The church (broadly defined as the Body of Christ, not the building on the corner) is there to provide answers to life’s questions. “What is my purpose in life?” Things like that. So why not go elsewhere for those answers?
Let’s take some examples:
The Jedi don’t have answers like that.
Evolution can’t answer that beyond “Replicate your DNA.” That’s no real answer.
Buddhism’s response is simply, “To attain a higher level of consciousness in your next incarnation.” That's still a selfish motivation, IMHO.
There are other options, but you can kind of figure out what they’ll say in response to the big questions of life.
One of the problems the church is experiencing is most members don’t have an answer to someone’s purpose in life. In fact, the people asking the question have more of a surface level reason for asking. “What job am I supposed to have? Where should I be employed?”
Maybe they really mean, “Who should I marry?” Or something similarly uncomplicated. That’s not what a person’s purpose is, because that’s really asking, “What should I do?”
The Gospel message has the answer: Glorify God. Do such good, follow Christ so closely, that people don’t even see you - they see Him. Jesus did that, and we are supposed to do what Jesus did.
Does it matter if you wash dishes, or drive truck, or own a manufacturing plant making lawn mowers? No. Do it for His glory.
If you try to please God, He’ll take care of you. That doesn’t mean you’ll have an easy life, or that you’ll attain riches and glory for yourself. God didn’t create you to gather a bunch of stuff so people will envy you. He made you to be a reflection of His glory. You were created, after all, in His image.
So when you take high school or college classes, do your best. God didn’t want you to coast through life, taking what you could, accumulating whatever was available. Squirrels do that. He didn’t breathe the breath of life into squirrels.
People - YOU - were given an immortal soul and free will to love and glorify God. When you mop a bathroom floor, or pick up roadkill, or dig ditches, do it for His glory. Do it because you love Him.
The wages you receive are from God, and tithing on that is a shadow of the thanks He deserves. Even if you don’t like your job, do the best you can. Even that much glorifies Him.
Karl Marx called religion the opiate of the masses, claiming the concept of God was created to maintain the status quo. But there has been no greater force for changing society for the better than the Christian faith.
The Ivy League colleges in America (Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton) were created in the early days by Christians. The first hospitals came from the same kinds of people (though some argue Ben Franklin wasn’t a true Christian), and the idea of treating any sick or injured person there is a Christian concept from Franklin’s Puritanical upbringing. The fight against slavery in America is also from Christians. In a letter to English abolitionist Granville Sharp, Benjamin Rush called slavery a violation of Christian belief.
Did those first hospitals or colleges worry about grabbing what they could? No. Did abolishing slavery preserve the status quo? No.
Those kinds of things were done to glorify God.
Ask yourself if any evolutionist would have done the same.
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