Today I would like to offer you a series of posts from Real Live Preacher. In these posts, RLP starts with the premise that enlightenment and disillusionment are both necessary components of spiritual growth, then goes on to recount an experience from his college days which was quite disillusioning for him.
We in evangelical Protestant-dom believe that becoming a Christian is a thing which happens at a specific point in time. It usually consists of praying a prayer, raising a hand, walking an aisle, etc. but the upshot is that everyone who is a Christian has one specific instance in their life that they can point to and say “Up until this moment I was not a Christian, after this moment I was. Up until this moment I was spiritually dead, after this moment I was spiritually alive.” Anyone who does not have such an instance that they can point to is widely considered to not be a Christian.
Now it may be true that a lot of people who become Christians, especially during their adult lives, have such a moment that they can point to, but think what it means if this is the only way, or even the principal way, that people become Christians. If becoming a Christian is something which happens at a single moment in time, that’s something which can be counted. And we love numbers, so we will count it. And if the numbers look good, then we will pat ourselves on the back and say what a good job we are doing, or praise God for the mighty work that He is doing.
Another consideration: We as evangelicals believe that everyone spends eternity in one of two places. The vast majority of people are going to spend eternity in the less desirable of these locations. If you want to escape hell (the less desirable place) and spend eternity in heaven, all you have to do is say a prayer to confess your belief in Jesus Christ. This means that if you truly love Jesus, then it is your duty to tell as many people as possible about Jesus so that they can believe and go to heaven as well. Kind of a daunting task, especially when you consider that you will pass by lots and lots of hellbound people as you move through life.
All of these considerations come together in the disillusionment which RLP recounts in these posts. Read them, and prepare to wonder if all that you’ve believed about eternity, about becoming a Christian, and about our supposed mandate to tell everyone we come into contact with about Jesus are really worth believing.
Read RLP’s The Disillusionment Chronicles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
