Does Belief Matter?

On the surface, this post seems to make a lot of sense. It's true that most religions are exclusive and say that their way is the only way - but to what? To happiness? Or to ULTIMATE happiness? This is the difference. The phrase "true happiness" is terrible. It doesn't explain what it means at all. It doesn't mean that Christians are actually happy and everyone else isn't. The phrase people use should be Ultimate Joy; not "true happiness."

I fully believe that the followers of Buddha, Islam, Hinduism, all the different factions of Christianity, etc. find a measure of happiness. If they didn't find happiness in it somehow, what would be the point? The teachings that they follow resonate with them in some way and bring them happiness.

Happiness is never the point. Giving a child candy will make them happy. Happiness has an end; happiness does not endure. Joy does endure. Joy is found in something lasting; joy can be there when you're nothing close to happy. People are capable of experiencing JOY in the middle of grief.

Her second point is that Christians should be the happiest (or, using proper terms, most joyful) people in the world. This is saddening - because she's right; and from her experience, Christians aren't joyful. See, if Christ hadn't risen, we would be of all men most miserable; but since Christ has risen from the dead, we should be the most joyful people in the world. We should have the most peace; we should have the longest tempers; we should have the most self-control, the most confidence, the most common sense, the most wisdom.

Now, please understand this as well. As much as we OUGHT to be the most joyful people, we are still sinners. We will not be perfect in this world. We will lose our tempers; we will worry; we will be arrogant; we will be stupid; we will do things wrong; we will hurt others. The gift of joy has been given to us, but we still sin, and so we are not always joyful.

To answer the question: the beliefs of other religions are perfectly valid in that they grant a measure of peace, happiness, and direction to those who believe. The problem is that the peace is false peace. Unrepentant sinners are not at peace with a holy God; any peace they receive outside of Christ is deceiving them, lulling them to sleep until they die and their sentence is sealed. Their happiness, which I do not begrudge them one bit, is only in this world. It only lasts until they die. The sense of direction, of purpose, points them away from Christ, points them straight down the road to Hell. Oh, yes, they receive things from their beliefs, but it's nothing good for them.

Yes, it matters what you believe - maybe the Buddhist will be happier than the Christian in this life, though it shouldn't be. It could be that way. The Buddhist is at peace with himself, calm and secure in his beliefs; the Christian is fighting, struggling his entire life not to sin, to wrap his head around the things that are uncomfortable to believe and then to live them out. The Christian is grieved when he fails, because that failure was another sin that Christ had to pay for on the cross of Calvary. The Buddhist is content with himself, happy in his way of life; the Christian cries every night because he sees the sin in his heart. Let's say that all their lives, this is the way. But then they die.

Standing before Christ, the Buddhist looks at himself and finally sees what he was content with, what he was happy with - charred and blackened tatters of clothes that cover a thoroughly muddied body that can never enter the golden city of New Jerusalem. He spends eternity in Hell, unable to produce a shred of happiness, a moment of peace, a breath of contentment with his lot. And the Christian looks at himself and sees the whitest robe that ever was, the righteousness of Christ Jesus, covering him completely. He's able to spend hours and years and forever with the Person that he loves the most, his God, the One Who gave Him all good things.

Even if, IF, the unsaved have a happier life in this world, the Christian is going to have the greatest joy for all eternity. Lalaith was only looking at the here and now; but the greatest joy of the Christian is yet to come.

October 3, 2011

My goal is to post at least three times a week until I get caught up with the other blog. So here I am, about to talk about what was one of the hardest things I've ever read. Very sad, but very much able to be explained.

Here's the post.

I think, for every Christian, reading that ending is rough. It should be; we love our God and hearing someone speak about Him in such a way is offensive. It's also saddening because it's obvious that Throendy worked very hard to try to do what she thought was right; she read the Bible, she prayed, she even sought help from the leadership.

But even in her words, you can find the error. She WORKED for it. She was trying to WIN God's love. She fought for it and she failed. It's sad, very sad. But the fault is in the theology, not in God. No person can WIN God's love; that's why Christ had to come and die. If we could earn it, win it, work for it, the sacrifice of Jesus would be the most unjustifiable waste imaginable. Why would an Infinite God die for finite people, if the people could earn salvation themselves?

There's a warning here for everyone who is living the life that Threnody and Lalaith did for so long. They were indeed wasted years for them and no one seemed to see the real problem. If you are calling and calling and God is not answering, you should probably reevaluate some things. Are you really a Christian? Are you calling improperly, pridefully, as if God OWES you an answer because you've done your Bible reading that week and gone to church (or whatever good thing)? Are you calling only because you're in trouble right now, but last month when everything was fine, you wanted nothing to do with talking to God?

That isn't Christianity; that's religiosity; that's works-based. Christianity is Jesus-based. Jesus paid the price; Jesus already bought God's love with His blood; now He gives it to us free of charge with the understanding that we can do nothing to ever earn it. No amount of time that we give Him, no amount of energy can ever begin to pay Him back. His sacrifice was infinite because He is infinite; anything we can give is finite because we are finite.

Back to the questions. Those are a few things that you can ask yourself as to why God might not be answering you. The Bible says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." If you have sin that's just sitting in your life and you're not doing anything about it, why should God listen to you? You're already not doing what He's said to do. Why would He give you more directions if you're not taking the first step? What parent tells their two year old five things they have to do when the two-year old isn't doing the one thing that they have to do every day?

Repent and believe. Repent of your sins (this isn't saying, "I'm sorry I did X"; repenting is turning away, it's wanting to leave them all behind; it's running the opposite direction. If you were a drunk, it'd be seeing a bar and immediately turning around and RUNNING the other way. That's repenting; taking action to leave it behind. Repenting doesn't mean you never sin; it means at that moment, you never want to sin again); believe in Jesus (believe that He is Who He says and that He's done what He said; He is God; He died to save sinners). This formula works for Christians and non-Christians alike. It's what happens when we're saved; it's what happens when we fall down afterwards.

If we repent as Christians but don't believe, we get depressed. We fall into despair because we hate our sin and want nothing to do with it, but we're not believing that Jesus can help us. If we believe but never repent, we also get depressed because there's no relationship; we have sin in the way all the time.

The other thing I want to touch on is the reasoning behind religiosity (works-based religion). People look at Christians who are DOING things, good things, and they see it as working FOR acceptance with God. There are two possible reasons for this: One is that the people just can't imagine NOT having to work for it; the other is that the Christians are doing good things for the wrong reasons. Like the Church at Ephesus, they've left their first love. They're doing all the good works, but they're not doing them out of love for Jesus anymore.

What people should be seeing is something that they don't understand. They should be seeing Christians who are serving God happily, not because it's their duty or their job, and definitely not because they're trying to EARN some favor with Him; but they should be working for God because they love Him. We don't serve to get saved; we serve BECAUSE we're saved. It's just like a job. You don't work in order to get hired; you work BECAUSE you were hired. We don't serve to get God's love; we have God's love so we WANT to serve Him.

One last thing that deserves being mentioned. The Bible says that God is love. What people don't understand is that what they want is not real love. Without the saving work of Christ Jesus people are addicted to sin; feeding their addiction is what they want; it is not what they need and it is definitely not what is loving. In not giving them what they want, He is being loving. They just can't see it - because they're addicts.