Sunday, September 18, 2011

Mere Christianity Prompt Response

Prompt 38:  The world does not consist of 100% Christians and 100% non-Christians.

     I agree with the statement that C.S. Lewis made in the chapter "Nice People or New Men" that "The world does not consist of 100 percent Christians and 100 percent non-Christians" (208).  In other words, there are not just Christians and non-Christians in the world today.  For example, there may be people who call themselves Christians but are slowly falling away from the faith (Lewis 208).  I remember hearing one time in my "Understanding the Times" class taught by our very own Mr. Dyck that so many "Christian" students who enter college, usually a secular one, fall away from their faith in Jesus Christ.  The reason Mr. Dyck said was because they did not have strong Christian worldviews.  Personally, I think the reason for that is that those "Christians" are so focused on worshipping Jesus and are so caught up with busywork of their lives that they do not spend enough time pondering why they believe Christianity (though that is another topic for another time).  Also, I have to confess myself that I am struggling in my relationship with Jesus Christ.  Though I am reading my Bible everyday, my mind is just filled with so many thoughts at once that they seem to drown out what is going on around me.  However, I digress somewhat; the point I am trying to make is Christians cannot be easily separated from non-Christians. 
     Related to the above, I also believe that there are also non-Christians who are slowly being drawn towards God for His purpose (Lewis 208).  For instance, Lewis muses that there are those "who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand" (208-209).  In this sense, Lewis is probably talking about people who are not yet Christians but are interested in hearing about the Gospel of Jesus.  I think what this also means is that when people who don't believe in God are placed in multiple circumstances that take them somewhere where there are fervent Christians preaching God's Word, those non-believers will presently come to believe in God.  In addition, there are undoubtedly some genuinely friendly and affable people in the world who still do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  This begs the question:  "Will these people go to Hell just because they don't know Jesus?"  The answer to that is most likely yes, unfortunately.  However, this does not mean that we can just march up to them and demand them to believe in Jesus or to go to Hell.  That is why we cannot judge people just because they are non-Christians.

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