The same poster who I quoted above, also made this statement: "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom...(a), Psalm 111:10. I know I do things sometimes out of fear of the Lord. He's got the power, and I know it. It's a parent/child relationship. My children do things so they don't get punished by mom or dad. Same principle." And it is this mindset that guides much Christian evangelism today. We tell a person how bad they are, we convince them of their sin, we threaten them with eternal punishment, and then we present the solution of Jesus Christ. We therefore create good, God-fearing Christians who will go to heaven when they die. But does this foster the deepest possible relationship with Jesus? Let's look at the illustration our poster uses of a parent/child type relationship (after all, this is the model Jesus uses when illustrating our relationship with God). He makes the claim that when a parent threatens a child with punishment for certain behavior, let's say eating a cookie before dinner, and that child obeys the parent, then that parent has done a good job. But what has that parent really done? That parent has taught that child that the reason he should not eat the cookie before dinner is because if he does, that child will be punished. In other words, that child abstains from eating the cookie because he fears being caught. It is the threat of punishment that prevents that child from doing that behavior, or rather fear of getting caught, and not because of some intrinsic good. What this results in is that the child, when the fear of getting caught is removed, eats the cookie. It also fosters resentment in the child toward the father for being so cruel.
Let's relate the above story to the popular method of evangelism in which threat of hell for bad behavior is so often employed. Perhaps a person is convinced of their great sin and their need for repentance. When that person first becomes a Christian, the honeymoon period begins and she willingly abstains from past sins because of the newfound joy she has encountered. But after some time, when the thrill has begun to wear off, temptation begins to set in again. She goes to a party which she has not been to for awhile and finds herself drinking too much. She goes home, mortified by the guilt she is feeling. She is horrified that she may receive harsh punishment for backsliding. She begs God for forgiveness, because she fears punishment. This woman, as she continues her Christian walk, finds temptation harder and harder to resist, and finds herself aware of more and more sin in her life. She continues to plead for forgiveness and ask for help from God to overcome the sin, but it does not seem to be working. All she knows is that if she continues in this sin, she will be punished. After awhile, she begins resenting God, seeing him no longer as a being which forgives, but which threatens punishment, even when it seems the sin is out of her control. Eventually she stops trying to resist temptation, because, as many Christians turned ex-Christians have said, "what's the use." Instead of being brought to Jesus because of his love and the healing he provides for our hurts, this woman was taught that Jesus was necessary because without him, she would be punished. What happened was, like the child in the above paragraph, this woman refrained from sin only because she feared being caught. Her motives were wrong which prevented her from really being able to overcome much of the sins in her life. As she continued to sin, she began to resent God who was always there, preventing her from ever "getting away" with the sin. The threat of punishment was always looming and weighed her down, which is not what Jesus wanted.
Let's contrast that with the child who raised to love, honor, and respect his parents. The father shows unconditional love for his son and even forgives the son when he is truly sorry for doing wrong. The father does punish his son occasionally, as it is necessary, but saves punishment for real serious issues, and doesn't make it the main reason for abstaining from bad behavior. Instead, the father fosters in his son the understanding that good behavior is to be done, and bad behavior avoided, because of the love he has for his father, not because of the threat of punishment. In this case, when there is no threat of being caught, the son nonetheless has the knowledge and understanding that he loves his father and his father loves him, and that grabbing the cookie before dinner will be disrespectful of his father and will make him feel ashamed for doing something that his father would not be pleased with. In the long run, this fosters a more stable morality in a person.
This goes the same when we approach people with Jesus. When method of evangelism is to bring the love of Jesus to people, by showing them his unconditional love, accepting them for who they are, bringing the promise of healing instead of the threat of punishment, this will do more to help people fall in love with Jesus, helping them to develop a genuine relationship with him, which will provide more stability and a stronger defense against temptation.
I understand that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." But most people know that "fear" in this context means respect and love. When we have respect and love for the Lord, then we begin to have wisdom. Jesus came, as I showed in "Is the Christian God to be Feared," Jesus came to remove the fear people had when approaching God. He came so that we may no longer fear God. When Jesus approached people, it was out of love for them. He wanted to heal their hurts. We see this with the abundance of compassion Jesus showed to people as he was approached by them. In the story of the woman who had an issue that ran for 12 years (Mark 5:25-34), we see this kind of compassion and the removal of fear that Jesus promised. In this story, Jesus was surrounded by a crowd, so much so that people were running into him. A woman, who had been bleeding continuously for 12 years and had been seen by many physicians to no avail, was following Jesus in hopes of being healed by him. But the story implies she feared approaching him. We read, "after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, 'If I just touch His garments, I will get well'” (vv 27-28). She was afraid to approach him for fear he would reject her perhaps. Or maybe she felt she would be condemned by him as he might blame some sin for her health issues (a common belief back then). So she attempted to be healed without getting caught. But Jesus immediately knew what had happened, so he stopped and searched for the person who had taken power from him. The woman, I can imagine, came forward like a dog who cowers, knowing they have been found out. But instead of being reprimanded, the woman received a response she was not expecting: "And [Jesus] said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction'" (v 34). Instead of punishment, the woman received love and compassion.
Let me say that I know that there is a time for punishment. I am not so unrealistic that I deny the need for punishment, believing that all a child needs is love in order to behave well. At times punishment is necessary. But if punishment becomes the main focus of our parenting, what kind of child are we going to raise? Punishment has become the main focus of our message to unbelievers, which goes against the message of Jesus in Scripture. Another important thing to understand about punishment is that its purpose is corrective. Which means that punishment must end so that the corrected behavior can begin. This is the only kind of punishment that can be understood in the context of love. That is why I do not believe the message of hell coheres with the message of an all loving God. It cannot be corrective being that there is no end. It can only be masochistic which goes against everything I know about God. Therefore, for those who resist the love and grace of God, I must believe that when they die, they either cease to exist, or go to a temporary place of severe punishment in order to bring about the correction of one's behavior.
When our message is anything other love and compassion, if we teach that the reason we need Christ is because we are bad and will be punished without him, we divert from the true message of Scripture which is that Jesus provides us with the love, hope, and healing that we need in our lives. The message that Jesus preached was that there was no need to fear God, but that he loves us unconditionally: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life."
Blessings,
-Brandon
Brandon, I agree that eternal punishment is a cruel idea. If that is love, deliver me from it. Nicolas Berdyaev said, "I can think of no more powerful and irrefutable argument for athesim than the eternal torments of hell." I agree. Let me ask you then, if you think Jesus is so loving, what do you do with his threats of hell? These threats have stoked the fires of the Inquisition and the nasty threats made by fundamentalists to this day.
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