{"id":294,"date":"2012-10-15T15:17:57","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T19:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/?p=294"},"modified":"2019-03-24T07:17:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T11:17:25","slug":"having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy\/","title":{"rendered":"Having The Wrong Facts or Having the Wrong Guy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let me tell you about Chris Evans<\/a>.\u00a0 Chris Evans is a Hollywood actor who recently appeared in The Avengers<\/a>.\u00a0 He was also in Snow White and the Huntsman<\/a> which came out this past summer as well.\u00a0 He previously starred in Thor<\/a> and will reprise his role as the son of Odin next year in the followup, Thor: The Dark World<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, anybody who follows contemporary cinema will tell you that while I started off OK, it quickly became apparent that I had the wrong guy.\u00a0 Despite my initial claim, I was not telling you about Chris Evans at all; I was telling you about Chris Hemsworth.<\/a> \u00a0 Chris Evans is indeed a Hollywood actor who recently appeared in The Avengers, but he played Captain America<\/a> rather than Thor, and while you might remember him from such films as Fantastic Four<\/a> and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World<\/a>, he was not in the others I listed.\u00a0 In other words, I had some of the Chris Evans facts right, some of the facts wrong, but was ultimately talking about a different person altogether.<\/p>\n

Let’s now shift our focus from Chris to Christ.\u00a0 Jesus Christ was the Son of God, who came to this earth 2000 years ago and died for mankind.\u00a0 He was the spirit brother of Lucifer, and through his perfect work became a god.\u00a0 He taught us that by living rightly, we too shall be gods just like him and reign over our own planets in the next life.\u00a0 Once again, despite the similarity in names and a few accurate facts, the abundance of specific falsehoods made it very clear that I was not talking about Jesus Christ, the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity.\u00a0 An analysis of the facts instead reveals that I was talking about the imaginary character that sprung fully formed from Joseph Smith’s forehead in the 1800’s–the one he tried to identify as the real Jesus Christ.\u00a0 People who only know Joseph Smith’s imaginary Jesus Christ are not Christians–they have the wrong guy.<\/p>\n

We don’t like saying that a particular group of people aren’t Christians.\u00a0 We feel like we’re cutting them off from salvation (though we aren’t) and condemning them to Hell (though we aren’t).\u00a0 Because of these feelings, our minds are quick to rationalize our own comfort.\u00a0 “God isn’t going to send someone to Hell just because he didn’t study theology at the right school.”\u00a0 “This baby doesn’t understand the Trinity, but Jesus said to let the children come to him anyway.”\u00a0 “We’re saved by grace through faith, not by works like having right doctrine.”\u00a0 Before too long, every time we encounter an unbeliever or heretic, we find ourselves observing that they have a few things right about God and then asking the unanswerable question of whether a small list of technicalities really puts them outside the fold.<\/p>\n

This has particularly come to a head due to Mitt Romney’s candidacy.\u00a0 Many Evangelical voters were faced with two contradictory Pharisaical rules:\u00a0 1) You must<\/strong> vote for the Republican presidential candidate or else the Democrats might win and 2) You must only<\/strong> vote for a Christian. \u00a0 The solution was to begin claiming that Mormons like Mr. Romney do actually believe in Jesus–they just have some of the facts wrong.\u00a0 They claim that as long as Mr. Romney believes in Jesus as his lord and savior, that’s good enough to call him a Christian.\u00a0 He may not have all the facts right, but how can we really know that any of us have all<\/strong> the facts right?\u00a0 He has some of the facts, and who are we to say that what he believes isn’t enough?<\/p>\n

The problem with this line of thought is that it really isn’t a matter of having the right facts or an adequate percentage of right facts; it’s a matter of having the right Guy.\u00a0 After all, baptized infants certainly can’t describe the Trinity, but they do have the right Guy, for Christ promised to personally deliver faith, life, and salvation to them by means of Baptism.\u00a0 Adult converts may or may not have zoned out a bit during their catechesis, but the right Guy nevertheless comes to them in Word and Sacrament.\u00a0 The bug rub is that discerning whether we have the right Guy is<\/strong> a matter of having the right facts.\u00a0 If you had no knowledge of popular films and actors, you would have had no idea that I had started off this post by talking about Chris Hemsworth rather than Chris Evans until I told you.\u00a0 A cinephile could walk you through it if you were curious, but the stubbornly ignorant would remain so.\u00a0 Likewise, someone with sound doctrine could explain how Jesus claimed to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins, has promised to be present in specific places (word & sacrament), and warned his followers about false teachers proclaiming false Christs.\u00a0 The stubbornly ignorant, however, will still remain so.<\/p>\n

This is why Christianity has historically drawn the line so firmly at the Trinity.\u00a0 Everyone knows certain things about God by nature, but actually knowing God involves knowing three persons:\u00a0 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.\u00a0 If you believe someone else is God or reject one of these three, you have the wrong guy.\u00a0 It doesn’t matter if you happen to know that God created the universe, or visited Abraham, or named His Son Jesus.\u00a0 A handful of facts won’t save you from the One you reject.\u00a0 At the same time, however, having the right facts is our best defense against having the wrong guy.\u00a0 Christ told his followers to make disciples by baptizing people and teaching them everything that He Himself taught.\u00a0 Outside of this Church He instituted in which we are given Christ and taught about Him, having the right guy is a fluke at best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let me tell you about Chris Evans.\u00a0 Chris Evans is a Hollywood actor who recently appeared in The Avengers.\u00a0 He was also in Snow White and the Huntsman which came out this past summer as well.\u00a0 He previously starred in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,28],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHaving The Wrong Facts or Having the Wrong Guy? - The 96th Thesis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Having The Wrong Facts or Having the Wrong Guy? - The 96th Thesis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let me tell you about Chris Evans.\u00a0 Chris Evans is a Hollywood actor who recently appeared in The Avengers.\u00a0 He was also in Snow White and the Huntsman which came out this past summer as well.\u00a0 He previously starred in … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The 96th Thesis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-15T19:17:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-03-24T11:17:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@matt_e_cochran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@matt_e_cochran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matt\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/026b49396f19b6940e8bb4a68d94b5fa\"},\"headline\":\"Having The Wrong Facts or Having the Wrong Guy?\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-15T19:17:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-24T11:17:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy\/\"},\"wordCount\":971,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/026b49396f19b6940e8bb4a68d94b5fa\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Apologetics\",\"Heresy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/having-the-wrong-facts-or-having-the-wrong-guy\/\",\"name\":\"Having The Wrong Facts or Having the Wrong Guy? 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