The Way

Without Works

Show Notes

Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works.

When we started this podcast years ago, my purpose was to explain Christianity to the unchurched. I had seen, and worked with, so many people who had no idea about the faith at all. That or they had vague memories of drawn out sunday services that they mostly slept through.

As of 2024 thirty three percent of the world claims Christianity. American culture, symbols, and language are given to us from the faith. Our emphasis on public repentance, humiliation, acts of contrition, and redemption are terms adopted from Christianity.

Some sociologists prematurely claimed that we live in a post Christian age. That the religion has diminished in influence and is not used to make decisions by anyone other than its adherents. They ignore that a person can accept the framework of Christianity for moral guidelines and not accept the theology of Christianity. A person can accept the morality of the teachings of Jesus, but not believe that he is God. That person still lives under the influence and ideas of philosophy of Jesus.

I would argue that there was not, in a real way, a Christian age. There has been a Church, prone to abuse of power and corruption, as institutions always are. That is not Christianity, or rather, it should not be. The actual faith, with or without theology, is practiced by individuals. It follows their convictions and helps them overcome their foibles. It helps them back to their feet when they have stumbled.

The theology of Christianity is for those who look for a higher meaning for their life, and want to find God’s purpose for it. God exists; to me this is self-evident. I don’t mean to convince everyone that God exists, but tell those who already believe that God has expressed their intention, and that is not exclusionary.

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