May 07, 2014
Converted
For a college assignment I
interviewed people from four different denominations to find out about their
conversion. The object of the lesson was to discover if they experienced a
point of conversion, or if conversion took place over a period of time.
However, what really caught my attention was that three of the four subjects
never mentioned Jesus Christ. It was as though Jesus didn’t factor in and their
idea of “conversion” was based solely on a spiritual relationship with God. Somehow
I don’t think that idea qualifies as conversion. “For since the creation of the
world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been
clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without
excuse” (Ro 1:20 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----It’s hard not to try cutting these guys some slack. After all, the point of the interviews was the temporal scope of their conversion experiences, rather than the process and procedure of it. But then, it’s hard to say much about conversion without mentioning Jesus Christ, since He is the truth to which the basic turn of conversion is made. Even though I do not have much regard for evaluating things according to the benchmarks they’ve achieved, the correlation between a person’s conversion and Christ’s involvement is more an overlay than a benchmark. Somehow, they share the same substance.
-----Yet, people have reasons for what they do and say, not always direct reasons, but reasons all the same. Knowing those reasons of another person is quite not possible, at least on a deeper level. I don’t like talking about my conversion experience, partly because I think it was a boring one, and partly because I am not sure when it was. I believe everyone thinks like me: a little now, a little later, a piece yesterday, a piece tomorrow. And the ideas just never finish building and assembling. But when does an idea actually become a decision? And is the moment of decision really as significant as the train of ideas which led to it? And when a decision is made, is that the same as the doing of it? And where is the fit for Jesus in all that? Except that the building, proceeding train of ideas is about the embrace of truth. Then would I really have to explain my reference to the truth means Jesus Christ, for no genuine truth is neither detached from Him nor of a substance other than Him? It is a logical extension I expect anyone intelligent enough to converse on these topics to make. Which is a reason, but not all reasons. Maybe one or more of the three you interviewed figured you would make the logical extension.
-----Then there are those people who limit the entirety of their mental content to one word: Jesus. We’re supposed to think they’re cute, or something. We’re at least not supposed to be critical of them. Oops. Here I go. When I meet one of these people I wonder if the progression of his ideas into ever more and more “Jesus” annunciations will eventually lead him to sitting on a lily pad croaking, “Jesus. Jesus. Jeesuuuus,” the rest of his days. But then, would that be so bad? I can see the glory in it. But too, I can see how the word becomes an idol.
-----Way back in my High School days when I determined to set out on a lifelong search for the truth, the first bit of truth I “logged into my journal” was that for us flawed folks, the truth is a tight rope. There is not only a falling to the left of which to be wary, but also a falling to the right just as disastrous. The only importance is to proceed on carefully. “In my vain life I have seen everything; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil-doing. Be not righteous overmuch, and do not make yourself over-wise; why should you destroy yourself? Be not wicked overmuch, neither be a fool; why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand; for he who fears God shall come forth from them all.” (Eccl 7:15-18)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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