An Example of the Effect of Teaching Law Without Grace

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This site has moved to robert.williamsonline.us.

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Anna struggles with religion and the meaning of it all and concludes "In order for us all to live together as one people, as one planet, we must shed the trappings of religion."

The trouble is, this is her conception of Christianity:

When you look at christianity, you've basically got this concept of a pre-ordained path that every human must follow or else face fire and brimstone in the afterlife. There is no room for change or expansion of the human consciousness. You either walk the path or you burn in hell. Add the catholic concept of sin and the trauma is multiplied exponentially. One literally walks in fear every day, wondering if that glance at your brother's wife will be your eternal undoing. Sure there's confession, but it's a temporary fix. One never knows for sure if god forgives you for your sins. You must take the word of the church, given via fallible man. And since you're human, you're going to continue to sin and therefore continue damning yourself over and over again.

This is a perfectly reasonable response to being taught the law without also being taught grace. Of course people reject a system that gives them no hope or security! What else do we expect?

It is not, however, a characterization of Biblical Christianity.

I don't walk in fear, because "whosoever believeth on Him is not condemned" (John 3:18) and "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23) and "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1)

The Bible doesn't teach a "temporary fix" based on confessing one's sins to a priest. "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." All my sins were washed away and I don't need a priest to tell me so or make it so.

Just one word of warning, Anna's site (and the specific post I linked to as well) contains a non-trivial amount of profanity. If this offends you, well, you've been warned.

Posted by Robert at November 24, 2002 12:30 AM | TrackBack