A Heart For The Lost

A Heart For The Lost
 
    With the dismal US Presidential election now behind us, some might hope the vicious and often vacuous battles of the seemingly interminable and historically costly campaign would likewise have moved from the public forum to the policy rooms, some to be enacted, most to be forgotten.  One of the more contentious issues, that of one candidate's ostensibly Christian "spiritual mentor" and foul-mouthed Pastor, would be best removed from the stage and returned to relative obscurity.  But with the appointment of another Pastor, this one a widely-read success counselor from the mainline evangelical megachurch movement, to deliver the inaugural invocation, the battle has once again come to the fore.
 
    While the ensuing debate has its humorous aspects, particularly in the way those who saw no conflict in an association with an America-hating Pastor have suddenly discovered serious implications with a Pastor who is unafraid to identify the sin of homosexuality as sinful, the debaters have raised some significant issues as well.  Of particular interest, perhaps because of their "outsider" perspective, is the course of debate among those who have no spiritual affiliation to defend but who are avowed and practicing atheists.
 
    In an ongoing conversation on the internet, British writer Christopher Hitchens (author of such books as "God Is Not Great"), who describes himself as not merely atheist but anti-theist, threw down the gauntlet with his assertion that Rick Warren is bigoted because he holds to the Christian doctrine that salvation can be found only in Christ.  Hitchens, who fervently denies the very concepts of God, heaven, salvation and religion in any form, nevertheless feels compelled to come to the aid of non-Christians who might feel excluded by Warren's (and Christ's) focus on the one Savior.  His might be said to exemplify a very mistaken "heart for the lost," one which cares more for potentially hurt feelings than for doctrinal consistency or, indeed, for souls.
 
    But where Hitchens' argument is mere political correctness, the response of writer and former lawyer Heather Mac Donald, also an atheist, is both more thoughtful and more thought-provoking.  Replying in her own online publication to Hitchens' statement, Mac Donald poses the following question:

"Do modern Christians still believe with the same fervor as in the past all those unyielding doctrines of eternal damnation for the unbaptised and unconverted? They sure don’t act as if they do. If they really were convinced that their friends, co-workers, neighbors, and in-laws were going to hell because they possessed the wrong or no religious belief, I would think that the knowledge would be unbearable. Christians surely see that most of their wrong-believing personal acquaintances are just as moral and deserving as themselves. How, then, do they live with the knowledge that their friends and loved ones face an eternity of torment? I would expect a frenzy of proselytizing, by word or by sword."

    Now, it is clear some of Mac Donald's speculation is uninformed; one is not converted at sword-point, and the heart of Christianity is not that one is more deserving, but that all are undeserving.  Nevertheless, her belief that Christians, at least in North America, have lost the convictions of their forebears is one every faithful Christian must consider.  If we, like the the Ephesians, have lost our first love [Rev. 2:4] and adopted what some have called a "Christless Christianity" based on a form of social gospel (of the sort even Christopher Hitchens might approve) we must return -- quickly! -- to authentic Christ-centered Christianity.  If, like Laodicea [Rev. 3:15] we are "neither cold nor hot" but have adopted a casual attitude toward our Lord and His commands, we must -- quickly! -- pray to recapture that zeal which Mac Donald finds lacking among the Christians she knows.  As another year opens before us, let us resolve to put our love for God into practice through a bursting, loving, committed heart for the lost.

    "Shall we, whose souls are lighted
    With wisdom from on high,
    Shall we to men benighted
    The lamp of life deny?"
        [Psalter Hymnal #401:3]

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Gary Fisher