Religion Without Conversion Is Accepting Without Questioning

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Steve Simms

In some Arab countries it is against the law for a person to convert to another religion than the religion of her/his birth and upbringing.  However, having been raised in a particular religion is no indication of its truth or validity.  Religion without conversion is accepting without questioning — what might be called, blind belief.

Conversion can be defined as:  “A change in which a person adopts a religion, faith, or belief for herself/himself based on personal transformation and/or spiritual awakening rather than on upbringing.,” or “As the experience of coming into a direct, personal relationship with God.”

In the 1700s, John Wesley came to the American Colonies from England to convert the Indians.  As he returned home, frustrated from his lack of success, he said:  “I came to American to convert the Indians!  But, oh, who will convert me?” 

Wesley was devoted enough to the religion of his childhood to risk his life trying to convert others, yet he realized that he, himself had never truly been converted to Christ.  Later Wesley personally encountered Christ.  He said:  “I felt my heart strangly warmed!”  After he was personally convinced of the reality of the living Jesus Christ, Wesley was on fire.  Through his passionate preaching and witnessing, he introduced multitudes to Jesus and helped spark a mighty spiritual movement in the 18th Century.

Perhaps one of the greatest human deceptions is to think that you are a believer in a religion when you are really only adhering to the rote rituals and teachings of your upbringing.  Maybe we should all follow this suggestion from Paul of Tarsus:  “Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith.” 

“Conversion by the Holy Spirit is a spiritual illumination of the soul.” –Theodore Ledyard Cuyler

“A man to be converted has to give up his will, his ways, and his thoughts.”  –Dwight L. Moody  

“Conversion is a deep work—a heart work.  It goes throughout the man, throughout the mind, throughout the members, throughout the entire life.”  –Joseph Alleine

“However much we may wish it otherwise, when we receive the Spirit at conversion, divine perfection does not set in, but divine ‘infection’ does! We have been invaded by the living God Himself, in the person of His Spirit, whose goal is to infect us thoroughly with God’s own likeness.   –Gordon D. Fee

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Gee. Does Geography Make Things True?

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Steve Simms

What determines most people’s religion?  Why are most people in Saudi Arabia Muslims?  Why are most people in India Hindus?  Why do the majority of Americans claim to be Christian?  Why do people in Communist countries say they are atheists?

Perhaps the answer is one word:  geography.  Most people’s religion (or lack thereof) is determined, not by a personal seeking of truth, but by the influence of the religion (or lack thereof) of their childhood — geography.

And what determines who is the enemy in war?  Isn’t it usually geography — people from some other geographic area, some other nation?  Two nations declare the citizens of the other nation to be the enemy and then the citizens of each nation wish and do evil toward the other’s citizens, based not on the character, value, or morality of the people, but based on their geography.

So I ask, does geography make a religion true?  Does geography justify the evils of war?  Perhaps we should make our decisions and shape our beliefs and behaviors, not on geography, but on thinking for ourselves and seeking the reality of truth?  Perhaps we should strive to think outside the influence of our upbringing and society.

Are my observations valid?  Here are two more questions to stir your thinking:  1)  If you were born to Pakistani parents and grew up in Pakistan, what religion would you most likely be?  2) If you had been born and raised in Japan, and you lived there, and your family was Japanese, whose side would you have been on in World War II?

Gee.  Geography is powerful.

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Words Can Enlighten You

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Steve Simms

“The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels.”  –Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Have the strength to be compassionate and the wisdom to be humble.”  –Keshavan Nair

“The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere.  That is why so much social life is exhausting — one is wearing a mask.”  –Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“Today is new.  You will get out of it just what you put into it.”  –Mary Pickford

“If you listen to your conscience, it will serve you as no other friend you know.”  –Loretta Young

“The idealists and visionaries, foolish enough to throw caution to the wind and express their ardor and faith in some supreme deed, have advanced humanity and have enriched the world.”  –Emma Goldman

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Yearning For An Arctic Daybreak

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Steve Simms

There is an icy cold darkness, like an Arctic winter, gripping our world.  Thinking we are enlightened, our society moves more and more away from our moral moorings.  We have fled from the shared light of the best human cultures.   We have run from wisdom and embraced uncontrolled sensuality.  We have prided ourselves in our ability to explain natural phenomena and hardened our hearts to mystery.  We have parted ways with wise thinking and are amuck among modern myths of our own making.

The Inuit people of the Arctic Circle yearn for daybreak with a longing that we can only imagine.   After living through six months of frozen, Arctic darkness, the first rays of light finally break through.  The Inuits have a proverb that reads:  “There is only one great thing, to live to see the great day that dawns and the light that fills the world.” 

In the midst of our great contemporary darkness, oh, for the light.  Oh, for the mystery to stir our souls, for light to hit our hearts, for a glorious daybreak to drive away our darkness. 

The Inuit people, like many Native American Peoples, have struggled with depression and alcoholism for generations.  However, in recent years the Inuits in Northern Canada have seen an amazing daybreak.  Thousands have been transformed, filled with light and hope through encounters with Jesus Christ.  This supernatural revival has been documented in an amazing video, Transformations I, by a man named George Otis, Jr. 

May our Western Culture also experience a mighty dawn to free us from our own Artctic freeze.

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God Reactions — How People Respond To The Concept Of God

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Steve Simms

Human beings, almost universally, have an inner yearning for more than our physical existence — a cry for meaning, purpose, and/or life beyond the grave. Through out the recorded history of mankind this yearning has given rise to the idea of a force, an intelligence, and/or a Creator beyond, yet the origin of, the physical world.

There are four main ways that people have responded to the concept of God: rationalism, religion, rebellion, or revelation.

Rationalism is the attempt to explain or understand God with the human mind. From Aristotle to apologists to atheists, there have been many arguments made to either prove or disprove God. But the fact is, the concept of a transcendent God outside of the natural world, can never be proven or disproved by human reason.

Religion is ritual, tradition, and customs about God that are taught by organizations, institutions, and/or society. The human race is inundated with religion of various types. Through out human history, the majority of people have accepted (at least nominally) the religion of their upbringing and/or culture. Thus, religion tends toward a geographical approach to God — outwardly agreeing and/or adhering to what the institutions and people around you say they believe.

Rebellion is giving mental ascent to a religion or to the concept of God, yet ignoring the implications of that ascent. Rebellion acknowledges the existence of God but makes behavior choices based on personal desires and self-interest rather than on concern to obey God and/or the teachings of religion.

Revelation is the direct human experience of God. It is personal encounter and relationship with God. From Paul of Tarsus to AA/NA, untold millions of people have been touched and transformed by contact with a Higher Power. The personal accounts of people who were changed by meeting God are amazing.

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Are We Back In The Dark Ages? (Or Martin Luther, Where Are You?)

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Steve Simms

There was an interesting product available in the medieval world, called an indulgence.  It was an official document marketed by the church that gave an individual permission to do wrong without it being held against him/her.  If someone had a wild craving or compulsion, he/she could lay down some cash and then go do what he wanted with a certificate promising him/her a clear conscience.

A fellow named, Martin Luther, thought that giving people prior permission to do wrong wasn’t good for society.  So he protested, broke up the church, and helped end the practice of selling indulgences.

However, nowadays, in the 21st Century, indulgences are back, and this time they are not for sale; they are free for all.  So if anyone wants to indulge in immoral behavior all he/she has to do is surrender his/her conscience to society’s pervasive, permissive influences.  Here are the keys to 21st Century indulgences:

* Public approval of immoral behavior.  It is socially uncouth to disapprove of someone’s behavior, no matter how offensive it may be.  To consider particular behaviors to be immoral, nowadays, is usually labeled as judging. 

* Freedom from individual responsibility for our behaviors.  Our wrongful behaviors are now often blamed on the influence of society.  It is not our fault that we do what we do, but it is because of our parents, our problems, our genetics, the media, politicians, etc.

* The idea of situational ethics.  Behaviors that have been considered immoral for millennia by most of the world’s cultures are in the 21st Century pronounced as hunky dory.

So here we are, morally back in the medieval world.  Hey, wasn’t that called the Dark Ages?  Martin Luther, where are you?

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