Tuesday, September 5, 2017

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE EAST OF HOPE AND FAITH





Eastern European Christianity has many similarities to its Western counterpart. Most have lost faith in the institution of church and much of its leadership. As a result, the students are searching for an alternate form of church and spirituality. However, the West has departed further away from its Christian roots.

Western students term themselves "spiritual but not religious." They embrace its experiential but not its doctrinal or cognitive aspects, claiming that doctrine divides, but experience, namely mystical experience, can unite and form the basis of "the brotherhood of all mankind." Admittedly, it is hard to argue when we merely report what we have experienced.

Western students might still believe in a form of God and might even pray, but their God tends to be non-personal. It has no will, morality, intelligence, or emotion - a God who will make no demands, bring any punishments, or require any lifestyle changes.

For the most part, Eastern college students and young educated adults assure me that they still believe in a Jesus who makes moral demands. However, for them it is enough to know Jesus and His requirements in their heart. Consequently, they do not tend to study the Bible and, as their Western counterparts, believe that faith is strictly about the heart and not about the mind, rationality, or evidence.

Consequently, they too are not actively searching for God. Instead, "finding God" is a matter of having an experience with God. Therefore, I tell them about my experiences with God. Some sincerely confess that they wished that they too had had such experiences. 

Some Westerners also express this, but they are more likely to say, "I am glad that you've found something that works for YOU," meaning that they regard your experiences as imaginary.

Both groups tend to regard faith as very personal and subjective, having little to do with evidences and rationality. Therefore, they are surprised to learn that the Bible and even Jesus counsel us NOT to believe without confirmatory evidences (John 5:31-38; 10:37-38).

However, instead of seeking God through mountaintop experiences, we have to seek God according to who He is (John 4:23-24) and not according to what we want Him to be or what we want to get from Him. We are to seek Him as we do water in a thirsty desert, using our eyes rather than our demands, dreams, and mirages.

Jesus claimed that we have to let go of our preconceptions and demands and come humbly as little children:

--And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, and said, “Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me:” (Matthew 18:2-5)

We have to humbly receive God as He is and not who we want Him to be. In this regard, it seems that Westerners have taken the wrong path. Wanting liberty, they have found what they have been seeking in the appealing triangle of moral relativism, multiculturalism, and religious pluralism.

All of these deny the existence of an absolute moral standard. Therefore, if morality does not have any independent existence, we are free to create it according to what feels right for us. 

However, this comes with prohibitive costs. For one thing, it is impossible to consistently live out this philosophy. I asked one young Buddhist woman if she believed that everything is God, even the moral evils we find so repugnant. Fortunately, she understood her dilemma and laughed awkwardly. 

If even evil is God, there is no basis for non-evil morals. Instead, there is a Yin and a Yang, a pursuit of balance between good and evil. Are we then to do evil to balance our good? Off course, this is absurd"

If there is no absolute moral standard or answers, then there is no way to assess other cultures or religions. This would mean that we cannot reasonably conclude that Mother Theresa's life was better than Hitler's or that love is better than oppression.

This triumvirate kills Westerners and Western culture forcing us to live confused and incoherent lives, divided and schizoid. While our heart tells us that rape is absolutely wrong, our mind tells us that rape is just relative to the culture, neither right or wrong. This is the religion of the university.

Why do such intelligent people gravitate to such a dysfunctional worldview? There is a simple reason for this. Absolute moral law leads absolutely to a moral law Giver!

Eastern students generally assure me that they haven't gone so far. They still tend towards the belief in an Intelligent Designer who also designed moral truth. However, they stand at the crossroads of materialism, nationalism, and God.  They seem more interested in a personal God than Westerners. However, they also seem to lack the cognitive and Biblical background to find the water in the midst of the alluring - a good career, a good income, success, a user-friendly spirituality, and many other persistent images of which Westerners are now beginning to despair even as they cling to a hope which has been utterly discredited - the unity and economic equality of all mankind in a world which has rejected religious dogma.

This is a hope held in utter disdain by every Eastern student I had encountered. Their heroes are the ones who had given their lives to overthrow this repressive and coercive socialistic system. They are also puzzled by the political correctness of the Westerners, which muzzles free speech and freedom of religion, the very things that they extol.

How then are we to find the Living Water, God? By doing what we find to be most distasteful - to confess the truth about ourselves. Jesus had told a parable about two people who had entered the temple to pray. One was a religious leader who was convinced of his moral superiority and entitlement. The other was a man who was in touch with himself and consequently knew that he needed the mercy of God.

Jesus explained that it was this latter man who found the mercy of God:

--“I say unto you, This man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)

In one way or another, we all exalt ourselves. In even in the midst of my depression, feeling terrible about myself, to compensate, I fed myself with mirages and affirmations of my own superiority.

Whether Easterner or Westerner, we all have to come to the truth, that we are in desperate need of the Savior and no other Water will suffice.

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