Hammer on Anvil '

In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis shares an intriguing argument known as the trilemma. Basically, Lewis asserts that we cannot accept Jesus as simply a great moral teacher because he did not leave that option open to us. We can either accept that he was a liar (for claiming he was God), a lunatic (for claiming and believing that he was God), or the Lord. Jesus himself left no other option open to us.

This argument certainly still holds true for many people today, but it is not the primary focus of this post. Rather, this is one example of a larger issue: that Christians and non-Christians alike often add things or subtract things from Christ’s character to the point that, in the end, he becomes little more than an imaginary friend.

There are a variety of reasons why this happens. In America, I’d argue that one of the biggest reasons is that people don’t take the time to get to know Jesus. We learn about him in Sunday school as kids and think that is sufficient to get us by. When we grow up, Jesus joins the ranks of Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny – great imaginary friends for children, but nothing more. And just as we can go to Santa for gifts at Christmas, we can go to Jesus whenever it serves our needs. But this image isn’t real. It is a forgery, a custom tailored suit made to fit who we want to be without requiring anything but lip service in return.

But this isn’t the only example of molding Christ into an imaginary friend.

At a Bible study a few months ago, our group was discussing how it’s a shame that churches don’t work together more often. It seems that we focus on our differences much more often than our similarities. This would probably be a good topic for a future post, but for now, I mention this because it was the foundation for this post. It forced me to think.

When we look at the different denominations in the church, do our similarities really outweigh our differences? Each denomination makes choices about what they believe. We would hope that these choices are solely based on the Bible and that the differences among denominations are nothing more than differences in Biblical interpretation. But this is not always the case. And even when it is the case, interpretation in itself can distort the Truth. To over-simplify my point, I could interpret that two plus two equals five, but that does not make it true. Satan’s one and only weapon is deception. Why would he only use that weapon outside the church and never within?

So my point is this. Since we know that different denominations believe different things about Jesus, at what point do those beliefs become so different from Jesus’ true character that it is no longer Jesus they are worshipping, but an imaginary friend? The Mormon church claims to be Christian, but they have vastly added to the Bible, and so added to/modified who Christ was. Are those modifications significant enough that it is no longer Christ they are following? Westboro Baptist Church claims to be Christian, but they protest at military funerals with signs saying “God Hates Fags.” Are they following the true Christ?

It’s easy to see where the line is drawn with these examples, but things get fuzzier when we look at churches that we would consider to be “normal.” I don’t claim to have an answer to the question underlined above. But I feel strongly that it is something we must consider, if for no other reason than for each of us to “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.” (2 Corinthians 13:5)

So the question I pose to you is this: What elements are so foundational to the character of Jesus Christ that they cannot be taken away or added to without transforming Jesus into an imaginary friend?