The Mystic Christian Reader

As a free-thinking, open-minded Christian who strives in his life to be as Christlike as possible (with mixed results), I find myself constantly at odds with the Fundamentalist, born-again doctrine that says all we must do is "accept Jesus Christ into our lives" and everything will be great from there on in. There's nothing else to do. You can be a wonderful person who cares for people and is generous and loving, but if you haven't "given your life to Jesus", then you will certainly burn in Hell. However, one can pretty much do whatever one wants, consequence-free, as long as he has accepted Jesus as his Savior and asks for forgiveness for whatever he's done. This man is garanteed to go to heaven.

This is not to say that all born-again Christians are doing terrible things all the time and then asking for forgiveness later on. On the contrary, many of them are very good people, who work just as hard as anyone else at being what they believe to be a right and moral person. This is the most we can truly ask of anyone, that they are living their lives to the best of their abilities as their own spiritual tradition dictates.

The Born-Again tradition is firmly grounded in the teachings of the Bible... Saddly, reading The Bible is a passtime that has rapdily gone out of style, even among us Christians who profess to follow its precepts. How surprised I was to find that in Matthew 7:21-23, at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Himself spoke out against the Born-Again theology.

"Knowing the correct password--saying "Master, Master,' for instance--isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience--doing what my Father wills. I can see it now--at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, "Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? "You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.' (from "The Message")

Or, from a more "conventional" translation:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (from NIV)

Clearly to me, Jesus is saying here: "Just calling me 'Master' is not enough. You have to do the REAL WORK (aka: the Will of The Father) in order to get into Paradise on Judgement Day. The important question is: What is the REAL WORK? What is the Will of The Father? I believe that in this respect, the Born-again theology is PARTIALLY correct. The goal IS to have a PERSONAL relationship with Christ, and therefore with God. Again a question arrises: What is a PERSONAL relationship with God? It is a realationshp where we listen more than we speak, where we quiet our minds and open our Hearts so that God can enter there. A famous painting of Jesus has Him knocking at a door. The artist was once asked why the door had no handle. He said the door was the door to our hearts, and that it only opened from the INSIDE. We had to let God in. The best way to do this to follow the advice of Psalm 46, verse 10:

"Be still, and know that I am God"