An Introduction to an Introduction to Sin

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  Last week, I participated in a Wednesday night Theology 101 presentation.  It was an introduction to sin, salvation, and grace.  That is a tall order to squeeze into a one hour bag. 

I was happy to see that the forty people who attended seemed to really enjoy the presentation and discussion.  Many of them offered some insightful suggestions from their own experience.

My presentation was about sin and salvation.  After hearing Ashley Williams’ introduction to grace, I began my presentation by saying that in a theology class I would spend the first hour discussing sin as it was viewed among early Christians and maybe the next generation theologians. 

In truth, we should begin with the Jewish Bible.  That would take a good hour or more.

Instead, I began with a brief concerning how fundamentalists view sin.  

I did this because fundamentalists are evangelical family members even though evangelicals prefer to distinguish themselves from fundamentalists.  All voices should be heard and considered.  

We are all evangelicals in the sense that we believe that the gospel is good news worthy to be proclaimed by our love we live.

A fundamentalist family member believes in the supernatural, in magical thinking, and gets really annoyed when we suggest that Jesus sure has done a better job answering our prayers for the sick and dying since the advent of medical science. 

Fundamentalists are stuck in Protestant Reformation theology which is magical, supernatural, and reactionary.  It reacts to Roman Catholicism and is geared specifically to damn our Roman Catholic family members. 

Fundamentalists also react to scientists and their theology is geared specifically to damn all of us who are scientific thinkers for Jesus. 

Bless their hearts.  We still love them.

Historically, fundamentalism is described as a late 19^th and early 20^th century theological movement.  In 1910, an oil man (imagine that) named Lyman Stewart financed the publication of a 12 volume sets of essays: The Fundamentals: a Testimony to the Truth.  The title itself is quite suggestive. 

Fundamentalism is said to be a reaction to modern culture.  Indeed.  Yet included in modern culture is our reliance upon scientific thinking for truth about reality.  Our science today has shown reality to be stranger and vaster than men and women B.C. (Before Copernicus) imagined.  

In response, fundamentalists reject science, or at least those aspects of science that they find incompatible with their theology, and they are compelled to imagine ways to squeeze our vast universe of knowledge into their literal interpretation of the Bible.

This explains in part why fundamentalist writers love to stick Bible verses after their propositions as if that proves their case to be incontrovertible. 

Like scientists, fundamentalists are inclined to prefer facts.  However, their facts do not come from observation, but from selected Bible verses.

Now, I’m not picking on our fundamentalist family members.  Just about all of them are the nicest people you will ever meet.  That being said, even the nicest among them still have it in their heads that stoning and burning at the stake are ordained by their god as a sociologically just way of engineering a righteous society.

Love 'em, but don't vote for 'em…that’s my advice.

In fundamentalist circles, sin is just about everything.  On the one hand there is talk of salvation and forgiveness, but on the other hand there is an inclination to legislate or keep laws that make some sinners worthy of more condemnation than others.

By the way, the best news I ever read in the Bible, since we are being selective with our verses, is the news that there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. 

So, that is my introduction to my introduction.  Next, I will present an expanded edition of my Theology 101 presentation about sin.  I copied and pasted it from a Dictionary of Theology website created by conservatives.

Blessings...