Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Terrorism and Eternal Security

I think the systematic reduction of the process of salvation to an eternally significant but otherwise irrelevant identity decision has much to do with the psychosis infecting some Christians with regard to the irrational fear many have of the Islamic religion.

It is taught that when you choose to be "saved", that day when you made your profession of faith in Christ, it marked the moment in time where you went from being eternally damned to "eternally secure" in your salvation.  Never mind the fact that it basically had no other effect on your life.  It was like choosing to be a Cowboy or a Sooner, only with eternal consequences.  In fact it's probably been preached like that before.

Many cling to this simple concept because it is all they know with regard to their hope of salvation.  Once they walked the isle or raised their hand their job was done, as was the person's who preached it to them.  If there was more to be known it was understood to be optional.  To question or dismiss this reasonably suspect process is to risk damning themselves.  They've been told they have "eternal security", and that makes them feel good, so it becomes an anchor of their identity, even if effectively only as a label.

With this in mind it's no wonder the fear that can overtake a person when they consider the idea of someone accepting a faith that has been propagandized to them as the dogmatic institutionalization of pure evil.  If all one has to do to be a Christian and fundamentally change the nature of their eternal being is make eye contact with the preacher and repeat a little prayer, then if someone even half heartedly considers faith in a perceived evil such as Islam, are they not similarly, but obversely affected?

It's irrelevant whether the person actually follows the Islamic faith, particularly if they seem to be a GOOD person.  Because the religion, as it has been taught to the American public, is the institutionalization of pure evil.  So while a Christian is to be judged not by their actions, but instead simply by the label they had chosen for themselves at church camp twenty years ago in order to escape Hell; a Muslim, even one who is honest and hard working and welcoming despite the clear teachings of their religion to be thieving, hate filled barbaric murderers, must likewise be viewed by the label they have chosen for themselves, and not by the content of their character.  Not to identify them with their label would undermine the whole concept of "eternal security" as it is fairly commonly understood. The foundations of American salvation itself would begin to crumble lest we put upon the Muslim the full horror of our perception of their religion, despite their curious lack of any of the nasty traits we've been taught that their religion demands.

The idea that we are operating under a misconception of Islam can be rejected outright.  For obvious reasons.  If people see any good, or are even neutral about the religion of Islam, or any other shallowly understood concept or culture that could be used as the basis for a flippant label applied to one's self, then they are in danger of overlooking the only flippant label that grants eternal life, Christian.

Attributing eternal security to being the exclusive byproduct of something not much more significant than a fleeting thought may help to fill up the Churches, but it fills them up with people scared witless of their neighbors who's fleeting thoughts aren't founded in the "eternal security" of the same theology that we all inherited.

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