"I must admit, while at first critical of religious leaders for rejecting Christ, I began to wonder what it might feel like if Jesus came back today, you know, right in the middle of America, right in the middle of our church culture. I imagined the second coming of Jesus as prophesied in various Scriptures of the New Testament. The prophecies aimed at us about the Second Coming have Jesus showing up like a thief in the night, returning as trumpets sound, and riding a horse. When I imagine this, my mind has Jesus riding through the clouds, very suddenly and to much ado, the entire world trembling at His return, all people awakened from their sleep, acknowledging the King of the universe.
But what if the guys playing the horns turned out to be a few men playing on a street corner in a small town in Arkansas, and what if the horse Jesus rode in on wasn't a Kentucky thoroughbred, but a belligerent donkey? And what if Jesus, after he got here, frequented homeless shelters and bars and ate and drank with the kinds of cultures evangelicals have declared war against? And what if, when He came like a thief in the night, He came very quietly so that nobody noticed, and what if, crime of all crimes, He was ugly and when He went on CNN producers were uncomfortable with His appearance and only shot Him from the waist up, in a certain light? And what if, when He answered questions, He talked with a hick accent, and only spoke in parables that nobody could understand, and what if He didn't kiss anybody's butt?
If you ask me, He'd have to do a lot of miracles to overcome all that stuff. And even then, most of the people who would follow Him would be people who were oppressed, marginalized, and desperate."
I read this in a book today. It's a good book; nothing to live by, but certainly relevant. I think the most important things in those sentences are the question marks. How do you know what's right? What if your idea of right is actually wrong? Then what would happen? I guess I could ask, how do we know what is right? How do we know when we've found right? I don't know the answer to that. I can't tell you what is right and what is wrong, but I'd love to tell you to never stop asking questions that lead you to Truth. Have a wonderful day. I love you.
The power of the human mind to convince itself of one thing or another is quite amazing, is it not? Human emotion is animal in many ways - capricious but also frequently tenacious.
ReplyDeleteThe propaganda we've been spoon-fed our entire lives leads to a certain mentality from which many are never able to escape. Ask yourself, 'had I have grown up in a different household, would I still find my beliefs to be equally valid?' One must escape the jail cell that is his mind before he can fully comprehend what it means to be even somewhat objective. Indeed, objectivity is unobtainable, but we must always strive to obtain it.
I wish you the best in Österreich.
Alexander Schreck
Alex, thanks for the response. It makes me happy to see that people are reading this and thinking about it for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe question you asked is one I ask myself fairly often. I try to answer it, but even then, I have doubt. I believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior because of the things I've seen and experienced in my own life, but would I have the same beliefs if I grew up in the mountains of Afghanistan or the slums of India? I'd like to think the answer is yes, and I can surely hope that my present beliefs would find me in that distant place, but can I be certain? I don't think so. It's hard to ask yourself questions when the answer is uncertain, but I think those are the difficult things we must ask. We can't just listen to the opinions of others.
For me, it's a bit different when dealing with the questions without answers. Those are the questions that remind me that I need faith. That faith is not just a con out of not knowing something, rather, it's a belief that it's ok because I live for the God that knows everything.
I hope everything is going well for you this semester and viel Spaß.