Monday, March 10, 2014

"Postmortemden"


I was watching a TV detective procedural, which led to a thought, which led to this post.
Why Death and Life? Why are we drawn to stories, fake, made up stories...where people die on purpose and the purposers are sought and caught by the end of an episode?
Why must it always be murder/death? Have we become so inured of everyday lesser evils that it takes someone dying to touch us, to elicit an emotional response?
I have a guess.
The hard true fact of someone dying is Eternity staring us down. We blink.
So we love false stories of murder mysteries which allow us to vicariously experience others facing death, noting how they deal with pains, emotions, how they cope.
Discovering the murderer-that is the main focus of police procedurals.
We identify with the good guys, at least most of us do. We love heroes.
And we hate death. We also hate those who kill, who end lives for their own selfish purposes.
We want justice. 
God is a God of Justice. No murderer will ever escape His sentencing.
When a Hitler or Stalin or Kim Jong-un goes into the wholesale murder business, whether or not they ever stand in front of a human Judge is immaterial. They will answer for their crimes in God's courtroom.
But.
This is a hard thing to write, but
so will all who have not been granted Salvation through Christ.
I love happy endings-I would love to see you in Heaven. May God extend His Grace to you.

7 comments:

Doug said...

I know that this is a rather odd post.
You should have seen the first draft.

Lucia said...

It doesn't strike me as especially odd: quite in keeping with your usual "repent or burn forever" approach to evangelism.

Can you name one positive aspect of salvation? I suppose I would have to count escaping the Eternal Weenie Roast as a positive, but it would be nice to hear about all that love and joy you occasionally mention in passing. (Aside from the love and joy you experience in spreading the Bad News, that is.)

Doug said...

Hi Lu. One person's "Bad News" is another's treasure.
It isn't about avoiding eternal weenie roasts at all. I'm not grateful to God merely for saving me from hell-I LOVE that I have all of eternity with God, which is something that may not compute for you.
I've said it before, but if there were no Heaven waiting for me, if my existence snuffed out at death...I would still love God for the Blessings I have known on THIS side of eternity.
Positive aspects of salvation? Ooodles. I live a Blessed life, connected with my Creator who is Loving and Good.
Think about this, Lu:
Is it hateful to warn someone that they are in danger of hell?
Is it being 'loving and kind' to NOT warn someone?
Whether or not you accept that there is a hell, I believe that it exists and I would have to be an evil stone-hearted jerk to not care if people go there.
I care. I warn people to seek God and the Salvation He offers. We Christians have the great commission to go and make disciples of all the nations, to share the Gospel with whoever will listen OR not listen.
Which is why we warn of hell and preach of Heaven.




Lucia said...

The way I've heard it phrased is that if a friend had inoperable, terminal cancer and you had a cure, what kind of a friend would you be if you didn't tell them? And I get that. But when you are exhorting people to seek salvation, you mostly talk about hell. You sometimes mention heaven in passing, and rarely mention what it's like to walk with God every day, except insofar as you believe your faith gives you the right to judge everyone else.

You say "I warn people to seek God." You warn people? Why don't you try inviting them instead?

Doug said...

Mis-perception, Lu. If you look back over past posts on this and finer dry wit blogs, you might be surprised to see that I talk quite a bit more about Heaven and the blessings of God than hell.
So why would you think otherwise?
Because your emphasis is on seeing the negative and missing the positive.
You see hell posts more often as that is what pings your meter.
You miss the positive God affirming posts which your nature tells you are false, as you think I am wrong about God...and Heaven and hell.
I warn people to seek God and I also
invite them to discover for themselves that God is real. Semantics. Carrot and stick.
Look through my posts and comments and count the number of times you read some variable of this:
"May God give you the faith to believe."
THEN count the number of posts where I am happy about people going to hell.
Look for another new post on Finer dry Wit today and Lu? I appreciate that you come here asking questions.
I don't have all of the answers, but I know Who does.


Lucia said...

You say "May God bless you today" or "May God give you faith" quite a lot, it's true -- but the implication is very often "because otherwise you're toast."

Here is an example of what I mean by talking about what it's like to walk with God. I've seen this posted many times on Facebook and elsewhere by Christians who believe that God watches them and looks out for them every hour of every day, and is infinitely patient and kind. They want everyone to experience this relationship with God for themselves.

So why doesn't a piece like this have me instantly dropping on my knees, praising God, and asking forgiveness? Because I've been a Christian (I know you don't think so, but let's at least say I've tried to be one), I've known a lot of Christians, and I don't see what they see. You can say my brain isn't wired that way or God hasn't (yet) called me, whichever you like. But my point is that if anything could get me to convert, a message like this and the messenger bringing it are a whole lot more likely to do the trick than "if you don't believe you're going to fry just like a murderer."

(By the way, if justification is by faith alone, what does murder or any other sin no matter how heinous have to do with it?)

Doug said...

Good morning, Lu-here is another page from David Walker, which I agree with and you probably do not:
http://davidnwalker.com/2014/02/18/accepting-salvation/

No one can become a Christian by their own logic, their own strengths, their own righteousness. Any God that we can imagine isn't able to save anybody.
When I write, "May God give you the faith to believe" that is a sincere prayer to God asking Him to give the gift of Faith to any and all that read those words. I was saved over 30 years ago because God did the saving. If it were only my efforts, I would still be lost.
I absolutely will mention hell, and Heaven; Christ did, often. The Bible is full of such warnings, so it's not something I've made up to scare people.

"(By the way, if justification is by faith alone, what does murder or any other sin no matter how heinous have to do with it?)"
God saves sinners. We have all sinned,because it is our nature. It isn't a matter of degree, of one persons sins being more heinous than someone else's. Sin is sin, and justification by faith alone means that no one else can save but Christ-it is only faith in Him, His sacrifice on behalf of all sinners that we can be saved.
A Buddhist has faith. A Muslim has faith. But those are not saving faiths-Christ alone can and does save. There is no other name given under Heaven by which we can be saved.