Why Follow the God of Christianity?

When it comes to choosing which religion we will follow, what rarely comes into view is the god, which we will serve when that religion is selected.  All too often, the act of choosing a religion is similar to selecting which organized group of followers whom you will spend your time much like the Rotary Club, Tennis Club, Chess Club, the Lion’s Club or even the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of America.  They are chosen in like manner based upon how they will service the needs of the chooser.  It must have rules and guidelines to follow so that the personal pleasures of the chooser are met with comfort and class.  After all, if I am to play a game like chess or tennis, there must be rules whereby I am able to find my enjoyment in defeating my opponent.  Even in an institution like the Rotary Club where the motto ‘service above self’ is held in high esteem, this must also service the servicers by serving their need to serve.

God Selection
No matter how you slice it, there is a sense of self-gratification that comes to the surface during the course of the selection process.  When we find the religious club of our liking, we honor the code of the club with fear and trembling and demand with politically correct “tolerance” that others do the same despite their disapproval.  The pop theology on the street says, “What’s true for you may not be true for me and so on and so forth.”  This both/and approach gives orthodox credence to any claim of meaninglessness but nonetheless, the opium of the classroom, particularly the western classroom, gives life to the god-of-the-classroom approach.  But the course in the classroom fails to extend towards living life and the reality of the god that is served in the framework of the newly selected religious club.

The eight times Oscar winning film, Slumdog Millionaire, portrayed the deadly Bombay Riots which lasted for a little over a year between the Hindus and Muslims.  From the western classroom, these two religions are depicted as “peaceful” but the body count from the aftermath would say otherwise.  When we lock ourselves into our western treatment of all things spiritual, we miss the reality of what truly takes place on the streets.  On the streets in the west, the both/and approach is possible for pop theology while on the streets of the actual countries from which these religions were given birth says something entirely different.  The truth of the matter is that western rules only work best in the west and not in other countries.  What is desperately needed is a merging of the classroom with the people in those countries to find the truth.  The Bombay Riots give a much better understanding of the aforementioned religions.

Buddhism claims to be peaceful but in Tibet, outcasts have been locked in caves and left to starve to death while the preaching of the Gospel is also shunned.  Members of the Coexist Foundation proclaim a peace by pluralist approach where the inclusion of the Muslim faith is one among many; however, this only works in the west where the framework of law and order provides an illusory achievement.  Take this exact same message to Iran and let me know how that works because in short, it will not.  Hinduism also claims to be peaceful but the Bombay Riots say otherwise.

Emergent Church Theology
Hinduism starts with Hinduism and ends in accepting all religions as the same.  The newest heresy of the day comes from the Emergent Church Theology in which Christianity is its starting point and ends with the same conclusion as Hinduism, that all religions are the same.  One such proponent, Brian McLaren, claims, “I don’t believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion.  It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish contexts … rather than resolving the paradox via pronouncements on the eternal destiny of people more convinced by or loyal to other religions than ours, we simply move on …To help Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and everyone else experience life to the full in the way of Jesus (while learning it better myself), I would gladly become one of them whoever they are, to whatever degree I can, to embrace them, to join them, to enter into their world without judgment but with saving love as mine has been entered by the Lord.1”

The greatest problem with this approach as well as the others is to simply gloss over some of the most candid words of Jesus and assume that he can be thrown into the mix.

“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.  Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”  “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mk.12:28-29)

Notice that the God of Israel is “one” not many.  Jesus’ preservation of the law is utmost when he declares, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Mt.5:17) This is in keeping with the above passage quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and is honored and kept by the giving of the first commandment in Exodus 20:2-3, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before me.” It is these words that keep the Jesus of the Christian faith far from the pluralist approach.

It is of absolute necessity that jealousy be part of the covenant of marriage for it keeps the promise of one to another.  It is through jealousy that love reveals itself with whole-hearted devotion to its beloved.  That is why God declares, “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…” (Ex.20:5) This does not include a jealousy that is suspicious, tumultuous and easily exacerbated but a jealousy that longs to keep their spouse for themselves.  This is the parallel that God had always intended to be seen through the marriage covenant.

God is not a narcissist.  He demands love and devotion not merely for his happiness but for ours.  We will never know true happiness if we are united to a myriad of false gods that displace the love he has placed in us.  It is always with our benefit in mind, not his.  He is God and his happiness is not contingent upon the reciprocation of delight from mankind.

Factors for God Selection
Therefore, the deciding factor in selecting the god of your choice should come down to 1) the power of that god.  This seems utmost in the mind of the ancient middle east.  The ability to vanquish another is reflective of the power to change the nature of the follower in the next category which is : 2) the moral/ethical treatment of the followers.  Nobody wants to be ruled in an oppressive manner that preserves the lifeless transgressions that rot at the heart.

It is fascinating to read of how Jethro was evangelized.  Moses did not offer him wise and persuasive words (1 Cor.2:4) to convert him to the God of Israel.  It was through a demonstration of power because of his love for the Hebrew people: “Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians.  He said, “Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians.  Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.” Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.” (Ex.18:9-12)

Jethro realized that the Egyptians and the gods that they followed had treated the Hebrews “arrogantly” and honored the demonstration of power over each Egyptian god through the ten plagues that came upon them.  Jethro would have been more than willing to follow a god who saves in this manner.  This is far from the classroom approach towards god selection and the Greek apologetic approach, through reason, to argue persuasively.  They are both good only insofar as they best reflect life as it is lived on the street or in this case, the desert.

The Heart of a Godly King
Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he was arrogant.  Nebuchadnezzar was brought low because he was arrogant and proud in building his idolatrous image.  The kings of Judah and Israel were repeatedly following idols and doing evil in the eyes of the Lord.  But then there was a King who was willing to wash the feet of others and declare that the master is not greater than his servant.  How many of the above mentioned would have washed the feet of their own subjects.  Pharaoh?  Nebuchadnezzar?  Ahab?  Certainly not.  But the kindly King from Nazareth would have surely washed the feet of his subjects.  Jesus exemplifies the humble and loving nature of what a genuine King should encompass.  God would lower himself if only to redeem the hearts of his subjects.  What a strange manner of behavior for a king that he should consider himself a servant!

The heart of any ‘good religion’ can be found in its redemptive purposes for mankind.  By transforming the heart of evil into the heart of good and taking on the nature of the God that transforms it is paramount in the selection process.  The intellectual assent of the classroom offers no reprieve for the weary soul in search of the worship of any god that does not transform the heart by either a failure to ever read a single passage from Hindu, Muslim, Wiccan or Satanism texts or merely glossing over important passages with delusional interpretations.

Coercion and Freedom
I once spoke to a former Wiccan who told me about the Roman Catholic Priest who would attend their meetings.  Being the young and naïve Christian that I was, I asked why and he said, “He thought that he could control his congregation through this.”  Interesting, very interesting.  He also said that the most difficult thing to do was to turn oneself into a bird.  Interesting, very interesting.  When the root of service to any god demands a coercion, manipulation or forceful exploitation, that should be a major cause for alarm.  Unfortunately, many do not even know that they have become the latest victim.

The truth of the Judeo-Christian God lies in his love and devotion to those who serve him but he will not coerce anyone to follow him under terms in which the law of love is abandoned.  Freedom is paramount.  The parable of the prodigal son portrays the fatherly heart of a God who lets go of his son when he has rejected him, not the other way around.  It also displays the heart of a loving God who waits in eager expectation for the return of his son.  For thousands of years, people have twisted the scriptures in an attempt to provide a view of God in which he is manipulative but this maligned interpretive process is left wanting only because none can be found.  The one who redeems the heart and draws us into ever increasing levels of intimacy is the One who is deserving of our attention.

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1 Brian D. McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing, 2004) 260, 262, 264.

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