Spiritual Journey, Part II

[greybeta]

When I was in the fifth or sixth grade, WWJD bracelets became immensely popular. “What Would Jesus Do?” became seen everywhere. It started infiltrating all sorts of merchandise, from earrings to t-shirts. It was “cool” to wear a WWJD bracelet.

I wore mine just like everybody else did. Mine was a blue bracelet with black letters. I wore it everywhere, and there several times when I had to look on the playground for it after it slipped off my wrist when I was running around with my friends.

But it was just a fad. The market became oversaturated with the WWJD label and there were too many people trying to capitalize on it. As quickly as the fad grew among the youth of the Bible Belt, it even more quickly died out.

Yet, I always wore my WWJD bracelet. I wore it through junior high, high school, and even the first two years of college. It was a convenient conversation starter, as I explained to many an international student why I wore that bracelet.

One day, though, I lost it for good. I was running in the middle of a rainstorm and lost it somewhere on campus. There was no way I was going to find it. I was a bit sad, but then I remembered something.

We once had a speaker at the Baptist Student Union who asked if anyone still wore a WWJD bracelet. I was the only one to raise my hand. The speaker was a bit surprised, but then he made a point that Christians cannot be marked by something physical.

I then realized that people were very surprised to find out that I was a Christian. To live the life of a disciple of Christ, people should be able to see the one that you reveal inside yourself. People weren’t seeing the one in me…they were seeing me.

Me, me, me. I was living a selfish life, one that did not indicate that I had made Jesus Christ the Lord of my Life. There was a disconnect that I had to resolve.

However, as a heretic, I have to ask, “Is that so bad?” What is so bad about being comfortable in who I am? I feel tension when I try to say that I believe Jesus is the only way to heaven, yet I feel relaxed when I say that Jesus is my Lord and my Savior but that there are still other ways to heaven.

Has Satan deceived me?

Comments

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

I don't think Satan has anything to do with it, but mind you, I've left the Catholic Church and Christianism when I was about ... 12.

I think there's indeed many ways of living a good life. That the more spiritual, enlightened ones can make out for themselves what is wrong or right, the others need guidance. But both can fall trapped into fundamentalism, the former as leaders the latter as followers.

If that made sense.

[genuinechris.livejournal.com]

Has Satan deceived me?

-~sure. If it wasn't this, it'd be something else.

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if you telling me that or greybeta ?

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Actually, I could use a little more explanation...

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

I'm going to sleep right now, but DO remind me to expand on that thought, because by tomorrow I might have forgotten ( short term memory issues due to lack of regenerative sleep ) and right now I'll only type incoherent sentences.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Reminder, I require more explanation...

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

Well, I believe someone who is enlightened, who is aware of the divine around and in us, knows what's good and right. And can act accordingly. There are also "guidelines" that someone will follow.

However, people who are not enlightened, who are really living life with the idea of a deity in the back of their heads, need more "rules" to know what is good and what is bad, even though I don't think the division between both is that strict, as I believe everything is binary.

But, the first type of people can often become overwhelmed with their knowledge, even if it's basic, and start laying out rules for the the latter kind. When they get stuck in their own righteousness, they start behaving like dictators, while the others, in dire need of guidance, look up to them.

It doesn't always have to happen like that, and not every dictator or cult leader is enlightened. But I do see that as a theoretical outcome. Remember, for me, the future is always a possible outcome of the situation of the now that is always moving while only the past is fixed ... Hope that made sense, I'm again about to go sleep but I think I'll have as less time for LJ tomorrow as today.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Okay, I think I understand what you're saying now. You believe that there is a small segment of society, an "enlightened elite" who know the difference between right and wrong and can act accordingly. But the ignorant masses need "guidelines" to follow what is right and wrong. This can lead to cults and dictatorships.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

I feel relaxed when I say that Jesus is my Lord and my Savior but that there are still other ways to heaven.


From what I remember from my days growing up Roman Catholic, Christians believe that the only way to enter Heaven is through Jesus. I'm not sure how rigidly they hold to that doctrine now, though, since I haven't attended church in ages.

I don't think it is a matter of Satan deceiving you as much as it is you defining your belief system. If it doesn't mesh with Catholic or Christian teachings, there is nothing necessarily wrong with that.

[nickel.livejournal.com]

From what I know of you, you call yourself a heretic because you strongly disagree with some aspects of church doctrine. You do not disbelieve in Christ, only the church. That's heretical, but remember that Jesus' teachings were heretical to the dominant Church of his time in his country. Disagreeing with the Church may be heresy, but it isn't necessarily the work of the Antagonist.

While I commend you for the act of searching, I would suggest that the only way you can get an answer for /you/ not for the Church, or from the Church, is to ask directly through prayer. "If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God..." We /all/ enjoy the privilege of calling upon the Lord. That is not a privilege reserved for organized religious authorities.

On the other topic, being Christian -is- something you wear on your sleeve. It is stopping to help someone change a tire. It is offering a quarter to someone who came up short for bus fare. It is loving your neighbor and doing service without hope of compensation. And it is doing these things without expecting that someone will point and say: 'There goes a Christian.' It is doing these things because they are right and good. Do them long enough and recognition is inevitable.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

On the other topic, being Christian -is- something you wear on your sleeve. It is stopping to help someone change a tire. It is offering a quarter to someone who came up short for bus fare. It is loving your neighbor and doing service without hope of compensation. And it is doing these things without expecting that someone will point and say: 'There goes a Christian.' It is doing these things because they are right and good. Do them long enough and recognition is inevitable.
This is something that I hope that all Christian denominations can agree on.

[purplkat.livejournal.com]

From the perspective of the resident spiritual agnostic, my take is that if you are -genuinely- content with who you are and where you are in life, then you're golden. Sure, there's more you COULD do. There's nore that EVERYONE could do. But you'll do your best in life if you first find that center where you're happy and then let that center guide you in everything else. Follow your bliss.

(Maybe I need a WWCD? bracelet -- What Would Campbell Do? I really do let other philosophers and great writers inspire me, but Campbell managed to condense it all down into such a pretty package that he winds up always being the final authority)

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

You could always knit yourself a WWCD scarf. I'm sure that would strike up a lot of interesting conversations.

[purplkat.livejournal.com]

I'm also a very proficient beader and embroiderer, so there are a lot of mediums I could use. I'm seriously considering it, now. I could make a bracelet or even a really nice bead and wirework necklace.

[exrandu.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Jesus is the only way to Heaven....but Heaven is not the only afterlife? Why must there be only one afterlife, when there are trillions of lives?

[thanoslug.livejournal.com]

The idea that there are many ways to get to heaven is a very popular one. People say that as long as you are basically a good person and reasonably happy then how could there be anything wrong with that? How could a good person, whether they believe in Christ or not, not go to heaven or whatever you want to call the good version of the afterlife? It makes people feel good to believe that they just have to be good people and maybe give lip service to God.

From a Christian standpoint, it does not matter how good a person is they are still a human and full of sin and without the grace of God they cannot get into heaven.

People will protest saying that but if God is love and God is merciful then how can this be so? They will say that they believe that a loving God would not do this. These traits, however, do not fully define God - I don't think it is possible for us as limited humans to fully define God, however, we also know that God is just and has also been called vengeaful. Justice often requires penalties.

The bible spends a fair amount of time on the idea that our sins must be atoned for somehow if we are to get into heaven. For us, today, that atonement comes in the form of the sacrifice of Christ. If there were a myriad of ways to get into heaven that did not require that God allow His Son to be sacrificed and spend days in hell in the hands of Satan then why would He put His son through that? The sacrifice of Christ is pointless and unnecessary if there are other ways into heaven.

[kteck.livejournal.com]

My pathetic two cents:

(note: this is from the perspective of one Christian to another, both assuming that man is inherently sinful, and both fully versed in Scripture :-))

John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus came full of grace and truth. The problem is, people tend to take both parts to their extremes. The people of only "truth" tend to be legalistic to the point that behaving like a Christian, and thinking like a Christian, and pretending to be Christian (whatever that means) becomes more important than actually being a Christian: that is, actually following Christ, and loving above all else, like he loved. When you hear most non-Christians talk about "those Christians" I believe they are referring to the legalistic Christians. the don't-smoke-don't-drink-don't-party-don't-cuss people. Oh, hey, they're the kind of Christian that run Bob Jones University :-P.

The people of only "grace," however, use the love of God as a way to justify all manner of sin, and obscure the fundamentally offensive Truth. You SHOULD be bothered by the message of Christ (which some people might try to tell you is all about "love." Phooey! "love" hurts according to the message of Christ!). The natural, sinful man inside all of us should and will be repelled by this truth, because it is the Truth, and it is good, and we are evil. (Of course, if you are of the opinion that men are all fundamentally good, then such argument doesn't even apply :-))

So... how to balance the two? Grace and truth? For as truth came with grace, neither can grace alter truth. I think every Christian is still trying to figure that out. Is grace (love) so important that it means even though Christ is a way to heaven, he isn't the only way, because God is such a loving God that he would totally want good, non-Christian, but "god"-fearing people enter his kingdom? (This brings up an interesting issue, i think, which is... if Christ isn't the only way, is he a "better" way, or just as equally valid as anything other? and if every other way was totally valid, then why would God come and suffer like He did and make such a big deal out of it, too? and why the heck would God have so many ways to him and make it so confusing for all of us?)

Well, aside from that rambling, do you think you secretly take pride in calling yourself a heretic? as in it sets you apart? makes you "different" from the other boring Christians (who all believe that Christ is The Way and are just too culturally dense to see how there could be other ways...). I sometimes get the impression that you calling yourself a heretic is a way to make you feel somehow on top of the game of religion :-D. but i might be wrong--please correct me if so!

God bless! have a lovely night!

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

My pathetic two cents:
[rant]One of my greatest pet peeves as an opinion editor are people who are too timid to be confident in their own opinions, always qualifying it with "maybe" or "probably." If you want me to respect your opinion, never ever call your own opinion pathetic.[/rant]

So... how to balance the two? Grace and truth? For as truth came with grace, neither can grace alter truth. I think every Christian is still trying to figure that out. Is grace (love) so important that it means even though Christ is a way to heaven, he isn't the only way, because God is such a loving God that he would totally want good, non-Christian, but "god"-fearing people enter his kingdom? (This brings up an interesting issue, i think, which is... if Christ isn't the only way, is he a "better" way, or just as equally valid as anything other? and if every other way was totally valid, then why would God come and suffer like He did and make such a big deal out of it, too? and why the heck would God have so many ways to him and make it so confusing for all of us?)
I never thought of it like this before. I'll have to chew on this one awhile. ^_^

Well, aside from that rambling, do you think you secretly take pride in calling yourself a heretic? as in it sets you apart? makes you "different" from the other boring Christians (who all believe that Christ is The Way and are just too culturally dense to see how there could be other ways...). I sometimes get the impression that you calling yourself a heretic is a way to make you feel somehow on top of the game of religion :-D. but i might be wrong--please correct me if so!
In some ways, you are right. I take pride in myself, and if I am a heretic, I take pride in being a heretic. But as Proverbs says, "Pride comes before destruction, a haughty step before the fall."

In reading apologetics I did get bored reading the same thing over and over. Place your faith in God and His Word. But what does that mean?

To me, there's always this disconnect between doing good and believing Jesus is the only way to heaven. We are always fond of saying that good works alone cannot earn one's way to heaven. "Good" people are not going to go to heaven. Or should I say that they were never "good" to begin with?