A few years ago I was reading a book by a famous spiritual formation author. In it he talks about “finding the Christ dwelling within us.” Since this was ambiguous, I searched to find out if the author believed in the necessity of repentance and the new birth. Instead, I found statements like “Your belovedness precedes your birth…You are fully loved because you belong to God for all eternity. That’s the truth of your identity. That’s who you are. And you can reclaim it at any moment.” I was concerned that he did not accept the unpleasant truths of God.
So I searched the book (with the Kindle search function) for the words “sin” or “repentance,” and they were not found. I could not find a mention of the final judgment of God on human lives. Obviously, these ideas could be expressed in different words, but I did not find any mention of natural human rebelliousness or of the need to recognize our sinfulness and repent or face judgment. Ultimately, it seemed like he left out the unpleasant truths of God but did it in an ambiguous way so as not to get into trouble. Perhaps this particular author really did believe in those truths, but omitted them; many teachers intentionally leave them out.
Consider why people who call themselves Christian leave these ideas out. These truths are the unpleasant truths of God. We don’t like them. We don’t want to say them. We don’t want to say them to others or put them in writing. We are afraid we will sound like one of those shrill, harsh preachers of condemnation. We will be unpopular.
And yet these unpleasant truths of God are essential to our freedom and restoration in Christ. They are good truths. Consider some of the major unpleasant truths of Scripture:
- Humans are naturally corrupt.
- Our corruption means that all humans are spiritually separated from God.
- Jesus is the only way to overcoming our corruption and reconnecting to God.
- God will judge everyone’s life according to the standard of perfect love and pass sentence.
- The majority of people will go to eternal destruction. (Mt. 7:13-14)
Can any of these truths be left out of our teaching and understanding?
The truths that humans reject the most is that God will judge our lives one day and many will be destroyed. Today our culture is especially opposed to the idea of judgment, even though many such people feel free to judge those who disagree with their moral and social views. People want to throw off the yoke of judgment and imagine that God will welcome everyone into eternal life. But isn’t this a huge conflict of interest? One of the reasons people teach universalism is so they can convince themselves that God will accept them even though they haven’t fully chosen Jesus. It doesn’t take much courage to think that God will just accept everyone in eternity. It is the easy way out. We are in the age of self-centeredness.
But another more common reason for avoiding unpleasant truths is gaining the approval of others, or at least avoiding disapproval. If we hold to the idea that God will send unrepentant people to eternal destruction, then suddenly we appear antisocial. We disapprove of others’ lifestyles and philosophies. Thus, by believing in universalism we can gain approval of others and appear like a great humanist; we accept everyone’s philosophy and never offend anyone by our “narrow” views. We don’t say that Jesus is the only way.
But all of this reasoning puts human approval ahead of God’s approval. Isn’t the glory and holiness of God more important than the approval of people? Isn’t it good that God will hold people responsible for their actions, or is it better if people aren’t held responsible? Aren’t God’s Scripture and judgments superior to any human judgments? In the end, we must choose whose approval we desire most. God’s blessings will fall on those who exercise the courage to embrace the unpleasant truths of God.
Are you willing to believe the unpleasant truths of God?
