The Supposed Immorality of Christianity

[Dimmesdale]

There is an idea in Christianity many detractors take issue with and it is this: the idea of having all one's sins "washed away" by simply making an act of faith. This seemingly gets people off the hook, to the effect that, hypothetically, an evil person may spend his entire life committing horrible deeds and, right before his death, confess Jesus and thus be "forgiven." As we can see, there's a lot here to consider.

First, this seems to just fly in the face of justice, as there doesn't seem to be any accountability here. After all, what if someone does spend his whole life in "sin" and then up and changes at the last minute? What value is there in his repentance/confession of faith? Where indeed is the accountability?

I gather that a Christian would respond in this way: the value of the act of faith consists in the sincerity and earnestness of his or her "repentance." Faith, in other words, is more than mouthing the right words: it involves a change of heart and mind, which is far less superficial, one would assume, than merely passing through a couple hoops.

So, the quality of a sinner's repentance may be considered in proportion to his or her life of sin. As C.S. Lewis puts it, the more one sins the harder it is to repent. However, repentance does appear possible in even very hardened people (such as criminals who "find God"), and some such people do indeed seem very sincere in their wanting to change and sorrowful regarding their past. They are, for all intents and purposes, "born again."

This still flies in the face of our normal concept of justice where one has to "atone" for one's sins by his or her own merits. But at least it looks as though there may be something to the act of faith as construed above. That it is more than just passing through some hoops and mouthing the right words. But there are problems even here.

First of all, how can we really know who is saved and who is simply self-deceived? How do we even measure our "repentance" and to what extent it is genuine or not? Should we accept just anyone who makes a profession of faith? What about people who do not feel sorry for their sins but insist that they are Christians, that they truly do "believe"? Is there hope for people like psychopaths and narcissists, who have blunted affections and mental lives? It seems we can only make an emotional appeal and hope beyond hope that some people really are "sincere" in their repentance and profession of faith. Jesus and the Bible paint an even more stark picture. In Revelation Jesus says to those who say "Lord, Lord" that He "never knew" them. So how can even convinced believers be sure they are saved?

There is another criterion: the one of works, that "by their fruit" believers will be known. But this introduces yet another difficulty: just how do you gauge how many works are "enough"? If nothing short of perfection is good enough for God, and even sincere people are in the wrong, what is the right way to demarcate the quality of faith?

As we can see, there are very troubling questions surrounding the issue of faith.

[Divine Insight]

As we can see, there are very troubling questions surrounding the issue of faith.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I totally agree with everything you've said.

However, I would like to add the following:

The idea of offering free forgiveness to those who sincerely ask for it isn't even in harmony with the original religion. The story of Adam and Eve doesn't have God offering Adam and Eve a chance to ask for forgiveness. Adam and Eve aren't storming out of the Garden of Eden proclaiming that they refuse to obey God and want no parts of him. Just the opposite is told. Eve is confessing everything to God and even giving testifying against the evil serpent who betrayed them.

If there was any truth to Christianity Adam and Eve should have been offered amnesty right then and there in the Garden of Eden.

So Christianity isn't even compatible with the original religion that it sprang from.

[ttruscott]

This seemingly gets people off the hook, to the effect that, hypothetically, an evil person may spend his entire life committing horrible deeds and, right before his death, confess Jesus and thus be "forgiven."

No sir.

There are two kinds of people on earth: sinful believers (His sheep, the good seed) and sinful unbelievers (the goats, the tares). We are told that sinful believers are NOT condemned but sinful unbelievers are condemned already, Jn 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Besides wondering when "already" started, we can see that how we are treated for our sins varies because of who we are in our relationship with GOD by an already faith or lack of it and not just the fact our choices as sinners.

Faith is a free will choice based upon a hope, not on proof, a hope something is true. I find that the faith that saves is in response to the gospel which I believe we all heard in the beginning before even the creation of the physical universe, according to Col 1:23 ...if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Which proclamation has never been fulfilled on earth yet is declared to be a completely finished act in the past by the verb tense of proclaimed.

I suggest that instead of the orthodox view that we are created as evil on earth by Adam, that we all heard the gospel and made our free will decision about its claims, ie, the Deity of YHWH, the nature of good and evil, the purpose of our creation and that salvation from any sin could only be found in the Son, before the creation of the physical universe. That salvation was to be accessed only by putting ones faith in these claims as true by a hope they were true not by proof.

This faith gave GOD the right to go against our later free will decison to be evil in HIS sight and so save us for our sin whereas those who by their free will rejected HIM and the Son are enslaved forever to their decision to be evil because their rejection totally disallowed HIM to ever interfere with their choices and they have no power in themselves to purge themselves of evil.

Thus GOD is justified in treating the two groups differently according to what they most wanted in reality, to live with GOD in heaven or to live as an enemy of GOD in supposed independence from HIM. The conclusion that faith leads to injustice is wrongly decided because it is based upon the false premise of our being created as evil on earth and not that we chose to be evil by our free will.