Moorad wrote to Guy Blanchet
> Actually, Christianity is not really a religion. In Christianity God seeks
(sought) man; whereas in religion man seeks God. Christ left no middle
ground (The Unpardonable Sin): "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he
who does not gather with Me scatters." Matt. 12:30.
> Moorad
>
Guy wrote to Adrian Teo
>
> Adrian,
>
> It was God who defined the boundaries of Christianity. Although there are
> zillions of religious, they can be separated in two groups:
> 1. the religions of the world which group those who feel man saves
himself
> through good works
> 2. Christianity who groups those who are convinced through the Holy
Spirit
> that God saves man because of His atoning death and ressurection.
>
> There is no middle position. If you accept the Good News, the plan of
> salvation, then your Christian. If you don't accept it, you're not
Christian.
> People may discuss all they want....but that will not change God's
decision by
> one iota!
> Guy
>
Bob Schneider replies:
If only these issues were so simple! I do not believe they are, and
questions about who is a Christian and who is saved ought to be more
nuanced, in my view, than the kind of either/or positions that so many
people put forth. I respect that these are well-established positions that
Guy and Moorad have taken, representing as they do the opinions of a great
body of believers. But I respectfully suggest that there are other ways of
looking at the issues. This is a complex question and I will not try to lay
out all the lines of thought here. But, there are a couple of points I
offer for consideration.
(1) Who is a Christian? is a question that exercised the early Church
Fathers when they pondered the obvious goodness of so many who had not
joined the Church, and the likelihood that not everyone alive today or in
the future would be able to hear the Good News. Convinced from Scripture of
God's universal desire to save, many, including Justin Martyr, Clement of
Alexandria, and Origen, among others, spoke of "the seminal word ["logos
spermatikos"]...the word [Logos] of whom all humankind partakes." All who
live by this word are, for Justin, already Christian even though they have
not heard of Jesus. In Tertullian one finds the concept of the "naturally
Christian soul" (anima naturaliter Christiana). In the 20th cent.,
theologian Karl Rahner wrote of the "anonymous Christian," that person of
another faith who in his/her own life reflects the Christian life as Christ
taught it. If I were a devout Hindu I might not find comforting the notion
that I am an "anonymous Christian," but I do agree as a Christian with the
view that we human beings should not be about the business of deciding on
the basis of our all too human theologies who is or is not saved, or
eliminate anyone outside the Christian family from *God's* economy of
salvation. The Syrophoenician woman taught Jesus a lesson about faith; we
would do well, as he did, to take her as a model. I also agree with the
statement in the Vatican II document, "Gaudium et spes": "Since Christ died
for all, and since all human beings are called to the one and same human
destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all
the possibility of being associated, in a way known to God, with the pascal
mystery [of redemption through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ]."
(2) In the language of salvation through a decision for Christ popular
among many Christians, there is a notion that that decision is to be made in
this life, and if you don't, too bad. Some tend to think of Christ as the
efficient cause of salvation only. I should like to support the view that
Christ is also the final cause, the *telos*, of salvation. In the last
judgment many whom we Christians might not expect to be saved may well be
saved. In that anonymous way Rahner and other theologians have suggested,
the Logos "which enlightens every human being," and the Spirit that "blows
where it will" may in the mysterious ways God acts be leading those of other
faiths, or even no faith, to the telos which is the Christ. They may hear
the words of the Judge: "Come, ye blessed of my father," addressed to those
who did not know him. Those who did not know Christ in this life may come
to know and believe in the next; and we who know him in this life may be
surprised to discover that we knew him through a glass darkly, and that that
knowledge will prove to be inadequate when we meet him face to face. We may
need to be converted in a way, to the Logos, just as those who did not know
him, or were not convinced for various reasons by his missionaries.
(3) I understand the "unpardonable sin" to be the "sin against the holy
spirit," a phrase which has engendered much discussion and interpretation.
The meaning of it that makes the most sense to me is that this sin is a
refusal to accept the grace of God. Also, I would ask of Matt. 12:30, what
is the context?
(4) I agree with Moorad (and Bonhoeffer, and Barth) that there is a
distinction to be made between Christianity and religion. But the fact is,
as Bonhoeffer said, Christianity has worn various cloaks of religion
throughout its history. Learning to separate the dress from the body (of
Christ) is an important step for all of us to take.
In Christ,
Bob Schneider
rjschn39@bellsouth.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 07 2002 - 11:24:58 EST