Dallas Willard and The Golden Compass

I have begun to wonder, after only beginning to read The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard about what sort of Christianity we have been taught to believe in the 21st century United States. In chapter two of his excellently written book, he poses a scenario to the reader. Rather, he tries to paint a picture of modern-day Christianity as he sees it. What he writes in his book is that there are two kinds of Christianity at work today: right-wing and left-wing Christianity (his language, not mine). Right-wing Christianity is that which teaches that no matter what we do, no matter how we live, if we accept Jesus as the payer of our sin-guilt bill, then we will be assured entrance into heaven when we die. Left-wing Christianity teaches that what Jesus was most concerned with was the destitute, discarded, and overlooked peoples in society, so we need to do all we can to include as many as we can. Right-wing Christianity ends up focusing so much on the payment of our debt incurred through sin that it inadvertently de-emphasizes the day-to-day walk and transformation that is meant to take place in the life of a follower of Christ. That doesn't mean that there aren't those who truly are transformed by Christ on a day-to-day level, but that is more the exception than the general rule. Left-wing Christianity ends up becoming this "love-conquers-all" sort of fluffy, feel good religion with the name of Jesus attached to it. Both brands of Christianity end up ignoring the current, life-changing power of a daily relationship with Christ, and you have a large population of people who call themselves Christians because they either intellectually accept the payment of their own bill or they try and be nice to other people, and then go on living their lives as they did before they were "Christians". And the primary source of this, the primary cause of this break is faulty preaching that is too blindly accepted as truth. Needless to say, this sort of writing has challenged me to think about what I've learned in my few short years of calling myself a Christian. It has caused me to re-think what my daily actions and what my life actually reflect as far as transformation is concerned. What sort of Christianity do I really believe in (as reflected by my day-to-day actions)?

Juxtaposed against my reading of The Divine Conspiracy is also my reading of the series by Philip Pullman His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass). Philip Pullman is well-known as an atheist. Even if I hadn't already known such a fact, it would not be hard to see through his writing in these three books and the sort of picture he paints of the Church and God in these books. The two together, in this series are tyrranical, blind in their faith, uncompromising, and downright evil. This is the picture Philip Pullman paints of the Church and God. In the end of the series, God is killed. And because of that fact, many Christians flocked together in protest when the movie The Golden Compass was released in theaters. But when I look at the sort of God and Church that Philip Pullman depicts, I don't know if I would want to defend them. I wouldn't be opposed to the killing of that God and that Church. I honestly think that Christians too quickly flock to those key words of "God" and "church", without asking what they are really standing for. And ironically enough, Dallas Willard says the exact same thing. (I may or may not have picked up the idea from his book). What exactly do we embrace when we fight for the survival of the "God" that Philip Pullman depicts. Now, I should say that Philip Pullman has a very skewed vision of what God and the Church really are, or what they were meant to be, and that is a sad thing. But, unfortunately, the only people we have to blame for that view he holds is Christians themselves. We have committed such crimes in our religion due to the fact that we have believed the wrong "gospel" that now Philip Pullman, and others besides him, have a skewed view of God and the Church.

So, instead of pointing fingers at other people and attacking them, why don't we instead challenge the doctrine we have so blindly swallowed for so long and instead embrace the true God of the Bible, the true redemptive power of Jesus's sacrifice on the Cross, and allow God's truth to actually transform our lives into what they were meant to be.

"And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." John 17:3

"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, 'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'" John 8:31-32