Coming Around to Salvation
More thoughts on the movie "Saved!"

If you sneezed in the right place, you may have missed this part of the movie, but it's one of the more telling parts (there was definitely an insider helping to write this screenplay) and it makes one the more important criticisms of modern theology.

Warning... Spoiler Ahead!!!

I'm referring to the part in the mall, when the Jena Malone character is eating with her friends when the Mandy Moore character, accompanied by the handsome and level-headed son of the headmaster, stumbles on them. By this time it is clear that Jena Malone has a crush on the headmaster's son (as does Mandy Moore), and in an effort to buy her time with him, her friend (who is the "lost soul" at the Christian high school) tells Mandy Moore that she's done a lot of thinking and wants to get saved, then pleads with her to help her do the deed.

Mandy Moore's reaction is priceless... and unfortunately true. She treats the "procedure" as if it were surgery! "I don't have all my materials, but oh well!" She begins to lead her fellow student through a process to get her saved.

This is EXACTLY how I was taught to witness to people when I was young. Some refer to it as the "Roman Road" method (by which a person can lead others to salvation by memorizing four short scriptures out of the book of Romans)... in other circles it's the "Four Spiritual Laws" method. Unfortunately, the "product" of these processes are usually no more effectual at salvation than Constantine marching his armies through the Rubicon river and declaring them all baptized when they came out the other side.

This "method" of witnessing takes for granted that a "relationship with Jesus Christ" is dependent most of all on what I believe, propositionally, in my head. Everything else is either secondary or unnecessary altogether.

This is the type of Christian I was for 16 years. I had no more of a relationship with Jesus Christ than I did with Abraham Lincoln. I knew a lot about him, but I could hardly say I had met the man.

The consequences of this are damaging to the church, and we're bearing the fruit of this now. With salvation as an easy process dependent upon the acceptance of propositional knowledge, we can make Sunday morning services the focus of our time, effort, and money in our churches and completely neglect the duty of living out the values of the kingdom of God. If the point is to get as many people to listen to this truth as possible, why not hand out money to get butts in pews? Why not try to make Sunday school as fun and entertaining as you can make it, while remaining within the boundaries of "upright values"? Why not entice kids in with climbing walls, computers, and iPods loaded with Christian music? This "method" of salvation allows us to live "Christian lives" without ever having to desire or even agree with those values of the kingdom, making it much easier to conform to the world while still reaping the "benefits" of being in the Christian subculture in America. Jesus remains a convenient accessory to my life, rather than creating a change in me. This IF the person doesn't become disillusioned with the fact that all those things that Jesus seems to promise don't actually end up happening in their lives, leaving them to either accept a mundane church existence or dump the "program" altogether.

We begin looking for Jesus in the wrong places. For years, I was scared to death to "witness" to people for fear that I would say the wrong thing, or forget what to say altogether, because you've GOT TO GET IT ALL IN THERE!!! Salvation is like a recipe, and leaving any ingredient out can result in failure!!! What deception this was (incidentally, I hear that they now have programs designed to drill the "necessary formula" into the heads of attendees to the point that they don't have to be afraid anymore!). It never occurred to me that "witnessing" simply meant telling others what Christ was doing with me. This, however, would have been equally difficult, because in that reality, with Jesus so readily contained in a given set of "beliefs", he was not allowed to do a thing with me. I had him tamed in my acceptance of the propositions. It was not Jesus I had, but religion.

Salvation is not a 12 step program. It's not a checklist. Making it such makes it law, and law does not bring life. But Jesus brings life...

more later
posted by Stephen at 9:48 PM | |