"In addition to these problems, such an approach creates a wedge between possessing 'truth' and engaging in a life of devotion and service."
"Following on from this, when the truth of faith is reduced to the idea of a theoretical system divorced from one's practice, then faith becomes associated with an affirmation of certain beliefs that seem to do little more than offer the believer a matrix of meaning with which to understand life. This effectively reduces Christianity to a set of claims concerning ideas such as the world's being created for a purpose, God's loving us, and the existence of heaven. The problem arises not when one accepts these beliefs but rather when one thinks that they are what constitutes the truth of faith."
"Indeed, if one does believe in a literal heaven, it may even be important to suspend this belief in order to approach the truly good news of Christianity. For the original disciples the introduction of an afterlife arose only after they had already given up everything and followed Jesus--in short, after the good news had already been received."
I had to skip a bit of text to get to that last paragraph, but felt that it needed to be included to draw the subject towards Rollins' full meaning.
5 comments:
Yep. Do you read Jeff McQ? He asked today about the "sinners prayer" and why if it's only been a part of our faith for 150 years, why it's such an important part?
It has to do with reason and the modern era...where everything has to make logical sense, and that is the ONLY thing we rely on.
Erin- I've also been glad to see so many people questioning the necessity of/importance of "the sinners prayer"
it isn't necessarily that i see Christian people living ungodly lives or even entirely unloving lives, but that there seems to be supreme importance placed on what they say they believe. beliefs are spouted like mantras- for the sake of saying them, it seems, more than the sake of living them.
You know one thing that has always driven me nuts? The "personal statement of faith" or worse the "personal mission statement".
Ok so not that I have anything against people who have found this to be helpful in their personal faith.
However, it's never made sense to me and I could never write one, no matter how I tried. I always thought, I could never sum up my relationship with God in a sentence or two, using words, no less.
I haven't been around that too much. For a while in our denomination every single church committee or sunday school class was encouraged (pressured) to write a mission statement. I found it to be an enormous waste of time.
Cindy,
This is good stuff. Thanks for sharing them.
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