I'm sick of the phrase, "personal relationship with Jesus Christ". In its common usage it is redundant and nonsensical at the same time.
First, all relationships are a personal affair. Every relationship involves at least one party. That's kind of the definition of "relationship". The party of the first part has interaction with the party of the second part. If a human is involved that relationship is unique to that "person".
Second, everyone on the planet has a relationship with Jesus Christ. You can believe in Him. You can even talk to Him. If you read the New Testament, He will even speak to you. If you deny that there is anything special about the person Jesus of Nazareth, you still have a relationship. It's one of skepticism or denial, but its still a relationship.
"My personal relationship with Jesus Christ" is a meaningless bunch of verbiage. There are four basic kinds of personal relationships you can have with Jesus: 1. Believe in Him, 2. Uncertain or doubt his authenticity, 3. Deny Him, 4. Obey and worship Him as God. Those are the four choices. That's it.
When I hear the sometimes gushing phrase; "My personal relationship with Jesus Christ", its normally followed by utter nonsense. What the speaker wants to talk about is their feelings about Christ. That might have its place. I don't know. Normally what ensues is an emotionally charged bit of navel gazing through the lens of Sunday School.
Not much is communicated about Christ, beyond some emotional impressions the speaker may have. The whole conversation would be further along if they just said, "I feel good about Jesus". The believers could say "amen" and the non-believing could say, "that's nice". Everyone could go about their business with minimal interruption.
"I follow Jesus", is a much more meaningful phrase. If that was followed up with another statement about either the blessings or difficulties of doing that, then a genuine conversation might ensure. That would require the speaker to have something to talk about that was deeper than their feelings or impressions. Doing that might be hard. It might even require an actual working personal relationship with Jesus.
Let's replace "personal relationship with Jesus Christ" and all its variants, with "Yay Jesus" and be done with it.
I believe the intent for that phrase is to keep anyone from questioning whether or not they really do have that belief in Jesus.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, those people usually don't usually lead as Christian a life as they wish you to believe. Mostly the cuckservative moderates or the liberal ear tickled fall for this.
It is pure deflection, nothing more. IMO true, but doesn't that make a little bit of sense? If somebody says that to you immediately, you tend to become reluctant to question anything, right?
While it does grate on me also, in case this person is truly trying to make a good faith effort, I don't question it. That person trying could be the exception to the rule. If they want to talk to you eventually, they will.
Another scenario, is that they have been persecuted for their beliefs in the past, and this is their way of protecting themselves from verbal attack until they know you better.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteThank you. Thank you.
I believe the intent for that phrase is to keep anyone from questioning whether or not they really do have that belief in Jesus. It is pure deflection, nothing more.
You might be right about the handful of "exceptions" you mentioned above, but I've not come across that.
Interestingly, I've found that the Mormons have a similar verbal thing they do. They will use the phrase "MY FAITH". When they do they raise the pitch and intensify their tone of voice. Sometimes they do this almost with a hostile tenor.
Catholics have a similar thing they do with their voice when using the phrase "THE CHURCH". I see fewer of them doing this than I do protestants or Mormons. Then again its been many years since I lived around large numbers of Catholics so maybe it happens I just don't experience it as often.
Well, the only area I can think of that could be sensitive with Catholics is their rewriting of the 10 Commandments.
ReplyDeleteWhen you compare their version in their Catechism, with what is in the Bible, you will see the 2nd command about NO graven images has been totally removed. They split the coveting commandment to make up for it.
This also ignores the strict admonition by God to NOT add or subtract a jot or tittle of HIS word in any way.
The Catholics and the Mormons both have a lot to answer for some day soon.
I never realized this until Outlaw X put both versions on a comment on Vox's blog one time. I was so shocked and surprised by that comparison that I had to research it for myself. Outlaw X was devout and honest about his faith in the church. So this just left me (as a Brit would say) absolutely gobsmacked.
FWIW the Jews divide the 10 commandments differently than protestants too.
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