Sharing Your Life Message
In fairness to Richard Warren, The Purpose Driven Life is not a book written for what he constantly describes as "unbelievers". It is a book intended to preach to the deluded choir.
The message of this chapter was to stress the importance of Christians sharing their message with unbelievers. As Rick says: The eternal salvation of a single soul is more important than anything else you will ever achieve in life. That is a staggering statement. To Richard, saving a soul is more important than caring for your family, eradicating poverty or any other mission that one could hope to attain during their earthly life. As an Atheist Missionary, I am also concerned that Richard's statement could be relied on by believers to justiy silencing those whose aim is the propagation of skepticism or, more bluntly, religious disbelief.
Richard is correct when he describes how unbelievers are more interested in hearing personal testimonies from believers about the difference Christ has made in their lives than listening to theologians. He asks believers to write out their testimony and divide it into four parts: 1. what their life was before they met Jesus; 2. how they realized they needed Jesus; 3. how they committed their life to Jesus; and 4. the difference Jesus has made in their life. I like this suggestion because Dr. Darrel Ray (author of The God Virus) has suggested that atheists make notes when they ask religious believers to describe their faith in Jesus, Mohammed, etc. Once you do that, read the notes back to the person and replace their chosen deity with the identity of another one.
Richard urges Christians to ask themselves the following questions:
- What has God taught me from failure?
- What has God taught me from a lack of money?
- What has God taught me from pain or sorrow or depression?
- What has God taught me through waiting?
- What has God taught me through illness?
- What has God taught me through disappointment?
If you replace the word "God" from the questions posed above with "introspection based on personal experience", I suggest that the exercise is much more productive. If you replace "God" with "imaginary friend", I suggest that you are no further behind.
Richard is fond of Bible references and quotes Psalm 106:43: A warning given by an exeprienced person to someone willing to listen is more valuable than ... jewelry made of the finest gold. We don't need a holy book to tell us that. Similarly, Richard describes how the Bible is filled with commands to defend the defenceless - but so is Horton Hears a Who: From sun in the summer. From rain when it's fall-ish, I'm going to protect them. No matter how small-ish. I prefer Dr. Suess because he refrains from complicating a simple altruistic message by also directing the stoning of homosexuals and adulters.
6 comments:
I have no problem with Bibleists being proud of their beliefs and wanting others to share their views, short of brainwashing children, of course.
But I share your amazement at that statement by Richard. Saving one soul is the greatest accomplishment in life that he can come up with? And this guy has a fellowship the size of Europe? Gimme a break.
P.S. Cheers for Canada's men's hockey olympic team. Very good game.
(Bear with me, I'm presenting my defense for his statement from a Christian perspective. Look at it from my point of view. Assume God exists, and that the Bible is God's holy word for a minute, k? We'll all get through this much easier if you do that. It's a point of view exercise. If you cannot do this, simply skip this comment, as you will be filled with confusion and non-productive thought)
To Christians, life on Earth is but a breath.
In the scale of time, it is as nothing.
But when the day of judgment comes, and we are removed to heaven or hell, that is eternal. That lasts forever after. To save one soul on Earth and have it placed in heaven, is much greater than anything that can be accomplished on Earth, because our time on Earth is fleeting. If that soul were to go to hell and live death (paradoxical, I guess) for eternity, I would rather have had my family starve, than for that one soul to go to hell. I would rather DIE than to have ANYBODY go to hell. And those are some pretty strong words. I hate hell. It's disgusting.
That being said, it is not right for us to let our families starve. The Bible COMMANDS us, as Christians, to LOVE, to send out unerring love to all around us, to do great things in His name. To radiate the light that this world so desperately needs.
When one looks at Christians, one can immediately thinks of "Anti-Homosexual, Judgmental, and Hypocritical". That's a terrible thing, but it's true. That's how most Christians act, and to me, that is an ABOMINATION to my religion. But so many sooooooo many of them just hate hate hate hate so much that they can't let go of these disgusting things in their hearts, and they judge other people (it is commanded in the Bible, JUDGE NOT YOUR BROTHER), it is commanded in the Bible to never hate people.
I personally don't have any problem with homosexuals. In the Bible it says for us not to. They are humans, sinners, like everybody. The reason homosexuality is a sin (according to God, remember this now. God exists in this large hunk of text), is because God commanded us to a: have marriage bonds between a man and a woman if we so desire, and b: to refrain from sexual promiscuity (or sex outside of marriage, as it is better referred to).
The idea for homosexuality (marriage of a man, sexual relations with a man) being a sin, is that we are putting our sexual desires in front of God's desires. God created us. God is in control of everything, whether we believe it or not. God told us what to do, and by simply not following it, we are sinning. That's why homosexuality is a sin according to the Bible. MY PERSONAL TAKE: if a man and a man or a woman and a woman want to do things, go ahead. If they want to get married, I really don't care. It's not my business. But when we bring the Bible(which, as you remember, we have said is God's holy word for THIS hunk of text) into it, it is a sin. (sorry for the tangent there)
Christians are hypocritical. Christians are the main reason (MAIN REASON BEING ALMOST THE ENTIRE REASON) that people can't accept Christianity. Doing wrong, while claiming they are doing right and saying they're better than everyone else, is terrible. It's disgusting, and is not what is preached in the Bible.
Anyway, that's my piece.
Thanks for reading, and remember, NONE of this will make sense if you did not put this in the proper frame of reference.
PS to CKDC: Cheers!
James, it will probably surprise you to hear that I disagree with very little of what you have written. If you accept the Christian worldview, Richard's statement makes perfect sense. But here's the problem: the Christian worldview is based on the myth that Jesus was a man who died, started to rot and then came back to life. Think about that for a second. If you saw that with your own eyes, you would (quite reasonably) look for a natural explanation in the same way as you don't really believe Las Vegas magicians cut their assistants in two. So why do you set aside your natural skepticism and believe a myth reported in a 2000 year old text that is based on reports written decades after the supposed event? Why do you believe the Christian resurrection story and yet reject the countless other resurrection myths of other religions?
James, I contend that the vast majority of people who call themselves Christians don't really believe all this bunk. If they did (in the words of Alan Watts), they would be screaming in the street.
If you are fond of some of the teachings in the Bible, fine. If you want to believe that there must be a first cause and call that cause god, fine. But that is a far cry from believing that a god exists who actively intervenes in the affairs of mankind, who answers prayers and who causes miracles. That is a conception of god that deserves to be placed in the waste-bin of history.
In closing, I am interested to know why (as a Christian) the concept of substitutional atonement appeals to you. Why would you want someone else to take responsibility for your sins?
James, I should have written "Substitutionary atonement". Did you know that the concept evolved from animal sacrifices to appease the gods?
This is going to be my last post until maybe 6 pm today, (O chem class, then sleep, or something)
Anyway, holding to the Christian worldview (true Christian worldview, what it says IN THE BIBLE, not what the Pope says, or my pastor says, or what some person says), substitutional attonement, through the sacrifice of God himself (God sent his "Son", who was Him, who was also man, and fully both (He can do that, He's God. The idea is expressed in the book of Hebrews pretty well.) It has basically stated all have sinned, and fallen short of what God has told us to do. Therefore, we deserve death. Death as in hell. However, because God is a merciful and gracious God, we have another option. Even though we have fallen short of his glory, and SHOULD be feeling his wrath (which we do, death) for disobeying the things He, a perfect creator has said, He says "Sacrifice is the only option." And that's why sacrifice is the only option. The ONLY option was to have God come down and become man and to die for our sins.
I would gladly give up my life that all may go to heaven. Even if this happened, and all people had to do was believe what I said, people still wouldn't believe it. The concept of substitutional atonement "appeals" to me, not only in this biblical sense that God has commanded it, but also because I can... "relate" to it.
Anyway, as silly as it sounds, God bless, and I will be praying for you.
I hope you have a wonderful day, filled with sunshine, puppies, rainbows, and lots and lots of hugs(if you don't like hugs, you can substitute hugs in for the thing that you like the most, no matter what it is)
PS: Got to see your most recent post.
Yes. Yes I do.
James, on a previous thread I directed you to proofs 1,2 and 48 regarding prayer on the God is Imaginary website. I look forward to receiving your comments. Also, please search this site for "The Prayer Experiment" and try that.
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