Predestination and Old Souls

Predestination: the idea that some people are somehow chosen to be children of God while others aren't, has been debated and argued for centuries. What if this is yet another example of something the church has profoundly misunderstood? What if people on both sides of the argument have missed the point completely?

The other night there were several people at our house. I was in the kitchen doing something and the rest were in the living room just chatting when suddenly everyone burst out in laughter. This is not an unusual
thing with this particular group, but when I came in, my wife explained to me that one of our members - who is more concerned with social justice than the rest of us - shared the fact that when she was younger, she thought that she wanted to marry a black guy to show that there was nothing wrong with that sort of thing. In and of itself there is nothing funny about this, but the reason it was so funny to everyone else is because it is totally in keeping with her personality, and that even at a very young age it was evident.

I didn't really think much about this until a couple of days later when I was trying to work through some other perplexing scenarios in the bible, and my mind wandered to predestination. Somehow my mind tied

Embracing Sin

I typically have 3 or 4 books on the go at any one time. They are usually fairly deep, which accounts for my watching too much TV: my brain sometimes needs the mind numbing aspects that only TV can give. One of the ones that I am currently reading is a book by Franciscan priest Richard Rohr entitled Falling Upward. (All you evangelicals out here take a deep breath and keep reading). It is quite fascinating. He makes several very insightful observations and statements, but the one that just stuck out at me is this;

The Carnage of Hell

The problem with the old Fire and Brimstone preachers and their contemporary cousins, evangelicals, is that trying to scare the hell out of someone, as an evangelistic technique, is not very effective. And, when it does work, it seldom produces a true Christian.

The better, more effective way to evangelize, is with our lives - which is our evangelical mandate as well as the point of being a Christian in the first place. We need to show people what it means to be a follower of Christ; to show them why following Christ makes a difference in this world here and now; to give them a reason to want to follow in the footsteps of Christ – a path which, in many ways, is actually harder than the one they are currently on.

 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

 Now, I realize that some people who’ve had the hell scared out of them do eventually get it - in fact I am one of them. However, besides the years – possibly decades - of wasted opportunities to spread the true Gospel of Christ, it produces a religiosity that emphasizes a personal relationship to God with precious little regard to the world around them. They’ve done their bit: they have a death grip on their get-out-of-hell-free card, and they know they are “in”. And, for the most part, everyone else can go to hell.

But that’s not the saddest part.

The saddest part is the carnage they leave in their trail of misguided evangelism. The wrecked relationships with family, friends and co-workers. The ostracization of people closest to them whom they have made to feel less then acceptable. The “I’m in and your not” attitude.

In other words - the exact opposite of being a Christian.

If you think the point of Christianity is getting out of hell, and you are in the least bit a human being, then of course you are going to want your loved ones to get out of hell as well. This then justifies any amount of bullying that’s required to accomplish that goal.

Placing the emphasis on getting out of hell seems to produce a strange mixture of arrogance, compassion (at least for those closest to you), selfishness, in-your-face intimidation, and ambivalence.

Not exactly stellar qualities.

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words – Francis of Assisi