Two Versions of Christianity
|
Belief |
Christianity of Law |
Christianity of Love |
| Jesus Death on the Cross and Resurrection | In payment for sins and won eternal life for believers. | His death/ resurrection is a spiritual event, illustrating the passage from worldly to divine. It symbolizes the sacrifice we all must make in order to enter union with God as Jesus did. |
| The Meaning of Jesus' Life | The event of his life and death and resurrection. | His teachings and the way he lived, showing that God's love is inclusive and always present. |
| The Kingdom of Heaven | Those who obey the law receive a heavenly reward after death. | God's kingdom is here and now and our unity with God is an event both inside and outside of time. |
| Who's Included? | Those who are saved are God's own, deserving of love. Others are not God's children. | God loves all beings and all are his children. |
| Judgement | It is possible to judge others, or at least to know how God will judge them in spiritual terms. | I cannot judge another in terms of their relationship to God, for I have quite a bit to do to determine what God wishes for me to do. Judgment is more self-inflicted. |
| Knowing God | God can be known through his word and commandments. If you have knowledge of the Law, you know God. | God is essentially unknowable by knowledge, but we can know something of God by grace, loving God, and loving each other in the mystic body of Christ. |
| What is Evil? | Satan is a creature who deceives, tempts and puts into bondage, misleading some into thinking they are Christians acting from God. | Darkness is separation from God. While much of the evil in the world is man made, there is ample evidence that Evil exists, although it is overcome by God's love. |
| Our own understanding | Trusting one's own mind or emotions is foolhearty, for Satan can manipulate, raise doubts and raise questions. | Our mind and conscience are God's gifts to use, part of our freedom to ask, question, learn, explore and understand. God's love is stronger than evil and with prayer, consultation and reading, we are intrinsically able to hear and recognize the voice. |
| Is the Bible literal truth? | The Bible is literal truth. | The Bible must be read critically, intelligently and with an understanding of its historical and cultural contexts for the vast spiritual truths it contains. |
| Is the Bible all we need? | The Bible is the ultimate source of truth. | The ultimate source of truth is God, not a book or a practice or a product by humankind, given in grace. Still, it is helpful to consider the tradition of early, pre-New Testament Christianity, the history of Christianity, the Bible, spiritual writings of the Church Fathers and Mothers. |
| What about things like icons, art, music? | There are such things as idols and these may be icons or other non-literal approaches to God. | There is great mystery and beauty in that which is holy, and this can be expressed lovingly, not as the thing-in-itself, but rather pointing beyond itself like a window toward God. |
| Where is Jesus in this? | Jesus is the center of the faith and the total acceptance of him is the ultimate criterea for being saved. | Jesus's concern was to point beyond himself toward God and to help us understand how, in the humanity of his special nature, we can inherit the kingdom and become as he was in our humanity. |
| What is a Christian to do? | The business of a Christian is to save souls by forcefully presenting the Law. | The Christian is charged with finding Christ within the poor and sick, with remaining humble and letting God's love so enrich his or her life that those in the world are drawn to God's goodness. |
| How is God perceived? | God is the masculine, powerful Father figure. | Although, being human, we cannot know God's essence, we can know God's energies and they are a mixture of the masculine and feminine as Jesus reflected in his use of "Abba" which means "Daddy" and implies compassion and love as well as guidance and direction. |
