Want to Spot a True Christian? Look at the Love he/she has for his/her Redeemer

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Aug 8, 2011 at 16:21

The circumstance of reality is that I am stuck with English, the language of where I was born, a language that is a conglomerate form of thought expression that at once can be made to form poetic notions; and yet can be guttural and used to hide truth and deceptions. It is circumstantial also, that at many times, just like you, each of us will communicate as our thought processes form and I will concede that having learned English in a decidedly American forum lends to difficulties when dealing with English taught from a different mindset. That having been said, I can use any English version of the Holy Bible, two of the Spanish versions, a very small amount of Farsi; and yes, a certain amount of the Hebrew Aramaic and Koine Greek to determine that whatever the Holy Spirit can use to get His message across, I will listen to the Holy Spirit for His message, no matter how He chooses to teach me. But note, my English does not define my relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now, in your effort to dissemble what I said about Christianity, you, like so many who appear to have to discredit Christianity to give affirmation of your unwillingness to believe the WORD of the LORD, take too much credit for thinking that you have more knowledge than the LORD about the spiritual things being witnessed about Jesus Christ. How it is that any human thinking with the logic and reasoning of a corrupted human mindset can place itself above the thought process that created the universe and keeps it going moment by moment- breath by billions of breaths-heartbeat by billions of heartbeats? Is your life not precious enough to consider that He who made you and keeps you alive does so for a purpose better than the one you now serve?

But let us set aside for the moment the issues of which is better, whether your view of the Quran supports your belief system and the Holy Bible is the basis for mine, conceding each has their own reasons for belief. In that view, however, you make the inquiry "would it not have been better to give that 'biblical' understanding rather than verses you know I do not believe in?" Further you state, " on a theological point – Muslims fail to understand why Christians think that God has to lower Himself and not the other way around – Humans have to rise up to meet understanding of divinity." Then understandably, there is "I cannot fathom that one." Then "that is why I describe Christianity as among the weakest faiths. It is illogical to the extreme." Quite a conundrum, isn't it? Thirty five years ago, I would have agreed and been friends. Yet, I have had greater disagreements and still had friendship. However, under that guise, permit me to take this in a different light.

Since our major disagreement is based on disparate views of the Biblical narrative, and you surmise -"would it not have been better to give that 'biblical' understanding rather than verses you know I do not believe in?" - we must first conclude that your view about the Holy Bible comes from a distrust that was inculcated early - just as my opposite perception was. You did not learn a Biblical perspective so you could not believe, yet as I was taught specific Biblical things, I did not fully believe them then either, questions abounding. Others in my familial and church surroundings, taught the same way as I was, do not believe in faith to this very day. If an Almighty God is as powerful as we were being taught, the questions about how certain things were allowed and how humanity has to go through the things we do, when and where is His power displayed if we cannot see it to formulate belief? Do you see the dilemma? If you knew and understood the decades of delving through the first twenty years of disinformation in the supposed 'Christianesque' (Christianity practiced without the power of its source) environment of my youth in order to search out truth based upon a new non-human reasoning application of Scriptural Truth, then this might be easy. Trust me on this one - it is not.

To gain a true to the WORD of the LORD Biblical understanding, everything-virtually all that was learned under the 'logic of religion'- must be discarded, whether as applied by faithless Christian ethic, Buddhist, Judaic, Islamic, etc. In actuality, one of the best places to gain entry into such insight is from the least religious book of the Holy Bible, the book of Job, considered by many to be the oldest. In it, one will read of a person that predates all the law of the Holy Bible and gives the reader a chance to discern how mortal humanity interacts with Deity without religious context.

First, the thing to notice is the personal way the whole episode begins, viewing an environment and situation no human could ever devise, let alone stage. Personal-does anybody think that the attacks on Job by the Adversary were not personal the way Job was singled out for what was to befall him? The next part is enough to send chills down a believer's spine, let alone an unsuspecting non believer; for it calls to mind every human fear of the frailty of life and the terminal nature of our very existence. But it needs to be read, in its entirety, to get the an initial response from the reader; then read over and over again to get to the meat of the matter: how does mere mortal man have a chance against an Almighty Eternal Sovereign if a relationship cannot be established due to mankind's inability to reach God?

Then, after the calamities that befell Job, how does he take it? While still hurting in ways I cannot fathom in this American frame of mind, Job declares that the LORD can give and take as He pleases, whether considered fair or not. Again, there is the relationship issue – are we able in our mortality to argue that Almighty God is unfair to act in His own ways and manners? That is like asking the question: is Almighty God not God? Still, how does one get to the personal relationship that true Christianity says it has with Almighty God? Job gives a clue – but we'll come back to that.

Jobs 'friends' surround him and give all sorts of advice as to how to deal with his tragedies. They all end up making the wrong arguments, laying ill advised charges at Job's feet for being something we are already told he is not – an unrighteous man. In his pain, Job takes up the challenge and makes his first of many observations, coming to a conclusion that causes him to confront Almighty God with what we might call the 'why' question. Now it gets personal, and Almighty God responds – personally.

We learn in a non-law environment that the Almighty God that is Creator is in charge of everything, from the first breath we take, to the last, and beyond. We also begin to get the idea of His holiness, that character of His Being that cannot be humanly approached, answering the dilemma – "why Christians think that God has to lower Himself and not the other way around – Humans have to rise up to meet understanding of divinity"….it is because humans have no capacity or power as mere mortals to do so. It is also the patently false premise of any religion, that in order to get closer to God, mankind-powerless to approach God in any fashion-still tries and fails to understand that mankind cannot.

But we can read through the dialogue and realize that Job does get to the really personal way Almighty God reaches to Job (and not Job reaching up)-the LORD speaks to Job. The LORD speaks to Job in a logic that exceeds any human reasoning-like telling Almighty God how many worlds are there-we surmise that there are millions, even billions: but has any human a remote idea of how to count them all, let alone any actual counting? The computer that could approach doing that has not been conceived of yet, nor likely will ever be. The logic that mankind can 'reason' with God is in reality, the true illogical argument. But more importantly, the LORD speaks to Job in His compassion for what Job has been through, and eventually provides for his escape of relief. The love bond that matures from that is eternal.

Let us move beyond the prior illogicality you mentioned, determining that mankind cannot even approach a holy God let alone that mankind can advance an argument that God should listen to mankind at all. Why should a holy God even give mankind a chance when all that mankind does is defy Almighty God in the vilest rebellion of hatred for the things of God. Almighty God says to love-and mankind hates and kills without the love of Almighty God. How would one humanly logically expect a holy God to handle that, in human terms? Mankind has not been able to handle that one yet. If a man in his own pride 'demands of God' what that man thinks he is due, is there not the expectation that a holy God would reject that in righteousness. Mankind has no righteousness at all to be making any such demands. We see that even Job, who was declared 'righteous' in the beginning by Almighty God, could not make that demand.

Now, one might say that Job has a relationship with Almighty God without Jesus Christ, until as I said earlier, we address the clue Job gives as to how he relates to Almighty God. Job declares, "I know my Redeemer lives." Job, as we are told has righteousness in the beginning-why the need for a Redeemer? Because Job has come to the realization that by himself, he cannot have a relationship with Almighty God-he needs His Redeemer. This is the beginning of how the illogicality of human reasoning cannot reconcile itself with a holy Almighty God. The Redeemer is necessary. From there, there is no escape. Sinful humanity needs to seek the plan provided by Almighty God – and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is my Redeemer, takes its lead in my life.

Now I could go on but I'll refrain.

Want to spot a true Christian? Look at the love he/she has for his/her Redeemer, the one who has promised eternity with Him in response to faith in Him, Jesus Christ. In its simplicity, this is really all I can share with you – His love. All the rest becomes religion, and you already have a good idea how that works. Separate Jesus Christ from the box that religion puts Him in and see how He loved you enough to provide a way to eternity and peace with Him. That is the true Christian witness.

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