Friday, October 22, 2010

Contradictory Christianity

Have you ever noticed how sometimes well-meaning Christians say contradictory things? For example, sometimes in gatherings where multiple people are praying, a person will pipe up and say something like, "Lord, You said that whenever two or more are gathered together in Your name that You will be in the midst of them. Well Lord, there are more than two of us here, so we know that You are with us!"

I remember hearing people quote those words from the Gospel of Matthew and thinking to myself, "So what does THAT imply? Does that mean that Jesus ISN'T at the center of our prayer experience if at least TWO people aren't praying together? What if I'm praying by myself? Is Jesus ignoring me until I round up a partner?"

I'll let you sit on that one for awhile. I do have an opinion - but I want to raise an issue about a contradiction which is infinitely more important than the example above. The issue I'd like to discuss relates to God's forgiveness for us through Christ. For years I grew up hearing preachers talk about how we are eternally "forgiven" of all of our sins (past, present and future) when we receive Christ and become children of God. I agree with this as a basic tenet of genuine Christianity.

Yet, on the other hand I grew up being told that Christians must confess their sins to God on a regular basis in order to find forgiveness for individual sins. The idea was to "keep short accounts" with God so as to "maintain close fellowship" (whatever that meant). Most of the rationale was based on 1 John 1:9, which says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness." Now, you can see where the double-talk comes in. If I am eternally forgiven of all my sins the moment I receive Christ as Savior - why must I continually confess my sin in order to receive forgiveness and purification?" Is that REALLY what 1 John 1:9 is saying?

Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts...