I had a recent discussion with a good friend about the concept of the seal of the Holy Spirit for those who believe in Jesus, and the joy that comes from the certainty of that conviction. I wondered whether joy is really the best argument, or apologetic, for the Good News of Jesus (see the article, "What If They’re Happy Without God? " by Randy Newman - link below). It seemed to me that there are many joyful people who are happy without a profession of Christian faith, or even faith at all. Some of the most miserable people I know profess a belief in Jesus as their personal Saviour, and claim to have the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives to remind them THEY are saved, and I (and those like myself) are not. Really? Tell me about that. What makes these people so sure they are right?
My exploration of Christian fundamentalism, started years ago when I saw many Trump supporters claiming to be devout Christians. I wondered, at that moment, how this duality could be true: "Jesus is my Saviour, Trump is my president." To me, that was an anathema to the whole idea of the Gospel. People would say the craziest untruths, believe the craziest conspiracies and do it all with the same deeply held conviction that they claimed to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. It was their certainty that raised a lot of flags and doubt. Perhaps these devotees to Trump had the same kind of Christian belief system as that expressed by Will Farell's character in Talladega Nights, represented in the way that character offers his prayers: "Dear Lord Baby Jesus, or as our brothers in the South call you: 'Hey-suz'. We thank you so much for this bountiful harvest of Dominos, KFC, and the always delicious Taco Bell. I just want to take time to say thank you for my family: my two beautiful, beautiful, handsome striking sons, Walker and Texas Ranger, or TR as we call him. And, of course, my red hot smokin' wife Carley, who is a stone cold fox, who if you would rate her ass on 100, it would easily be a 94. I also want to thank you for my best friend and teammate, Cal Naughton Jr, who's got my back no matter what...Dear Lord Baby Jesus, we also thank you for my wife's father Chip. We hope that you can use your Baby Jesus powers to heal him and his horrible leg. It smells terrible and the dogs are always botherin' with it. Dear Tiny Infant Jesus..." Sometimes we just need old fashioned satire to show how absurd some of these beliefs really are.
OK, all laughter aside, it does seem to be that the joy of the Lord is missing in a lot of fundamentalists, and that the need to be absolutely certain about their final destination leads to some pretty ridiculous lifestyle choices: you MUST pray these words, you MUST dress this way, you MUST perform these rites, you MUST give your tithe, you MUST -fill in the blank with the dogmatic claim of your choice . The result is all kinds of absurd claims of truth. As one writer observed: "Many non-Christians view Christianity as a happiness-killing religion. They think most Christians are miserable, and they don’t want to be like them. Evangelical Christians, in particular, are often known more for what they’re against than what they’re for." https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-if-theyre-happy-without-god
I'll leave the reader with this idea - a paraphrase of James' letter in the New Testament: Show me your faith without your joy, and I will show you my faith by the joy in my life. James 2:18
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