Monday, February 8, 2010

Character of unbelief



I've been thinking about character allot lately, which is nothing abnormal, I think about character often. One particular facet of character though has been most in my mind. It's the contrast that I see between Christians and non Christians. As I usually do I only tell a surmised conclusion of whatever I'm thinking and not really how i got there. [A thing that i find funny because it used to annoy the crap out of parents] And so I posted the concise version of my thoughts on my Facebook saying that:" Non-Christians go to hell with twice the character than Christians take to heaven." But I thought for fun I'd actually tell you the rationale behind it, (mostly because of comments people have made to me.) 
Under character I consider: Integrity, ethic (work and social), Honor, Honesty (down to which I include intent to deceive), Courage, fortitude, patience etc.  My observation is that I see more of this showing through the lives of people outside of Christianity than inside. The point was made on the status that Christians have a higher standard of character found in the bible than non Christians do in whatever source they site. And yes, that’s true the bible does depict a standard, however if you believe that all truth emanates from God than all men are held to biblical standard regardless of their recognition. A truly biblical view puts man completely on an equal plain. Siting that Christians exhibit less character because of higher standards is moral relativism. Which, honestly, is what I believe the problem is in Christianity; we treat people like we're on a bell and of course you can imagine where we put ourselves on the curve. Its a mindset problem, (not a small one by the way) and I believe that it leads to either seeing an impossible thing and therefore not trying; or a much sadder, more destructive conclusion that we achieve this standard simply by being a Christian. Honestly thats the one I see more of I think. It’s an assumption that your magically a better person because you’re on the side of truth. That’s pretty arrogant, oh yeah, and completely naive. You become a Christian because of something that someone else did for you remember? Why do you think the bible states so many warnings for how we live and love in this world? As far as living goes, Christians do have a source of understanding truth, it’s the combination of God’s word and Gods ministry to us, aka reading your bible and having the Holy Spirit. This is a point that I had some agreement on, even though it wasn't something I disputed... what I disputed is that despite the advantage that Christians DO have to be leaders in morals and personal character, we completely suck! Ask a business man which he would rather have working for him and a strong majority will take a non Christians any day. But wait... don't all the warnings teach Christians to watch their lives so that people can see their faith? Oh, people can see your faith, more than I think you know. People have a phony meter and they can see how genuine your beliefs, and your character are. I have a bible degree and I'd rather hang out with the average person on a street corner or talk with random people in a restaurant than go to lunch with someone after church. Character doesn't save you from hell, or earn you heaven, Christ is the difference, A God that trades places with you. So why does my conclusion surprise you? Why do you assume that the Elitist of peoples will be in heaven? Don’t we see different in the bible. Jesus says “its not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick.” Won’t heaven be filled with messed up people…  If you can answer that than answer this… why do you assume that you’re not one of the messed up? I find most Christians put themselves in the “not so messed up” category. Shame, because I believe its assumptions like that that place higher character in non-Christians. They still care if they have integrity, care about respect, and want to be an honorable person. So now you have my thoughts, you have my conclusions…post your thoughts… 

1 comment:

  1. i've been thinking about this a lot lately. the status put words to my thoughts. thanks very much.

    ReplyDelete