a merry schismatic christmas (part 2)

of course, when i say that i feel like i'm following a different jesus than the one anne's and my family follows i don't literally mean there is more than one jesus. instead, i mean that we are following a different perception of who we think jesus is. our perceptions come from all different sources: sunday school flannel graph stories, our pastor(s), christian authors, evangelists, medieval and contemporary art, our family, our friends and the gospels themselves. i would argue, however, that what we read in the gospels is largely colored by the other influences i listed. that's kind of a scary thought for most christians because most christians would believe the jesus they are following is the authentic jesus of the bible, and not a composite of the many perceptions of others that they have encountered. many christians would be downright offended if one pointed out that they might be subconsciously assigning definitions to certain terms jesus uses and certain attributes jesus has that was not intended by the authors, but is the result of a compilation of misinterpretations over the centuries. for example, when people hear the terms, "gospel," "repent," "salvation," "hell," and, "kingdom of God," they think of very specific definitions. many christians become extremely defensive if anyone dares challenge those assumptions.

this christmas morning we opened presents with anne's family and somebody got a dvd that i thought was interesting. the dvd was called more than dreams. this film is about a phenomena that has allegedly been happening in the muslim world for some time now. muslims, sometimes radical extremists, claim they have been visited in dreams by jesus. these muslims have been so convinced that their dreams were authentic visions of christ, that they left islam and converted to christianity. the giver of this dvd wondrously exclaimed, "this is how jesus is getting the gospel to the muslim world right now." now, i know nothing about this dvd so i'm not going to speculate as to whether or not these visions are authentic. what i am interested in is what the giver of this dvd meant when that person said, "the gospel." the gospel this person was referring to was creating converts, and that, apparently, jesus is now bypassing the church and going straight to muslims and personally witnessing to them.

i really don't mean to sound harsh, and the person who said this is a wonderful person who i would never want to hurt in any way, but with many christians this is what the gospel boils down to. salvation boils down to saying a prayer and being saved from an eternity in hell or being raptured before God destroys the earth. repenting essentially means apologizing to God so he'll forgive you. and tragically of all, the kingdom of God equates to heaven. this is THE purpose and message of jesus: to die and resurrect so that all we have to do is say a prayer to get out of hell or be raptured. following jesus means getting others to believe these theological beliefs so that they too can get out of hell. everything else is just window dressing.