Saved by our ideas about Christ?

Excellent post by Craig Adams: Hopeful Inclusivism. Craig writes:

Think about it a minute. This means that no one can come to God the Father except through the grace & mediation of Christ. There is only one source of light and grace for all people. From Jesus’ perspective these words can be taken to mean: "there is no access to God except through my mediation."

Too many modern evangelicals have misunderstood it to mean: "there is no access to God except through consciousness of Christ." We know there is salvation in the name of Christ. How God will judge those outside of the faith is none of our business. Christ is the Way — not our experience of Christ.

And Can it be That I should Gain

Feeling nostalgic and thought I'd post one of my favourite hymns.

Heck is for People Who Don't Believe in Gosh

My cyber-friend, Allan Bevere has been kind enough to sponsor a post by me on the subject of heaven and hell, what it means to be a Christian, and what our eternal hope is.

I asked him to do this because it arose out of another discussion on his blog. Also, his blog gets a higher readership and discussion rate than this blog, so I'm hoping that there will be a good discussion. In the event that you read my blog and not Allan's, please go over and comment on the post: Heck is for People Who Don't Believe in Gosh.

If it tempts you over, let me say that I don't believe that going to heaven and avoiding hell is a foundational Christian doctrine. I also don't believe that "going to heaven" is our hope for eternal life although I do believe that "being resurrected into the New Creation" is.

Jesus Meme

Over at Perspectives, Crystal has tagged me for the Jesus Meme.

The rules are that those tagged will share 5 things they "love" about Jesus. Then they must choose 5 others to tag. I'm going to break the last rule as I'm on holiday at the moment. I'm also feeling 'blogger's block' in case anyone hasn't noticed!

1) I love Jesus because he is my brother, God incarnate. I love the incarnation because, to me, it means that God cares enough to 'get alongside' humanity.

2) I love Jesus because he is my Saviour. Not content to simply 'get alongside' humanity, the incarnate second person of the Trinity came to save us from our own sinful natures.

3) I love Jesus because he teaches me how to be fully human. By both word and example Jesus sets the example for how God means humanity to be.

4) I love Jesus because he teaches me how to love. Jesus displays a love that is practical and real, a love that perserveres through thick and thin.

5) I love Jesus because he is a healer; his healing love displays the heart of the Father. If we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father.

What are we for?

Over on Connexions, Kim Fabricius reports on a lecture by Dr. Frances Young on The Vocation of People with Severe Learning Disabilities.

It sounds like a stunning lecture and Kim's post is definitely worth reading.

When I was growing up, the denomination to which I belonged had a debate about whether or not people with severe learning disabilities could be saved, if they could not understand the gospel message. Although that denomination - thank goodness - has now decided that God will be merciful to such people, there were a number of leaders at the time (this was in the 1960s) who thought that those who could not understand the gospel message could not be saved. (Sounds like "salvation by cognition"!)

Dr. Young's idea - that the vocation of those with severe learning difficulties is to bring the gospel to the rest of us - seems much more like the sort of thing that a God of Good News would do.