God Wannabes

I owe much of what I believe about human nature to Dr. Arnold Black Rhodes who was the Old Testament Professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Louisville. A. B. was a well known person in the Presbyterian Churches of his time, having written a Biblical Survey book that was very popular called, "The Mighty Acts of God". I took Hebrew from Dr. Rhodes and Exegesis of Genesis. In his explanation of the book of Genesis, in the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, he pointed out that the voice of temptation, the serpent in the story, invited the primordial couple to eat of the trees and "be like God". Dr. Rhodes said that the first sin, and the root of much of human sin, is that we want to be God! We are, in essence, God wannabes! I don't know if that is the only sin that is original, but it is a powerful one in human dealings. We seek power and control, we seek to be "masters of our own destiny", we seek to control and manipulate others. We have a tendency, if not careful, to want to bend nature and others to our will. We are indeed God wannabes. We pretty persistently, without the grace of the Holy Spirit and a lot of our own co-operation in spiritual growth, will make our will and our own egos, the center of our world.

We are made in the image and likeness of God in Genesis, and that means we have powers other beings in God's creation don't have. We are also fallen and sinful and that effects how we look at the world. At one time, and perhaps it is still true of some, liberal Christians believed we were going to "bring in the Kingdom" by our own efforts. The idea was we were born good and socialized to evil. If we could just improve society we would have the Kingdom of God. After the Holocaust, that pretty much went out the window. Human beings seem to mess things up. In the case of the Nazis they were bent to do evil. In other cases, people who are well intended starting out still find they love power and abuse it. Even those of us who may not have real political power over others desire to possess others for our purposes, to manipulate them into doing our will, to possess them as sexual objects, to have influence and power over others for good reasons even, but find we like the power and it can turn selfish. It makes us feel in control, we are indeed God wannabes.

I don't believe people are born evil, should hate themselves for their natural tendencies or any such thing. We do need to be honest about our sinful desires though, that we do have these tendencies. We do need to continually confess that and hate sin, though not ourselves and others. Our sins are so innate that it takes the power of God to change us, through God the Son, Jesus our Lord. Right now Christians, because they fear the changes in our society, are trying hard to exercise political control because they are afraid. There are certainly legitimate ways for Christians to try to influence society for the better, especially in a democratically governed society, with which we are blessed. w When we act out of fear and want Christians to have raw power over others to enforce our wills , it is we who want to become gods, we just are not trusting God, for God's perfect love casts out all fear.

In my personal life I find that there is great peace in letting go and letting God be God. I can't control everything, and believe me I am a control freak, and often a God wannabe. We cannot, however, control everything. Peace comes when we let go of our control efforts and let God be God. We are mortal and tend to mess up, God is Almighty and in control. Of course, letting go and letting God be God means accepting the agenda of love of God in Christ and letting Christ be our Lord, and his way of love our highest good. We give up the right to determine the direction of our lives and give that guidance to God. In what areas are you trying to be your own God? How is that distorting the purpose of your life? Think about it!

Peace to All in Christ's name!

Truly Alive!

The ancient second Christian generation writer Saint Iremeus said: "The glory of God is a human being fully alive!” Our own Westminster Shorter Catechism says:Question: What is the chief end of man?

Answer: To glorify God and enjoy him forever.

This is hardly the depressing negative Christian faith that some Christian liberals and secular folk say is the heart and essence of an orthodox Christianity. In fact, these two statements from the ancient Church and the Reformed tradition suggest something quite different. They suggest that a Christian is someone who enjoys and lives this life to its fullest. That is quite a contrast to the death orientation of much of the Church. Questions like "Where are you going to spend eternity" and "Do you KNOW you will go to heaven when you die?" dominate the evangelical wing of the faith. Those are important questions, but they do seem to imply that the purpose of life is to die and go to heaven. There are versions of this in all forms of Christianity. Most Americans seem not to believe in the traditional concepts of heaven and hell, therefore trying to scare them with these concepts or entice them to heaven may be a futile effort in a society that is only nominally Christian. However, I don't think it is biblical to say that the only goal is preparation for death. I think that we do live eternally, but I see Christianity as preparation for life, with that life being eternal in this world and the next.

The emphasis on Christianity as a death cult puts all the emphasis on the cross. Biblical and confessional faith does say that the cross of Christ is of central importance to the forgiveness of sins, and to the grace of eternal life. But it is also who Jesus was, and the resurrection, that give the cross its power, otherwise Jesus is just another poor person crucified by the Roman government as a rebel. The death emphasis seems to have really come into Christianity in the second thousand years of our existence, when the Black Death and other scourges spread so rapidly over Europe and killed up to one third of the population. Then there was very little comfort to be offered in this world, with so many dying, and it was natural to look to the promise of the world to come as our hope in the face of such devastation. That is the assurance and hope of the Gospel. However, it is not all there is to it, for even then the life, death, and resurrection of Christ inspired many Christians to take great risks to help the sick and dying. Even in the face of devastating suffering and death, the resurrection of Jesus not only motivated folk as to where they would spend eternity, but to serve and even risk helping others, because they were alive to life and mission in this world.

It is not a big distinction, but an important one. Instead of standing and staring into heaven and waiting to die and get out of this suffering life, real Christianity relieves us from sin, guilt, and self obsession and opens us to life and service. It makes us appreciate life in its fullness with the promise of an eternal life as well. The world then is the staging area, the place where we are truly alive. A death oriented religion sees this world as only evil and dark and the only hope is to leave it. An alive Christian will open his or her day with "This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it"! Alive faith is thankful for this one time gift of life we have, and the chance to see God in everything today. Fear based faith clings and tries to protect what we have and get to heaven. An alive faith is open handed and hearted realizing how precious and brief life is. Life is a gift of God. We can use it selfishly and fearfully, or we can live it openly and joyfully and look for ways to share that joy.

Am I not minimizing suffering? Is there not a time, when great suffering comes, to surrender life, even willingly knowing that there are things worse than death? Does not war and evil dominate our world? Yes they do, and yes there is a time when all Christians will surrender life willingly to God. I would argue though that some of the most alive and caring people I have ever known, who appreciate life the most, are those who have known great suffering. Some are embittered, but those with hope in Christ can let God transform their suffering into hope and even service. It is God's way to bring life from death! That is the central meaning our resurrected Lord gives us, and with him in eternity, and in a completely restored and renewed world when Christ returns.

It is not so much a disagreement I have with the promise of life eternal, but a different focus. One point of view sees this life as essentially useless except for the central question of where we are going to spend eternity. The other sees life as a gift of God to be appreciated, rejoiced in and used this day in God's service, with the promise of endless life. There is much suffering in our world, but Christians must not give up the hope that in the end life wins!

May God grant us to be truly and fully alive!

Yours in Christ's Eternal Love,
Jim Stahr