven't actually accepted Christ so won't be saved. This implies that not only must one accept Christ, but their understanding of Christ must fit certain guidelines.
So, if for example a person got a weird translation of the bible where jesus was named Beavis, and accepted this 'Beavis' into their heart, would this be okay? Probably, since could the name really be important? It is just a translation anyway.
Suppose this weird translation gave the correct name but said he was Chinese and lived in the 1920's? Would that be okay?
Or what if someone unaware of jesus happened to write a fictional story that by sheer coincidence matched the story of jesus, someone found it and mistook it for non-fiction and accepted the Fiction Jesus who happened to be identical as real jesus into their heart? Would that pass? And would if that coincidence fiction Jesus had been named 'Beavis'?
What if one mistakenly ascribed all the teachings of Jesus to say, Buddha, or George Washington Carver, and one accepted one of these men into their hearts, yet was tricked into believing they had the same attributes of Jesus?
Hopefully I can think of a few more of these.
Subscribe To
Posts
Comments
5 comments:
You brought up a good point. I've often wondered when the fundamentalist tells you what you must do in order to be considered a Christian, they never bring up doctrine. For example, must you also accept the Trinity, Adam & Eve, original sin, virgin birth etc. Can you be a "true" Christian and not believe in, say the virgin birth? And if so, why is that never mentioned when they are trying to convert you?
chris & milo -
I believe that if you read 1 John with the same level of willingness to understand what the message means to those who would believe in Christ - as you read Scientific material in order to understand the effects chemical reactions have on the human brain, then you would find the answer to your question...
To be absolutely brief about what the Bible says we must do to be saved is to Repent toward God and put our Faith in Christ. (Acts 20:21)
However, in order to understand the whole picture, you'll have to set aside your pre-supposed notions about what you think Christianity is based upon some bad examples set by people who profess themselves to be followers of Christ.
chris & milo,
bejamin the sower is telling you the truth. 1 John, Acts 20:21, and Romans chapter 8 show you that Jesus Christ is the only Way, Truth, and Life. Any other that claims to be the Savior is a false messiah or a false prophet.
I answered your questions on Ray's blog. I will be praying for you!
Allow me to share this from Revelation.
18 For I testify to every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written
in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and
from the things which are written in this book.
It seems to me that the Christians are demanding a suspension of the normal critical faculty in particular areas of life: those concerned with such beliefs. It's comparable to the "falling in love" phenomenon that you analysed in another post.
It's clear that the human mind, whilst wired for reason, is also wired to selectively blank out reason where required.
I think you make a good point. I personally belive salvation is through accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior....as for people getting mixed translations and odd information I think it's all part of our fallen nature that Jesus came to save us from, so I think they'd still be saved.
Post a Comment