Saved, And I Deserve It!

Recently I heard a prominent pastor speaking jocularly about the Rapture.

"Don't fly with a Christian pilot if you're not saved," he joked. "Because if you do, he's going up, and you're going down!"

Cue the laughter.

Funny. I don't hear Jesus laughing.

What this idiot - and I'm being kind - didn't bother to think about is that, in the event of the aircrew being raptured up and the unpiloted airplane crashing, the individuals left behind would have a terrifying few minutes, watching the horizon rise around them to crush in a fatal embrace.

There are not many things that I would imagine that can be worse.

At least, I hope the idiot pastor wasn't thinking. Because the other alternative...that he doesn't consider unsaved people as being worthy of compassion - is chilling.

I think that's one of the great dangers facing Christianity today, the elitism and hubris among the 'saved'. I'm putting that in quotes not because I don't believe in salvation, but because taking pride in it, feeling oneself above others, seems to me to cancel the process.

Salvation is an awesome and terrible thing. None of us deserve it, but we've been offered the gift by God's grace.

Do we accept it with humility?

Or do we hold it over our heads like a trophy we've won? "We're Number One!"

Gonna spray Jesus with a shaken-up champagne bottle, celebrating?

Just asking.