Christianity includes this very basic premise: Christ is the center. That is, after all, the central concept of the word, "Christianity", is it not? Now, when stated this way, I believe that most who call themselves Christians will nod and say, "Of course." I mean, it's patently obvious, isn't it? Well, it ought to be.
But how does that work itself out in practice? Well, too often, not very well. You see, we are humans, and humans suffer from a natural tendency ... to make "me" the center. That, of course, is the contradiction. While Christianity talks of things like "die to self" and "take up your cross" and the like, we have high expectations for ourselves.
How does that show itself? It pops up in a large variety of ways. It shows up when we hold God to standards to which He doesn't hold Himself. Some won't allow for a God who, as an example, shows wrath. "That's not right. God loves us too much to show wrath." It shows up when the idea that God may actually have planned to not save some is suggested. You see, we're way too valuable for God to do that. It shows up when we are quick to point our fingers at others' faults but even quicker at dismissing our own. "God loves me too much to care about that little thing." It shows up when we object to biblical doctrine because "that's not fair" ... speaking solely about how it's "not fair" to humans. On a related note, it shows up when we are more concerned about God doing what's "right" for us with little concern about doing what's right for Him. And in a myriad of other places.
In Romans 1, Paul says, "They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom 1:25). The actual translation is slightly different. The New King James says, instead that they "exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator." It isn't just "a lie"; it is a specific lie. What is it? "The creature is worthy of worship." It is the lie that we all struggle with to varying degrees. We do it when we say, "I can see clearly that the Bible says x, but I won't accept that." We do it when we say, "If that's what God is like, I want nothing to do with Him." We do it when we know what's right to do and don't do it. We do it when we refuse to accept what God says because it's unpleasant or uncomfortable to us. We do it when we object to God's self-revelation because we don't like it. Most obviously, of course, we do it when we fail to believe, when we fail to obey, when we fail to confess, when we fail to love.
We all start so well, it seems. "Of course the center of Christianity is Christ!" So good! But our old nature -- the flesh -- is so quick to insert self as the true center of worship in everyday living and thinking. We need a constant reminder to return to the center -- Christ. Anywhere else is simply confused.
3 comments:
'Nuff said.
The old deification of man.
It was what Adam and Eve were shooting for and, boy, the "original sin" still has humanity in its grips.
Having been raised in a Christian home with a very clearly stated belief that there was ONE God and one God only, that HE was our Creator, we were His creation, and that He was to be revered above ALL things, as a young teen I remember being shocked when I found out that the deification of man was actually spoken of right out loud as a THE ultimate goal in the Mormon church. To them, it is a GOOD thing. All those Mormon men, they are working hard, logging in a lot of hours in order to become gods themselves. Wow, I thought, sin as a goal! And what a doozy of a sin, too!
But I was young and later discovered that the Mormons, the new agers, and any other world religions whose adherents are aspiring to godhood certainly don't have the corner on that market. It's too often just not even recognized by a lot of the rest of us. Like you said, Stan, we humans kind of like to be the center of things.
About 2 decades back, while sitting down waiting in a mall, my husband noticed a small bookstand holding copies of the current top 10 best selling "Christian" books outside of a book store. He started reading over the titles. By the time he got to Book #10, he realized that it seemed all 10 were about what God can do for me/us. Not a single 1 seemed to be about what we can do for Him.
Well, you can't always judge a book by its cover or title, so he went over to check them out more closely. He hoped maybe they really were NOT as focused on that as their titles made it sound. Now granted, he did NOT actually ever read any of those books but, after reading their chapter headings and back covers, he thought he could pretty well determine if that was really the case. And yep, it sure seemed like it! They were SELF-centered, not Christ-centered. He said their subtitles might as well have been something like 'How to Get God to Work for Me'.
He found that to be interesting, but mostly to be sad, and indicative of the sorry state even of apparently far too many who would call themselves followers of Jesus Christ -- at least at THAT particular time (before that list was replaced by 10 new titles) and in THIS particular country.
Many top 10 lists have come and gone since then and certainly not all of them have contained a set of books so seemingly focused on elevating US to the place where we are hoping to be served rather than being servants.
I like the term, "anthropocentrism". Okay, I like it because I like words like that. But it is the majority vote both within and without Christendom. Who is it all about? "Us!" The deification of Man. And Christians are guilty of it.
Post a Comment