Several years ago we had an art show at our church. I had been giving a series of teachings on peacemaking and we invited artists to display their paintings, poems, and sculptures that reflected their understanding of what it means to be a peacemaker. One woman included in her work a quote from Mahatma Gandi, which a number of people found quite compelling.
But not everyone.
Above is a quote is from the infamous or famous (depending on who you talk to) Rob Bell from his book Love Wins: A book about heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived. Pastor Bell's hippy theology has condemned him as a heretic in the eyes of many orthodox Christians; but there are many others who are singing his praises for his wishy-washy teaching on God's love. Love Wins is 99.9% incoherent, heretical gobbliygoop; in fact the only page in the entire book that has some genuine food-for-thought is on page one, which began with the citation above and ends with this question:Someone attached a piece of paper to it. On the piece of paper was written: "Reality check: He's in hell.[i]
Really, Gandhi's in hell? ... We have confirmation of this?[ii]Matthew 7:1: "Do not judge, or you too will be [judged]", is the, if not one of the most cited (and quote-mined) Bible verses in this secular and religiously counter-Christian culture. It is often offered loudly and with a finger in the face of the Christian that is being accused of judging. Is Jesus telling us to not pass judgement in this passage of 7 verses? No. He is telling us to clean up our own act first so that when we do judge we are ensuring that we have nothing to be judged by. As Christians we are called to make judgement calls; in fact judgment calls are things that everyone irregardless of race, religion, creed or sexual orientation make, every day, towards inanimate objects and people, all the time. We judge a cup of coffee to be not as good as the first; we tell people who are, in our view, misbehaving that they are behaving badly, etc. Even though being told that we are wrong regarding a behaviour or the answer to some academic question, e.g. mathematics, isn't pleasant, it is sometimes necessary; a young child doesn't like being told by their teacher that their answer to the mathematical equation is wrong, but without that verdict or judgement how will they learn? And so without being held accountable for our actions, how could we learn that an action we are doing is wrong and encouraged to do the 'right thing'? Everyone needs to be held in check by outside parties from time to time regarding many aspects of their life, may it be behaviourally or academically.
However, as Christians are there things that we can't make judgements on? I am not talking about areas where we *should not* make judgements on but, *can't* make judgements on? Yes, there are and one such judgement regards salvation. Several years ago I knew a man who called himself a Christian, but his behaviour was anything but Christ like: he was abusive, he did drugs and drank, he was sexually perverted, he cherry-picked with laws he wanted to obey (hence his purchase and use of marijuana); yet he was consistently at church, he read his Bible and he (seemingly) held God's word to a high regard. Paul argues:
...do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men. - 1 Corinthians 6:9-10Paul here is making allusions to lifestyle choices, not mere moments of failures and alludes that people with sinful lifestyles will not enter heaven. With this man's aforementioned behaviours, of which some were described in Paul's words above was his lifestyle, and he had no issues with it. As such, for many Christians there may be a visceral instinct to conclude that he is not a Christian and if he died he would be in hell, (but I am thankful he is still alive and well). This conclusion may be made on Jesus's words:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. - Mathew 7:21So even though this man read God's word and was at church every week doesn't mean that he is genuinely trying to live life as Christ would; but in contrast his very sinful lifestyle doesn't mean that God is not working on him and the fruit of his (God's) labour is yet to be seen. So how then can we deal with people like this? ANSWER: Pray, from a distance, for them. Jesus warns us to “[watch] out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them." - Matthew 7:15-16 This man wasn't a prophet, false or otherwise but Jesus' warning against false prophets applies to everyone, including you and me. How does people like him fit with the characterization Jesus attributes to false prophets; making them akin to being a ferocious wolves? His values held that he is his own God and if one is sucked into that thinking their demise may be parallel to their end if they had come across a wild wolf on the hunt.
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| [iv] |
However before midnight on March 19, 2014 rolled around Phelps had died.[iii] Where is he now? Heaven or Hell? One cannot make that conclusion. I am personally very skeptical of his salvation as he did not show in any way, shape or form Christ in his life - he gave no evidence that he was truly repentant of sin and that he followed Christ, even failingly. However is it possible that he repented of his evil ways and truly became dedicated to doing the will of God, in the last few minutes of his life? Yes. Would we know about it? No. So if was truly saved and God was working on him, even though no signs of Godliness was apparent or he did do a 'death-bed repentance' it is logical to assert that he is at the right hand side of Christ, right now, (cf. Ephesians 2:5-6).
To conclude what can we learn about judging people's Christianity? ANSWER: Judge and respond Biblically! Recognize good fruit from the bad fruit and stay away from people who offer the latter but with prayer for their repentance. However we are to likewise show them love, grace and the willingness to be there for them; and lastly regarding people who display hypocrisy don't forget that no one is better and we are all guilty of hypocrisy. In sum do not make a verdict about one's salvation as God promises to finish a good work, (cf. Philippians 1:6); even though we don't see the fruit and even an expanding amount of evil doesn't mean that God isn't at work in them. - If you ever get the urge to declare someone's eternal state ask yourself this: "Do I have confirmation about their legal standing before God - a.k.a righteousness?"
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[i] - Rob Bell, Love Wins: A book about heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived.. (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 1.
[ii] - Ibid. 1.
[iii] - http://www.christianpost.com/news/westboro-baptist-church-founder-and-civil-rights-attorney-fred-phelps-dies-116478/cpf - accessed March 20, 2014
[iv] - http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps - accessed March 20, 2014
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