The Fifth Reflection – The Fruit of Hubris
Christian Nationalists and Evangelicals are very keen to tell you that they bear God’s absolute truth. It is their belief that they, and they alone, bear the keys to heaven if you but follow their specific ways of interpreting the Bible and God. They do this even at the expense of their own Christian brothers and sisters in the other denominations. They mock and deride the Catholics and the Orthodox for “getting it wrong,” or damnable heretics if they are particularly annoyed with them.
I do have a question for them, however. In the grand narrative of Christianity, when was it that Christians went from misguided fools and heretics to spiritually saved Christians? You will likely be hard-pressed to find a specific time in which it is obvious that the Christian faith “got it right.” Christian history is filled with prideful individuals who declared they finally did it. The Great Schism of 1054 is an amazing example of this phenomenon, as the Catholics and Orthodox split after centuries of growing division. Which of these two groups is God’s one true church? More importantly, if there is a true orthodoxy in God’s eyes, is an entire half of the church going to eternal hell?
Here we are in 2025, and Christian nationalists and evangelicals are making this same claim. They are born again and baptized in Jesus’ name after all. If you peek under the curtain, however, you find an interesting development. None of the Christian denominations agree on the specifics of how they are to be born again or baptized. Seems a rather important point if the final destination of all human souls is eternal damnation.
Furthermore, it makes little logical sense. God, the source of all Being, creator and sustainer of the universe and beyond, waited for hundreds of thousands of years only to finally reveal the cross and then wait another two thousand years to reveal the real meaning behind that cross. It seems to me that God is quite content to allow Christians to debate and battle it out among themselves. If God allows this disagreement, it feels rather conclusive and arrogant for evangelicals and nationalists to claim this final divine authority.
Make no mistake, however, I am not one to shame Christians for debating their faith. To me, it almost speaks of a sacred task to find the spiritual truth. However, Evangelicals leave little room for questions or debate. In fact, in many instances, questions and debate are outright seen as taboo or heresy worthy of excommunication (yes, it is still an active practice). Because of their pride, they have made the act of disagreement and debate a sin in and of itself.
If I might remind some of us, Jesus did much (according to the Gospels) to undo the dogmas that the Pharisees and Sadducees relied on to make themselves seem holier than the masses. He offered forgiveness to the poor, rebuked the rich and powerful, and reinterpreted the Old Hebrew Scriptures.
But of course, now these evangelicals take this grace for granted, and have cheapened it to the point of a good brand marker. Pride has distorted their theology; through their pride, they have made the grace of God a weapon to empower the mighty and enslave the vulnerable.
