Love of the World is Righteous

You hear it so often, in fact, if you haven't said it then in most Christian circles, you aren't truly converted. It usually goes something like this, "I used to love the world, but now I no longer care about this world, I just desire heaven." This isn't a terrible sentiment of itself, it stems from the biblical thought that you cannot serve two masters, either you serve the world or you serve Christ. It sounds great, but I believe that the way it often is played out in our churches destroys our relationship with those around us and has led Christianity to be careless with the world we live in.

I was in a Facebook conversation about the holiday season, particularly Christmas. There were people arguing for its values and people arguing against its pagan roots. It might sound ridiculous to you, but in conservative Christian circles this is a real issue. Should we celebrate a holiday that the church clearly adopted from paganism? One individual wrote something along these lines, "The closer we get to the coming of Jesus, the less we will care about this world. I no longer have any interest in Christmas, I just long for Jesus to come back." It sounds nice, if you ignore the almost blatant holier-than-thou attitude, but it actually disturbs me a great deal. You see, the closer we get to the second coming of Jesus, that we all look forward to so much, the more we should care about this world not less.

I love this world. It is evident that Jesus may be coming soon. I do desire that, but the more I see of this world and what it has to offer, the more in love with it I grow. Our earth is special. The green rolling hills, tall jagged mountains, flat plains, open deserts, and vast ice caps all combine to make such a miraculously crafted planet. The earth is full of diversity that I haven't even begun to explore; I am not ready for Jesus to come because there is yet more for me to do! There are cultures that I have not studied, there are places I have not been, and there are people that have yet to impact my life. Diversity is a beautiful thing.

God loves diversity. If you get nothing else from your study of this planet, this is something to take with you forever. Diversity is at the heart of God's design. He designed this planet to diversify, to change with time, to mold to our desires, to adapt to the environmental influences. He designed within animals the ability to adapt, to adjust, and yes to evolve. Why did he do all of this? Simply because of this, God loves diversity. It was part of the plan all along. It is the same with humanity. We were meant to change the world, to explore, to subdue, to tame, to make wild, to protect, to design. In return, we ourselves were not to be left unchanged. As we explore, as we learn, as we adapt and grow, we ourselves have changed. We have hundreds of etiologies, religions, economic doctrine, philosophies, sociologies, faiths, beliefs, and superstitions. Humanity has become as diverse as the world is diverse and it is beautiful. I believe God saw this diversity coming and said, "it is very good."

Why do I believe God designed the world like this? It stems from my beliefs of who God is. You see I do not believe that it is possible for God to be understood in just one way. You cannot simply take the written word found in the Bible and expect to know all there is about God. No matter how far you dig, or how deep you search, you will never come to a complete understanding of God. Imagine you finally make it to the very edge of our universe, the logical question after reaching the edge is, "what else is behind that?" There is always something else to the story, much more to understand that we can't even comprehend, and it is that way with God as well. God required diversity in order for us to know Him. Not only do we need the diversity of the entire universe and nature found on our little speck of dust called earth, but we also need the diversity of each other. Each person reveals something different about the aspects of who God is. Everyone's understanding of God is essential to our comprehension of His character.

I know people who think their religion has a monopoly on all truth. It is an extremely self-centric idea, "because I believe it to be absolute truth, it is." People believe things simply because they want to. It is comforting to think that you are involved in a religion that has nothing to learn, and no need to change. There are a very few people that I have ever sat down and talked to that believe their church does not have all truth. You speak with Anglicans, you speak with Catholics, or Adventists, or orthodox, all of them believe they have a monopoly on absolute truth. Here is the kicker; they all hold to that belief because they are all partially correct. You see there is no one religion that will ever have absolute truth. The only person with a monopoly on truth is the one who recognizes that there is always more to learn, more to explore and more of God that their current understanding may not know. All religions are valid, some might have more truth than others, but that is only because they borrowed from the old and added to the new, yet all have truth, and all are useful in understanding the character of God.

I love this diversity. I love that people groups have different theories and understandings of God. I love culture and tradition. I love to see mans interpretations of the reality they occupy. It is fascinating to me, and the closer we get to the second coming of Jesus, the more I desire to know about the thoughts and theories of others. I see God everywhere. In the scientific ideas and discoveries of humanity I see amazing revelations about the way in which God has created us to interact with Him. In the cultures and religions of the world, I see amazing revelations of the way that God has led us in the past and continues to lead us toward the future. I love Christmas, because in it I see remnants of God leading the thoughts and ideas of man. Seeing how the holiday has changed over time, even in the last 20 years has made an impact on how I understand God. God is working, and he is leading all men to knowledge of Himself.

As Christians we often have this idea that we must go in to the foreign field and change the culture and religion of those who live there. We are ethnocentric; we believe that the western ideals are the ideals of God himself. It actually makes me angry how twisted our missions are. God did not create western culture, humanity created it. Who is to say that our culture is better than the natives that run around naked in the woods? Because we believe modesty to be a gift from God, we force it on cultures that don't even understand it. It isn't a gift from God; it is simply a development of culture, and a product of society.

It is also not our job to convert everyone to our faith. That was NEVER the purpose of Jesus. Why do you think Jesus never converted people to Christianity? In fact, Jesus didn't even convert to Judaism. You look at His interactions with humanity over the course of time and what do you find? Jesus did not convert to religion, but rather to an understanding of God that transcended religions and ideologies. He didn't ask people to abandon culture and forsake society; he called them to adjust their understanding. If Jesus came today, he would not call people to Adventism, he would not call them to Judaism, he would not call them to any religion at all, not even Christianity in General, Jesus would call people to a higher understanding of the character of God. If Jesus preached the holiness of the Sabbath, it would not be in the context of Adventism, it would be in the context of relationship with God. If Jesus preached a healthy lifestyle, it would not be in the context of an established religion, but would be in establishing a proper understanding of the character of himself. God does not care what religion you belong to. The only people who will be in heaven at the end will be those who are seeking after a relationship with Jesus.

I feel so strongly about this in fact that I find it absolutely terrible that we call people out of their church families to join ours. We convert people to the "truth" and then make them leave the very place that they have an influence and a family of believers that cares for their well-being. We remove them from their community and place them in one that they often cannot relate to. How much better would this world be if we merely converted people to a correct understanding of his character and then called them not to leave their churches but to influence their community for good. What if every new believer simply began to lead others to an understanding of the true character of God? I guarantee you we would have a Christianity that was more unified and committed to truth.

Let me share with you my ideal situation, perhaps it is an idea you have never even considered. I know I never did, but I believe it is the only truly "Christian" way to live, and yes, I am being a little self-centric myself. I would prefer to permanently delay the second coming of Jesus. Yes you read that correctly. My goal in this life is to put a permanent hold on the second coming of Jesus. Why is that my goal? It is simple really, because from what I read in the Bible, the second coming only happens because humanity makes a final decision to reject God forever. Perhaps you have never imagined there could be an alternate ending to the story of humanity. Let me share with you my ideal version of events.

My alternate ending would go someone like the following: humans finally come to a realization of the awesome and wonderful character of God, they come together in unity of purpose and commit, once and for all, their hearts to doing the will of God, which is to love. We end war, hunger and waste, we band together as one people under a common rule, which is the rule of love. We allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our life and we become changed in to the image of the character of God. We end the slaughter of animals for food, we begin to heal our broken planet, and rather than using our resources to gain power over each other, we instead begin the exploration of creation. Perhaps we would solve human aging and disease, we could explore our deepest oceans, and apply our technology to stabilizing the earth once again. We could explore our solar system and all it has to offer and establish colonies on other planets, maybe even begin terraforming Mars to be a second garden home, creating a breathable atmosphere, warming it's crust and making water flow there once again. We would then begin to explore far beyond the reaches of our solar system and venture out in to the galaxy to explore what else God has to offer. That would be my alternate ending to the destruction of humanity and this world that is found in revelation. What if?

Until the day comes when humanity makes the ultimate choice, I am determined not to leave this world unchanged. I desire to change it for the good. I am in love with this home of ours, I am in love with its peoples and animals, it's cultures, and diversity. I love the world. I want to visit other countries and the cultures inside of them to learn what they have to teach me about the character of God. I want to celebrate their holidays and immerse myself in their lives to know who they are and what has impacted their life. I do not want to call them all to forsake their country, culture, and religion; I want to learn from them and them from me as we all seek out God for ourselves. God is drawing humanity to himself, he is not only working with Adventists who understand the Bible and Sabbath, no, he is working with people who know nothing of such things. He is working with Buddhists and Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, Christians and Jews. The character of God is being revealed all around us. Will we simply shut out the culture around us and snub our noses at society because "this world is not our home." As for me, I will continue to study the culture I live in, I will learn the philosophies of our time, I will seek to understand the world views behind the movies our culture uses to express its deepest hopes, imaginations, desires, and fears. Jesus did not come to destroy the world, but to save it, and I desire the same. I do not desire for God to destroy this world, I desire to save it from itself and teach as many as I can about the true and perfect character of a God who is so much different than anything anyone has ever imagined. I admonish you, love this world, because if you fail to fall in love with such an amazing creation as is already here, what makes you think you will love heaven any more?