Good Works

I did not like The Rule of St. Benedict. It was long and boring, with difficult language. Plus, I didn't agree with most of it. I will admit, I did not intensively read the whole thing; some parts I just skimmed. The one theme that I saw come up many times throughout was the theme of good works. It makes sense, of course, because he is writing to monks, and monks have dedicated their lives to good works. This theme of good works is one of the major differences between Catholics and Protestants.

Although they are both Christianity, Catholicism and Protestantism are inherently different in many ways. Catholics believe that good works are what get you into Heaven. Benedict says on the first page: "If we desire to dwell in the tabernacle of His kingdom, we cannot reach it in any way, unless we run thither by good works" (pg. 2). I also know quite a few Protestants who believe the same thing. They just can't wrap their mind around the fact that someone can live a "good life," doing nothing but help other people over themselves, but still go to Hell because they didn't believe in God. Therein lies the problem.

We can do absolutely nothing to get ourselves into Heaven. The standard for Heaven is perfectness. Nobody can get to heaven unless they lived a perfect life. Jesus is the only one who ever lived a perfect life. Good works don't do anything because "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Everybody has sinned, which means nobody has lived a perfect life, and therefore nobody is going to Heaven. We don't deserve it, no matter how many good things we have done. Good deeds don't cancel out sins. That is why Jesus paid the price of death on the cross. Because of Him, the "nobody is going to Heaven" is now "everyone who believes in Him" (John 3:16).

Another thing Benedict wrote in the prologue is this: "The Lord fulfilling these words [Matthew 7:24-25] waiteth for us from day to day, that we respond to His holy admonitions by our works" (pg. 3). The verse Benedict is writing about is about doing what God told us to do. I partly agree with him in that we should do what God told us to do. However, Benedict seems to believe that it is for that reason that Jesus died for us. That that is how we get to Heaven. That is not the case at all. He saved us because of His mercy (Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5). Matthew 7:24-25 is comparing doing God's bidding to a wise man building his house on the rock. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." The verse says nothing about getting to heaven. What it is saying is that if we build our lives on His word, the rock, and do the things that He says to do, our lives will not fall apart.

That leads me into this last thought. I am not condoning good works; in fact, I believe that performing good works is a good thing. It demonstrates the love of God, and helps us live like He did. I'm just saying be careful in believing good works can get you to Heaven. You might miss great opportunities to share the gospel. Just because someone is selfless and only cares about others, dedicating their life to serving, doesn't mean that they don't need the Holy Spirit. Everybody needs to know Him. Not only will they go to Heaven, they will be able to live Godly lives, founded on the rock.

Who is God?

"In the name of God, the most gracious, the dispenser of grace:

All that is in the heavens and on earth extols God's limitless glory for he alone is almighty, truly wise! His is the dominion over the heavens and the earth; He grants life and deals death; and He has the power to will anything. He is the First and the Last, and the Outward as well as the Inward; and He has full knowledge of everything. He it is who has created the heavens and the earth in six aeons, and is established on the throne of His almightiness. He knows all that enters the earth, and all that comes out of it, as well as all that descends from the skies, and all that ascends to them. And He is with you wherever you may be; and God sees all that you do. His is the dominion over the heavens and the earth and all things go back unto God [as their source]. He makes the night grow longer by shortening the day, and makes the day grow longer by shortening the night and He has full knowledge of what is in the hearts [of men]" (Qur'an, Surah 57, v. 1-6).

This excerpt from the Qur'an describing God is very accurate. We believe all of these same things of God. It is basically describing God's power and his sovereignty. As I was going into the Qur'an, I was wary. I wanted to be discerning, as this is the holy book of another religion. This passage, as the first thing I read, totally disarmed me. It read just like something that could be in the bible. There are a lot more similarities between Islam and Christianity than I thought. I became even more wary. The fact that it seems so similar to the bible is dangerous. Christians must be very discerning when reading the Qur'an.

All of that aside, I thought that the similarities between the Qur'an and the Bible were very interesting, as were the differences. As I read through, I started to compare every section to the bible. The quote above was the most obvious example. Another good example is this: "Never can there be a secret confabulation between three persons without His being the fourth of them, nor between five without His being the sixth of them and neither between less than that, or more, without His being with them wherever they may be" (Qur'an, Surah 58, v. 7). This quote is about God's omnipresence. He is everywhere. It is very similar to this bible verse: "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20).

However, there is a key difference between these two verses, and that difference is the meaning. That difference is God. In the Qur'an, specifically in the verses surrounding the quoted verse, God is described as knowing all. So while at first glance this verse may seem like it is about God's omnipresence, it is actually about his omniscience. The verse is not about God being with you, it is about God knowing what you are doing in secret. I think it is meant to instill fear in the hearts of the readers. So that they will always think about God watching them before they do something sinful. It paints a picture of a God who is like a police officer watching a criminal, just waiting for them to do something wrong so he can arrest them. The bible is very different than this. Rather than being about God watching you to see if you will do anything wrong, it is about God being with you at all times. Whether you are lonely, scared, depressed, or even happy, He is there, watching over you. Not watching like a police officer watching criminals, but like a shepherd watching over his sheep. Rather than fear, this verse is meant to make readers feel comforted, safe.

The main thing that the Qur'an is missing is God's love. While I was reading through, I did not see one mention of God's love. It did mention it a few time, but it wasn't real love. It said things like: God loves people who do this, or: God does not love people who do that. That isn't love, that is approval. In contrast, love is mentioned in the bible (NIV) 551 times. God's greatest commandments to us is to love Him and to love others (Matthew 22:37-39). However, there is a direct contrast in the Qur'an: "Do not take my enemies-- who are your enemies well-- for your friends, showing them affection even though they are bent on denying whatever truth has come unto you" (Qur'an, Surah 60, v. 1). The bible tells us to love our enemies and those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). The Qur'an tells us to keep them as our enemies and not to think of them as our friends. Not only that, but it goes on to say that your enemies are anyone who denies the truth that has come over you; in other words, anyone who is not a Muslim. They are also God's enemies, too. This is not right. God loves everybody equally, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist. He doesn't reject anyone who doesn't believe in Him. He wants everyone to believe in Him. He wants us to love Him back. That is the God I know and love. I don't want a God like the one in the Qur'an. The fact that He loves us is what makes the Christian God, the one and only God, the God I want to follow.

Discernment

I remember that, when I was kid, there were a lot of Christian parents, including my own, that wouldn't let their kids read Harry Potter. The books were very popular, and parents were worried about the negative influence that the theme of magic would have on their kids. I remember wanting to read the books. All my friends read them and talked about how good they were. I was always asking my parents why they wouldn't let me read them. I told them that they didn't have to worry about me thinking magic is real after I read the books. I knew that it wasn't real. However, that's not what my parents were worried about. They knew that I wasn't going to start believing in magic when I read the books. What they were worried about was my young age. I didn't have enough discretion. Once I was old enough, and they let me read the books, I was bewildered by how childish they were. I was expecting mysterious witchcraft, but they seemed so innocent and inviting. I think that is why parents were so worried about them; they make wizardry and witchcraft look normal. When dealing with pagan sort of literature, Christians need to be discretionary and wary.

"We Christians, young men, hold that this human life is not a supremely precious thing, nor do we recognize anything as unconditionally a blessing which benefits us in this life only. Neither pride of ancestry, nor bodily strength, nor beauty, nor greatness, nor the esteem of all men, nor kingly authority, nor, indeed, whatever of human affairs may be called great, do we consider worthy of desire, or the possessors of them as objects of envy; but we place our hopes upon the things which are beyond, and in preparation for the life eternal do all things that we do" (Basil II). I love this quote because it illustrates in detail that this life is temporary. Not only temporary, but very short. Pagan literature is useless other than as a form of entertainment. I'm not saying entertainment is a bad thing, I'm just saying that we need to be wary of things that don't benefit us. One might say that reading does benefit us because it can be intellectually challenging. But one could also say that challenging yourself intellectually on evil things such as magic, is a bad thing.

Obviously, as Basil admits, there can be some good things that come out of pagan literature. Under most stories lies an important message of virtue. We've read the Iliad (pagan literature) in class. There are good things that we can take out of that story and apply to our own lives. However, because the author is not a Christian, and not writing with Christian intent, we must be wary.

God can find ways to speak to us through literature other than the Bible. While reading Plato, Aristotle, and Confucius, I found many Christian ideas in their writings, even though Christianity didn't even exist yet. If a philosopher is writing about spiritual things, it only makes sense that they would stumble upon Christian ideas because of God's sovereignty. The same thing can be true for Christian writers. I read a biography of C.S. Lewis, a Christian author, once, and one of the most interesting things was about the Chronicles of Narnia. If you've read the series, you would know that there are a lot of Christian themes in it. However, Lewis was not trying to write them as Christian books; they just turned out that way.

All of this out of the way, what we need to realize is this: all we really need for literature is the Bible. I think what Basil was saying is that pagan literature is best left up to people who can discern and understand what going on, and the rest of people can learn from them. The Bible is what we should be focusing on, since it is the Word of God. In the other reading, "Go with God," Hauerwas writes about how, as Christians, going to college is our "calling." I think that this "calling" is to learn to be the discerning people Basil was talking about. Hauerwas says our calling is to "meet the needs of the church" and we are doing that through getting an education.

I want to conclude by driving this point home: we really need to be wary of the things that we read and watch. We have to be careful of unbiblical ideas, and in order to do that we must be grounded in God's word. His word is the foundation for all truth.