Sometimes I Hate Christianity
“The fact that conversion and salvation are of God, is an humbling truth. It is because of its humbling character that men do not like it. To be told that God must save me if I am saved, and that I am in his hand, as clay is in the hands of the potter, "I do not like it" saith one. Well, I thought you would not; whoever dreamed you would?” - C.H. Spurgeon, qu. in Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon , Banner of Truth, 2nd edn, 1973, p 60. There are times when I have a deep revulsion for Christianity. It requires of me something that I find hard to give. I must despair of my own ability to earn my way, my own self-sufficiency. That is burdensome for an American. It goes against everything my culture values. I must abandon my view of myself as virtuous. I must be honest about not just my sins and failures, but also about the deep soul-sickness that afflicts me. The Recovery Movement calls my particular maladies “ character defects .” This is a good description. Things like selfi...