Wit or Wisdom

There are a lot of people out there who claim to follow Christianity, or don’t claim to follow it at all, and have huge misperceptions about the religion that isn’t really a religion. I observed several of these issues at work in the comments on this post by Neil, particularly those by Erudite Redneck and Paul. I’ll address one of those in this post.

This is a snippet of a comment that Erudite Redneck made in the post in response to my response to him.

Obviously, those who claim to be following Jesus, yet persist in feeding war and violence and supporting candidates who do, clearly aren’t following Jesus — but I do not deny that they are Christians.

Here’s the problem with what ER is saying: we are men, and don’t know the heart of other men. ER has clearly missed the entire point of Christianity. It is not a works-based “religion.” As a matter of fact, it’s not a religion at all. It is trust. Us trusting in Christ in recognition of the fact that only He can save us from our sins. Statements such as the above from ER demonstrate a lack of understanding about who God is, what He expects of us, and how it is that we follow Him. While he is right not to deny that they are Christians, he’s failing to recognize that you cannot be a Christian without being a follower of Christ. That is literally what the word “Christian” means. To begin, let us examine God’s comparison of what He sees verses what man sees.

…for [the LORD seeth] not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

~ 1 Samuel 16:7

No one, and I mean no one, can know the state of another man’s soul. Max Lucado says that when we start trying to determine who is saved and who isn’t, “we’ve just stepped outside our pay grade.” Does this mean that someone who shows no fruit can safely consider themselves a Christian. No. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not into Arminianism. But something makes me very uncomfortable about the politicization of Christianity as ER has done here. Are we to say, then, that Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and George Washington, all devoted Christians, were not really followers of Jesus, simply because they had slaves? Or were they merely unable to see, for whatever reason, be it the time period, culture, or selfishness, the sinfulness of the trade they engaged in? This highlights the the crux of what ER has missed. We have flaws, but grace “covers a multitude of sins.” Again, this does not give us license to live with license, but merely is a free gift for every time we stumble. And let’s face it, we need it often, because we stumble often.

Indeed, the day will come in judgment where many will say “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” However, these are the ones who have claimed that heaven is something that they can work their way to, something they can earn, or something by which there are multiple ways. Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” For those that like to argue that Jesus Christ was inclusive in salvation, that sounds pretty exclusive to me. Yeah, He was inclusive, for anyone who did it His way.

You may not like that, but the Bible, and the words of Christ, are pretty clear on it. Salvation through trust in Jesus Christ, and no mortal man will determine the judgment. This might prompt people to wonder if we can be sure of salvation. That’s another issue, but I think the Bible makes it pretty clear that we can. If people want to explore that, perhaps I’ll do another post on it. But what we can be sure of is that those who follow Christ must be Christians. Those who are not Christians, yet cling to false doctrines about salvation, are only pretending to follow Christ.