Going the Wrong Way

One of my all-time favorite movies is Planes, Trains and Automobiles. This 1987 comedy follows the adventures of two businessmen trying to get home to Chicago for the Thanksgiving holiday. Steve Martin portrays a dapper, refined marketing executive named Neal Page. The late, great John Candy plays the role of Del Griffith, a corpulent, rough-around-the-edges salesman who peddles shower curtain rings.

At one memorable point in the film, this odd couple are driving through rural Illinois in the middle of the night. Griffith is behind the wheel and Page is asleep in the passenger seat. While driving, Griffith hilariously attempts to take off his parka but only manages to get himself tangled up in the process. He loses control of the car and spins off onto one of the freeway exits. But when he resumes driving, he gets discombobulated and unknowingly heads northbound on the southbound side of the interstate.

After a few minutes, another car pulls alongside Griffith and Page. The travelers in this car desperately try to avert disaster. They frantically scream out their window, “You’re going the wrong way!” Despite these warnings, Griffith and Page remain oblivious to their peril. The puzzled businessmen ask themselves, “How do they know where we’re going?” Amused by the apparent confusion of their fellow-travelers, Griffith and Page share a hearty laugh. Griffith even heaps scorn on the well-meaning couple, pretending to be drunk and scoffing, “What a moron!”

Griffith and Page’s joviality fades when the people persist in their urgent warnings. Finally, the horror of their predicament dawns suddenly upon Page. But his moment of clarity comes too late; two semi-trucks are bearing down upon them side by side. A head on collision seems inevitable. Miraculously, their rental car just manages to scrape between the trucks. It’s a very funny scene, brilliantly acted by Martin and Candy.

This blog has noted that many modern Christians have badly misunderstood the concept of God’s coming kingdom. To say the least, this is a serious problem, since the kingdom of God is the central narrative of the Bible. In this regard, much of the church is like Steve Martin and John Candy – happily driving in the wrong direction.

Far too many Christians anticipate a future whereby God evacuates his people from the corruption and evil of the present creation and transports them to an otherworldly sphere called heaven. Once the people of God have been safely carried away, the earth descends into fiery destruction. Unfortunately, this scheme of thought badly misunderstands the grand story of the scriptures. It’s crucial that Christians recognize that the story of the Bible does not involve the abandonment of creation, but rather the rescue and redemption of the world.

Some readers might want to quibble with this claim. They might ask, “Why is this important? Isn’t this just a matter of semantics? After all, both scenarios basically involve a happy ending, right?” I hope to demonstrate that these two different paradigms produce two very different visions of what Christian faith and life are all about.

Those who hold the evacuation paradigm conceive of salvation in terms of going to heaven when you die. The emphasis then falls upon the saving of souls so that individual human beings can enjoy eternal bliss. What is of paramount importance is encouraging people to have faith in the narrow sense of trusting that Jesus’ death covers over our transgressions and reconciles individual sinners to God. The most important feature of ongoing Christian life then involves holding onto such faith despite the degeneracy of the dark world around us.

The rescue paradigm generates a much richer and more Biblical version of salvation. Yes, Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross is still central and vital. But true faith goes far beyond mere belief; it requires giving our complete loyalty to Jesus. This allegiance is not simply a matter of the soul, but of the entire human person. We’re called to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. True faith involves not just believing in Jesus but offering him our complete obedience.

The rescue paradigm also challenges Christians with a starkly different vision of the Christian life. This perspective strongly affirms the one true God who created the world and declared that his creation was good. God has no absolutely no intention of giving up on the present world and starting all over again. The cosmos that we inhabit, though deeply marred by evil, is still God’s majestic handiwork. The creator is not about to allow the world to spin off into madness. Rather, he fully intends to set things right again. And this setting right goes far beyond merely saving souls so that those souls can await their future evacuation. Rather, salvation involves bringing the entire creation back into alignment with the good and wise purposes of the creator. By necessity, this vision involves every sphere of human activity.

Human sin and rebellion is not just a matter of individual souls estranged from God. Evil has poisoned everything: family and communities, work and industry, business and economics, art and literature, the environment, politics and government. Recall our definition of God’s kingdom: when the creation functions and flourishes in the way God intends. Salvation will not be complete until every last bit of creation is flourishing. If we haven’t recognized God intention to redeem all things, then we haven’t grasped the full scope of God’s plan.

And here is the real kicker: God has granted his people a vital role to play in this drama. This is part of the reason why it’s so important to realize that Christian faith is far more than just belief. Biblical faith requires whole-person allegiance to God. It calls us to join in God’s redemptive enterprise.

For those who have long been nurtured by the evacuation paradigm, it seems rather foreign that salvation should entail more than just saving souls. If God will eventually carry us away to heaven, why should we really care about things like soaring inflation, feeding hungry orphans in Haiti, transgender propaganda in our schools, rising crime, shortages of baby formula, injustice in our courts, or war in Ukraine? Those who hold the evacuation paradigm might say, “Sure, those things are important, but ultimately they’re a distraction from the main thing, which is saving souls.”

To those Christians who hold this view, I would affirming that nothing is more important than bringing individual human beings to loyal obedience to the Lord Jesus. However, there are serious consequences when the church fails to recognize that the grand scope of our vocation. I would like to briefly address just two of these consequences.

First, Christians who don’t comprehend the full nature of salvation tend to stagnate in their faith. If salvation involves escape from the present world, then once people have undergone a conversion experience, the really important part is done. But what happens next? Do we just wait around until God decides to close up shop and carry us off to heavenly bliss? Far too many Christians suffer from an anemic, shrunken sense of purpose. They’ve never recognized that allegiance to Jesus involves implementing his sovereign rule and reign, not only in their own lives, but in the world around them too.

Such Christians often develop a bunker mentality. Rather than joining God in his magnificent mission to rescue the creation, they just hunker down and await the moment when God will pluck them out of this dark & horrible world. It must sadden the heart of God to see his people robbed of any clear sense of ongoing vocation, and to see important kingdom work left undone.

Second, evangelism suffers when Christians fail to engage in the full scope of God’s redemptive work. The central claims of Jesus the Messiah are most acutely brought before the eyes of the world when Christians are at work to redeem the created order. In other words, people are much more likely to give their loyalty to Jesus when they see the people of Jesus going about his business in the world. Countless people have come to know the Lord when his faithful people have offered them food during times of famine and distress, or when the church has cared for them through poverty, addiction, or sickness. When courageous followers of Christ are working in the public sphere to protect unborn children, it’s a powerful proclamation about the nature of our God.

This principle holds true even when applied to areas of human activity which don’t seem very “spiritual.” Americans are currently suffering through the worst inflation in over 40 years. High inflation erodes wages and destroys savings, bringing about poverty and misery. Thankfully, many Christians are advocating for wise monetary policies which will prevent the further debasement of our currency. In doing so, Christians are helping to promote human flourishing and thereby reflecting the heart of God.

So let’s stop waiting for God to evacuate us to heaven. Instead, let’s commit ourselves to God’s grand rescue project: calling each and every human being to give their full devotion to the Lord Jesus and implementing his rule and reign over every inch of creation.