The Bible Undressed

            The next three posts all touch on the subject of what it take to be ‘saved.’ Even if you don’t believe in the concept of an afterlife I think it is still interesting to consider what religion teaches about our eternal fate. For many people this is the most important question in life. Is there a definitive answer?

            Perhaps the best known verse in the New Testament, at least among churchgoers, is this one:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.  John 3:16

It used to be very common that when you saw a sporting or other televised event that you would see someone holding up a sign saying “John 3:16.” I guess they thought that unbelievers would have a Bible and bother to pick it up and read that verse and believe and so be saved after seeing that sign? I’m not sure that’s the best evangelism strategy, but it’s easier than actually talking to people face-to-face. In a bizarre turn of events the man who originated this stunt, ‘Rainbow Man’ Rollen Stewart, is serving three life sentences for hostage-taking in a bizarre attempt to get air time for his end-of-the-world views.

From The Simpsons, Season 3, Episode 1, “Stark Raving Dad.”

            Some years ago I attended a Christmas pageant which featured a brief presentation of Jesus’ life from birth to resurrection. No actual teaching of Jesus was cited, but John 3:16 was quoted at least 3 times. I once attended a funeral of an old friend who unfortunately had committed suicide. During the memorial service the preacher told that family that if this person had ever believed in Jesus then they could rest assured that he was in Heaven. He was a believer in his younger years before turning away from religion. Perhaps the preacher was just trying to comfort the family, but the church was the same denomination as the one with the Christmas pageant, and that denomination is very focused on belief being the key to salvation. Not moral behavior, not good works, not baptism and not anything else. Just belief. After all, that’s what John 3:16 says, right?

            But, is belief a good basis for salvation? I argue it is not. Should an infinitely wise Supreme Being grant people eternal life because they have certain ‘correct’ beliefs about Jesus? I would argue He (or She, or They) should not.

            Why not? Because people are capable of believing almost anything! For any reason! And often for no good reason!

            Today we have overwhelming evidence that the Earth is spherical. We even have pictures of it from space! Yet there are people who earnestly believe the Earth is flat. We have people that believe that the Earth and its life are about 6,000 years old, even though there is clear evidence that the Earth is billions of years old and life has been here for many millions of years. Now people believe without any evidence that Tylenol causes autism. Or that vaccines transmit nanochips planted by the government or industry. There were people who gathered in Dallas in 2021 expecting to see John F. Kennedy Jr. alive. There are people who believe they have seen ghosts, or trolls, or other supernatural beings. There are those who believe they have been abducted by and experimented upon by aliens. There are even a number of people in the world today proclaiming to be the reincarnation or second coming of Jesus Christ! And people who believe them! Go to any psychiatric ward and you will find people who believe all sorts of weird things, but most of the people I mentioned above do not fit any psychiatric category. Many are just “normal” people who believe outlandish things.

            People are just capable of believing all sorts of things! So, why would God honor those who happen to believe a particular religious doctrine?  You know the cartoon image of St. Peter sitting at the Pearly Gates checking people out as they seek entry to heaven.  I can see him interviewing a man:

            “Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God?”
            “Yes, with all my heart!”
            “Very well, then!  So…”
            “Yeah, I met him when the aliens took me to Mars!”
            “Um, we might have a problem here…”

Hey, does it matter why he believes in Jesus, as long as he believes?

The true key to salvation!

            And why do people believe? What you believe is usually an accident of birth, influenced by family and culture.  I personally don’t know any children who were taught all religions as they grew up and then were allowed to pick one.  Children typically grow up in the religion of their parents, who typically are following the religion of their parents, and so on.  Surrounding culture is obviously a heavy influence as well.  I recall hearing a missionary tell of an evangelistic campaign in India that resulted in hundreds of conversions, but when they visited a year later no practicing Christians could be found.  The Hindu culture of the area had reabsorbed them; it is hard to overcome that influence.  If you live in my current home state of North Carolina you are far more likely to have someone talk to you about Jesus and the Bible than Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita. If you grow up in the hinterlands of Iran you are far more likely to be taught the Qur’an than the Bible. And so on.

             Throughout history it has often been coercion rather than mere influence.  Many areas in Europe continue to be predominantly Roman Catholic because institutions like the Inquisition were so effective in enforcing conformity to ‘the’ Church.  Similarly with the conquistadors in the Central and South America.  Now it is happening with organizations like the Taliban in Muslim areas.  The bottom line is that belief is mostly influenced by family, friends and surrounding culture, sometimes accompanied by coercion; it is rarely the result of objective study and contemplation. Forgive me if you are one that does study and contemplate! Certainly there are those who convert to a different religion or atheism later in life, but that’s the exception that proves the rule.

            There’s actually a Bible story that illustrates the family influence.  Read the first chapter of the book of Ruth.  Naomi had two daughters-in-law; all three husbands have died.  Naomi is heading home to Israel and she encourages Ruth and Orpah (not Oprah!) to return to their people, the Moabites.  But Ruth responds:

“Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”  Ruth 1:16

Ruth chooses Naomi’s god because of, well, Naomi.  It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with knowledge of or faith in that particular god.  She loves Naomi and that’s what forms her choice of gods. (Oddly, Naomi doesn’t even have the best attitude toward her god; see post #13 for more detail on that.) What if Naomi had worshipped Baal and Ruth followed suit?  I don’t think she would then be held up as a model of piety in Sunday School. Family is a strong influence. Should a person be saved simply because they were born into a family with the ‘correct’ beliefs? Should people be condemned because they inherited ‘incorrect’ beliefs?

            There is also the question of what you have to believe to be saved.  Is believing in a Supreme Being enough?  (Jehovah, Jesus, Allah, Krishna, etc.) Does it have to be a specific one, the right one?  Does it have to be the right version of the right religion?  There are so many variations within Christianity; which is the right one?  (If any?)  Catholic? Baptist? Lutheran? Mormon? Jehovah’s Witness? Does it matter as long as some sort of belief in Jesus is included? Consider the various doctrines of Christianity.  Do you have to believe all of them, or just believe in Jesus in some way? What percentage of them do you have to believe in order to be saved?  Do you have to believe all the Old Testament stories, like the incredible story of Noah’s flood, or the talking snake in the Garden of Eden?  Do you also have to believe in Satan and demons?  Do you have to believe the Bible is the perfect Word of God? 

            Do you simply have to ‘believe in Jesus,’ whatever that means? But what do you have to believe about Jesus? Do you have to believe in the virgin birth of Jesus?  Do you have to believe that he was literally the Son of God, or is it OK to think of that symbolically? Do you have to believe all the miracle stories told about Jesus? Do you have to believe in the Trinity, that somehow the Father, the Son and the Spirit are three and one at the same time?  That Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time?  Do you have to believe in Jesus’ death as an atoning sacrifice for your sin? That the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Jesus during communion, or that it’s merely symbolic? Do you have to manifest your belief by being baptized? The list of what religions require goes on and on.  How much of that do you have to believe? Where do you draw the line?  Where does God draw the line? How many ‘right’ answers do you need? Does God grade on a curve?

What if his brain is from a believer, but the other parts are from sinners?

            I would put forward the Homer Simpson conundrum about church attendance: “What if we’ve picked the wrong religion? Every week we’re just making God madder and madder!”  It has been almost 2,000 years since Jesus and the majority of the world’s population is still in the ‘wrong’ religion according to Christianity.  If you are Muslim the same is true.  Or Hindu.  Every religion is in the minority therefore the majority are ‘wrong’ and therefore doomed.  In fact, many Christian sects believe that even those who claim to be Christian but are outside their particular sect are apostate and unsaved.  Some draw the circle very close. Is this the way a supremely wise and powerful god would have it?

            Given that people are capable of believing most anything for any variety of reasons, or lack of reason, would a Supreme Being value blind belief over those who sincerely search, question, examine and ponder, even if they do not come to the ‘right’ answer?  But what else can we do? Is there a better standard than belief?  I think there is. I will discuss my thoughts on that in the next post.

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Thinking exercises:

1. No religion in the world today is in the majority, and no sect within Christianity is in the majority of that religion.  Is this possibly a sign that the Supreme Being is not really concerned with a specific set of religious beliefs and doctrines?  Or a sign that He just isn’t that good at getting His message across?

2. Have you ever had a significant belief that you later abandoned?  Religious or otherwise.  What led you to change your mind?

3. Make a list of beliefs one must have to be saved, no more, no less.  Ask others to do the same and then compare lists.  Do your lists agree? If not, why not? If not, are your friends lost?!