Francis Chan asserts this in Chapter 5 of Crazy Love. I’m always bothered when people talk about who is and isn’t going to hell. This is one of the great red herrings of Christian culture today. We obsess about hell.
But I want to ask you a few questions to consider. Did you become a Christian in order to avoid going to hell? Do we love God so that He won’t judge us?
If I think about my relationship with God like a marriage, I can live in at least two ways. I can live to love and delight my spouse, to glorify her and enjoy her. Or I could live to avoid making her angry, to make sure I do not upset her or incur her disapproval.
One of those ways leads to healthy relationship. The second leads to a relationship leads to resentment and feelings of guilt. The first relationship is based on love; the second is based on fear.
I think when we obsess about hell, talk at length about if people are going to hell, we fall into the trap of a relationship based on fear.
But didn’t Jesus talk about hell at length? Yes, he talked about it and I think it is important to consider it. But love for God should overwhelm fear for hell. In the marriage I discuss above based on love, I still care about not making my spouse mad. If I truly want to love and delight her, I won’t make her mad. Thus it’s important to know what she doesn’t like, but it’s not what I dwell on. I dwell on what she does like and just remember what she doesn’t like. The joy of her love is at the front of my mind whereas fear of her disapproval is at the back of my mind.
If we love God, it’s inevitable to have a healthy fear for Him. But if we fear God first, it’s difficult to love him. If our main motivation is avoiding someone’s wrath, it is difficult to enjoy that person and truly delight in that person.
The church obsesses about hell. I’ve talked to many people, Christian and non-Christian, who have been hurt or turned off by people saying they are going to hell. I know no one who heard they are going to hell and decided to become Christian. In fact, those who came to believe in Jesus in the Gospels were touched by his love and followed him.
I found it frustrating that Crazy Love, a book about how the love of Christ transforms us, discusses at length about who is and isn’t going to hell. When I have to spend time thinking whether or not I am going to hell, that is not time spent in loving relationship with God.
While searching the internets for more information on Nathan Barlow (who we'll hear about in a later chapter), I found a critical review of Crazy Love that addresses Francis Chang's views on lukewarmness and salvation.
ReplyDeleteThe author of the review asserts that Francis is holding to the theology of Lordship Salvation. According the Theopedia.com, "Lordship salvation is the position that receiving Christ involves a turning in the heart from sin and, as a part of faith, a submissive commitment to obey Jesus Christ as Lord. It also maintains that progressive sanctification and perseverance must necessarily follow conversion. Those who hold to the doctrine of perseverance of the saints see this not only as a requirement, but an assured certainty according to the sustaining grace of Christ."
To someone holding this position (depending to what extent they hold it), it would follow that a "Christian" who is not actively pursuing God or being visibly changed by Him or producing fruit did not really submit to Jesus Christ as Lord in faith, and is therefore not a Christian.
This view can be seen in Francis' analysis of the parable of the soils (Luke 8:4-21) in chapter 5, where he says that "Jesus' intention in this parable was to compare the only good soil to the ones that were not legitimate alternatives. To Him, there was one option for a true believer." I feel he kind of misses the point of the parable here -- does anyone choose to be shallow or thorny soil as alternatives to being good soil? I don't think so. I think the shallow and thorny soil can simply be the result of people being people and being impacted by life. Someone who gets saved and has no one to disciple them, for example, could easily fall into the categories of shallow or thorny soil depending on their life circumstances.
Once we are saved start going through the lifelong process of sanctification (being set apart by the Holy Spirit). A Christian who is not actively serving God in a season of their life could be struggling through their faith and just making bad decisions. Based on Francis' assertions one would say that this person is not really a Christian -- to me that is a dangerous assertion. Ultimately God knows his children and will discipline and draw them to Himself. For us to try to judge this based on actions seems silly, unproductive and potentially destructive to me.
Here's the link to the review I referenced above:
http://riversidedrivebaptistmaine.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/crazy-love-book-review.pdf
Thanks for sending the link. It does a great job of summarizing up some of the problems I see with the book with some really good exegesis.
ReplyDeleteI think that you're right in the point of who is in control here. The book seems to put the control on us, that it's our choice, that we can choose to be good soil or shallow or thorny soil, whereas a lot of time it's out of our control.
I think you also bring up a good point about judging people. Any time we judge people based on actions, it's a dangerous precedent. This book does that. It's a huge difference between saying "Christians should do this and not do that" and saying "those who do this and that are not Christians and aren't going to be in heaven". The first example is judging the goodness or badness of actions, which I think is okay. The second example is judging the goodness or badness of people, which is clearly not okay.