I once read a beautiful true story of love in a book on teddy bears.
A woman had been sleeping every night with her teddy bear from childhood into adulthood but had now been fortunate enough to meet the man she wished to marry. This however left her with a dilemma: she could not simply abandon Teddy who had been her faithful and constant companion throughout those formative years, yet now she wanted to sleep with her husband instead. She expressed this dilemma to her husband and he listened to her, thinking what to do.
A few days later, the husband returned. He had spoken to Teddy on a man-to-man basis and discovered that, although he hadn’t liked to say so knowing the woman did not like to be alone at night; Teddy actually preferred to sit up into the night watching television on his own. Teddy said that if neither of them minded, now that he knew the man was there and the woman would be ok, he would prefer to do this going forward. Neither of them did mind so from that point onwards, the man and the woman slept together and Teddy sat up in the lounge watching television.
The reason I raise this here is that there are parallels between the person of Teddy and the psychological idol of Jesus in as it exists in the mind of many Christians. Christians, in the words of the hymn, see Jesus as their “Saviour, Brother and Friend”: he is the God-Man; infinitely compassionate, wise and sinless because he is G-d yet perfectly able to identify with your weaknesses because he is man. He loves you so much that he died an agonising death for you, he will forgive your every misdemeanour and he will, providing you never abandon him, bring you to eternal bliss in Heaven.
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Many Christians will have been praying to Jesus since childhood. They will have prayed to him at night by their beds before sleeping; confided in him their wishes and dreams; cried out to him in times of distress and will believe that he is not only their connection to G-d but is actually G-d. As the church never tires of preaching, being a Christian is not about adherence to a set of doctrines but a relationship with a person.
Therefore whilst there will be traction in convincing Christians of the falsehoods in the so-called New Testament, we need to remember we are asking them to abandon and in fact condemn their closest and best-possible friend. This is not an easy thing to do, even aside from the fearsome worries they will have that they are making a mistake and will themselves be consigned to everlasting damnation for apostasy.
If the husband had simply told the wife to throw Teddy in the dustbin (trashcan), she would not have been able to let go of the psychological attachment to Teddy and move on to a more enriching and mature relationship with him, the husband. Similarly, hostile verbal attacks on the God-Man Jesus are unlikely to succeed in breaking the bond the Christian has with the idea of him and may in fact defensively strengthen it. Compassionate acknowledgement of its formative and comforting influence in their lives whilst now the need to move on to a more mature relationship with HaShem will be more likely to bring about Isaiah’s long hoped for prophecy that we are all seeking.
Edited
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Teddy Bear
I once read a beautiful true story of love in a book on teddy bears.
A woman had been sleeping every night with her teddy bear from childhood into adulthood but had now been fortunate enough to meet the man she wished to marry. This however left her with a dilemma: she could not simply abandon Teddy who had been her faithful and constant companion throughout those formative years, yet now she wanted to sleep with her husband instead. She expressed this dilemma to her husband and he listened to her, thinking what to do.
A few days later, the husband returned. He had spoken to Teddy on a man-to-man basis and discovered that, although he hadn’t liked to say so knowing the woman did not like to be alone at night; Teddy actually preferred to sit up into the night watching television on his own. Teddy said that if neither of them minded, now that he knew the man was there and the woman would be ok, he would prefer to do this going forward. Neither of them did mind so from that point onwards, the man and the woman slept together and Teddy sat up in the lounge watching television.
The reason I raise this here is that there are parallels between the person of Teddy and the psychological idol of Jesus in as it exists in the mind of many Christians. Christians, in the words of the hymn, see Jesus as their “Saviour, Brother and Friend”: he is the God-Man; infinitely compassionate, wise and sinless because he is G-d yet perfectly able to identify with your weaknesses because he is man. He loves you so much that he died an agonising death for you, he will forgive your every misdemeanour and he will, providing you never abandon him, bring you to eternal bliss in Heaven.
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Many Christians will have been praying to Jesus since childhood. They will have prayed to him at night by their beds before sleeping; confided in him their wishes and dreams; cried out to him in times of distress and will believe that he is not only their connection to G-d but is actually G-d. As the church never tires of preaching, being a Christian is not about adherence to a set of doctrines but a relationship with a person.
Therefore whilst there will be traction in convincing Christians of the falsehoods in the so-called New Testament, we need to remember we are asking them to abandon and in fact condemn their closest and best-possible friend. This is not an easy thing to do, even aside from the fearsome worries they will have that they are making a mistake and will themselves be consigned to everlasting damnation for apostasy.
If the husband had simply told the wife to throw Teddy in the dustbin (trashcan), she would not have been able to let go of the psychological attachment to Teddy and move on to a more enriching and mature relationship with him, the husband. Similarly, hostile verbal attacks on the God-Man Jesus are unlikely to succeed in breaking the bond the Christian has with the idea of him and may in fact defensively strengthen it. Compassionate acknowledgement of its formative and comforting influence in their lives whilst now the need to move on to a more mature relationship with HaShem will be more likely to bring about Isaiah’s long hoped for prophecy that we are all seeking.