Based on a Threat

3 Nephi 18:18

"Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat."

First of all, I thought we wanted to be the wheat. Temptations and trials inevitably sift us, but our attitude determines whether the process serves Satan or God. God gets the wheat. Satan gets the tares. Which are we?

Secondly, I'm reminded of a comment I once heard on a talk radio show. Some young sounding person called up thinking he had just pegged the whole world in one sentence and said that since Christians believe that sinners go to hell, Christianity is "an entire religion based on a threat." Quite an exposition. I've never seen it that way.

We know that "the wages of sin is death," (Romans 6:23) but I've always thought that sin was a natural product of our own wrong choices, not something God threatened to cover us with if we stepped out of line.

Far from threatening, the injunctions we receive as Christians serve us as warnings. God has placed watchmen on the tower, and when they see approaching danger, they sound the alarm. Would we perceive a call to flee a coming tidal wave as a threat? By laying down fire safety rules, are the local authorities threatening us or protecting us? Does the guide who tells us of a trap laid ahead intend to make us afraid or save us from pre-existing peril?

Sin, death, and spiritual danger are all around us. This is not God's design except inasmuch as he knows that we need to be tested. His commandments help us prevent increased danger and His ordinances offer a way to avoid the destruction that is already coming, whether we move or not. The prophets and apostles simply want to make us aware of the threatening circumstances we have placed ourselves in by our choices. Indeed, they are in the same boat. In so doing, these servants of God don't intend to terrorize us into submission, they want to help us see the solution and then act with them to make it effectual.

I think the same can be said of most any religion. People the world over, atheists included, recognize that we, as imperfect beings, have problems and that most of them are the results of our own failings. The thing about Christianity is that it offers understanding of the problem for what it truly is and informs us of the way that has already been prepared for us to escape. Based on a threat? Not a chance. Based on a solution to an existing threat? Yes.