Smoky Mountain Reflections
October 2012
Fall
greetings! The leaves will turn this month as our Lord puts on beautiful bursts
of color, the last big hurrah for all the burgeoning growth that took place
this past year. The four-month break from mowing the lawn is just around the
corner...even though I enjoy mowing the lawn, I also like the break. The two volunteer pumpkins that grew in my
back yard this year will move to the front porch to join all the fall
decorations I pulled down for Gerda just a few days ago. So as nature goes asleep and we get into a
new winter rhythm, longer nights, sunnier cooler days and all the tradition
that comes with this time of year, I can’t help but feel upbeat. Of course being the optimist that I am, it is
an easy thing to feel upbeat...all is well in my universe and I hope and pray
the same for you.
Another
significant thing that we celebrate along with Hallow'en (yes, the apostrophe
belongs there as it is a word derived from Hallows Eve) the evening before All
Saints Day or All Hallows Day. In our
Lutheran circles and in much of Protestantism, we also celebrate the 495th
anniversary of the Reformation—that fateful day in 1517 when Martin Luther
nailed the 95 theses or topics for debate on the church door in
Wittenberg. Luther was trying to get the
church back to its biblical roots and to dispose of non-biblical
practices. While this is a debate within
Trinitarian Christianity, one thing all Christians who are members of the
invisible church on earth can acknowledge and agree on, is the fact that there
are really only two religions on earth—those who are members of the body of
Christ and those who are not.
That
may seem to be a bit over simplistic but it is the truth. Christianity is the only religion in which
the god comes to you, and gives His life for you in order for you to have the
goal of the religion—faith in Him which leads to eternity in paradise with
Him. From this faith, works of love for
God and neighbor flow as a natural response of gratitude for this great
undeserved gift from God. In all other
religions you must go to the god seeking to appease, and garner favor through
your good works. This applies even to
non-religious belief systems, the goal of which is pleasing the ultimate
authority or god in order to earn that authority's approval or kindness. Let’s
consider the following examples of other religions or belief systems that are
all based on "works righteousness", that is you working to get right
with your god, not Him making you righteous through Christ.
Atheism and Agnosticism: these
are only concerned with pleasing one god—self. If I say it is ok, then I am
good enough to please my god....me. I am the ultimate authority so if I meet my
standard, then I reach the ultimate goal of my belief system...self
satisfaction. Mormonism & Islam:
I cover these together because they are so similar. Both have no concept
of hell, just levels of heaven. Both
teach that if you please God you will be rewarded either with your own planet
to be god over and populate by having much sex, or a paradise with wine that
does not inebriate and 70 virgins with swelling breast to have eternal sex
with. See how similar they are—they must have the same author. Modern Judaism: It believes that
by pleasing God you will be blessed by Him in this life and the next; however
because they reject the fulfillment of God's promises in Christ, they end up
relying on their own works which are as worthless as ours. All forms of Eastern Mysticism:
Buddhism, Gnosticism, Hinduism, Kabbalah, Sufism, Taoism—all believe in various
ways that all reality is an illusion and by being good (which is hard to
define) you will eventually be good enough to reunite with the pure
enlightenment or consciousness. So as
you can see, in all of these major belief systems you must be good to get to
“god,” however you define “god,” be it yourself, a powerful yet fickle being,
or a state of mind.
Another
thing that sets Christianity apart is its existence in time. It is the only
faith that functions fully in all of history and has a plan for the salvation
of "ALL" from the beginning to the end of time. Those who lived before Christ are redeemed by
Christ through their faith in God's promise and all afterward are saved through
faith in fulfillment of that promise. If
anyone does not have access to this redeeming truth, it is a result of human
sin, not God's indifference. With the
exception of Judaism all other faith
systems do not concern themselves with anyone who preexisted their
religion. Mormonism is less than 200
years old. There are at least a half
dozen or more belief systems that are less than 500 years old. Islam is only about 1400 years old and a
number of eastern systems are less than 1500 years old. Only paganism and
Hinduism predate Christianity, but Hinduism, like all forms of Eastern
Mysticism, does not concern itself with history. And what we know of ancient
paganism is from the historical sciences, not any modern variations that have
little or no root in any history that is not plagued with massive gaps.
So
the two basic faith groups are this: 1) Work to get to your god and if (when)
you fall short ....too bad, or 2) God came to you; you will fall short, but He
paid the price; work in response to this great gift.
Enjoy your fall season.
In Christ,
Pastor Portier
