Does God see in black and white?
Kids. They're always watching you. You have a really bad day and let some %&#@ slip and there you have it. "Mom...you said ___". Or how about "The speed limit says 30. You're going 40". You think when they move out that it will stop. Wrong. Especially if you blog and they read it. And there they are....calling you on the carpet once again. Such was the job of my youngest today who read my post on Virtues/Fruits and took issue with my saying that the opposite of those positive traits should be credited to non-Christians. OK, I said. Post your comment...that's what blogs are for. But, reluctant to appear more serious than her happy-go-lucky demeanor is comfortable with, she declined. So, I'll take up the argument for you Em.
You're right. It was a gross over simplification...over-generalization. And yes, I'm aware that there are people, non-christian people, who exhibit some sterling qualities. And I'm aware that there are christian people who are real ____, you fill in the blank. 'Twas always so and always yet will be. But, that clouds the issue. The point being that I think you're either with God or you're not. You've either accepted the atonement offered for you or you haven't.
Hence, the title of this post. Are there just 2 categories? Christian and non-Christian. God's and not-God's. Forget all the adjectives that can be applied (erring Christian, moral non-Christian, etc.). Does everyone fall in these 2 categories? I'm a very black and white person. I hate to admit that because nowadays it seems not to be politically correct. I grew up with lots of black and whites. You're in the Church of Christ--you're going to heaven. You're not in the Church of Christ--you're going to hell. Pretty clear-cut. Wrong...but clear. Nice girls don't dance--bad girls do. Everyone probably has a list like that. But, what I want to know is...does God view humans like that? Christian or non-Christian. In or out. Or are people in varying degrees? And if so, how does that work? What's the criteria for each category?
It seems like there are some clear-cut lines in scripture. And that's where I want to go, to scripture. My husband says there's some theological line of thinking that everyone will be saved...no matter what. It's probably got some unpronounceable name like so many schools of thinking do, but that seems a bit bizarre, and counter to scripture. There is a lot in the good book that refers to good and evil. You're with me or against me. Those that have sinned (long list) and those that haven't (extremely short list). Very black and white talk in the broadest sense. It's when we get to the details that the proverbial gray starts to creep in. My question about the gray is, "Is it really gray?" or is it just gray to us, but black and white to God? What if we really had the mind of Christ? Would we always make the right decision (the white decision)? Is gray OK because we're human, and not to get too worked up about, or is there cause for looking further?
"The Man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgement about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment...but we have the mind of Christ". I Corinthians 2:14
Hebrews says that if we are maturing, then we will by constant use of our faith, train ourselves to distinguish good from evil. (5:14) Which leads me to think that finding the black and white at the very least will take training...and maturing. So, that's where I am on this question. If someone doesn't have God's spirit within him, certain things make no sense. Gray prevails. And even those of us who do have God's spirit within us, have to really train ourselves to see good and bad. I just want to be compassionate while I search for it.
posted by pat @ 12:47 PM
4 Comments:
I don't know.... but perhaps there is no black, no white, no grey. Just truth. Seeing black, seeing white, seeing grey, all is a human distortion, like you said, because we are limited to our own life experiences and beliefs, hurts, and feelings.
I think that God has a lot of compassion for how pitiful we are. And perhaps the "criteria" for being on the "in" list is whether we had integrity in our understanding, however limited or immature it may be.
I want to read other comments.
Much love. Pray for compassion.
"The point being that I think you're either with God or you're not."
I think it's worth asking whether one has to be aware of "accepting atonement" in order to be "with God." Is this necessarily a conscious decision that takes place in explicitly Christian confessional terms? Or is it possible for someone to be "with God" without knowing, explicitly and consciously, that they are?
What about babies? In the CofC we teach an original innocence (until some ill-defined and very flexible "age of accountability"). If babies can be "with God" in some sense but sans explicit, conscious confessional acceptance of atonement, then the formal possibility of such a thing is de facto acknowledged.
And if it's possible, then I think we should ask, is it possible for non-Christians (defined as people who self-identify as something other than Christian, or people who choose not to self-identify as Christian) to be "with God" in this same non-conscious, non-explicit sense? If not, why not?
It is quite possible to answer "no" to that question in a theologically consistent way just as it is to answer "yes" in a theologically consistent way (it has to do with what other commitments you find yourself with). But I think the question has to be answered one way or the other, not assumed as already answered self-evidently.
Perhaps our gray areas are simply the result of inevitable human ignorance. But that doesn't make them less gray--for us. The gray is not illusory--for us. We still face the task of negotiating the world as best we can with the tools given us, and if the best that yields is gray, then it's honest to acknowledge that. God knows it's gray for us. God made us, after all.
If things are black and white for God, then eventually what I think will happen is that when our gray resolves into that black and white vision, we'll be stunned at how the spectrum falls out. A lot of our suspected whites will be black and vice versa. I think of Matthew's portrait of the Pharisees and Jesus' habit of eating with sinners and doing nutty things like talk to foreign women. When we draw black and white conclusions, we get them wrong. A lot.
I really hope to see a lot of Buddhists in heaven. And atheists.
A favorite line from AJ Cronin's Keys of the Kingdom: "Atheists may not all go to hell. I know one who didn't. Hell is only for those who spit in the face of God!" I guess what I'd want to say is, maybe you don't have to explicitly accept God in a confessional Christian way to be "with God." But you do have to explicitly reject God to be outside of God.
from the Ash Wednesday service tonight:
"For he himself knows whereof we are made; he remembers that we are but dust." (Psalm 103)
It occurred to me that ashes are gray.
Well the ever-wise Jen had me thinking even more about this post.
With God=- without sin
Not with God = in sin
So what makes a sin a sin? Can a person sin without realizing their sinning? I know in the church of Christ they can and they do. Never got a clear answer on the people in the rural village who had never even heard the name of God though.
Good thoughts. Again, Thank God I'm not His Official Bean Counter!
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