The Two-step Gospel
By: Ian Mckerracher
I am sure that you have heard of the Gospel. It is a pretty standard word to use around Christian circles. It is also something that should be pretty standard in meaning too, but may not find a common footing. If an atheist can declare themselves to be a Christian, as happened in Toronto with a pastor no less, there HAS to be something awry or misunderstood with the meaning of the term. I want to give it a go to say what I think the Gospel is for those among us who are unsure, whether you are a Christian or not. For those who are decidedly Christian, keep these ideas in your mind should you be led to speak up about the things of the Spirit in open company. Consider that it is a two-step process in thinking that, at the end of it, should one follow the two steps, one will be on the right side of the eternal divide, so to speak.
It is important that the Two-step Gospel starts in anthropology. If we start anywhere else, we end up fooling ourselves about the issues at hand. Self-delusion is an easy way to be comfortable with the messes we create, and we are constantly fighting it regardless of what side of any debate our worldview falls on. We are all aware of the fact that human society is broken. If you are one of the few who do not believe that we are broken, I am sorry. You may find it more beneficial to go read some other blog because this one assumes that fundamental reality. Personally, I just have never seen any evidence that would support saying that our society is not broken.
The questions about how it is broken and why it is broken and what a solution would look like are usually the stuff of the messes we have created and not of the repair. I would like to cover this with a more expansive dome but the material is so wide that an avalanche of examples would push this from being a blog to being a book…and I don’t want to write a book. The reader will need to compare what I say with their own worldview and work with me here. Think of your own myriad of examples to add to my few. I will try to make it simple without being simplistic.
“Whether they are religious, philosophical, political or some mixture of them all, history is replete with ideas that seem to work for a while at building the moral social order and then tumble into a rusted-out pile of destruction. ”
When we take a good, honest look at humanity, we see a continuing sorrowful story of the many and various attempts at establishing a moral order in our communities where everyone is content, happy, and useful. We seem driven to do so. We all understand the vision of the best way to live. We wear it around us like a favorite shirt, repeatedly being disappointed by its ineffectual falling short of our expectations of it keeping us warm. Whether they are religious, philosophical, political or some mixture of them all, history is replete with ideas that seem to work for a while at building the moral social order and then tumble into a rusted-out pile of destruction. For example, in the political sphere, we have socialism, monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy and a thousand ideas in between. They all seem to contain the same promise and the same corrosive virus, even if some, like socialism, have a little more virulent strain, producing a crash much sooner that with a long timer, like democracy. But, make no mistake, democracy is heading down the same path, only taking its sweet time to get to the crash site.
“The religious pathway to moral order seems to hold out more promises and, because of those glowing promises, when they fail to produce, they garner more scorn than the failed political attempts at the same goal.”
The religious pathway to moral order seems to hold out more promises and, because of those glowing promises, when they fail to produce, they garner more scorn than the failed political attempts at the same goal. Rightly so, I suppose. Regardless of the name above the door, Religion, using a commonly held definition, boils down to a list of behaviors that are required and another list of things that should never be done. The religious option demands a certain level of compliance, and, unfortunately, it will never get there because achieving anywhere close to those higher levels demanded of its adherents, will give them occasion to struggle with other issues. You can gain some victory in your strict observance to any of the items on the “Do List” but the feelings of pride and superiority that comes from it will stand up and accuse you of immoral attitudes from the “Don’t List”.
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Frankly, we are all religious in some sense of the word, even the most atheistic among us. Many atheists, for example, will never allow the smallest notion of anything other than a naturalist point of view in Cosmology and other important considerations. The line has been drawn in the sand and they will religiously observe it, disallowing, as it were, the “divine foot in the door”. Their religion is such that they refuse to look beyond their worldview. Non-naturalists must be careful because they have no place for smugness if they have not actually looked into the issue with eyes open and with the right attitude. Some Christian Churches will express a religious point of view when they choose an order of service and refuse to deviate from it into spontaneity for anything. Other Churches will demand that there be NO order of service and hope for God to speak to them in the disarray. They may even be proud of their lack of order just as the others may become proud of their strict order (heavy sigh).
So, here we are in our anthropological conundrum. Regardless of our worldview and our attempts at creating a culture of moral order, we fail…again and again, utterly incapable of making it happen. Let’s try another political or religious construct …maybe this time…maybe this time…and the sorrow goes on. Each human tribe will insist that their way of producing their vision of Nirvana to be the One that will succeed at the same time as they suffer the corruption of social disarray. In our more honest moments, we all know they’re destined for failure, as have all the attempts in the past.
That is the first step in our two-step dance. We cannot get to the second step until we are assuredly done with that first step. I know this is hard on human beings, to admit that they are wrong about something. However, nothing that the second step offers will be of any interest for anyone not finished with the first. It may be worth the time to throw yourself into one or more of the various solutions formulated by men and women to produce the society that we all want. Make sure that your fervor is red hot. If it is socialism, become the most committed socialist on the planet. If it is capitalism, strive to make the biggest pile of money you can accumulate to yourself. If it is religious in nature, become a fanatic. Give all your money and enormous amounts of time to propagate their “solution” against the penchant of human beings to self-destruct. Continue until you are sure of their inefficacy, while hoping that the damage you do is not permanent. Sooner or later, you will find that it is utterly unsatisfying. It is here where your second step will begin.
“This Deity is one who offers to create in you something that all the other man-made ideas of solutions could not, even if combined all together.”
That second step is a simple acknowledgment that God is interested in you if you really want to be a recipient of change, moving away from the utter dissatisfaction of Step One. We only need to let God start his reconstruction work in us; his renovation on who we are. This Deity is one who offers to create in you something that all the other man-made ideas of solutions could not, even if combined all together. What this Deity is offering is to begin a good work in you by rewriting your program and reformatting your very nature; that human nature which was the source of all those messes I mentioned earlier. God is willing to change us into something quite different from who we come by naturally. This is the true sense of spirituality “A New Creation” from the old.
So, the Two-Step Gospel is this; Step one… agree that we are incapable, either individually or corporately, to produce the kind of society that we all want to exist. Step two… God will create new beings from the bones of the old ones when they allow him to recreate them. We will, with the new nature, naturally then, work together to create that kind of society we all want. God does these things by the application of Christianity, properly pursued. (Make no mistake, there exists a Christianity improperly pursued which amounts to one of the religious ideas I talked about before). If the real Christianity is true, it is true for everyone and is of the highest importance. What it cannot be is of limited importance or only true for some.
If you are interested in this kind of Christianity, and are unsure about where to go from here, I would be happy to have a polite conversation with you about it all. I can give you stories of when I pursued Christianity properly with great results. I can give you examples of when I drifted back over to trying to change the world on my own and suffered dismal failure. I still have the goal of being a world-changer and, if you want to come along, let’s talk.
If you are a Christian and are properly pursuing the will of God, these ideas should be noted and filed away for use at the appropriate times when others around you, still stuck in their attempts at changing the world using the broken nature, have an honest moment when they are tired of their failures. We must love them enough and be close enough to them to be able to really hear their heart breaking. We need to “Be ready” to answer their questions. That is a notable part of Christianity that is high on the agenda of our biblical mandates. Let’s just do it.