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Quote
Christianity is more defined as Christlike by how it honors the Christ outside itself rather than how it identifies Christ within itself.
Scripture: John 15.5-7
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.[a] From now on you do know him and have seen him." (ESV)
[a] Or If you know me, you will know my Father also, or If you have known me, you will know my Father also
Story One
Once, a pastor stood on a Sunday morning and preached that everyone who was not a Christian was going to hell. That night, the pastor had a vision of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Today, you persecuted me. You say you are a man of my love, but you persecuted me, and encouraged other persons to persecute me.” The pastor replied, “Christ, how did I persecute you?” Jesus replied, “I have many children who follow me, persons not of your faith, and many in your faith do not follow me. You have done wrong by judging all those who follow me in other faiths.” “But, Christ,” spoke the pastor, “you said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ So, I was only preaching what you taught.” Christ replied, “No, you did not teach what I taught, for you did not teach truly that I, Christ, am the way, the truth, and the life, rather, you taught, by saying that only Christians are going to heaven and all others are going to hell, that Christianity is the way, the truth, and the life. Friend, please start preaching me, not your faith, are quit claiming you preach for me.”
Comments
Are you aware that the Judeo-Christian tradition is a recent faith? The beginnings of Hinduism date back at least three thousand years and its origins are well before the birth of Judaism or Christianity. Indigenous religions date back tens of thousands of years. Christianity is only about two thousand years old. Our universe is estimated to be fifteen billion years old.
So, where was the Word, Christ, billions of years before the birth of either Judaism or Christianity? Did all those born in indigenous cultures thousands of years before Judaism or Christianity exist without Christ?
The manifestation of Christ as Jesus Christ, in the perfect union of deity and human, was an incarnation of the Grace operative long before either the Jewish or Christian faiths. In the “fullness of time,” wrote Paul, Galatians 4.4, the Eternal One sent forth the Son. That which was operative long before Judaism and Christianity, was manifested in the right moment. Everything in the history of the universe was preparation for this Incarnation of the Word in the flesh of the world. But, alas, many in religion have attempted to captivate this Word that has been free from eternity to eternity, and the Word cannot be held captive.
Story Two
A Christian theologian who taught on end time events was praying one night. He prayed, “Oh Lord Christ, why do you keep tarrying and do not return to take us Christians home to be with you?” Jesus Christ replied, “Friend, I have not returned yet because I have yet to show the world one truth it needs to learn.” The theologian asked, “What is that, Jesus?” Jesus said, “Not only am I free from all religion, I am free from Christianity, too.”
Comments
“Tribal consciousness” is a term referring to a particular way of seeing the world. This consciousness determines how one views people and God, too. The basic trait of tribal consciousness is a mentality that, like indigenous tribes, sees the Divine, God, as being defined within the particular tribe. This God is the tribal deity of the tribe.
Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are faiths that have many “tribal” adherents. These adherents believe that the Sacred is defined as belonging to the “tribe.” There is Allah, Yahweh, and Theos.
But is God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, defined within any of these faiths? No. The Triune God was before these faiths. The Eternal can be communicated and incarnate through the temporal, which all religion is, but the Eternal cannot be fully located within any temporal faith. This location of God within a faith is evidence of tribal consciousness.
In this type of tribal faith, God is defined by the faith adherents, rather than God defining the faith of the adherents. The faith becomes idolatrous; the faith creates God in its image. And since God is Eternal, no faith is eternal, or God and a faith would both be Eternal. That cannot be.
Therefore, as a Christian, for me to claim that Christ is the way, then, I cannot reduce Christ to a human way, even the faith tradition I dearly love. I would not follow a Christ confined within even the wisdom tradition I love and serve, for that Christ would not be God, for God cannot be defined within it or any tradition.
The Christ Jesus that will be the Christ presented in the future is a Christ free of tribal definition. The Christ was present at the beginning of our known universe, many billions of years ago, and, yet, He was born in a humble stable some two thousand years ago. That same Christ is the Word and Jesus in perfect harmony.
That same Christ, set free of being only defined within Christianity, becomes free to be seen, through Amazing Grace, as He works within beings of Christlikeness in all the global faiths. Christ was working among many faiths before Christianity, and Jesus Christ will be working long after the demise of all faiths, eternally.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13.8, ESV)
So, did the birth of Christianity somehow define Grace only by Christianity? Would you want to follow such a Christ? Maybe, it would be better to question myself, “Brian, do you want a Christ whom you can see in the love and kindness of a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Muslim, and in the beauties and wisdom of Creation? Or, do you want a Christ who can only be seen in the love and kindness of a confessing Christian?” So, again, “Brian, which sounds more like Christ who is the God calling Himself ‘Love’ and incarnated as ‘grace upon grace’?”
Which “Christ” do you want to follow?
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