I have recently discovered this awesome book: The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller.
Timothy Keller uses the Parable of The Two Lost Sons (Luke 15) to show God's perspective on the church vs. unchurched. He points out how the parable wasn't to show the waywardness of the sinner but actually, the "waywardness" of the religious people even though they were living according to the Bible! Keller argues that the point of the parable wasn't to create categories between the prodigal son and the good son but rather to shatter our categories of who we think are the righteous vs unrighteous.
Keller says, "[Jesus] is on the side of neither the irreligious nor the religious, but he singles out the religious moralism as a particularly deadly spiritual condition."*
I like what Keller has to say. We need to not judge others' relationships with God based on the normal views of religious actions vs lack of religious activities. We do not know what God is doing in people's hearts, and simply the outward appearance is no way to determine one's salvation.
Is it even up to us to determine another's salvation??
I think it's truly only up to us to encourage others in faith and let God do the knowing.
Above judging others' spiritual conditions from afar, Keller challenges our view of Jesus. Similarly to the message Andy Stanley gives in the video I posted on 6.21.09 (in the blog entry titled, "Jesus Liked People Who Were Nothing Like Him"), Keller points out that Jesus often got along better the unreligious people of his day more than the religious people!
Here's an excerpt from the book:
*Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. Pengiun Group: New York, NY. 2008. p. 13
**p. 14-16
Timothy Keller uses the Parable of The Two Lost Sons (Luke 15) to show God's perspective on the church vs. unchurched. He points out how the parable wasn't to show the waywardness of the sinner but actually, the "waywardness" of the religious people even though they were living according to the Bible! Keller argues that the point of the parable wasn't to create categories between the prodigal son and the good son but rather to shatter our categories of who we think are the righteous vs unrighteous.
Keller says, "[Jesus] is on the side of neither the irreligious nor the religious, but he singles out the religious moralism as a particularly deadly spiritual condition."*
I like what Keller has to say. We need to not judge others' relationships with God based on the normal views of religious actions vs lack of religious activities. We do not know what God is doing in people's hearts, and simply the outward appearance is no way to determine one's salvation.
Is it even up to us to determine another's salvation??
I think it's truly only up to us to encourage others in faith and let God do the knowing.
Above judging others' spiritual conditions from afar, Keller challenges our view of Jesus. Similarly to the message Andy Stanley gives in the video I posted on 6.21.09 (in the blog entry titled, "Jesus Liked People Who Were Nothing Like Him"), Keller points out that Jesus often got along better the unreligious people of his day more than the religious people!
Here's an excerpt from the book:
"The crucial point here is that, in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus's life. In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast (as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the [religious person] does not. Jesus says to the respectable religious leaders 'the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before you' (Matthew 21:31).
Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect! The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to [the liberal and unreligious], they must be more full of [the closed-off and piously religious] than we'd like to think." **
*Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. Pengiun Group: New York, NY. 2008. p. 13
**p. 14-16
