In other words, "Just to be safe, I better believe Jesus died for my sins ... and after I'm saved and baptized I can go on about my business."
Does that make a strange kind of selfish sense? Who wants to take chances that Hell might be absolutely real and last forever ... even if the idea of death seems far off in the future?
It simply makes sense to some church-exposed folks to cover their bets, buy a Bible and find a parking space at a church that satisfies all their needs and requirements.
Isn't that what church is all about? Isn't that what the pastor gets paid to do? Isn't church supposed to be a spiritual trough where the flock shows up for an hour every Sunday (or every Easter) to be fed till they're full (so long as the sermon doesn't last past 12PM)?
Isn't that what Scripture says church is all about?
No, Scripture doesn't say that at all.
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I've met lots of folks who call themselves Christians who're almost angrily anxious to argue that their brand of religion is the right one, the only one and the only right one ... and then quote scripture to prove that they're "right."
Excuse me, but isn't that backwards ... and even downright contemptuous of God? Did God divinely inspire others to write the books of the Bible to prove that your religion, your rules, your music, your dress code, your traditions and your politics are always right?
Or maybe you had all the answers to begin with, and are merely using scripture to support your own arguments. Regardless of what God said thousand and thousands of years before you drew your first breath.
The problem might be that your religion, rules, music, dress code, traditions and politics are all man-made.
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Scripture is God's living word and God's word existed loooong before either you or I, so how then can scripture "prove" that we're right?
We're not always "right" and neither is any man-made religion; only God's word is always authoritative, always definitive and always right. As believers, our faith, revealed through our acts, should prove that God's word is always true and always right ... and not the other way around.
Man-made icons ... like steeples, mahogany pews and stained glass windows, are symbols that folks associate with "church" and religion, but symbols don't offer much of a glimpse about how the folks who gather inside are living their lives outside the building ... or whether their faith is just as symbolic and silent.
