Examined Christian Faith 'Faith part 3' 3.12 What is Christainity

There are certain things about Christianity that in all honestly can only be understood from the outside, from those who are not Christians. However there are a great many things that cannot be understood until after you have traveled a certain distance along the Christian road.  These things are like directions on a map, directions on how to deal with particular intersections, and obstacles on your journey; and they do not make any sense until you have reached those places in your journey.  This may be one of those places, Faith in the second sense that I previously alluded to, that higher sense of Faith.

I mentioned in my previous post that Faith in this sense can only arise after a person has tried his or her best to practice Christian virtues and come to the same realization that we all come to… that we failed.  Then realizes that even if he or she could have succeeded they would only have been giving back to God what was already His.  As we in this culture tend to relate things to financial worth, the other way to describe this realization is to discover that you are bankrupt.   Before I go any further this would seem a good place to once again remind you that what God cares about is not ‘exactly’ our actions.  What He cares about is that we should become creatures of a certain quality – the kind of creatures He intended us to be – Creatures that are related to Him in a certain way.  

When I said “discovered” in the previous paragraph, I mean really DISCOVERED; not something as simple as a parrot learning to repeat a word.  Any child, if they are given a certain religious education will soon learn to say that we have nothing to offer to god that is not already His own and that we find ourselves failing to offer even that, without holding something back.  No I am talking about really discovering by experience that you are bankrupt is the truth.

We cannot in that sense discover our failure to keep god’s law except by trying to do so with everything that we have (and then failing).  Unless you really try, there will always be something in the back of your mind whispering that if we try harder the next time we will succeed in being completely good .   Thus in one sense the road back to God is one of moral effort, of trying harder and harder; but in another sense it is a road of not trying that is going to bring us home.   All of which if you have honestly tried, brings you to the point where you throw up your hands in despair and turn to God and say “I can not do this, you must do this, I am leaving this up to you”. 

I know that the words "leave it up to God” can and is frequently misunderstood; but the sense in which a Christian leaves it to God is when you put all your trust in Christ, that Christ will somehow share with you the perfect human obedience which Christ carried out from birth to Crucifixion.  That Christ will make you the person more like Himself, that He will share his “sonship” with you.  In a sense the entire Christian life consists in accepting this remarkable offer; that Christ offers something for nothing, more than that, He offers everything for nothing.   The difficultly is reaching the point of recognizing that all we have done and can do is nothing. 

To Trust Him means of course trying to do all that He says.  Only a fool or a liar would say that they trusted a person yet refused to take His advice.  Thus if you really have handed your life over to Christ, it follows that you are trying to obey Him.  Trying in a new, less worried way.  Not doing things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already.  Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for you, rather wanting to act in a certain manner because a first faint glimmer of heaven is already inside you.  

A serious moral effort is the only thing that will bring you to the point where you throw in the towel.  Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from despair at that point and out of that Faith in Him, good actions must inevitably come.   There are however two different views of this truth that Christians have debated over the years, the first is that “Good actions are all that matters, and by extension the best good action is charity.  The best type of charity is giving money, so just hand over $1,000 or $1,000,000 (depending on how deep your pockets are) and you are in good standing.    My answer to that nonsense is that good actions done for that motive, done with the idea that Heaven can be bought  (by what ever action) would not be a good action at all, only a business transaction.

The other view is one that I hear frequently (perhaps more frequently because I do not have $1,000 yet alone $1,000,000) is that “faith is all that matters”.  Consequently, if you have faith (at least proclaimed that you do) it doesn’t matter what you do.  Sin away, have a great time and Christ will see that it makes no difference in the end, that by faith you have been given immunity.   My answer to that pile of rubbish is that, if what you call ‘faith’ in Christ does not involve taking the slightest notice of what He says, then it is not Faith at all – not faith or trust in Him, rather simply an intellectual acceptance of some theory about Him.  

The Bible is of course has the final word on the matter, and seems to clinch the matter when it puts the two things together in one astonishing sentence.  The first half is ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” – which looks as if everything depended on you and your good actions; however the second half reads ‘For it is God who worketh in you” Philippians 2:12-13 – which looks as if God did everything and you did nothing.  I am afraid that is the sort of thing we run up against in Christianity.  I am perplexed, but not surprised.  I personally am not certain that the human language can express the idea, as God is not just one part, of the equation; He is not either inside you or outside you, He is inside you as well as outside you.   In an attempt to express the idea, different churches say different things, however you will find that even those who insist most strongly in the importance of good actions tell you that you need Faith, and those who insist most strongly on Faith also tell you to do good actions.   That is as far as I am prepared to go with it.  

I do think however that all Christians will agree with me that at first Christianity seems to be all about morality, all about duties, rules, guilt and virtue, yet if you let it, it leads you out of all of that into something beyond.   It leads you to glimpse a place where everyone is filled with what we call goodness, yet goodness is not called anything and it is not though of there, but instead everyone is focused on the source from which it comes.   

Faith, no one said it would be easy. 

 Previous Post in this series "Faith part 2"

Examined Christian Faith 'Faith part 2' 3.11 What is Christainity

Originally I was going to cover the topic of faith in two posts, however it has occurred to me that the only way to do that would be to write an extremely long second post as the second level or sense of faith is probably the most difficult subject matter I will have tackled in this series.  So perhaps it would be best if I set the table first and before we attempt to digest it.  Some time back in this series I touched on the matter of humility, and that the first step towards achieving it was to realize that you are proud.  If that is our starting point then the next step would be to seriously attempt to practice Christine virtues.  Not for a day or two, not even a week, because just about anyone can do so for a week or so, rather try two months, or even just one.  Because by then you will have failed miserably at it and quite probably fallen lower then your original starting point.  It is here that a person discovers some truth about themselves.  

The undeniable truth is that no one knows just how bad he or she is until they have tried with all their might to be good.   There seems to be a body of thought running amok in this country that god people do not know what temptation means.   Try the above experiment and you will quickly realize what a lie that is. 

Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.  You do not know how strong the current in a river is by swimming with it, you must swim against it to understand its power.   You never know how strong a bully is until you decide to fight him.   A person who gives in to temptation after 10 minutes can in no way comprehend what it would have been like an hour or two later.  That is why bad people (or more politically correct, good people who do bad things) know very little about badness.  They have chosen to live a sheltered life of always giving in to temptation.  You will never find out the strength of the evil impulses in yourself until you try to fight them; and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation is also the only one who knows to the full and final extent what temptation means. 

The main thing that we learn from making a serious attempt to practice Christian virtues is that WE FAIL.  I think everyone who has a vague belief in God, has the idea of an exam, or a bargain (God if... then I will…); however one quickly learns that he or she will always fail that exam (God does not grade on a curve).   We are simply incapable of acing the test; there is simply nothing that we can do that would enable us to put God in our debt.  If you still have that idea floating around in your head, I encourage you to try to practice all the Christian virtues for a month or two that should be about 4 to 8 weeks longer than needed to blow the idea into bits.   Some when they realize this thinks that Christianity is a failure and give up, for some reason they seem to think that God is very simple minded.   In fact one of the things Christianity is designed to do is to blow that idea up.  God is waiting for the moment that you realize that there is no way you will ever earn a passing grade on this exam; there is nothing you can do that will put him into your debt. 

It is only after you realize this that you make another discovery.  Everything you have, every faculty you possess – your ability to think, move, feel, see, smell, taste, everything has been given to you by God.  Even if you devoted every second of every day of your entire life to exclusively serve Him you could not give him anything that was not already His.  As it is Christmas time, the next time you are doing something for God or giving something to God, think of it like this; Think back to when you were a small child and you wanted to get your father a present for Christmas, you approach your dad and ask “Daddy, would you give me $10 to buy you a Christmas gift with?”  Of course your father does, and he is pleased with the gift that you give him.  It is all very nice and touching, but only an idiot would think that your father is ahead $10 on the gift.  

When you have made these two discoveries then and only then can God really get to work within you.  If is after this that your real life begins.  Now that you are at last fully awake, now you are ready to examine faith in the second sense. 

Previous Post in this series 'Faith part 1" 

Next Post in this series 'Faith part 3' 

Examined Christian Faith 'Faith' 3.10 What is Christainity

Faith, you have heard the word countless times, but just exactly what do Christians mean when we use the word “faith”.   Generally speaking the word faith is used on two levels, and we need to examine both of them, today the first level and on my next post the second level, or sense.

On one level, faith simply means ‘Belief-accepting, that is regarding as true the doctrines of Christianity.  That is fairly simple, however what does perplex a great many people is that Christians regard faith on this level as a virtue.  The argument is that how can faith on this level be a virtue – what is there moral or immoral about believing or not believing a set of statements?  

Obviously, a sane person accepts or rejects any statement, not because he does or does not want to, but because the evidence in support of that statement seems to be either good or bad.   If the person is mistaken about the correctness (goodness) of the evidence that supports the statement that would not make him or her a bad person, only a not very clever one.   Likewise, if the individual thought the evidence in support of a statement was poor and faulty, but attempted to force him or herself to believe the statement in spite of the evidence, that would only make them stupid.  Almost everyone would agree with that conclusion.

Now this is what most people do not see and what most assume is that once a person makes up their mind and accepts a thing as true, they will automatically go on and on believing it is true, until some reason shows up to reconsider  it.  The assumption is that the human mind is ruled by reason.  But we all know that is far from the truth. 

Emotions tend to crowd out reason, as is evident in the lives of all those around us.  People lose faith in all manner of things (their spouse, their company, their friends, and their leaders) not so much because of reason, but rather because of emotions and the imagination that emotions spark.   The battle that is waged in each of us is the between faith and reason on one side and emotion and imagination on the other.  

When you think about it you will see it playing out in your life and those of others.  For instance, A man knows by experience, and by evidence that a particular beautiful woman he knows is a lair and cannot be trusted, yet when he finds himself with her, his mind loses it faith in that knowledge and he starts telling himself “this time it will be different” only to once again make a fool of himself and tells her something he should not have (you know how the story ends).  His senses and his emotions destroyed his faith in what he knew to be true.  

This exact same thing happens in regards to Christianity.  Suppose that a person once reason’s and decides that the weight of evidence supports Christianity.   But what to do when (and there are always ‘whens’) he or she wants to tell a lie, wants to cheat on their spouse, wants to make a little money that isn’t exactly fair and honest, when wouldn’t it be convenient if Christianity wasn’t true; here in these moments when emotions rise up; in these times when his or her wishes and desires carry out an attack on their reason.  

Faith in the sense I have been addressing is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.   It is only a fool who thinks their moods and emotions will not change, they always do.  Everyone has moments of doubt, when all of Christianity seems entirely improbable.  Just as those who are atheist have moments (probably much more then moments) of doubt when Christianity looks terribly probable (doubt however that they would admit it).  This is the rebellion of moods against your reason, against your real self.  That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you lead your emotions they will lead you.   You can not be a sound Christian, or atheist for that matter, if your beliefs are really dependent on what the weather is like, what is happening to you, or what you feel like.  Like an athlete you must train the habit of faith. 

First, recognize that your moods change; second, if you have accepted Christianity, then you must deliberately think about some of its main doctrines everyday.  That’s whey daily prayer, reading scripture and going to church are necessary parts of the Christians life, not because it means you are not a Christian if you do not, but rather, because it helps to steady your mind when your emotions come calling. In a world such as ours, we have to be continuously reminded of exactly what it is we believe.  Like anything else we must be fed.  

If you examined those who have lost their faith in Christianity (or anything) rarely is it the result of it being reasoned out of it by an honest argument.  More often it is a slow fade from light to dark. 

Previous post in this series "Hope" 

Next post in this series "Faith part 2" 

Examined Christian Faith 'Hope' 3.9 What is Christainity

The second of the three Theological virtues is Hope.  The continual looking forward towards the eternal world is not escapism or wishful thinking, but rather one of those things a Christina is meant to do.  It does not mean that we are to ignore this world and leave it as it is, you will find that if you study history that the Christians who did the most for the present world were those who thought most of the next.   From the Apostles themselves to the great men of the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave trade, to those American Christians who engaged the world bringing the truth of Christ; all left their mark on Earth precisely because their minds were occupied with the next.  

It is because Christians today have largely ceased to think of the next world that they have become so ineffective in this.  Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”; aim at earth and you will get neither.  That seems a strange rule, but you can see it at work in other matters as well.  For example, Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your primary objectives you start imagining there is something wrong with you, you feel aches and pains that were not there before.  You are only likely to get health provided you want other things more – food, games, work, fun, fresh air, etc…  In the same way we will never save civilization as long as our civilization is our main object.  We must learn to want something else even more.  

Most of us find it extremely difficult to genuinely want “Heaven” at all – except as it means we get to meet our friends and family again who have died.   There are two reasons for this, the first is that we are taught to fixate on this world, the second and more important is that we do not recognize the real want for Heaven in us.   Most people, if they have really learned to examine their own heart, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world.   There are all measures of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite live up to that promise.  The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some trip to a foreign country, or first take up some project that excites us; are all longings which no marriage, no travel, no completed project can really satisfy.   There was something at the beginning that we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which fades away under the glare of reality.  I think you know what I mean; the spouse may be a good spouse, the hotels 5 star, the scenery may be beautiful and: computer programing may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us.  

There are three ways to deal with this fact, two that are wrong, and one right way.  The two wrong ways will need little explanation as we see it played out in the lives of all those around us, the right way however may need a bit of an explanation. 

1.    The Fool’s Way – He puts the blame on the things themselves.  He goes his entire life thinking that if only he was with another person, took a more expensive vacation, or whatever it happens to be; then this time he really would catch the mysterious something we are all chasing.  Most of the people in the western world are this type.  They spend their entire lives going from woman to woman, man to man (via divorce courts), from city to city, hobby to hobby, always thinking that the latest is “the Real Thing” – only to be disappointed once again. 

2.    The Way of the Disillusioned ‘Sensible Person’- He decides that the entire thing was an illusion, something one feels when one is young.  But when you grow up, you‘ve given up chasing the rainbow’s end.  So he settles and learns to not expect much, and to repress the part of himself which used to seek his deepest dreams.  If life was finite, this would be the best approach, but suppose infinite happiness really is there waiting for us?  Suppose one really can reach the rainbow’s end?  In that case it would be tragic to find out the moment after death that by our supposed ‘common sense’ we had stifled in ourselves that faculty of enjoying it.

3.    The Christian Way – Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.  A baby feels hungry – there is such a thing as food, a duckling wants to swim, there is such a thing as water.  Humans feel sexual desire, there is such a thing as sex.  The only logical conclusion then is that if I find a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable and logical explanation is that I was made for another world.  If none of the pleasures of this world does not satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud.  It means earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, rather only to arouse it, to hint at the real thing.  

If that is so, then I need to take great care to never despise, or be unthankful for these earthly blessings, and on the other hand to never mistake them for the something of which they are but echo, a mirage to the living.  I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true home, which I will not find until after my death; I must never let it get buried under the sand, or tossed aside in the clutter of life; I must make it the main object of my life - to press on to that home and to help others that I encounter on my way, to do the same. 

Hope is the pursuit of Home.

Next post in this series "Faith part 1" 

Previous posting in this series 'Charity' 

Examined Christian Faith 'Charity' 3.8 What is Christainity

Much has been on my mind lately, as the Christmas season begins to rush by.  It would seem that this is the perfect time to address one f the three Theological virtues that I mentioned in one of my earlier postings ('Cardinal Virtues' 3.3 ) if you will recall I mentioned that the three theological virtues were Faith, Hope and Charity. I will address ‘Hope’ in my next posting and work my way to ‘Faith’ before I close this series, but for now I would like to return to Charity.  Charity was dealt with partially in the posting ( 'Forgiveness' 3.6 ) but there I stayed focused primarily on that part of Charity called ‘Forgiveness’.  I occurs to me that I should add some more to the topic here.

First, as to what the word ‘Charity’ means, in our culture Charity now means simply what used to be referred to as “alms” that is, giving to the poor.  However, originally it had a much wider meaning, the true meaning of ‘Charity’ means “Love, in the Christian sense.” But I must remind you again that love in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion that one feels.  Love is not, nor has it ever been a state of feeling, but rather of will; that state of will which we have naturally towards ourselves, and must learn to have about others.

If you recall in my posting on Forgiveness I pointed out that our love for ourselves does not mean that we like ourselves.  It means that we wish our own good.  In the same sense, Christian Love (Charity) for our neighbors is quite different from liking or affection.  Speaking only for myself, I like some people, but not everyone.  I’s important to understand that is not a sin, or a virtue, but simply a natural response, just as I like some types of food, and dislike others (spinach for example).  It is just a fact, however it is what we do with it that is either sinful or virtuous.

If I like someone it is easy (make that easier) to be ‘charitable’ towards them, it is thus our responsibility to encourage our affections to “like” people as much as we can.  Not because liking is itself the virtue of charity, but rather because it is a help to being charitable.  While natural likings should normally be encouraged, it would be idiotic to think that the way to become charitable is to sit and try to manufacture affectionate feelings. We are not to waste our time concerning ourselves about if we ‘love’ our neighbor or not, we are to act as if we do. 

Love is a choice, it is an action, and here lies one of the great secrets to life: when we behave as if we love someone, we will find our self coming to love them.  As much as popular culture may tell you otherwise, Actions lead feelings, never the other way around.  Think about this, if you hurt, someone you dislike, you will discover that you dislike them even more, however if you do him a favor, if you forgive him, show grace towards him (not out of a selfish desire to show him what a great person you are, or t make him owe you one), you will discover yourself liking him more.  Whenever we do something good for another ‘self’ just because he or she is a ‘self’ made (like you) by God, and that ‘self’ desiring it’s own happiness as we desire ours, we will have learned to love that self just a little more (or at least to dislike it less).

So while those who live solely in this world treat certain people kindly because he or she ‘likes’ them; the Christian trying to treat everyone kindly, finds him or herself liking more and more people as they go on – including many whom he or she could not ever imagined themselves liking at all in the beginning. Day by day becoming more loving, FOREVER.  

The exact same spiritual law works horribly in the opposite direction as well.  The more cruel you are, the more you hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become – and so on in a vicious circle - FOREVER.  All the while thinking that you are a ‘good’ person, for those who live in the dark choose not to see their own evil, until it is forced upon them, when they realize the steps coming to claim them are not those from heaven.  At which point it is too late, Forever is a very long time. 

Good and evil both increase at a compound interest rate.  That is why all those little decisions you and I make everyday are of such infinite importance.  The smallest good act today is the strategic beginning point that in a few months you may be able to achieve victories you never dreamed of.  Conversely, a trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the bridgehead from which adultery, fornication, divorce, slander, murder and all forms of evil is launched from.

Before I leave this subject I feel I should address one last point, we are all told that we ought to love God, yet there are times when we can not find it in ourselves to do so.  For some this is a fleeting moment, for others it can be a haunting everyday presence.  It causes great duress to those in those times.  What then? It is the same answer as before, do not sit around trying to manufacture feelings, rather ask yourself “If I were certain that I loved God, what would I do?” When you find your answer, go and do it. 

God’s love for us is a much safer subject then our love for him. Nobody can always have devout feelings, and even if you could, feelings are not what God principally cares about.  Christian love towards others or towards God is an affair of the will.  If you are trying to do His will, you are obeying His commandment, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God”.  Regardless of your feelings, His love for you is constant.  It is not wearied by your sins, or indifference.  Therefore, His love is quite relentless in it’s determination that we must be cured of those sins we choose, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him. 

Next Posting in this series 'Hope'

Previous Posting in this series 'Sin of Sins'

Examined Christian Faith 'The Sin of Sins' 3.7 What is Christainity

I have heard more people than I can count (almost daily) admit that they have a bad temper, or that they have a hard time not lusting after women, or that they have a drinking problem / drug problem and even a few who admit that they are cowards.  Yet I do not think I have ever heard anyone who is not a Christian accuse him or herself of this vice.  Most have no idea that they could be guilty of such a thing.   There is however no fault that makes a person more unpopular and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves; ironically the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

The vice I am writing about is PRIDE and Self–Conceit; and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals is what we call humility.  According to Christian scholars, the essential  vice. The utmost evil is Pride.  Anger, greed, lust, drunkenness, adultery, and all the rest  are mere mosquito bites in comparison; it is through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: if is the complete anti-God state of mind. 

In my opening paragraph I pointed out that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others.  In truth, if you want to find out how proud you are, the easiest way is to ask yourself, “How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, ignore me, patronize me or show off?”   the reason is, that each person’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s  pride.  Pride is essentially competitive  by its very nature, while the other vices are competitive only.  By accident Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having MORE of it than the next person.  We say that people are proud of being rich, or cleaver, or beautiful; but in truth they are proud of being richER, cleavER and MORE beautiful. If everyone was equally rich, smart and beautiful there would be nothing to be proud about.  It is the comparison that make s you proud , the pleasure you derive from being above the rest. 

Here is the point, nearly all evils in the world that people attribute to greed, selfishness, weakness, and the like, are in reality just the symptoms of the result of PRIDE.  For it is power that Pride really enjoys, there is nothing that makes a person feel so superior to others as having some sort of power over them.  What makes a beautiful woman spread misery wherever she goes by collecting admirers (even after she is married)? Pride!  What is it that makes a political leader or a entire nation go on and on and n demanding more and more and more? Pride yet again.  If I am a proud person then as long as there is another person who is more powerful, or richer, cleaver, beautiful, or more desired then I, he is my enemy and my rival.  

Other vices may sometimes in a sad way bring people together: drunks hang out with drunks, addicts with addicts,  adulterers and liars with other adulterers and liars.  However Pride always means hostility or mutual hatred and not just between man and man, but between man and God.  Because in God you come up against something that is in every singly respect immeasurably superior to you, and thus you are nothing in comparison.  As long as you are proud you can not know that, you cannot know God.  A proud person is always looking down on others, and of course as long as you are looking down you cannot see something above you. 

This then raises a horrible question.  How can a person who is quite obviously consumed with pride, say they believe in God and appear to be very religious?  The only answer is that they are worshiping an imaginary God.   They in theory admit to being nothing in the presence of this phantom God, while really imagining how much He approves of them and thinks them far better than other people. 

Luckily God has provided us with this simple test:  Whenever we find our religious life is making us feel that we are  good-above all, that we are better that someone else – we can be sure that we are being acted on, not however by God, but by the Devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you see yourself for what you are, as a small dirty object., or you have progressed to forgetting  about yourself completely (which is the goal).

Make no mistake about this, there are many who claim to be spiritual, who claim religion, who claim forgiveness, who claim that they are a Christian. There are many who have simply out of their own pride invented a imaginary God (not the one who talks to us through the Bible)  To these the Devil laughs, for while other sins come at us from our animal nature, it is pride that comes directly from hell, and to those who embrace pride, hell will take them back.  To these I believe Jesus addressed when He said that many will claim him, however  “Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”  Matthew 7:23  Pride is THE spiritual cancer – it eats up the very possibility of love, faith, hope, contentment, honor, loyalty, courage, commitment,  repentance and forgiveness, honestly or even common sense. 

Previous Posting in this series : "Forgiveness"

Next Posting in this series: "Charity" 

Examined Christian Faith 'Forgiveness' 3.6 What is Christainity

I believe that without question, the most unpopular of all Christian Virtues is the one I am going to address today: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”.  Because Christian morals mean that “your neighbor” includes “your enemy”, thus we are pushed up against this terrible duty of forgiving our enemies.   Nearly everyone you ask will tell you that forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.  Then to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with distain and anger.  It isn’t that people think forgiveness is too high and difficult a virtue; it is that they think it hateful and contemptible.   Most of who are reading this have already decided to ask me “I wonder how you would feel about forgiveness if you had a family member inside the World Trade Center on September 11^th, or if your spouse had betrayed you with cold and calculated malice. 

So do I: In answer to the first question I wonder very much, in answer to the second it is a battle I fight each and every day.  Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion to save myself from death or torture, I wonder what I would do if it came to that point.  Do not mistake me for one of those who writes a book telling you that I have mastered the Christian doctrine of forgiveness – I am simply telling you what Christianity is.  I did not invent it, yet right in the middle of it, we find “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”  It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive we will not be forgiven.  There are no two ways about it.  So what are we to do?

It is going to be hard, but I think I there are at lest two things we can do to make it easier.  First, just as when you start learning math, you did not begin with calculus, you began with simple addition (1+1=2) In the same manner, if you really want to learn how to forgive (but you have to really want to forgive) perhaps you should start with something easier then those things that repulse everyone with any morals, those things that there can be no justification for.  Start instead by forgiving something someone has said this week, and continue to build on top of that.

Second, I think we should try to understand exactly what loving your neighbor as yourself means. I have to love him as I love myself?  Then exactly how do I love myself?  I can only speak for myself but I have not exactly got a feeling of fondness or affection for myself.  Nor do I always enjoy my own company.  So apparently “love your neighbor” doesn’t mean “to feel fond of him, or to find him attractive” Do I think I am good, think I am a nice person?  Honestly, sometimes I do (and those are no doubt my worst moments).  But that is not why I love myself, in fact it is the other way around: my self love makes me think myself nice (thus those who argue that they are a good person are without doubt the most narcissist of all) but thinking myself nice is not why I love myself.  So if you extend that, that loving your enemies does not mean thinking they are nice either.  Which at least to me is a great relief as forgiving my enemies does not mean that I have to say they are not such bad people, when it is quite plain that they are.

Taking that one step further, in my most clear sighted moments not only do I not think of myself as a nice person, but know that I am a wicked one.  I can look at some of the things I have done with horror, which apparently means that I am allowed to hate some of the things my enemies do.  Remember Christian theology teaches that we are to hate the evil person’s actions but not the evil person.

For a long time, I thought that was just hair splitting, how could you hate what the person did and not hate the person?  However, with time it occurred to me that I have been doing this all my life – namely with myself.  I might dislike some of what I have done, yet I went on loving myself.  In fact the reason I hated the things was because I loved the man.  Because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was the sort of person who did those things.  Consequently Christianity does not want us to reduce our hatred we feel for cruelty, treachery, deceit, and self-fishiness.  We should hate them, but we are to hate them in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves.  Being sorry that the person could have done such things, yet hoping that somehow, sometime, somewhere, someway, he or she can be cured and mad human again. 

 

Does loving your enemy mean not punishing them?  No, for loving myself does not mean that I should not subject myself to punishment for my sins.  If one had committed murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and accept your punishment, even if that meant death.  Thus what is the Christian thing for a thief to do, or an adulterer, an unscrupulous businessman?  The modern church has removed punishment, (JUSTICE) from its teachings.  But I do not think God has suddenly, due to popular demand ceased being JUST.   It is therefore in my opinion perfectly right for a Christian Judge or minister to deal swiftly with perpetrators, demanding justice for both the perpetrators and the victims.   Mercy is measured by Justice.

Some (more often then not those who are guilty of things that repulse the average moral Chrsitian) will say “if one is allowed to condemn the enemy’s acts, and punish him, what is the difference between Christian morality and the secular view?”  All the difference in the world.  Remember, Christians think man lives forever.  Thus what really matters is those twists on the central inside part of the soul which are going to turn it in the long run into a heavenly or hellish creature.  We may punish, if Justice is necessary, but we are not to enjoy it.  The ‘feeling’ of vengeance must simply be killed.  

Even while we punish we must feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves – to wish that he or she were not bad, to hope that he or she may in this world be cured; thus in fact to wish him or her good.  That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing for your enemy good, not feeling fond of him or her, nor saying he or she is nice and a good person when they are not.

I admit that I struggle with this myself, because it means loving people who have nothing lovable about them.  But then again do I have anything loveable about me? I love me, simply because I am 'me'.  God intends us to love all “ME’s” in the same way and for the same reason.  I find it easier to do, when I remind myself of how He loves me.  Not for any nice, good attractive qualities I think I have, but because I am me.  Because really there is nothing in us to love: we are creatures who actually find hatred pleasurable, and that to give it up is like giving up alcohol or cigarettes. 

Previous Posting in this series "Marriage" 

Next Posting in this series; "The Sin of Sins" 

Examined Christian Faith 'Marriage' 3.5 What is Christainity

If your faith can not save you from your own self-centeredness, your own selfishness, then it will not save you from Hell.  

No where is it more obvious and painfully clear to both those who claim Christianity and those outside the faith to readily see the true nature of a person’s heart, then by observing their response to the Christian viewpoint on marriage.  Christ’s teachings on this matter are clear and absolute; as a result this is where pretenders and hypocrites are sorted out, where the wheat is separated from the chafe.   This is where those who are a ‘good person’ and a ‘nice person’ have their selfish, self-centered, self serving heart exposed.

These next sentences are critical to those who claim the Christian faith.  The Christian idea of marriage is based upon Christ’s words that a man and wife are to be regarded as a single creature (one-flesh), and that Jesus was not expressing a sentiment, but rather a fact – just like a lock and key are one mechanism.   When God created humans, He created them in two halves, the male and the female, they were made to be combined (joined together) not just on the sexual level, but totally combined.  The monstrosity of sexual “relations” (as we like to call it) outside marriage is that those who live that lifestyle are attempting to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which are intended to go along with it and form the complete union.  

As a consequence, Christianity teaches that marriage is for life.  There are no if’s, and’s or but’s.  Divorce plus remarriage, equals adultery.  You will hear a lot of ‘Christians’ who will take issue with that statement, but it does not alter Jesus’ teachings on marriage.  He was crystal clear and left no wiggle room.  Christians and all Christian churches following Jesus’ teachings, regard divorce as something like cutting up a living body, as a kind of surgical operation that is so violent that it cannot be done.  That divorce is more like having both of your legs and arms cut off with a rusty dull saw, than it is like dissolving a business partnership.  Christians follow Jesus’ teaching that disagrees and condemns  the modern viewpoint that divorce is a simple readjustment of partners, to be made whenever someone feels they are no longer in love with the other, or when either of them “falls in love” with someone else. 

One must not forget to consider this in relation to another virtue that I wrote previously about, “Justice”.  Justice as I mentioned in a previous posting includes keeping promises. Everyone who has been married in a church has made a public solemn vow to stick to his or her partner until death.  The duty and responsibility of keeping that promise has no special connection with sexual morality: it is the same as any other vow or promise.  If as some would have us believe that the sexual desire is just like all other desires; then it should justifiably be treated like all our other desires; and as our other desires are controlled by our promises, so should this one be.   If it is as I believe, it is not like all our other desires, but is rather one that is morbidly inflamed, then we should be especially careful to not let it lead us into dishonesty. 

Now I freely admit that there are those who make this promise as a mere formality and never intend to keep it.  Who were they trying to deceive, the groom, the bride or the in-laws, or just the public?  If so their words and heart is treacherous.  Or perhaps he or she is trying, when they make the vow to deceive God, if so they can only be counted among the foolish, the very - very foolish.  These individuals want the benefits and the respectability that is attached to marriage without ever intending to pay the price that is required.  They are imposters, they are liars, they are cheaters and God calls them adulterers.  If they remain contented to be a liars, and adulterer, then I have nothing to say to them (pearls before swine’s), who would urge the high and hard duty of chastity on someone who has not yet desired to be merely honest?   However if they have now removed the blinders from their eyes and truly want to be honest, then their promise, already made constrains them.  This then comes under the heading of Justice.  

The idea that some have that “being in love” is the only reason for remaining married, leaves no room for marriage as a promise at all.  If love is the entire thing, then the promise can add nothing, and if it adds nothing then it should not be made.  The curious thing is that lovers know this while they remain really in love, better than those who talk about love.  The Christian law of marriage simply demands what lovers already know, that they should take seriously something which their passion impels them to do.  

Of course, the promise, made when I am in love and because I am in love, to be true to my beloved as long as I live commits one to being true even if I cease to be in love. A promise must be about things that I can do, about actions.  No one can promise to go on feeling in a certain way.  You might as well promise to never have a headache or to always feel thirsty. 

Being “in love” is a glorious state, and in several ways is good for us, it helps us to be generous and courageous, it opens our eyes to beauty, and it conquers lust.  No one would deny that being in love is better than common sensuality or self-centeredness.  Being ‘in love” is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. It is a noble feeling, but it is till just a feeling, no feeling can be relied upon to last in its full intensity or even at all.  Principles can last, knowledge can last, habits can last; but feelings… they come and go.  However, ceasing to be “in love” need not mean ceasing to LOVE.  LOVE as opposed to “being in love” is not merely a feeling, rather it is a deep unity, maintained by will and deliberately strengthened by habit, and grace.  This LOVE can be kept even in those moments (hours, days, weeks, months) that you do not like each other, just as you love yourself even when you dislike yourself.  This LOVE can be retained even when each other would easily if they allowed themselves, to “be in love” with someone else.  “Being in love” is what moves one to a promise of fidelity until death, “LOVE” enables you to keep that promise.

This is one little part, I think, of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies.  Far too few people understand that if you decide to make thrills (being in-love) the definition of love, then over time the thrill will get weaker and weaker, fewer and fewer, until you at last end up a bored disillusioned old man or woman. However if you let the thrill go- let it die away- go on through that period of death into the happiness that follows (Love, honor, commitment, loyalty, faith, hope)- you will find that you are living in a world of new thrills all the time.  It is because so few people understand this that you see husbands and wives destroying themselves, their spouses, their families, their faith, when they are at the very point when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all around them. 

As I said in the beginning - If your faith can not save you from your own self-centeredness, your own selfishness, then it will not save you from Hell.  

If you honestly desire to fully understand Christian Divorce and Remarriage, you might want to consider my book   "I am an Adulterer"

Next Post in this series: "Forgiveness" 
Previous Post in this series; "Sex" 

Examined Christian Faith 'Sex' 3.4 What is Christainity

Morality in general is a hard enough topic, but now it is time to address specifics, and we might as well start with sexual morality.  Chastity is the single most unpopular of all the Christian virtues. The Christian believes in one rule “Either marriage with compete faithfulness to your spouse or else total abstinence.”   I will be the first to admit that it is so difficult and so contrary to our instincts that obviously either Christianity is wrong or our sexual instinct has gone wrong.  It can only be one or the other, The Christian believes that it is the instinct that has gone horribly wrong. 

    

All human instincts have a biological purpose, the biological purpose of sex is children, just as the biological purpose of eating is to repair and refuel the body.  Using that as an example, if I we to eat whenever I want and as much as I want, it is true that I will probably eat too much, but not terrifically too much.  Maybe enough for two, but hardly enough for 10, 15 or even 20.  The human appetite goes a little beyond it’s biological purpose to ensure survival, but not grossly over.  However if a man were to indulge his sexual appetite whenever he felt inclined, and if each act produced a baby, then he would within a matter of years populated an entire town.  This appetite is preposterous to its function.   Yet everyone knows that if I were in fact to be a glutton either with food, with sex or anything, then my appetite grows by that indulgence. None of which are healthy or natural.

We have been told, until one is sick of hearing it, that sexual desire is the same as any of our other natural desire, and if we only stop trying to not talk about it, then everything will be restored, and perfectly natural, everything will be perfect in the garden of Eden again. That sounds nice, but it is the biggest bunch of crap being peddled.  If you look at the facts, and beyond the hype and propaganda you will see it for what it is;  a lie.

We are told that sex has become such a mess because it was hushed up. But get serious, all you have to do is open any magazine, listen to any song, or watch any television show, movie or commercial to realize that for the past 40 to 50 years, all anyone ever talks about is sex.  Yet it still remains a mess.  Maybe, just maybe, humans originally hushed it up, because it had become such a mess. 

Those of the current age are always saying “sex is nothing to be ashamed of.” They mean either one of two things, 1^st that there is nothing to be ashamed of that sex is the way the human race reproduces itself, and that it gives pleasure in the process.  If they mean that then they are right, and Christianity say the same thing.  It is not the thing, nor the pleasure that is the problem.  The problem is in the 2^nd way that they may mean it.  If when people say “Sex is nothing to be ashamed of.” They mean ‘the state into which our sexual instincts has fallen into is nothing to be ashamed of.’ Then they are wrong, there is every reason to being ashamed of it, if half the world made food the main interest in their lives and spent their time looking at pictures of food dribbling and smacking their lips at all times; gorging themselves at the expense of others, no one looks at a glutton and thinks there is not something seriously wrong with him or her. 

With all the advertisements, all the propaganda for lust (sex sells) to make us feel that our desires that we are resisting are natural and healthy and so reasonable that it is perverse and abnormal to resist them.  Movie after movie, book after book, picture after picture, commercial after commercial  all associate the idea of sexual indulgence with health, youth, and normality.  All of it a lie, based on a grain of truth (that sex is normal and healthy).  The lie is the suggestion that any sexual act that you are tempted at any given moment is normal and healthy.  However surrendering to all of desires always leads to disease, lies, concealment, jealousies and everything that is the reverse of health, happiness, and truthfulness.  For any happiness in the world always involves a lot of restraint.  Every sane, logical, rational, moral person must have some set of principles by which he or she chooses to reject some desires and to permit others.  No one who claims to be rational and moral gives into all their desires, proving that a desire, even when strong counts for nothing.  

I am not so naive to assume that every Christian is perfect in keeping their chastity.  God knows our situation, what matters is our sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them.  Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself, but just this power of always trying again.  For However important chastity (or courage, truthfulness, loyalty, faithfulness, forgiveness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still.  Our illusion about ourselves are cured and we learn to depend on God, we learn on one hand that we can not trust ourselves even in our finest moments, and, on the other hand that we need not despair even in our worst.  The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.

Before I close, I want to make it clear that the center of Christian morality is not here.  While the sins of the flesh are bad, they are the least bad of all sins.  Those sins that are far worst are purely spiritual; the pleasure of harming another, of putting self before others, for slandering, lying, betraying others, the pursuit of power, greed, hatred, and selfishness.  Jesus comforted the prostitute, and offered forgiveness if she would repent, yet he left no doubt that the cold self-righteous ‘follower’ who saw nothing to repent of, was nearer to hell then the prostitute. Needless to say, it goes without saying that it is better to be neither.  

Previous Post in This series: "Cardinal Virtues"

Next Post in this series: " Marriage"

Examined Christian Faith 'Cardinal Virtues' 3.3 What is Christainity

Historically writers have categorized the seven ‘virtues’ into two different types, the first four of them are called “Cardinal” virtues and the remaining three are referred to as ‘Theological’ virtues.  The ‘Cardinal’ ones are those that all people recognize; the ‘Theological’ virtues of FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY are those that usually only a Christian acknowledges.  I will get to the ‘Theological’ ones, but before I do we must begin with the four ‘Cardinal’ virtues.   The first thing one should know about ‘Cardinal’ virtues is that the word ‘cardinal’ comes from the Latin word meaning “the hinge of the door”,  they are called ‘Cardinal’ virtues because they are hinges upon which the door of the moral life swings..   They are PRUDENCE, TEMPERANCE, JUSTICE and FORTITUDE. 

Prudence simply means practical common sense, or taking the time to think out what you are doing and the likely outcome of it.  Today rarely do people think of Prudence as a ‘virtue’.  But in fact Christ told us to be prudent, when he instructed His disciples to be “as harmless as doves” but also “as wise as serpents.”  God is no more pleased with those who choose to slack off intellectually, then any other slacker.  True Christianity is something that takes all of you, brains and all.  Fortunately, anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will discover that his intelligence is being sharpened, no special education is required, Christianity is an education in itself. 

Temperance is one of those words that has had its meaning changed.  What we think of when we think of temperance is someone who does not drink.  However, originally ‘Temperance’ mean nothing of the sort, ‘Temperance’ referred not specifically to drinking, but to all pleasures; and it meant practicing self-control, abstention, and moderation.

One of the great missteps of Christians is to restrict their thinking of ‘Temperance’ to the question of drinking.  By doing so, it helps people to forget that you can be just as ‘intemperate’ about a lot of things.  A man who makes golf, or his motorcycle the center of his life, or the woman who devotes all her thoughts to shopping, her dog, or traveling is being just as ‘intemperate’ as the person who gets drunk every night.  

Justice means much more than what we see on our televisions as we watch police and lawyer television shows, or even the actual thing.  It is the proper moderation between self-interest and the rights and needs of others, it is the old name for everything that we call “fairness”; it includes honesty, truthfulness, keeping promises, giving as well as receiving and all of that side of our life.  

Justice is that virtue that we demand and expect from others as it applies towards actions directed at us. However the modern Christian seems to want to pretend that ‘Justice’ is a quaint old fashioned virtue when it applies to their choices, and their actions.   Doing so at their own peril, the modern Christian expects ‘Justice’ before forgiveness for the sins of others, but forgiveness without ‘Justice’ for  their sins.  As I mentioned before, there will be a great many surprises when we get to Heaven. 

Lastly, there is Fortitude, which includes both kinds of courage – the kind that faces danger as well as the kind that “sticks to it” under pain.  We would describe someone with ‘Fortitude’ as someone with “guts”.  Fortitude could well describe the thousands of Christian martyr’s each year, as well as the wife who will not divorce her husband, even as he betrays her, because of her sworn marriage vow to her husband and God.  You can not practice any of the other virtues for very long without bringing this one into play.   

There is one last point about virtues that needs to be noticed.  There is a difference between doing some just or temperate action and being a just or temperate person.  Someone who is not a good golfer, may every now and then make a good shot, but a good golfer ahs trained his eyes, muscles and nerves so that good shots may be relied on.  In the same way a person who preserves in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character.  It is that quality, rather than the particular actions that virtue applies to.  

This difference is important, for we might think that if you did the right thing, it did not matter how or why you did it – weather you did it willingly or unwillingly, through fear of public opinion or for its own sake.  The truth is that doing the right thing for the wrong reason does not build the internal quality of character called a ‘Virtue’, and it is the character that really matters. 

While it is probably true that there will not be any occasion for just or courageous acts in the next world, there will be every occasion for being the type of person that we can become only as a result of our actions here.  The point that I am making, is not that God will not allow you into Heaven, if you lack certain qualities of character; my point is, that if you did not get at least the beginnings of those qualities inside you, then there are no possible external conditions that could make you happy with the deep, strong, unshakable kind of happiness that God intends for us in what we call Heaven.  

Examined Christian Faith 'Christianity vs Psychoanalysis' 3.2 - What is Christianity

Since I have now taken us into the area of morality, and since Christian morality claims to be a technique for putting the human right again, I think we should compare how it is related to another technique that makes similar claims – namely psychoanalysis.

When a person makes a moral choice two things are involved.  The first is the act of choosing, the second is the various feelings, impulses which his psychological makeup presents him with, and which are the raw material of his choice.  That material can either be one that we would call normal, in other words a feeling or emotion that are common to most people; or it is a feeling that is unnatural due to things that have gone wrong in his subconscious.   The fear of things that are really dangerous would be an example of the first, while an irrational fear of cats would be an example of the second.  Heterosexual feelings would be the first type, while homosexual feelings would be of the second; and so forth.  

Where psychoanalysis is designed to remove the abnormal feelings (to give the person better raw material for his acts of choice); morality is concerned with the acts of choice themselves.   Regardless of how much you improve the person’s raw material, you are left with something else: the free choice of the person, on the material presented to him or her, either to put his own self interest first or to put it last.  It is this free choice that morality is concerned with. 

What is important to realize is that human beings judge one another by their external actions; God judges them by their moral choices.  When a person who has been abused and perverted from his youth and taught that acts of violence is acceptable, does some tiny little act of kindness, or refrains from some violent retaliation against another, and thereby risks being insulted and ridiculed by his peers, he may, in God’s eyes, be doing more than I would do if I gave up my life for my daughter.

Put another way, some of us who seem to be very nice people may, in fact have done so little with a good upbringing and a godly heritage that we are really worst in God’s eyes, then those whom we regard as beneath us.   How certain are you of how you would behave if you had been saddled with  a horrible childhood, and thus  psychological scars, and then one day found yourself with the power of Stalin?  That is why Christians are instructed not to judge.

We see only the results that a person makes out of his raw material.  However God does not judge him on the raw material at all, only on what he has done with it.  When the body dies, and all that is left is that central core, that part of us that chose, that made the best or the worst of our material will be left standing before God, and we see everyone for who they really were.  There will be surprises.

Christian morality is not a kind of bargain in which God says, “If you keep a lot of the rules, I will reward you, and if you fail to, then I will punish you.”  Instead, it is more a matter of every time you make a choice you are turning that part of you that chooses into something a little different from what it was before.  If you take your life as a whole, with all your uncountable choices, all your life you are slowly turning into either a heavenly creature, or a hellish one; either into a creature that is in harmony with God or one that is in a state of war with Him.  Each of us at each moment of our lives is progressing in one direction or the other.

This then makes sense, when Christians talk about the importance of all sins, what Christians mean is that it is the action that leaves a mark on the tiny central self which none of us will see in this life, but each of us will have to endure forever.  One person may so misplace his anger that he kills another, while another misplaces his anger in such a manner that he only gets laughed at and scorned.  But the little mark on the soul may be nearly identical to both.  Each has done something to himself, which left unrepented will make it harder for him the next time, and so the cycle goes on forever.  Both of them if they turn to God and with Godly sorrow repent, can have that twist made straight, each of them is doomed if they will not.  The size of the thing as seen from the outside is not what really matters. 

That leaves me with one last point, the right direction leads not only to peace, but to knowledge.  When a person is getting better he understands more and sees more clearly the evil that is still in him.  When a person is getting worst, he understands his own wickedness less and less, a modernly bad man knows he is not very good, a truly wicked person thinks they are all right.  You see this played out in America  all the time,  the person who commits one act of adultery and repents from it knows they are wrong, the person who lives in a continuous state of adultery thinks there is nothing wrong with themselves.    

You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk.  Good people know about both good and evil; Immoral people do not know about either. 

Examined Christian Faith 'Morality' 3.1 What is Christainity

When I was a young boy, I remember our pastor calling all of the children to the front of the church to ask us what we thought God was like; my younger brother being much more vocal then the rest of us quickly replied that God must be the sort of person who is always snooping around to see if anyone is having fun and then He tries to stop it.   Sadly that is exactly the idea that the word 'Morality' brings to mind in the vast majority of adults; morality is something that stops you from having a good time.   In reality moral rules are the directions for running the human body. 

If you were like me and when you were first learning to drive a car, the instructor  kept saying, “No, don’t do it like that, do it like this”; because there were all sorts of things that looked all right and seemed to me the natural way of driving the car, but do not really work.  That same idea applies to the moral rules; every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain in running the human body.  That is why these rules at first glance seem to be constantly interfering with our natural desires.  

Morals are not an ‘idea’, and certainly not an ‘idealism’ that we should aspire to, no more then rules about driving a car are.  If while driving a car, I elect to ignore the rules, and drive without my lights on at night, eventually there are going to be consequences, in the same manner every moral failure is going to cause trouble, probably to others and certainly to yourself (even if you do not realize it for a very long time).  By talking about rules and obedience instead of ‘ideas’ and ‘idealism’ we help to remind ourselves of these facts. 

There are two ways that a human can go wrong, one is when the human individuals drift apart from one another, or collide with one another and do one another damage.  The other is when things go wrong inside the individual – when the different parts of the individual (his or her different desires, wants, etc. either drift apart or interfere with one another.   To give you an idea of how this works, if you were like me, as I was growing up, I learned how to play an instrument (the French horn); so think of all of humanity as a large band playing a song.  To get a good result two things are needed.  Each member of the band individual instrument must be in tune and each must also come in at precisely the right moment so as to combine with all the others.

But there is still one thing that we have not yet taken into account, all of the instruments might be in tune, and they might all come in at the right moment, however if the band was suppose to play the Christian hit song “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me, but instead played George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone”; regardless of how well they played, it would be a disaster. 

Morality then is concerned with 3 things, first – with fair play, and harmony between individuals. Second – with cleaning up (keeping things in harmony inside each individual) and lastly, the general purpose of human life as a whole; what man was made for: or in other words, what tune the conductor (God) of the band wants it to play.

If you look about you, you will notice that everyone is nearly always thinking about the first thing and forgetting the other two.   Even when Christians talk about striving for moral standards, they usually mean that they are pursuing kindness and fair play between individuals, classes of people, and nations; all of which is concerned only with the first part of morality.   Not that it is entirely bad, as it is quite natural when we think of morality to begin with the first thing.  For one thing, the results of bad morality in that area are so obvious and press down on us everyday; lies, poverty, war, graft, adultery, and thievery.  There is very little disagreement about morality as long as you stick to the first thing. Almost everyone agrees (in theory anyway) that everyone should be honest, kind and helpful to one another.  However if we stop there, we might have not have any thought at all.  Unless we move on to the second thing – the cleaning up inside each individual- we are only deceiving ourselves. 

What good is it if all of the members of the band are coming in at the right moment, if they are each horribly out of tune?  What is the good of drawing up on paper, rules for behavior, if we know that in fact, our selfishness, greed,  anger, and cowardice are going to prevent us from keeping them?   What I mean is that all the thinking means nothing, unless we realize that noting but the courage and unselfishness of individuals is ever going to make society work properly.  You cannot make me good by law; and without good men you cannot have a good society (including the society within the church).  That is why we must move on to the second thing; the morality of the individual. 

We could stop here, but if we did, while there would not be much disagreement, we still very well could be playing the wrong song.  This is the hard part, for religion involves a series of statements about facts, which are either true or false.  If they are true, one set of conclusions will follow about the right song, if they are false quite a different conclusion will follow.   For example, if a person says that a thing can not be wrong unless it hurts some other being, he understands that he must not play his instrument when he should not, but he honestly thinks that if he keeps his own instrument in tune or not is his own business.  But does it make a difference if his instrument is his own property or not?  Does it matter if I am the landlord of my own mind and body, or only a tenant, responsible to the real landlord?  If somebody else made me, for His own purposes, then I have a lot of duties that I would not have if I simply belong to myself.

If I only live for 80 to 100 years, then a city, a state, or nation that may last for a thousand years is more important then I am.  However, if Christianity is true, and all human being are going to live forever (either in Heaven or Hell) then the individual is not only more important, but incomparably more important, for he or she is everlasting, and the life of the state or civilization for that matter , compared to his is only for a moment.  

We must then think about all three areas when we think about morality; relations between man and man, things inside each man, and relations between man and the power that made him.  We can all cooperate (at least in theory) in the first one.  Disagreement’s always begin with the second and become very serious with the third.  It is the third that the primary differences in regards to morality, come out between Christians and non-Christians.  For the rest of this series I am going to look at the entire picture as it is seen from Christian point of view, as it will be if I am correct and Christianity is true.