Today I’m going to do something a little differently than normal. Instead of my usual lengthy post, I really want to facilitate some conversation. Earlier today I was reading an article by Carol Howard Merritt, called “Why Evangelism is failing a new generation”. It was pretty interesting; here’s the link if you want it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-howard-merritt/why-evangelicalism-is-fai_b_503971.html
What really got me thinking though, were these comments in the comment section of the article:
Person 1: The problem is that you can't be a Christian without also believing that all those who are not are going to burn in hell forever because they don't accept Jesus.
Can you grasp how ridiculous that is?
If it were true, why would anyone want to base their whole life worshiping a God that intends to torture people in hell forever simply because they were born into a Jewish, Muslim or you name it family?
The only reason you are a Christian is because it's what you know and are familiar with.
Person 2: I think you need to narrow your definition to fundamentalist Christians. No one I know thinks everyone else is going to hell because they either don't believe in Jesus or have never heard of him. There are an amazing number of Christians who are able to recognize the difference between fables and the demands of the fundamentalists.
Person 3: Are you saying that John 3:16 is BS?
Person 2: We're saying that fundamentalists don't understand what John 3:16 means.
So in Carrie Bradshaw fashion, I can’t help but wonder, what does John 3:16 really mean? It’s like the Christian motto, a verse so well known that just its numbers will suffice as a reference. Is this verse truly what it’s all about? And should it be? The 4th grade Bible camper in me still equates John 3:16 with “the magic prayer”, a prayer consisting of three special lines that would reserve your spot in eternal paradise. It became a very complex equation:
3:16=belief in Christ=magic prayer=getting saved=no hell
Or the shorter version, 3:16= Fire Insurance
(Can I get on my soapbox for a moment? Christianity is not about fire insurance. Ok, stepping off now.)
And though I know this is a really pretentious graduate student move, but it is kind of important to remember that when we are talking about what a Bible verse says and means, what this one ACTUALLY says is:
Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ᾽ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον
Now my Greek is not great, but the Kelly Updegraff translation reads, “so for loved the God world that son only begotten he gave, so that who who believes in of him not would perish but would have life eternal”. BUT that's really because it's hard to break from tradition on verses this well known. There are a couple of valid translation options.
(Side note: any Greek scholars feel free to post your own translations!)
As you know, I’m Presbyterian. I personally have a really hard time reconciling this verse with the doctrine of predestination, which is, for me, the center of my Christian faith. (I know it’s really divisive, even among Presbyterians, so feel free to disagree.)
The commenter above said, “why would anyone want to base their whole life worshiping a God that intends to torture people in hell forever simply because they were born into a Jewish, Muslim or you name it family?” So I guess I’m with person C. Because that’s not the God I worship, and that’s not what John 3:16 means to me.
If I had to make a new “equation” with this verse today, it would look something like:
3:16=a reminder that God’s eternal plan ∀ > What I CAN do ∴ (not perishing ≠ fire insurance)
Here’s where you come in:
What does this verse mean to you?
What does your John 3:16 equation look like? (Looking up math symbols makes this exercise way more fun.)
Is it the most important verse in the Bible? Why or why not?
How would you respond to Person 1?
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John 3:16 was the first verse I ever memorized and was quite comforting as a child against the fear of death and hell. However, as an undergrad I began to question the potency and possible existence of free will.
ReplyDeleteThis made the 'those who believe' in me section of John 3:16 very scary. Perhaps I would become really angry one day and stop believing or I would look upon something or see something so terrible that I would stop believing. If only for an instance that I stopped believing, then if I died at that moment I would not be believing and not have salvation. More than thinking about forgetting to believe or simply refusing to believe, was my question of whether I could actually make the decision to believe. I could use my prefrontal cortex logic center and agree to the verse and say "Yes, I believe." but was I really believing? I could say yes to emotion experiences with the divine and could say "Yes, I believe!," but was I really believing? I could look to the church community and see Christ's hand at work and then say "Yes, I believe!" but belief can be a tricky thing. Even with three yeses to answer John 3:16, I prefer to be tucked into bed at night with a blanket of predestination than one made up of my own personal belief.
However, I remember when I was a Chaplain intern at the hospital. I made a call to a patient who requested a chaplain. Upon entering the room and building some trust for an open discussion, the patient told me that her favorite verse in the bible is John 3:17. "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." She told me that the world forgets this part of the message. This woman had not lead the perfect life. She knew she had sinned. She spoke about her rejection from a church and her frustrations with feeling condemned. She knew the things that she had done in her life where not right, but her solace, what kept her warm in the middle of the night, was John 3:17. The "not condemning" that allowed her to lift her face to God with love. The not fire insurance, but the reminder of God's love for her shown through God's act of sending God's only son for the sake of the entire world that enabled her to perceive that there was a place in eternity with God that was waiting for her regardless of whether she could prove that her belief was true.
I with her, John 3:16 should and must be reminded of it's subsequent verse John 2:17.
As for my favorite verse, it is the prologue of John. Why? It just speaks to me. :)
I think my brain exploded a little bit during the first part of your comment. You are so obviously a philosophy major.
ReplyDeleteI really like what you said about 3:17.
John 3:16 < John 3:17
So noted.
Grace. You've got to love it.
ReplyDeleteTo answer why evangelism is failing, the answer can be summed up in one line from the article you linked: "Often the fixation on these two issues (abortion and homosexuality) came at the expense of feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless". What is the message the church is trying to portray these days?
ReplyDeleteI think nearly everyone could relate to a message of feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, etc. but when the church seems so focused on homosexuality, well, of course people are "spiritual but not religious".