Sigh. We dealt with this back in December, but Nicholas Kristof is not giving up. I think he's obsessed.
Obsessed with what? Well that's the truly bizarre thing. Liberal New York Times columnist Kristof (but I repeat myself) seems obsessed with Christianity, and wanting to be a part of it. Now normally you'd think, great! Someone wants to become a Christian! Wonderful.
Except that's not what Kristof wants. He doesn't want to become a Christian. He wants Christianity to become what he is so he can qualify as a Christian.
So there's a gap between Kristof and Christianity? Oh yes, you could say that. Kristof refuses to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, or that he was the product of a virgin birth, or that he walked on water or performed various other miracles. But he really loves the Sermon on the Mount! And he wants that to be enough, so he's been looking around for a respected Christian leader who will tell him he's a Christian in spite of his refusal to believe the major tenets of the faith.
First, in December, he tried to get Pastor Tim Keller to affirm that he's a Christian. Keller declined to do so. But Kristof is on a mission, so he thought maybe if he asked a more liberal Christian he would get a better answer.
How about it, Jimmy Carter?
MEHow literally do you take the Bible, including miracles like the Resurrection?PRESIDENT CARTER Having a scientific background, I do not believe in a six-day creation of the world that occurred in 4004 B.C., stars falling on the earth, that kind of thing. I accept the overall message of the Bible as true, and also accept miracles described in the New Testament, including the virgin birth and the Resurrection.
With Easter approaching, let me push you on the Resurrection. If you heard a report today from the Middle East of a man brought back to life after an execution, I doubt you’d believe it even if there were eyewitnesses. So why believe ancient accounts written years after the events?
I would be skeptical of a report like you describe. My belief in the resurrection of Jesus comes from my Christian faith, and not from any need for scientific proof. I derive a great personal benefit from the totality of this belief, which comes naturally to me.
What about someone like me whose faith is in the Sermon on the Mount, who aspires to follow Jesus’ teachings, but is skeptical that he was born of a virgin, walked on water, multiplied loaves and fishes or had a physical resurrection? Am I a Christian, President Carter?
I do not judge whether someone else is a Christian. Jesus said, “Judge not, …” I try to apply the teachings of Jesus in my own life, often without success.
I don't usually have much good to say about Jimmy Carter, but I think he's being kind here. He doesn't want to give Kristof the obvious answer, perhaps out of concern that there might be a sincere seeker in there somewhere, and not wanting to dampen any legitimate interest in the faith.
I don't think that's what's really going on here, so I will be a bit more blunt in my response to Kristof's question:
No, Nick, you are not a Christian. You could become one if you wanted to, but you are not one now.
The reason you are not a Christian is that you don't accept the primary tenet of the faith, which is that Jesus is the Son of God, that he came down from Heaven and took on human flesh, that his virgin mother conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit, that he never sinned a single time in his life, that he was fully God and fully man, that his death served as the required payment for our sins, and that he rose from the dead as a victory over sin and death.
If Jesus merely taught a really awesome sermon on a mount, but did not do any of the things I just mentioned, there would be no church that regards him as Lord. We would think he had been an awesome man, of course, but there have been lots of awesome men. We don't worship them as part of the Godhead trinity. We do worship Jesus in this way, because he conquered sin, conquered death, and reconciled us to God.
I would ask why you want to be a Christian, Nick, when you don't believe in the most awesome things Jesus did. But I think there is a better question to be asked: Why don't you believe any of these things? You declare yourself skeptical of the eyewitnesses and of the plausibility of these things happening, based on science or whatever other reason. But what do you think God is capable of? (And for that matter, do you believe in God at all?) An all-powerful God would have no trouble fertilizing an egg in a virgin, or raising a man from the dead, or walking on water, or multiplying loaves and fishes. Why do you find it so hard to believe these things happened? Would you be more credulous if the New York Times had been there reporting it? The Apostles and the Gospel writers were witnesses. Are they not good enough for you? Do you need some anonymous source speaking on background to make you believe these things occurred?
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Because if your skepticism is based on the belief that things like that just don't happen, then what you're really saying is that you don't think a supernatural, all-powerful God ever works in this world or makes things happen that can only be explained by the work of his hand.
And if you don't think God could do these things, or that Jesus could do these things, then why would you want to be a Christian? The whole point of Christianity is that Jesus has authority over sin and death, and over the rulers and principalities and powers of the air in the heavenly realms. That's why we worship him, not because he gave a really profound speech one day.
Now, Nick, I will be candid. I don't think you are a sincere seeker. I think you're an interloper. I think you're borderline obsessed with your skepticism about the supernatural work of Jesus, and you're trying to cast aspersions on these things by making the case that it's unnecessary to believe in them. I think your whole point here is that Christianity should totally change from what it is to what you would prefer it to be - all about social justice and whatever other worldly imperatives, but certainly not about faith in Christ as the necessary and perfect atonment for sin.
Tim Keller and Jimmy Carter didn't give you the answer you wanted because they couldn't. It's not the right answer. You are decidedly not a Christian.
But now I will be candid in another way: I would love it if you wanted to become a Christian, and I would like to show you how to do it. As a starting point for you, I need to tell you it doesn't start with good works you want to do here on Earth. Yes, it gets there. But first it starts by you humbling yourself before God, and acknowledging that He is sovereign over all the universe, and that his law is perfect, and that his Son lives and reigns - and that all of us, including you and me, needed Jesus to go to that cross because God required a perfect sacrifice as the price for the sins of mankind.
Once you realize that God provided his own Son as the sacrifice, and that the Son willingly submitted himself to be that sacrifice, you're overcome with gratitude that he endured it instead of you. And you realize how badly you want and need that grace, which only he has the authority to give you because of the victory he won - going to that cross and walking out of that tomb.
The Sermon on the Mount was fantastic, to be sure. But I don't think you really understand it. The point is not that if we just do these good things, everything will be fine. The point is to live with a Kingdom mindset, and that requires us to understand and worship the King in his true glory. But it starts with your decision to bow down before him and worship him as Lord.
Do you want to do that, Nick? E-mail me and we can talk about it if you like. I'd really love to see you do it, and I'd gladly help. And I'll start helping by being very clear about where you stand right now: You're not a Christian. You're trying to change Christianity by taking all the real power out of it so you can fit in. It doesn't work that way.
