Recently, I have taken Jesus at His word on a couple of matters. First, Jesus says that all of the Scriptures are about Him. Second, Jesus says that faith the size of a mustard seed is salvific. Wherein lies the nexus between these seemingly disparate comments from Jesus? An interpretation of the Bible that is Christo-centric, and nothing else. Not inerrant, not as a science book, not as the great Holy Book. Rather, an interpretation of the Bible that upholds the discontinuity of Christ--a discontinuity which many agnostics see, but many Christians don't.
Innumerable times I have heard pastors refer to the Bible as "holy," "inerrant," "the word of God," "infallible," etc. This view creates problems, not the least of which are: 1)a view that God has revealed that the earth is only 6000 years old, when science reveals otherwise; 2)a view that the U.S. was to create a Jewish homeland which has led to further unrest in the Middle East (by the way, I'm a supporter of Israel, just not on Biblical grounds); 3)a view that Jesus (because of the way that God is described in the OT) could favor a first-strike war against Iraq; 4)a view that led to the Crusades; and, most importantly: 5)a view that we are to look to the Ten Commandments as a way to please God or to honor God. These views have led to a lack of credibility for the true message of Christianity--that the one true God loves everyone right where they are--in the midst of their sin--and died on the Cross to redeem sinners and this sinful world.
Why can't we Christians see this when others, indeed many agnostics, can? Do the agnostics have faith when we Christians don't?
Based upon my conversations with some agnostics, they read the Bible as telling the story of a man who was discontinuous. One of my agnostic friends wrote a paper in which he discussed the love ethic of Jesus. He said, essentially, that Jesus' command to love our neighbors as ourselves is too radical--that it can't work. He's absolutely right--we can't love our neighbors as ourselves. In other words, Jesus doesn't love like man--Jesus loves too much. "If a man strikes you on one cheek, turn the other towards him to be struck." "If a man asks you to carry his burden for a mile, carry it for three miles." "Forgive others 7 times 70." And, seemingly an insane command: "Love your enemies." Agnostics believe that there may be a God, but, if there is a God, he is wholly different from man. Is this faith which is the size of a mustard seed? What's more, if agnostics were to commit themselves to God, they would be committing themselves to the right God--the friend of inveterate sinners, not the God who "helps those who help themselves" or the God who blesses the righteous.
The OT is not replete with stories of faith--instances where the OT saints got it right. (Nor is the NT--Jesus' disciples ran away and hid.) Instead, the OT is full of sinners--Abraham who tried to give his wife up for sex to save his own life; Abraham who took his wife's handmaiden, rather than waiting on God; Isaac who similarly gave his wife up to save his life; Jacob who stole Esau's birthright; David who was an adulterer and murderer. So, maybe Jesus got it right when he said that faith the size of a mustard seed is salvific, because we are taught that Abraham is in eternity with God, along with Isaac and David. So, maybe, just maybe, there is hope even for self-righteous, sinful Christians, like me, because all that is required is faith the size of a mustard seed.
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