Mike Pohlman, over at the Gospel Coalition blog, includes a section of an article in yesterday's USA Today entitled "And I'd Like to Thank God Almighty" by Tom Krattenmaker. I am posting it here below and would love to hear and read thoughts concerning this. Very interesting to say the least. In short, the author does not deem it a good thing at all that figures such as Tim Tebow believe that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to avoid eternal punishment. Just a reminder of the hostile world Christians are finding themselves living in. God help us. Here's Pohlman's post:
Sports and the Gospel
Writing for USA Today, Tom Krattenmaker isn’t so sure conservative evangelicalism is all-together good for college and professional sports. While he lauds the civic-mindedness of many high profile Christian athletes, Krattenmaker is concerned with the exclusive claims many outspoken Christian athletes make with respect to salvation. From the column:
But Jesus’ representatives in sports aren’t just practicing faith. They are also leveraging sports’ popularity to promote a message and doctrine that are out of sync with the diverse communities that support franchises, and with the unifying civic role that we expect of our teams. Typifying the exclusive creed taught by many sports-world Christians is the belief statement published by Baseball Chapel, which provides chaplains for all major- and minor-league baseball teams. Non-believers in Jesus, the ministry declares, can look forward to “everlasting punishment separated from God.”
Urban Meyer, Tebow’s coach at Florida, has praised his quarterback’s faith-promoting ways as “good for college football … good for young people … good for everything.” Such is the rhetoric usually heard from those who defend sports-world Christianity as wholesome and harmless.
But should we be pleased that the civic resource known as “our team” — a resource supported by the diverse whole through our ticket-buying, game-watching and tax-paying — is being leveraged by a one-truth evangelical campaign that has little appreciation for the beliefs of the rest of us?
But should we be pleased that the civic resource known as “our team” — a resource supported by the diverse whole through our ticket-buying, game-watching and tax-paying — is being leveraged by a one-truth evangelical campaign that has little appreciation for the beliefs of the rest of us?
Having researched and thought about Christianity in sports for the better part of a decade, I am impressed by the good that’s done by sports-world Christians. Jesus-professing athletes are among the best citizens in their sector, and they commit good deeds daily in communities across this country.
These sports stars, like all Americans, have a right to express their faith.
Evangelical players and ministry representatives in sports aren’t out to harm anyone, of course. On the contrary, they see themselves as fulfilling the Bible’s Great Commission (”Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:19). In this sense, their mission is pure altruism: They seek to share the gift of eternal life.
But there’s a shadow side to this. If their take on God and truth and life is the only right one — which their creed boldly states — everyone else is wrong.
Of course, there’s the rub. Christian athletes like Tim Tebow actually believe in the exclusivity of the Gospel for salvation. And they want others to embrace Christ as their only hope for forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. For many outspoken Christian athletes life is about far more than sports. And out of love for neighbor and their Savior they risk ridicule and offense in saying so.
Here’s how Krattenmaker closes:
Is sports-world evangelicalism really “good for everything”? Certainly a lot, but not everything. Not if you’re Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, non-evangelical Protestant, agnostic or anything else outside the conservative evangelical camp.
What do you think? Should high-profile athletes use their platform for the proclamation of the Gospel? What guidelines, if any, should be kept in mind?
2 comments:
First of all, the world is not hostile to all Christians.
What you're mistaking for some sort of "hostility" is just the normal reaction people have when others 1) try to impose their beliefs on them and 2) misrepresent God as a deity who intends to torture most of humanity with fire, to be the CAUSE of the worst pain ever and for ever!
To answer your question, using any platform not created for religious proclamation is deceitful. It's trying to trick us into showing up for church by sneaking church into an event that the attendees and viewers came to for an entirely different reason. You're not being up front and honest, taking advantage of an audience you captured by deceipt.
But even if we were to allow for this sort of religious bait and switch, your message is anything but "good" news! Good news would be that God loves us, wants to help us, wants to RELIEVE suffering...but that's NOT what Evangelicals say...and you should know that your Badspell is in direct contradiction to the original message of Jesus.
I've actually written an entire book on this topic--"Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There's No Such Place As Hell," (for anyone interested, you can get a free Ecopy of my book at my website: www.ricklannoye.com), but if I may, let me share one of the many points I make in it to explain why.
If one is willing to look, there's substantial evidence contained in the gospels to show that Jesus opposed the idea of Hell. For example, in Luke 9:51-56, is a story about his great disappointment with his disciples when they actually suggested imploring God to rain FIRE on a village just because they had rejected him. His response: "You don't know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!" Presumably, it was NOT the Holy Spirit. He went on, trying to explain how he had come to save, heal and relieve suffering, not be the CAUSE of it.
So it only stands to reason that this same Jesus, who was appalled at the very idea of burning a few people, for a few horrific minutes until they were dead, could never, ever burn BILLIONS of people for an ETERNITY!
True, there are a few statements that made their way into the gospels which place Hell on Jesus lips, but these adulterations came along many decades after his death, most likely due to the Church filling up with Greeks who imported their belief in Hades with them when they converted.
Rick,
First let me thank you for responding to my post. I was wondering if anyone read my blog. Glad to know someone (besides my mom!) does.
I must confess, however, that I (as you probably knew before you ever responded) disagree wholeheartedly with your response.
First, your claim that using a platform not created for religious proclamation as deceitful assumes way too much. Sure, there may be some who do this sort of 'bait and switch' thing. But assuming that all do is unwarranted. Besides, my understanding of Christianity is not to use any sort of 'thing' as a platform, but rather being a follower of Jesus consumes everything about a person. It is who they are, not something on the side. If they play football, Christianity drives how they play and what they say on and off the field and so forth.
Second, the gospel is "Great" news because it communicates the only way to avoid just punishment and wrath from God. For God to be just and righteous and holy and perfect and sinless, He cannot tolerate sin. To maintain His justice, sin must be punished (what would we think of a judge in a court of law who allowed a guilty serial rapist to go free with no punishment?). Hatred would be to leave sinful humans with no hope. Love would be to provide a way out. The Bible says that God demonstrates His own love for us in this, that while we were sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Left to our sinful selves (which all of us are radically sinful and have rebelled against God - Isaiah 53:6, Romans 3:23)we are without hope. Hatred would be to leave us this way. Love provides a way out of being punished justly by God.
Good (Great!) news is that Jesus IS that only way (John 14:6).
Third, regarding your comment on what Jesus said to his disciples in Luke 9, the context is totally ignored. If you will notice in verses 51 and following, Luke is careful to let us know that Jesus was headed straight for Jerusalem where He was to be killed. Nothing was going to stop this from happening (because of His great love for us by the way!). When James and John make their comments, they have yet to understand what must happen first. His rebuke of the their request was not because there is no hell. His rebuke is because He came to bear the wrath they deserved Himself. He was actually on His way to Jerusalem to do just that. Jesus knew that the people would not receive Him (see the end of verse 53). Nothing was going to stop Him from going to Jerusalem. His rebuke was not because there was no hell. Yes, it was because of His love for the people, his love to give them time for Him to provide a way out for their eternal salvation.
Finally, as for your comments regarding the other passages where Jesus speaks of hell being added later, I must say that if this is the case, why believe any of the Bible? It just seems to me if one is going to pick and choose which passages he decides to believe, then why not just chunk the whole thing? Of course, I do not believe that is possible. But I wonder why believe any of it, if only part of it is believed to be true?
Rick, again, I thank you for your response and hope that the deep, deep love of God as displayed in the sending of Jesus to earth (John 3:16) would shine brightly in your soul.
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