The late scholar and apologist, C.S. Lewis, had been asked
about reaching “modern unbelievers” with the Gospel. Lewis stated:
·
I have met…the almost total absence from the
minds of my audience of any sense of sin. (God
in the Dock, 243)
Lewis thought that this lack of awareness had worsened over
the ages:
·
The ancient man had approached God (or even the
gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles
are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the [defendant’s] dock. (244)
This role reversal has had a profound effect on evangelism.
Lewis lamented that instead of preaching the Good News, we now had to start
with the bad news that our hearers are sinners who need a Savior:
·
We have to convince our hearers of the unwelcome
diagnosis before we can expect them to welcome the news of the remedy. (244)
Who wants to submit to surgery if he is not convinced that
he needs such a radical form of intervention! Lewis was therefore convinced
that the awareness of sin and guilt must be quickened, but how:
·
If we can awake the conscience of our hearers at
all, we must do so in quite different directions [than by pointing to their
acknowledged sins]. We must talk of conceit, spite, jealousy, cowardice, meanness,
etc. But I am very far from believing that I have found the solution of this
problem. (244)
Along with strong preaching to awaken our awareness of sin,
we also need a culture that highlights sins. Instead, we have one that
mitigates sin and encourages us to suppress thoughts of unworthiness and
objective guilt in favor of a positive self-esteem and self-forgiveness. We
live in a feel-good culture.
To combat this, we need art forms that bring back the
awareness that we are sinners. Actually, we already have this awareness buried
within, and it often comes out in unsuspected ways, even in the form of
masochism.
We punish or deprive ourselves because we know that we
deserve it. We use masochism as a form of relief or atonement. It might even
take very ordinary forms, like denying ourselves pleasure to atone for the
vague sense that we are not entitled to pleasure.
Benedict XVI wrote about another form of masochism. He noted
how Western culture, en masse, has turned against its own Christian heritage:
·
This case illustrates a peculiar western
self-hatred that is nothing short of pathological. It is commendable that the
West is trying to be more open, to be more understanding of the values of
outsiders, but it has lost all capacity for self-love. All that it sees in its
own history is the despicable and the destructive; it is no longer able to
perceive what is great and pure…Multiculturalism, which is so constantly and
passionately promoted, can sometimes amount to an abandonment and denial, a
flight from one’s own heritage.
Hence, the Western intellectual establishes his virtue or “manhood”
by self-denial, by rejecting his own culture. Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali
Muslim turned atheist, shares this insight:
·
In certain countries, "left-wing,"
secular liberals have stimulated my critical thinking and that of other
Muslims. But these same liberals in Western politics have the strange habit of
blaming themselves for the ills of the world, while seeing the rest of the
world as victims. To them, victims are to be pitied, and they lump together all
pitiable and suppressed people, such as Muslims, and consider them good people
who should be cherished and supported so that they can overcome their
disadvantages. The adherents to the gospel of multiculturalism refuse to
criticize people whom they see as victims. Some Western critics disapprove of
United States policies and attitudes but do not criticize the Islamic world,
just as, in the first part of the twentieth century, Western socialist
apologists did not dare criticize the Soviet labor camps. Along the same lines,
some Western intellectuals criticize Israel, but they will not criticize
Palestine because Israel belongs to the West, which they consider fair game,
but they feel sorry for the Palestinians, and for the Islamic world in general,
which is not as powerful as the West. They are critical of the native white
majority in Western countries but not of Islamic minorities. Criticism of the
Islamic world, of Palestinians, and of Islamic minorities is regarded as
Islamophobia and xenophobia.
Self-castigation is subtly and subconsciously understood as
a reasonable payment for self-validation, a necessary defense against shame. It
works something like this: “I am a good and worthy person if I champion the interests
of others and am willing to criticize my own traditions.”
We seem to have an internal and inescapable script defining
what it means to be deserving and worthy. This script demands that we pay for
these necessary commodities through various forms of self-sacrifice.
Instead of seeking the forgiveness and reconciliation that
can only come from the One who has died for our sins, we seek to establish our
righteousness through our own suffering.
This was also Paul’s understanding of Israel:
·
Israel who pursued a law that would lead to
righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not
pursue it by faith [in Christ], but as if it were based on [their own] works.
(Romans 9:31-32; ESV)
This is also what Adam and Eve did. Instead of confessing
their sin to God, they were determined to cover it themselves. However, fig
leaves cannot adequately cover sin and guilt. Why not? Essentially, we were
designed for a healing relationship with the Divine. However, we feverishly attempt
to neutralize our pain, our awareness that something is not right within, with
a variety of substitutes. Although masochism, self-denial, and even good deeds
might provide temporary relief, they will never provide the freedom that only
our Lord can provide.
Although modern man has suppressed the awareness of their
guilt and ultimate punishment, this awareness is always threatening to appear
on the stage of our consciousness. Perhaps evangelism can help them see this big
picture and awaken an interest in our Savior.
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