From: pmy@vivaldi.acc.virginia.edu (Pete Yadlowsky)
Subject: Re: Top 10 Reasons for Believing in the Deity of Jesus Christ.
Organization: Academic Computing, University of Virginia
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 19:02:00 GMT

In article <54389@hydra.gatech.EDU> rpitts@emperor.gatech.edu (Richard Pitts) writes:

You seem to have dropped the "right unto man" thread. Did you get bored
with it?

>>It seems to me that the only things for a good believer to do are to spend
>>life silently watching, asking and listening, never exalting oneself to
>>proclaim to others what is right and wrong. For all you know, God is up there
>>rolling his eyes and sending memos to Quality Control.

>Obviously, this is your concept of how God works?

Personally, I'm a nonbeliever, neutral on the existence of the Biblical
god and uninterested in worshipping him in any case. But it's my impression
that the great saints (at least the ones that have most drawn my attention)
of all faiths have been quite similar in several respects. They seem to
be soft-spoken, humble contemplatives. They quietly offer reflections on
their individual relationships with God (or whatever). They offer personal
insights on the nature of divinity and the human condition. Never have I
found them yelling at people, handing out lists of do's and dont's, or
warning "accept Jesus, get right with God, or ELSE!". In other words, the
saints generally present themselves as _people_, like others of their
kind, not self-appointed bearers of God's mind.

>Jesus told us that we are to be salt and light.  The light is to shine
>before men - it reveals things hidden by darkness/sin.

If one has any light to shine, it will show through in the merest breath
or step, without a single word being spoken. On the other hand, if one
has no such light then not even years of continuous preaching will reveal
anything (except perhaps the folly of the preacher) to anyone. Are all
christians supposed to assume they've been gifted with luminosity? If so,
there seem to be an awful lot of dead bulbs out there.

>No we are not to fix the world,

Yet I'm sure you know there are many of your brethren that do not
understand this. They want very much to "fix" the world.

>but we were given a command
>by Jesus to GO INTO ALL THE WORLD, BAPTIZING THEM, AND TEACHING THEM TO 
>OBEY EVERYTHING HE COMMANDED.  Matthew 28:19-20.
>Do you think it is wrong for us to present the gospel?

No, but I'm not so sure about the "teaching them to obey" thing there.
If what you present is worth the world's attention, there will be no
need for obeisance. The stream does not need to be taught to obey the
ocean's call. In any case, "present" in your question is often heavily
loaded. How you present is at least as important as what you present.
If you're going to run around making pests of yourselves, telling people
that you're right (futilely attributing your words to God) and they're
wrong, you deserve all the abuse you get. There are better ways. The
problem is, zeal is a lot easier to come by than wisdom or intelligence.
I think the Bible should have included a verse or two about a minimum
wisdom-to-zeal ratio, with an exam in the back that the reader could take,
rip out and send in (perhaps by burning it on an altar). A few weeks later,
if you make the cut, you get a little card, something like an FCC broadcast
license.

>>Christianity is a religion, one of the
>>world's many. It proposes a saviour figure as a means of getting to God, as
>>opposed to some other means.

>Other religions
>have ways to work themselves to a god - Christianity has works, but they
>are not for getting to God, but to show God's love to man and to mature
>us in the faith.

None of this argues against what I said, though. Work, faith, some
combination, whatever. You know, some of you guys are always trying
to give christianity special status by putting it above and beyond
religion, but the convoluted arguments along this line never work.
If your faith has anything to offer, it will (and in some, does) shine
quite on its own without need for contrivance.

--
Peter M. Yadlowsky              |         Laden e-mail runs
Academic Computing Center       | Bumbling, creaking through the net
University of Virginia          |         Sysadmins tremble.
pmy@Virginia.EDU                |                      - after Buson
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