Here is a new topic to weigh-in on for the Christmas season. During this time of the year we celebrate the incarnation of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who was born in a manger. Bible believing Christians acknowledge that Jesus came to die for our sins and that all who believe on Him receive eternal life—the reason for the season. So far, so good—now for the theological brain teaser, are you ready?

Why is it that all people are going to be raised from the dead and given resurrected bodies? Why is there a general resurrection of the dead which is then followed by the judgment of humanity with some going to the Lake of Fire while others go to eternal bliss with God in heaven? If a man dies in sin, why shouldn’t he just be permanently dead (annihilated) or just his soul sent to an eternal hell? Why give him a resurrected body? What is that all about?

Care to offer an opinion or insight?

Sometimes I just can’t help myself; I love to barbeque sacred cows. American Christians have a number of sacred cows that they assume are biblical but are really just our own form of “Totemism.” Totemism is a sociological term for how a culture takes its values and beliefs and superimposes them on its gods. Christians in every culture are prone to Totemism and American Christians have their own special version of Totemism. One sacred cow that we foist on God is our anti-hierarchicalism or our radical egalitarianism. We believe that it is “wrong”, “bad”, “unfair”, and unChrist-like for there to be anyone that is “better” or more important than anyone else in the Body of Christ. After all aren’t we all equal before the Lord? Well, if you don’t want to be upset, don’t read any further.

God Actually Orders Things

If you will open your eyes and look at the universe you will see something that is quite obvious--it is ordered in a majestic hierarchy. Here is how it goes. Let’s start with that which does not exist, then there those things that do exist. They include elements, compounds, minerals, plants, animals, humans, and then in the unseen realm there are lower angels and higher angels and finally God. Even within each of the units of existence that I just described there are lesser and greater plants, animals, etc. As we move up the chain of existence we move to greater complexity, power, ability and perfection. For instance, a single-celled animal is far less complex than a chicken. Additionally, if you took the time to investigate you would discover that—as Paul said—there are various “powers and principalities” in the unseen realm. It is really quite amazing. God must love hierarchy because He made a universe full of it. Actually the hierarchy of the universe exists because it better reflects the wonder and glory of God than a “flat pancake” universe would. Imagine a totally egalitarian universe where everything is exactly the same in complexity, power and perfection—plants would be the same as humans, etc.

Essence is Different than Ordering

What you are (your essential nature) and how things are ordered are two separate things. In other words, just because you are a human doesn’t mean that God throws hierarchy out the window. Some people think that because all Christians are, by their new nature, one in Christ Jesus; consequently, there should be no ordering in the Body of Christ. They think everybody should be the same and no one should be over anyone else in an ordered hierarchy. Yet, the Divine Persons of the Trinity order themselves and they are as equal as you can get. Just so you are aware of this, all things proceed from the Father to the Son and together to the Spirit. Likewise the Holy Spirit submits to the Son and the Son to the Father. This is the Divine order within the Trinity. If God orders Himself, then, guess what—so must we.

Oh, no, Hierarchies all over the Place!

Here are some of the hierarchies that God has established for humans. Children are to submit, honor and obey their parents (what a radical thought!). Wives are to submit, honor and “obey” their husbands (pretend like I didn’t write that). Christians are to submit to and obey the government (government is ordained by God). Christians are to submit, honor and obey the leaders of their churches (wow, now that is really going “over the top”). Pretty shocking stuff, huh? Of course, I know that parents and husbands have mutual obligations to their children and spouses; however, parents don’t obey their kids, etc.

Somehow, even as I write this I can sense people covering their eyes and running in horror as they watch me barbeque this sacred cow.

One of the hot-button questions I get asked is, “Why would God create humans with the ability to sin?” A follow-up question to this is, “Couldn’t God create humans with free will but without the ability to sin?” The answer to the second question is fairly simple--no. You see, the ability to have free will is the same thing as the ability to sin. Just like with light, with light you get brightness. Free will is the ability to be vicious or virtuous. On the other hand, the first question is a little more complex. The first question has to do with the “why” of man—why did God create man the way He did?

First let’s be sure we recall that God did not create humans because He needed us or was lonely or wanted company. God is the one Necessary Being. He needs absolutely nothing including me. Okay, if He didn’t need us, why did He create us?

God is Good

We take for granted that the God of the Bible is a good God. However, not all gods that have been worshiped are good. Many pagan deities have been understood to be mean, cruel and rather nasty. But, the Bible reveals God as being generous, kind and good. In fact, Jesus said that God alone is truly good. Let’s think about this for a minute. What is better, a physician that is highly skilled and competent but unwilling to use his medical abilities or a physician that is highly skilled and competent who uses his medical abilities to heal people? Obviously, from a technical perspective both physicians could be called good; but, the second doctor who uses his abilities to heal would certainly be the better physician. The principle is that it is a greater perfection for a thing to be good in itself and also the cause of goodness in others, than only to be good in itself. God is not only good in Himself, but He is the cause of goodness in others. This is why He has created the universe. God, being the most perfect being, expresses His perfection by creating good things like the universe.

God is a Good Governor

Let’s take our thinking one step further. Not only has God created the whole universe, but He constantly governs it. The best physician is not the one who can only give his attention to general practices and procedures, but who can consider the smallest details of his medical science. God being the perfect governor watches over even the smallest details of the universe. Now let me change the analogy. The best teacher not only imparts knowledge to his/her pupils, but trains them to teach others. Therefore God so governs things that he makes some things (humans) to be able to govern. In watching over and governing the universe, God is such a good governor that He creates beings that can govern other things. If God did not do this He would not be the best governor. But, in order for humans to govern, they need free will. Now read this:

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Interesting, huh?

How does God get you to do something without violating your free will? This is a question that a lot of people wrestle with and wonder about. We know that if God forces you to do something you don’t want to do; God would then be violently making you act. This doesn’t match with the picture of God in Scripture. Yet the Bible talks about how the “heart of the king” is in the hands of God. How can this work?

First, God moves our will because he is the First Mover of all things. All movement in the whole universe comes from God as its source. All of nature is his tool and He moves things as He wills. However, God moves things according to the nature of the thing moved. Rocks are moved by seismic, gravitational and geological forces. Plants are moved by the wind, sun and other forces. On the other hand, humans are “voluntary agents” and move themselves from within themselves. Okay, so how does God move a human? God moves humans four ways.

Again, He moves us from the fact that He is the First Mover and supplies the power and ability for us to move. Secondly, God can propose something to you that is highly attractive; therefore, you desire to do it freely. Thirdly, God can effect changes in your body that incline you to choose what He wants you to choose. For instance, illness often causes people to decide to get their lives right with God or causes them to change their priorities. There is a famous author of occult-oriented fiction that has recently been through a health crisis. Because of the health crisis the author has become a dedicated Christian and started writing value-centered books.

Finally, and most interestingly, God can make things appear both good and “suitable” to you. If something only appears to be a good thing to you, you may not choose it. In the story of the Prodigal Son, I am sure the son thought that his father’s household was a “good” place to live but not something that was “suitable” for him. He asked his dad for his inheritance, split from the family, and went off to spend his resources on wine, women and fast living. Jesus’ story comes to a crisis when the kid runs out of money and ends up in a pigsty eating slop. At that point, the Bible says, he “came to his senses” and decided to freely head home to his father’s house. It was in the pigsty that the father’s house went from being just a “good” place to a very “suitable” place for the Prodigal Son. The point is, when you see something as both good and suitable, you will freely choose it. The bottom line is that God has to often take us to the pigsty to help us “freely” choose what He wants us to do.

Just so everyone knows where I am coming from on this post, I want you to know that I am a pastor of a seeker-sensitive, contemporary, evangelical church that I planted for my denomination 18 years ago. It has been tough but the church has grown from a handful of people to a substantial congregation and we have seen hundreds of people come to Christ and grow in their faith. Okay, so when you read the rest of this post you now know that I am writing as an insider.

This week the Associated Press ran a story entitled “Some megachurches to be closed on Christmas: Anticipating low attendance on a Sunday holiday, pastors canceling services.” What the Associated Press missed is that it is not just megachurches that are canceling Christmas Sunday services—lots of evangelical churches are joining the slide into secularism and declaring Christmas Sunday a “family day.” You might, at this point, guess that I am not in favor of this idea. But, before I give you my views, let me note that the Associated Press also mentioned that the evangelical “closures stand in stark contrast to Roman Catholic parishes, which will see some of their largest crowds of the year on Christmas.” It is likely that Episcopal, Methodist and Lutheran churches will also see packed services. What is going on here?

The Associated Press quoted David Wells, professor of history and systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary who supplied some insight. His view was that “This is a consumer mentality at work: ‘Let’s not impose the church on people. Let’s not make church in any way inconvenient.’” I don’t disagree with Dr. Wells, but I do think the problem is a little deeper. I think it has to do with our evangelical soteriology (our theology of salvation). I think the way we present salvation almost insures that we will create a Christian movement that is a mile wide and an inch deep.

Typically we ask people to “accept Christ” by believing in Him as their Savior. Jesus is presented as the way to gain a personal relationship with God. Sometimes evangelical pastors and evangelists are careful to stress repentance which is the turning from sin and self in order to turn to Christ for salvation. Now, in my view none of this is bad. However, let’s take a look at a statement by the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts when he condensed his work down to one sentence. In this section of Scripture we see that Paul was on trial for his life and had limited time to explain his mission and ministry to King Agrippa. Here is what he said:

Acts 26:20 (NIV) “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.”

In this sentence we see that Paul, wherever he went, preached the Good News the same way. It had three elements. One was repentance the second element was turning to God and the third element was the outward demonstration of the inward transformation by good deeds. Leaving aside the first and third elements, I would have you note that Paul said “turn to God” and not turn to Christ. Now, of course, Paul believed that Jesus was the Savior and that one must believe in Christ to be saved; but, I think in his mind believing in Christ was ordered to turning to God. What I mean is that belief in Christ is a means to the end of loving God. If this is true, then we are immediately taken back to a statement by Jesus. When asked what is the greatest commandment Jesus responded “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” In other words, the whole goal and purpose of salvation is to create a people that love God more than anything else in the universe.

Here is my point; evangelical salvation-theology has gotten woefully weak on the absolute centrality of loving God. Those I love the most are the top priority of my life. It says a lot when on Christ-Mass (the specific service celebrating Christ’s birth) Christians cannot find it within themselves to get up from their orgy of gift-receiving and caloric intake (done, ironically, in Christ’s name) to express their love of the God who sent His Only Begotten Son from the glory of heaven to a smelly stable in order to die on a cruel, rugged cross for their salvation.

Somehow, I think we have misstated the message of salvation. We are saved to love Him.