What Happens When Someone Becomes a Christian?

Why should anyone become a Christian? What happens when someone becomes one?

In addressing this topic, I would like to first turn to the Affirmation of Faith on behalf of the General Baptist Conference of Canada, the denomination I've been immersed in throughout my life. Here is what that statement says about regeneration:

We believe that all people are sinners by nature and by choice and are, therefore, under condemnation (Romans 3:10-19, 23, Eph. 4:18, Rom 5:12; 6:23). We believe that those who repent of their sins and trust Jesus Christ as Saviour are regenerated by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 5:17, Titus 3:5, Eph. 1:13-14).

This statement cites several passages from Scripture, perhaps too many to adequately cover in a single blog post, but the main themes are easy to identify: sin, repentance, Christ as Saviour, and the Holy Spirit's transformative work in a person's life.

It seems to me that these four themes can further be divided into two categories: that which falls on our side, and that which falls on God's side. Our side includes sin and repentance, for humans are the ones who sin, yet also have the opportunity to repent. God's side includes Christ being our Saviour and the Holy Spirit's transformative work, since Christ and the Holy Spirit are two of the three persons who constitute the Trinity, along with God the Father. Our side is based on rules, duties, and obligations, while God's side is based on mercy. Both sides are of an ethical quality and maintain an equilibrium between imperfection and human reality on the one hand (our side), and perfection and ultimate reality on the other (God's side).

A few passages from Romans display this dynamic nicely. Concerning our side, Romans 3:20 reads: "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin." This verse expresses the contrition one experiences of not meeting the ethical standards they know they ought to. Romans 6:19, however, speaks of moral improvement as a consequence of following God: "Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness."

As for God's side, Romans 6:23 says: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Notice the contrast between the words wages and gift. Both are economic in the sense that they denote the giving of resources, but the former is owed, while the latter is given without obligation. It is the Father's mercy that saves us from death, made possible by his Son's work on the cross (Romans 6:6). The Holy Spirit is not excluded, for Romans 15:13 tells us that the Spirit has the power to impart hope to believers.

That we should find such profound thoughts about salvation and regeneration in Romans is not too surprising considering the life of its author, Paul, also known as Saul. (Paul is the Greek name, while Saul is the Hebrew. In Romans, only Paul is used, while in Acts both names are used.) As we read more about Saul's life in Acts 9, he had intentions of imprisoning Christians. When we turn back to chapters 7 and 8, we see that Saul had even approved of the killing of a Christian man, Stephen, on the basis of his beliefs.

But as we continue reading chapter 9, Saul has a mystical experience while traveling to Damascus, where he's overtaken by light, hears Jesus's voice, and goes blind for three days. Verse 18 mentions that "something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes" and that he regained his sight, and by verse 20 Saul is preaching that Jesus is the Son of God.

Not every Christian's conversion experience is quite as dramatic as Paul's. But similar to him, when someone becomes a Christian, they are offered a brisk break with reality as they've known it. Ephesians 1:13-14 explains the beginning of salvation in this way:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

This passage speaks to God's reliability concerning salvation. And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this topic. As theologian Gregory Boyd points out, "the New Testament describes salvation both as a past act, a present process, and a future arrival point." Indeed, New Testament scholar Mark Allan Powell, referring to Romans 8:19-22, writes that "Paul maintains that all creation is in bondage to decay and yearns for the freedom and glory of God's salvation,"[1]

When someone becomes a Christian, they begin to come to terms with ultimate reality, God. It is a sober realization of one's own sin and the limitations of self-reliance, but it is also a hopeful response to Christ's saving power. Becoming a Christian enlarges meaning in a person's life, for with ultimate reality in the picture, a person has something to direct every aspect of their life towards.

Notes

[1] Mark Allan Powell, Introducing the New Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey (2nd edition, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018), 283.

World Philosophy Day

World Philosophy Day took place on November 20. I didn't have as much time to celebrate as I might have preferred, but I did manage to watch a few minutes of a lecture from Michael Sugrue on Edmund Husserl.

Last Saturday, I also took advantage of an Amazon Warehouse Deal on William Lane Craig's book God Over All: Divine Aseity and the Challenge of Platonism—a decent excuse to celebrate in advance, no? It's the first book I own by Craig, even though he's one of the very first philosophers I became aware of.

Are Some Realities Mind-Independent?

Pardon the acerbic introduction, but what would happen if everyone in the world were to suddenly die?

There is no doubt that human consciousness would disappear, though there is some doubt that some of the things humans are conscious of would not.

Take trees, for example, which populate most of the Earth and can survive without humans caring for them. If everyone in the world disappeared, trees would still exist, even though none of us would have any thoughts about them or do anything that affected them. Trees are a mind-independent reality.

But some people perhaps think human consciousness, subjectivity, experience, etc. are more fundamental than I have wagered. They might say, for instance: "You're thinking about trees right now as you write this, so your ontological speculations about them existing without human consciousness to think about them folds upon itself."

Have I been backed into a corner? I do not believe so, and the reason is this: people die every day. Returning to the topic of trees, there were people who once knew about them who no longer exist and are no longer aware of trees (at least, not in the same fashion that a living person is). Yet I, as an existing person, am aware of trees.

The sum of human consciousness is not a static entity. It fluctuates, as some people are born, continue living, or die. We cannot afford to be Wanderers above the Sea of Fog or Ralph Waldo Emersons in all circumstances. Human individuality is not the most fundamental element of reality, as there are shared or public realities that outlast human individuals.

The Value of Nietzsche

Nietzsche is not a philosopher I take much interest in, but I do enjoying yelling "I am Beyond Good and Evil!" in my head whenever I approach a yellow traffic light that's about to turn red.

Drone Music

I was listening to "Heaven" by Midwife & Amulets earlier today. It's 16 minutes of droney loop music. Not exactly my cup of tea, so I skipped ahead after ten minutes to see if any kind of variation might be on the horizon to justify the time I had spent waiting for something interesting to happen. This was to no avail, apart from some distortion to vary the texture a smidge.

As someone who makes electronic music, perhaps my complaining about repetition is ironic. I think I enjoy some music that could be classified as "drone," such as "Broken Wings" by Cowboys & Monsters. The difference between this piece and the previous one, as far as I can tell, is that this one only lasts for five minutes and has some cool beats to boot.

Anyway, my disappointment with "Heaven" got me thinking: What is it about this kind of music that certain people appreciate?

My initial thought is that this repetitive music is appealing because people want something to focus on. We live in an age of TikTok, infinite-yet-fragmentary commentary on X, DJs playing 30-second clips of music at sports events, and all the other usual things that social critics emptily moralize about.

The capacity to focus is not appreciated, even though it is essential to a rich interior life.

Aldous Huxley wrote an enduring (with some adjustments) passage in The Perennial Philosophy back in 1945:

The twentieth century is, among other things, the Age of Noise. Physical noise, mental noise and noise of desire—we hold history's record for all of them. That most popular and influential of all recent inventions, the radio, is nothing but a conduit through which pre-fabricated din can flow into our homes. . . . It penetrates the mind, filling it with a babel of distractions—news items, mutually irrelevant bits of information, blasts of corybantic or sentimental music. . . .