OPINION —
Seventy-five years ago, Elton Trueblood dared to publish a book titled “The Future of the Christian.” At the time many insisted that theirs was a post-Christian age because the Christian worldview had lost its influence in the world.
Not so, Trueblood declared. Because of the widespread spiritual hunger of modern man, the Christian faith had a bright future. The recognition of how bad life can be is good news, a valuable asset for Christians. Spiritual poverty and immorality creates a powerful motivation for the new life available through faith in Christ. So a sense of need is an essential blessing.
Trueblood amplifies this principle by describing the paradox of weakness as the doorway to strength. “John Milton, in his blindness, grasped the paradox more thoroughly than most men have been able to do,” Trueblood asserts. Milton’s own words illustrate the significance of Trueblood’s contention:
“It does not trouble me — though to you it seems painful — to be numbered with the blind, the afflicted, the sorrowful, the weak, since there is hope that I am so much the nearer to the mercy and protection of the Almighty Father. There is a certain way, as the Apostle shows, through weakness to the highest strength. It matters not how weak I may be, so long as in my weakness that immortal and superior strength works more powerfully, so long as in my darkness the light of the divine countenance shines forth more brightly; for then, though feeble, I shall be sublimely strong, sightless and yet endowed with piercing sight. Through this infirmity I can be completed, perfected: in this darkness I can be filled with light. For in truth, we blind men are not God’s last and slightest care; in proportion as we cannot behold anything except himself, he is disposed to look upon us with the more mercy and kindness.”
Milton’s stunning faith does indeed exemplify that “a sense of need is fundamentally a blessing.” It is a necessary condition for spiritual fulfillment, Trueblood contends, “because there is no hope at all for those who do not recognize that they are hungry.” Jesus, of course, was speaking of this spiritual hunger for God when he said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). The intensity of this hunger is quite visible today on college campuses where thousands of students are turning in faith to Jesus.
So Trueblood was right in forecasting a bright future for the Christian faith!
He was convinced that the majority of modern Christians far outnumber those who hold a negative view of Christianity’s future. His description of basic Christianity is most helpful. For him the “Basic Christian” believes in God and trusts Him, “because he believes that God is like Jesus Christ.” Here indeed is the crown jewel of Christian faith: God is like Jesus! This is the deepest conviction of Basic Christians: “that at the Center of Being is One who is like Christ.”
Trueblood calls this central conviction “the most revolutionary truth in the world.” So he declares, “If God exists, and if He is like Christ, the welfare of every finite person consists in conformity to His will.” And he says, “Since we cannot expect to discover God’s will alone, we need the help of other reverent seekers who make up the Church.”
So, together in the Church, we discover that God’s will is for us to surrender to Jesus and live our lives to reflect His presence within us. Like Jesus we find ways to “go about doing good” for the sake of others. While we live as much like Jesus as possible, the Holy Spirit is busy shaping us, conforming us to the likeness of Jesus in the lifelong process known as sanctification.
I love Trueblood’s inspiring observation about life after death: “If God is like Christ, it would be illogical to assume that His concern for individual persons could come to an end with the death of mortal bodies.” No, he says, our God is Lord of the future as well as the present. He offers new meaning to the familiar phrase, “the Life Everlasting.”
“It is an absurdity to suppose that the Lord of heaven and earth would, in the end, abandon those beings who, in spite of their sins, are the very crown jewels of His creation. If God is like Christ, it is a fair conclusion that personality will not end with our fleshly decay, but will continue and flourish in ways beyond our capacity either to ask or to think. It is not strange, therefore, that the last phrase of the Apostles’ Creed is ‘And the Life Everlasting. Amen.’”
Well, basic Christians, there is ample evidence today that there is a bright future ahead for the Christian faith. Let us rejoice that God is like Christ, and ask the Holy Spirit to help us guide hungry people to the true Bread that satisfies spiritual hunger. Until we receive the gift of life everlasting, there is work to be done by every servant of Jesus. Put your hands to the plow.
