Don’t Fear Questions

I saw this on one of the Yahoo lists that I read. It’s by Sister Joan Chittister, a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA. I've colored for emphasis the parts to which I can especially relate.

I DON'T FEAR QUESTIONS

As a young teenager, kneeling in a dark cathedral one night, with no illumination in the church but the sanctuary lamp, I had an experience of intense light. I was thirteen years old and totally convinced that, whatever it was and wherever it came from, the light was God. Perhaps it was a good janitor working late, or a bad switch that did not work at all, or a startling insight given to a young woman, given gratuitously. I did not know then and I do not know now. But I did know that the light was God and that God was light.

It has not always been easy—I went through a terrible period as a young sister—to the point that I thought I would have to leave religious life because I doubted the divinity of Jesus. Only when I realized that I did believe deeply and profoundly in God could I come to peace with the fact that faith in God would have to be enough. It was a dark, empty time. It threw me back on the barest of beliefs but the deepest of beliefs. I hung on in hope like a spider on a thread. But the thread was enough for me. As a result, my faith actually deepened over the years. The humanity of Jesus gave promise to my own. Jesus ceased to be distant and ethereal and “perfect.” Jesus let no system, no matter how revered, keep him from a relationship with God. And that union with God, I came to understand, was divine. Then I also understood that questions are of the essence in a mature faith.

I don’t fear the questions any more. I know that they are all part of the process of coming to union with God and refusing to make an idol of anything less. The point is that during that difficult time I didn’t try to force anything. I simply lived in the desert believing that whatever life I found there was life enough for me. I believed that God was in the darkness. It is all part of the purification process and should be revered. It takes away from us our paltry little definitions of God and brings us face-to-face with the Transcendent. It is not to be feared. It is simply to be experienced. Then, God begins to live in us without benefit of recipes and rituals, laws, and “answers”—of which there are, in the final analysis, none at all.

~Sister Joan Chittister

ALL

Consider this statement:

“Not all men became sinners after Adam demonstrated unbelief and disobedience in the garden."

How would most Christians respond to this statement? The overwhelming majority would say that it is not true. They would insist that death became a reality for all men because of the sin of Adam. They would also say that no one was even given a choice in the matter. Mankind was automatically assigned the death sentence because of Adam’s unbelief and disobedience. The Bible would back up this understanding also.

“…just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned,” Romans 5:13 (NKJV)

I agree. The fact that sin and death spread to all men seems established in this verse.

If we believe that all died without a choice in the matter, then why don’t we believe that Jesus redeemed all without a choice being needed on man‘s part? Do we need to believe first in order to receive redemption? I think belief is important in living a life here on earth. What does believing do for us? Our believing that Jesus finished and fulfilled it all at the Cross brings salvation to our mind and soul as we live our life here and now.

Evangelical Christianity teaches that only those who confess and believe can receive the gift of redemption offered by Jesus Christ. Some are in and some are out. I don’t believe this as I once did. I don’t believe it was an offering, a choice, or an option. Scripture doesn’t bare this out.

Continuing to read in Romans 5 we see that the gift given is much more than the death by offense that mankind received by Adam.

“But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.” Romans 5:15 (NKJV)

In case the word “many” provokes a question of how many received it, look at Romans 5:18:

“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”

I love the book of Romans.

This is my first post in a month. Some in my family took a week away from home which meant one week to get ready to go and two to get back to normal after returning. Well, that’s my excuse anyway for not writing. More to come…

Belief and Believing

Just a few more thoughts on belief and believing. I was listening to an mp3 of Mike Williams of Gospelogic recently and I wrote down a couple of things he said that stood out to me.

He said:

“Belief based in threat is no belief at all.”

“There is no evidence that you are a believer if you believe that the threat of punishment stands from God to you if you don’t believe.”

“Empowerment comes when you realize that you don't have to be a believer and you decide to be one anyway based on the evidence that you have.”

“We are the responders.”

“Jesus redeemed us so that we could become believers. He didn't require belief so that we could be redeemed.”

“It is ludicrous to think that man could validate the work of God and make it verifiable through his own belief.”

“God has got to be God on His own without man's help.”

This Gospel of grace and peace has brought freedom to my soul that is growing every day. It continues to amaze me.