ZIONICA.com

Christianity that faces pluralism

One of the great sins of Christianity is that it has sought dominance. Somehow most Christian leaders have decided that their particular brand of religion should be dominant in the world and that the world would attain its greatest ideal if everyone were Christians. There is no shortage of Bible material to support that attitude. There is also a great body of Bible literature that looks at life from a very different perspective. According to this alternate point-of-view, the calling of the people of God is to be a servant people. I have long maintained that the Bible should be read and studied with a recognition that both sides of the arguments are found in the same collection of writings. The task of the Bible student is to join in the argument and to bring the argument to the most modern of settings. The dominance side of the story is rooted in the story of the great King David. The story traces the life of David from a humble shepherd boy to the most powerful king in the Near East. He claimed power as a bloody, conquering tyrant. It is a story that culminates in the establishment of a great capital city in Jerusalem, completed by making Jehovah God its most powerful and permanent resident. It is the model and symbol of all Christian dominionists.