"CONDEMNED TO HELL
FOR NOT BELIEVING AN
IMPOSSIBILITY!"

I recently finished reading Robert Graves'
"Goodbye to All That" which is a biographical
account of his early life and his experiences as
an officer in the trenches of The First World
War. It is a great read. I am always intrigued
as a Christian when any writer alludes to their
own beliefs and, usually, why they come to
reject Jesus Christ.... literature invariably
values 'faith' as something to be lost as an
individual progresses towards maturity.

Robert Graves relates how his own religious
convictions wavered when Raymond, a school
friend, made the point that whoever asserted
that a belief in The Trinity was a prerequisite
to salvation "was asserting that a man must go
to Hell if he does not believe something that is,
by definition, impossible to understand."

Of course most such objections to the Gospel
are founded upon one conceit or another, and
this is no exception.

The assumption is this; "God has nothing on
me except that I don't believe in this theology!"
And the implication follows that God is an
unjust ogre who is in no position to judge me!
(It is no coincidence that this is exactly the
issue at the heart of Genesis 3. Plus ca change!)

If that is your position I have some good news
for you.... first up; no-one is going to be
condemned on a technicality. The bad news is
you are condemned already! That is what Jesus
said in John 3 v18; "...whoever does not believe
is condemned already..." (i.e. we do not start
this discussion as if we are innocents) which
can be paraphrased 'God didn't go to all the
trouble of sending his Son merely to point an
accusing finger...he came to help, to put the
world right again. Anyone who trusts in him
is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him
has long since been under the death sentence'.

It is a conceit to believe that we are innocents
in the hands of an unjust God - that is the
theology of Graves' friend isn't it? To claim that
we are faultless is to be mired in illusion and
self deceit; it is also to impute evil to God and
to condemn Him! That's Raymond's theology
isn't it? And we all have a theology.

Real maturity comes when we realise how
imperfect we are. In Psalm 32 David says
"Blessed is the man against whom the Lord
counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit is no
deceit". This does NOT mean that the believer
reaches some state of sinless perfection (as
some of my evangelical brethren think);
it means I have decided to cut out all the
fudging and to be totally honest with myself
- the reason I know that this is the correct
interpretation is because of verse five,
'Then I let it all out; I said "I'll make a clean
breast of my failures to God." I'm going to stop
kidding myself!'

I am a Christian because I am not the man I
pretend to be, or the man I should be nor am
I the man I fool myself that I am.

It is self evident that I need God himself
to help rescue me and that is exactly what He
did. God did not delegate the task to another
but He Himself came to do what no other
could. Jesus is God expressed in human form.
He would only do this out of love to rescue us
from ourselves.

I may not understand the Trinity either -
understanding the Godhead is not necessary;
but what is critical is to see our need for God's
rescue plan and to understand that this is
far from an impossibility... it is a downright
necessity. Jesus is the logic of history.

"AS A PAGAN MYSELF
.....[I BELIEVE]....
THAT KINDNESS IS ALL".

I've recently been reading Jan Morris'
biography of Jacky Fisher- a pioneering
British admiral of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries.

While commenting on Fisher's eccentric
take on Christianity she made the above
passing reference to her own pagan beliefs.
As throwaway remarks go it is quite
revealing - careless talk often is. She
alludes to the inconsistency of Fisher's
beliefs - his military professionalism and
belief in a version of Christianity. That
might be a fair point depending on whether
one believes it is not possible to be a
professional soldier (ie serving a legitimate
authority) and a Christian; that would take
us into the realm of "Just War Theory". But
I digress.

The thing I do not get at all is her connection
between Paganism and kindness -
you wouldn't get very far by pointing out
that the Pagan gods were paragons of
kindness as you were assaulted by some
one following their example, would you?
"But this is antithetical to your ethos!....
aarrrgh!"

My initial reaction was to say that Jan
Morris' assertion is a complete non sequitur.
But then, of course - stupid me! - I thought
back to the great pagan cultures in history
such as the Roman Empire and remembered
that they were such a kindly bunch weren't
they? The Assyrians, Aztecs and Spartans
were ever so touchy feely! And who would
deny that the Celts and the Vikings were the
cuddliest of them all!?

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