Evangelical Issues That Won't Go Away

Alex posted on his blog a piece on what the church must address to be relevent in the 21st century.

(you can check out his post at: http://www.alexblog.com/2008/09/comment-making-christianity-credible-in-a-secular-age/)

He specifies a few items that should be considered in light of current state of understanding of the physical world around us:

This is nothing new. Many Christian scholars are arguing for an overhaul of Christian beliefs (see references below), in particular, shifting away from a literalistic interpretations to treating the Bible as powerful metaphors relevant to the human condition. This puts the big-ticket items of Christianity under the spotlight:

• Was Jesus really the son of God as well as part of the Trinity?
• Was he born of a virgin birth?
• Did Jesus die and was resurrected to (re)join God and, thereby, save us from our original inherited sin?
• In fact, did Jesus exist at all as one person or was his Bible persona some sort of idealised compilation of preachers?
• Therefore, is the Bible really a mixed collection of historical stories with powerful metaphorical messages written by a diverse range of people rather than the inerrant Word of God?
• If these are wrong or, at least, doubtful, then what does it mean to be a Christian?
• Are the other ways to achieve salvation than through one specific set of religious beliefs?

The problem of course comes into play when we look at the traditional Protestant view of Christianity, and why they so strongly require that the Bible be taken literally.

Jesus had to be part of the trinity and had to be of virgin birth. Because only a clean and pure sacrifice could be made for all the sin in the world, Jesus had to be without blemish. Not from the seed of a man, which carries sin's taint.

Jesus had to be a single living person, who did die and who was resurrected to ensure that he conquered death and allowed us to enter Heaven by believing in Him and the sacrifice he made.

God is truth, and if the Bible is seen to have even a letter of untruth in it, then it taints the entire thing...regardless of history and how it was put together...God's hand was guiding it and we accept that the message is His.

Jesus said he was the way, truth, and light and that nobody gets to the Father unless they go through Jesus. So all other relgions are false and failures.

So with all those in mind, we need to look at the one question Alex raises that is really at the heart of the whole discussion: If these are wrong or, at least, doubtful, then what does it mean to be a Christian?

If sin is only relevant in a discussion about redemption, and yet we decide that Jesus didn't really die on the cross, then how do we justify worrying about sin further?

If the Bible is fictional and the words within it not God inspired, then why would we give credence and value to something written only to further others beliefs and/or agendas? How do we determine which words and stories to hold up as truth and which ones to turn away?

If we believe that any religion can lead you to God, then we either make Jesus to be a liar and also wrong, which makes his sacrifice meaningless...or we ignore that section of the Bible where Jesus says He's the only way...which discredits the Bible's authenticity and raises questions about whether we can trust it at all.

The slope is slippery, and I've found myself coming up to the same questions: If I fail to believe in this aspect, then what happens to the rest of the belief? It seems that Christianity is a house of cards, where removing one piece of the structure will cause everything to crumble.

I have no answer to Alex's question about what it means to be a Christian...because I'm still trying to figure that out myself. With the mounting evidence for evolution growing every day, with advancements in technology allowing us to know more about our natural world, and with historians growing in knowledge about our past, the defacto "It's in the Bible so it must be true." stance is waning on me. I want to know the how's and why's, and I want to understand how my faith fits into this larger picture...if it indeed is meant to fit in at all.