Die Saved?!
I was reading in this great book that there are two ways to look at this world as a Christian. One, is to take the view that the world is going to hell and our job is to get as many people in the life boats as we possibly can before the whole ship goes down. Our worth and faithfulness to God is measured by how many and how often we get people off the sinking ship and into our lifeboat. The second view is to say that the Kingdom of God is revealed, in part, by Christians that seek justice, love mercy, love their neighbor, and walk humbly with God. The Kingdom will only be fully realized at the return of Christ, but in the meantime we live each day in earnest to reveal God's Kingdom to the people in our lives.
To me this bracelet says, "Better get off that boat it's sinking fast, and if you ask do the right "things" I will help you in my lifeboat." Am I overreacting or being unfair, how did this strike you?
10 comments:
You're right on. Keep preachin'. As for me, I'm still waiting for the What Would Jesus Buy? bracelet.
Die Saved....yeah....good news everyone...we have reduced the gospel to two easy words. Geez, talk about reductionalistic thinking. It is sad that most people follow the teachings of Plato (dualistic soul/body) than Jesus.
Funny story, once Mormons came to my house when I was a kid. My folks went on an errand that Saturday morning and my teenage sister was still asleep. Seeing as how I was the only one awake I answered the door and they asked me the most well known evangelical question: If you died today, would you go to heaven? To make a long story short, I actually thought these guys were going to shoot me, so I said I didn't want any and closed the door quickly.
And while Joe waits for his bracelet, I'll be supporting my Who Would Jesus Bomb t-shirt today.
Is this FER REAL? I think your comment that the bracelet should read "Live Saved" is much more appropriate, Jason. The kingdom of God is HERE. Let's start LIVING like it.
It is the kind of thing that catches an evangelical's eye ... but the others are right in perceiving that we have the resurrected life even now. When we inherit the new heavens and new earth we will look back and wonder why we were so concerned about death. Some wonderful teacher once said that we would never die. hello?
My question is: Would seeing one of these DieSaved bracelets or any of the other secular-world ripoffs that Christian bookstores seem to sell these days actually appeal - or attract an unsaved person? My thinking says that the unsaved in this world are so bombarded with new catchy marketing tools and techniques each and every day for every kind of product that seeing something like this diesaved bracelet - which is an obvious ripoff of the livestrong bracelet - would just turn them off. The world is too sharp and cynical to actually be drawn in by something so ridiculous. Seen any of those rainbow friendship bracelets around lately?
great post. i find it hard to believe that anyone would purchase these (or any other) bracelets. Pedro the Lion has a great song called "The Secret of the Easy Yoke" that includes the lyrics,
the devoted were wearing bracelets
to remind them why they came
some concrete motivation
when the abstract could not do the same
How sad is it that we resort to $.99 pieces of plastic to tell the world of the God we serve? And what kind of message are sending to the world when we act like we've already arrived? What else is left?
Christian consumerism is alive and well, and someone is making a nice chunk of change on the unassuming, naive Christian looking for the next Christian fad. Hopefully these bracelets will end up in the same trash bin with all the other books and merchandise related to quick fixes and false promises.
Let us fix our eyes on Christ and continue on this journey of living out the arrival of the reign of God.
hmm... that gives me a wonderful idea...
I'm probably not going to buy anything like this and I'm more of a "I hope I portray Christ by my actions than what I wear" kind of person, but honestly I don't really care that this bracelet exist and people wear it. I even don't think it's that bad of a thing. I don't think that many people would get offended except for Christians that disagree with the theology behind the bracelet. Maybe it could be a conversation starter for some. Maybe not I don't know, but what I do know is that I've been reading this blog for a few months now and it seems like there's a whole lot of complaining going on. Of course after reading several other blogs it seems that maybe that's what blogs are for. I hope I don't sound like I'm jumping all over everyone here. I cherish and respect, very much, the friendships and opinions of the ones I know from this and other blogs I read, but if you ask me there's a lot of bashing going on. The fact is God created us to be so different, and we come to know him in so many different ways. And because God is so amazing, no mater what we do or don't do his work is going to be done. You've made some good points about bring Christ to people and other aspects of the Christian life, but hey do we have to hear about so many people that do it the wrong way? That's all I got. Stay cool.
Tony:
Thanks for the comments. I was at a conference one time at ACU where the discussion was centered around how the Restoration Movement has really lost it's steam and how the church today is forsaking some of it's earlier principles. The leader of the discussion was a Scottish Methodist minister and there was a great discussion that was very critical of the church and the way in which we treat scripture. The discussion was oriented towards criticism and not cynicism. That is really important. Cynicism denies the work of the Holy Spirit and criticism searches for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
You are right that I am critical of faith expressions like this because I believe it put the focus of the Gospel in the wrong place. "Die Saved" is a threatening for those who aren’t sure how they will die. Where as the "Gospel" is "Good News" and brings hope and promise.
You are also correct that much of this is semantics, but semantics when you are dealing with religion are incredibly important. I believe in “dying saved,” but I believe that living saved is more effective and leaves a better witness of Christ for people.
I don't like complaining either, but when Christians stand up and point out the bandwagon mentality that hordes flock to then other Christians will pay more attention than when pop culture makes fun of it on a t-shirt or on VH1. Will the bracelets be a converstation starter? Maybe with other Christians. Is anyone going to be offended by them? I don't think so, but no one's going to take it seriously either. It's a marketing ploy, plain and simple. Just like Jason said, it's just a way to rub other's faces in our own salvation.
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