Salvation by having the Correct Beliefs?

In an interview with Brian McLaren, Frank Schaeffer claimed that “salvation by correct ideas” was one thing that had turned him away from biblical Christianity. After all, thinking the right thoughts in order to be saved seems so removed from everything that we regard as meaningful – love, justice, goodness, and relationships. Also, damnation by having the wrong ideas or beliefs seems completely unfair, unjust, and beneath the dignity of God.

There is even some basis for Schaeffer’s indictment. The Bible claims that we are saved by grace operating through faith (Eph. 2:8-9). Faith, to some degree, entails embracing right ideas about Jesus. Doesn’t this mean that we are saved by having the right ideas? Besides, this would also mean that, to some extent, we are damned by having the wrong ideas, right?

Behind Schaeffer’s charge is the assumption that what we believe is arbitrary and therefore, should not carry any moral weight or guilt. Along with this, he asserted that, “Knowing doesn’t make you a better person.” Why then should anyone be penalized for not knowing, especially since knowing isn’t really possible, as Schaeffer claims.

But is there a moral dimension to knowing? Should we be held responsible for not knowing? Sometimes, not knowing is justly punishable. If a student fails to regurgitate the right answers on a test because he didn’t study, he is understandably penalized. However, does this principle also pertain to the Christian beliefs about Jesus? Should we know these facts? Are we accountable when we don’t have them?

What if there is a God who loves us and died for our sins, and what if these truths are knowable? Many say:

·       I am content to know that there is a higher power. I don’t need to know all the specifics. In fact, I don’t think that there is anything we can really know about God.

But what if God is knowable! He was certainly knowable during the ministry of Jesus. He had performed so many miracles that they are not denied even by His detractors and their Talmud. These miracles were so compelling that His adversaries wanted to put Him to death because of them. After Jesus brought forth Lazarus from the dead after four days, these adversaries reasoned that He had to be stopped:

·       Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him.” (John 11:45-48)

If miracles did not speak persuasively about Jesus’ divine identity, they would not have constituted a threat to the religious establishment. Nor would the people have believed. Instead the evidence would have to be extinguished.

Clearly, belief and non-belief represented two sides of a great moral divide. Belief loved the light and came to the light (John 3:19-21). Unbelief detested the light of the evidence – the truth - and wanted to eradicate it.

Unbelief is equated with a refusal to believe against the overwhelming evidence. The evidence was so compelling that Jesus stated:

·       “Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father.  But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (John 10:37-38)

Knowing was more than a possibility; it was a duty, a moral obligation to accept the truth. To reject the light of truth brought guilt, as Jesus affirmed:

·       “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin… If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’” (John 15:22-25)

To reject the evidence of Jesus’ miracles, was to hate Him “without reason,” and this carried moral culpability. However, many argue:

·       Well, I have no way of knowing whether or not these miracles really happened. I haven’t seen any, and so I can’t be held accountable for what I don’t know.

As Jesus indicated, ignorance is an adequate excuse, but are we really ignorant? The Apostle Paul argued that we are not:

·       The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

God is angry because we do know a lot about Him and yet reject Him. He has stocked our conscience, mind, and the creation with adequate evidences, and yet, we “suppress the truth by [our] wickedness.” In light of this, we are, in a sense, saved by correct thinking, but this correct thinking is available to all. Some will acquiesce to the truth, while others will reject it. Of course, many protest:

·       I don’t have this knowledge of God, and it is not right for you to indict me as if I do have this knowledge.

The Book of Proverbs also affirms that we have the truth but reject it. Wisdom surrounds us, but it tells us uncomfortable things about ourselves, and so we reject it:

·       “Then they will call to me [wisdom] but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord. Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.” (Proverbs. 1:28-31)

Wisdom is available but disdained. It’s painful and exposes the truth about us. It carries a “rebuke” that informs us that we are sinners who need the Savior. Therefore, we reject wisdom in favor of our own narrowly self-serving thoughts. We harden our heart against the truth. However, when we do this, we willfully blind ourselves and stumble to our own destruction:

·       They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4:18-19; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11)

At the heart of sin is a refusal to believe what we already know. In fact, Scripture hints that, even in the next life, we will freely choose the place of darkness because we hate the painful scrutiny of the Light (John 3:17-20). How does this great tragedy occur? We cannot stand to face ourselves – our inadequacies, our moral failures, our guilt and shame. We therefore suppress the truth about ourselves in favor of comfortable fictions and self-justifications. We also suppress the knowledge of God along with His judgment of our sins.

You don’t have to be a Christian to recognize these things. So many psychological studies indicate that we are self-deluded. We hate the light of truth and will take extreme measures to avoid or suppress it. We then conveniently cloth ourselves with an exalted, self-serving set of beliefs about ourselves. Psychologist Roy Baumeister reports:

• There are now ample data on our population showing that, if anything, Americans tend to overrate and overvalue ourselves. In plain terms, the average American thinks he’s above average. Even the categories of people about whom our society is most concerned do not show any broad deficiency in self-esteem.

We do not want the truth if it interferes with our self-esteem. We would rather feel good than think rightly. However, when we reject truth, we also reject God and any correct thinking about Him.

I talk to hundreds of people, even thousands, about God. Although many will admit that the question of the existence and character of God is foundational to all other questions – questions of meaning, morality, behavior, relationships – they refuse to seek God. They protect themselves with excuses like, “No one can really know.”

However, such an excuse is actually a claim to great knowledge, the very kind of knowledge they claim that we can’t have. How do they know that “no one can really know?” Instead, this is a mere excuse, a culpable excuse. In reality, they do not want to know. They correctly sense that the truth might just be too demanding, too confining, or even too accusatory.

In a sense, we are saved by correct thinking and damned by our incorrect thinking. However, this thinking is not devoid of moral significance. Instead, it reflects the very depths of our being, our desires and choices – choices that will either draw us to God or separate us from Him.

DEFENDING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE: A RESPONSE TO A FRIENDLY PHILOSOPHER

Thank you for the kind words at the beginning of your response, even if you were just setting me up “for the kill.” Actually, I always welcome your keen observations, even if sharp and probing, even when they expose my shameful “narcissism.” This is something that we share together, something from which many others would run in terror. I also hope that our exchanges will sharpen your thinking as they have mine – something important to both of us.

To start, I am very impressed by the accuracy of many of your observations. You accurately characterize my stance:

·       “’It was only through the continued assurance of Christ’s love and forgiveness that I could begin to face the humbling truth about myself. Otherwise, it would have overwhelmed me.’”

This is still true for me. Almost daily, I am deeply troubled by the things I see about myself. However, these observations continue to bring me back to my Savior, who loves me despite all of my unworthiness, which I can now bare because of such verses which have come alive for me:

·       Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

I think that part of our humanity requires us to define ourselves in relationship to the rest of the world. Christ has given me the ultimate self-definition in the midst of self-despair. He reassures me that it is not about me; it is about Him. Consequently, I start the day as a wounded narcissist but conclude it as a flower budding under His Light. I am comforted to find that my many deficiencies and adequacies continue to bring me back to the understanding that I am beloved by my Savior, to whom I belong.

I think that you are also correct about this “narcissistic preoccupation”:

·       “It’s a narcissistic preoccupation, isn’t it? And you can’t seem to move on from it, except through what seems like a story about God’s hate for that old self, assuaged by Jesus’ sacrifice.”

I think that we are all narcissists requiring many forms of reassurance and affirmations. Need is a dictator. It leads us to go to places where we wouldn’t ordinarily go. Infirmity leads us to go consul with our doctor. It also leads us into prayer and dependency on the One who is entirely adequate to carry our burdens. Paul continued to pray about his pain, a “thorn in his flesh.” However, God revealed to him that He would not remove it. Why not? As the rest of us, he too was a recovering narcissist, who was at risk of feeling proud of himself because of his spiritual endowment. In love, God would not allow this to happen. Therefore, He allowed Satan to afflict him. However, Paul learned a valuable lesson through this: “When I am weak, it is then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). But how? In our brokenness, we are coerced to rely upon our Lord. As a result of this realization, I have learned to accept my weaknesses and continuing failures, however painful they may be, as needful growth stimulants.

There is also a lot of truth in your next statement:

·       “…we may not all settle on the same Jesus story simply because we don’t all have the same psychology.”

Consequently, we see Jesus in different but not in necessarily contradictory ways. Anita reminds me of this, as someone with a very different psychology. However, rather than our differences leading us to a different Jesus, they merely highlight different aspects of Him.

Again, I agree with you that we have the capacity to evaluate our thoughts and experiences and to arrive at the truth:

·       …we do have the intelligence to keep testing out what we think we know and have that confirmed our in experience.

Theoretically, you are right. As our eyes can accurately detect and signal to our brain what is going on around us, our minds can also reflect back to us the reality and lessons of our experiences, which also instruct us. Our mind can act like a tranquil mountain lake, which can accurately reflect back to us the precise image of the trees on the other side of the lake.

However, what happens when the lake is not at rest? There are no discernable reflections. I think that this is also true of our discernment and interpretation of our experiences. We have within such powerful and demanding psychological forces at play, that our perceptions of reality become seriously distorted.

For example, we want to think that we are right and our accuser is wrong. As a result, we will obsessively go over the events and conversation in an attempt to prove to ourselves that we are innocent of any charges. As a result, we have no peace, just turbulence resulting from our internal conflict. How then are we to weigh what has really transpired?

You have written:

·       I am suspicious about a claim like “Scripture demonstrates that it says just what our reason also shows us”…And since I don’t think that Scripture offers too much “objective substantiation” of anything, I’m suspicious of your use of it.

You should be suspicious! I too am suspicious of my conclusions, knowing how fallible they can be. However, I think that there are many ways (“objective substantiation”) by which we can evaluate our interpretations. Let me just give you one analogy. When I finish putting together a 1000 piece puzzle, I am confident that I got it right. The pieces not only perfectly fit together, but its image is also coherent. Even though the interpretation of Scripture is far more difficult, I think that the analogy still pertains.

·       …you’re always trying to make sure you’re right by rehearsing the proofs you think you’ve found in scripture.

This is true! One reason for this that these truths are the foundation of our lives. Therefore, we want to get it right. We also believe that this is what our Lord requires, who insists that we worship Him according to His truths:

·       John 4:23-24 “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Again, you are correct that I do believe this way:

·       …you assume (I think) that the original message can be beamed right over into our own contemporary experience, giving us a verbal sighting of eternal truth.”

However, challenging this process might be, this is still possible. The very fact that so many commentators, who start out with the same presupposition (that the Bible is the Word of God), have arrived at very similar conclusions about the meaning of a verse, testifies to the fact that we can lay hold of the “eternal truths” of the Bible.

Again, I am impressed by the accuracy of your observations:

·       Both fundamentalists and new atheists think that scripture can be interrogated like a court-room witness: they just disagree about its reliability. I don’t think that at all: scripture is not reliable in that way, was never intended to be, and it doesn’t have to be for us. If it were, there’d be no need for faith.

There is much that I can say about the last two sentences. I would just like to challenge you as to why you don’t think that Scripture is reliable in conveying objective truths? I wonder if you have underlying motivations to not want to believe this. Many do! They correctly understand that if the Scriptures are teaching objective truths, these truths will coerce them to live a certain way. They threaten our presuppositions and our lifestyles.  Besides, are our underlying motivations and desires disturbing the tranquility of our waters of the lake as to prevent us from seeing reality? By believing as they do, they are enabled to “enjoy” the freedom to believe what they want to believe. Some have even admitted so!

Let me leave with a provocative statement: To reject the truths of the Scriptures is ultimately to reject ourselves and our ultimate welfare.

ARE EVANGELICALS THE NEW PHARISEES?

The level of hatred and contempt against evangelical Christians, those who worship the Lord according to His Word, grows daily, even from those within churches. A favorite ploy is to equate us with the pharisees and other legalists, like those who opposed Jesus. In one instance, Jesus had healed a crippled woman,

·       And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” (Luke 13:13-14 ESV)

Heartless? Yes! It’s not every day that the sick can come and get healed. Besides, should the Sabbath day take precedence over the healing of a desperate woman, who had suffered for 18 years? No! But this is how the world chooses to portray the evangelical, as heartless, brainless hypocrites, who are more concerned about trivial rules than about loving others. In contrast, Jesus is regarded as a loving and tender-hearted shepherd, who is willing to break the rules.

However, these aren’t accurate characterizations. For one thing, Jesus was a stickler on the laws/teachings of the Bible, which He never violated. Instead, He taught that we must live according to every one of God’s Words:

·       “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4; 5:17-18)

Instead of denigrating the Law, Jesus always sought to interpret it clearly, insisting that there were some laws more important than others:

·       “Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matthew 12:5-7)

Jesus correctly insisted that there are some considerations greater than Sabbath Day observances, namely mercy! Nevertheless, Jesus was a model of fidelity to the law, the Words of God. Therefore, when evangelicals these Words above everything else, they are not pharisaical.

It is also wrongly assumed that the Pharisees had been faithful observers of the Law. While they made a splendid superficial show of living by the Law, according to Jesus, they were hypocrites:

·       “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:46-47)

Why then were they esteemed as faithful interpreters and keepers of the Law of Moses? According to Jesus, their observance was all just a hypocritical self-centered show:

·       “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.” (Matthew 23:5-7) 

Even in our previous context, the religious leadership demonstrated their hypocrisy, since they too worked on the Sabbath:

·       Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?  And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:15-16)

In contrast to the Pharisees, evangelicals strive to put the Lord and His Word first in their lives (Matthew 6:33; John 14:21-24). In this we struggle to not succumb to the temptations to win the esteem of others. Instead, we struggle to put our Savior first in all things. Many of us do not look very impressive on the outside (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). We often come from broken backgrounds and lack education and the respect of the community, but why are we so widely hated, even by those who call themselves “Christian?”

It is even more disturbing to see Christians partaking in the vilification of fellow Christians. Ed Stetzer serves as a dean at the formerly evangelical Wheaton College and is an evangelical basher. In Christianity Today, he has written:

·       Christians are disproportionately fooled by conspiracy theories. I’ve also said before that when Christians spread lies, they need to repent of those lies. Sharing fake news makes us look foolish and harms our witness. https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2020/april/christians-and-corona-conspiracies.html

Are we more fooled by fake news than others? Seeing how our society has largely been taken captive by the mainstream media, which has become the standard, it would seem that Stetzer’s charge is suspect. Is he simply labeling evangelicals as gullible, because they doubt many of the media's proclamations? This leads to ask, "From which sources does Stetzer determine what is true and what is a conspiracy theory?"  Perhaps he is placing his trust in the wrong sources.

Besides, “being fooled by conspiracy theories” is very different from Stetzer’s charge that we are lying.

Jesus often prophesied about how the world will hate the Christians who truly follow Him:

·        “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” (Matthew 10:21-22) 

·        “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” (Matthew 10:34-36)

·       “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:9-12)

·        “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:18-20)

Our persecutors will even be convinced that God endorses their persecution of Christ-followers:

·        “Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.” (John 16:2-3)

In contrast, the pharisees of Jesus’ day were held in the highest esteem. They occupied the best seats and were distinguished by the highest levels of education and eloquence.

However, we rejoice in persecution, as Jesus had explained:

·       “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12)

Consequently, if you want to know who are the people of Christ, it is generally those who are hated, persecuted, and refuse to adopt the values of their prevailing cultures.

RELATIONSHIPS AND SELF-ESTEEM

I would like to suggest that there is an inverse relationship between having an inflated self-esteem and our relationships. Consequently, as we grow in self-esteem, our relationships suffer. This idea might be hard for you to swallow, because you have met many who feel so badly about themselves that they shy away from relationships or whither before them.

However, I am not talking about how you feel about yourself but how you think about yourself. Have you learned to trust in yourself – your goodness, superiority, entitlement – by elevating the way you regard yourself? Have you learned that by elevating your self-esteem you can feel better about yourself and present yourself with more confidence? If so, I’d like to suggest that your marriage is in greater jeopardy than the marriage of the person who doesn’t have an elevated belief in who they are.

Just to give you one small indication of this counter-intuitive proposal – I live in NYC, just across the East River from Manhattan, where high self-esteem is booming but where relationships might be most problematic. A quick glance at the internet revealed:

·       New York County (better known as Manhattan) was at the top of the list, with a per-capita divorce rate of 8.15, or more than twice the [New York] statewide average of 2.99. No. 2 was Jefferson County, with a per-capita rate of 5.16.

https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2014/02/13/comparing-divorce-rates-across-ny.html

For the most part, those who live in Manhattan have to be financially successful. Why? Living in Manhattan is costly. Besides, I have gone to many discussion groups in Manhattan, generally attended by people who are highly articulate, successful, and have a high enough opinion of themselves and their conversational gifting to brave these competitive waters. However, during the years I’ve attended these groups, I can remember only encountering one couple.

Why? For one thing, Manhattan attracts upwardly mobile singles, who are far more likely to shack-up in this progressive town than to marry. Nevertheless, divorce is booming.

Here’s my theory. I used to feel very bad about myself. To compensate, I would build up my self-esteem with positive affirmations, and, in the short-run, it worked. However, as with any lethal addiction, my false high required increasingly high doses of positive self-trust, feel-good messages. However, these distorted beliefs alienated me further from myself – my feelings from my manufactured non-reality-based thinking. As a result, I was living a schizoid life, in which truth became an endangered species.

In retrospect, I found that my wearing a mask, along with my inability to dispense with my mask, constituted a death-sentence to all my relationships. After my many self-affirmation fixes, I couldn’t figure out who-the-heck I was; nor could anyone else.

Building self-esteem and self-trust is antithetical to transparency, humility, inner-peace, and relationships, and they come with a heavy price-tag. For one thing, if we are alienated from ourselves, we are also alienated from others. If we cannot feel comfortable within ourselves, without massive infusions of positive self-talk, we will not be able to feel comfortable with others. If we cannot understand ourselves, we will not be able to understand others and will fail to relate in a relational manner. Instead, we relate through veils of our own self-deceptions.

Perhaps most importantly, if we cannot accept ourselves the way we are with our many weaknesses and failures, we will not be able to accept others. In my thinking, I had made myself a king. As long as I saw my wife as a queen, I could accept her. However, once she had fallen, my glowing feelings about her began to whither, and I could no longer accept her. No surprise – If I couldn’t accept my own failures, how could I begin to accept the failures of others?

However, in the process, my self-esteem began to drop, along with my positive self-talk. As this happened, my wife began to look better, and, in my humbled condition, I became grateful to have her.

However, being humbled is very painful, and we avoid it at all costs. Even if this process enables us to see ourselves as we really are, how are we able to endure it? Certainly not through psychotherapy, aimed at providing a marketable product, which will hook the client into a nurturing “relationship,” designed to bring them back to the office again. It tends to address client needs by trying to patch them back up with more of the same – self-trust through “positive” interactions and affirmations.

But perhaps we are not designed to trust and to believe in ourselves but in Another, who can truly take care of our needs without the monumental costs of self-delusion. I have found that if Jesus loves and accepts me, I can begin to accept myself and even others with all of their flaws. I have also found these words to be exactly what I had always sought:

·       If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)

As a result, God has empowered me to face the truth about myself and to even laugh about it. I no longer have to exalt myself, because I have found my Savior to be all that I need.