...it suddenly hit me that our churches are full of
these people. Faith with no deeds. We believe in Jesus, we go to church, we
lead semi-decent lives, but we aren’t being transformed. We aren’t changing. We
don’t think the deeds matter, because we have the “fire insurance.” We’re going
to get into Heaven just fine, so we can keep lying and stealing and sleeping
around and murdering and being selfish and whatever else it is we’re doing.
But what
James seemed to be saying was that a faith like that was a problem. It’s not
the deeds or lack of deeds that’s a problem, it’s that something is wrong with
our faith if it’s not producing actions. It’s ineffectual. It’s the sort of
faith that fills a pew but leads us to a moment when we are face-to-face with
Jesus and show him our works and he says, “I never knew you. Away from me, you
evildoers!” (p 217)
Can we identify the reasons
for why this problem exists? Obviously, it has been present with us since the
beginning of the New Testament church as evidenced by the letter of James, “So
also faith, by itself, if it does not have works, is dead,” 2:17). Part of the
reason is the natural tendency of our depravity to misunderstand the implications
of the gospel. Paul sensed this as well, and, like James, may have had to
defend against it: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace
may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
Rom 6:1,2.
Mr. Mikalatos understands
this aspect of the gospel, that genuine saving faith produces good works, and
he brings the reader face-to-face with it. There is a great need for that in
our Christian writing, and Mr. Mikalatos has not shrunk from that.
Yet, there is a serious flaw
in Mr. Mikalatos’s theology, and it can actually contribute to the problem. The
flaw is this: he does not believe in man’s total depravity, and one's stance on total depravity has a
direct bearing on his preaching and evangelism which in turn affects the response of the
unconverted. Let me explain.
In a conversation with
Robert (a zombie) and Lara (a vampire), who are despairing of their conditions,
Mikalatos points to the image of God in them as a reason for hope. Robert
counters by asserting we are totally depraved and if we are a reflection of
God, bearing his image, then God himself would likewise have to be completely
depraved. Mr. Mikalatos responds:
“I don’t think so. It might mean that we’ve
misunderstood what it means to be sinful. Or that we’ve emphasized it so much
that we’ve simply lost sight of the fact that in our deepest, most horrific
actions, some piece of us is still outside of that, some part of us is made in
God’s image, and that’s not something we can ever completely eradicate.” (p
220)
A little later, Matt relates
a story for Robert and Lara about a symphony he and his wife once attended, and
how the music filled the concert hall with magnificent beauty, and how it
revealed that, as an image-bearer,
“...a man can take what is in his mind and scratch it
out on paper, and others can fashion instruments, and still other sacrifice
their lives to learn to bring pleasing sounds from these instruments.” (p 222)
And then, later again, while
observing other nameless men and women who had attended the symphony, and
reflecting on the players of the symphony, and the conductor, that for all of
them and us,
“... we need not be captives to our base selves,
because by God’s grace there stirs a deeper desire to be like the one who made
us.” (p 223)
Now, I believe that we are
made in God’s image and appeal unhesitatingly to that fact as a reason to
pursue writing as a conscious effort to reflect our Creator through the
creation of our own story-making.
But being made in God’s
image does not mean that there lies within the sinner a spark or tiny island or
a small reservoir by which he wants to be like the one who made him. If this notion
of an inherent sensitivity or openness or searching for God is at the bottom of
one’s anthropology, I maintain that one’s understanding and explanation of the
gospel is going to be affected adversely. If there is somewhere deep in the
heart of every person a desire to be like God, then the appeal to that person
will be merely to become a follower of Jesus. And that is not what the gospel calls us
to do. We cannot call sinners to become followers of Jesus because sinners do
not want to be followers. Sinners want to be sinners.
The New Testament appeal to
the sinner is this, “Repent and believe.” Jesus saves us from our sins. He
frees us from our sins. If there is any hope for change, it does not spawn from
a fractured remnant of the image of God that resides in us as a deep, innate stirring
that seeks to be like the one who made us. We are called to look away from
ourselves and turn wholly to the one who has the power to set us free. By the
work of regeneration, the Spirit of God awakens us to our sinfulness, grants us
repentance and faith to turn to the only one who can free us from our sin - its
penalty, power, and someday, its presence. And that will not happen unless the
sinner is faced with the truth of his sinfulness and his complete helplessness
to do anything about it.
Regrettably, the gospel call
often is misconstrued to be a call to follow Jesus. Mr. Mikalatos himself
presents the gospel in this way as one may conclude from videos of his speaking
engagements. Such a call assumes that the one called actually has the power
to follow Jesus. A call to follow Jesus presumes that if the sinner looks
within himself he will realize that following Jesus is the only thing that
makes sense.
Thanks to Saltriver (Tyndale
House Publishers) for kindly providing a copy of Night of the Living Dead Christian
for review on the March 2012 Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour.
List of CSFF Blog Tour Participants
Night
of the Living Dead Christian on Amazon.
