FROM THE MANUSCRIPT
In the author’s words
It is easy to say, “Jesus is Lord.” It is harder to let Jesus become Lord over the way you judge. Lord over the way you speak. Lord over the way you treat people who disagree with you. Lord over the way you handle power. Lord over the way you respond to questions. Lord over the way you use scripture. Lord over the way you talk about hell. Lord over the way you pressure another person’s soul. Lord over the ego that still wants to feel spiritually superior. That is where shallow religionism breaks down. It can confess Jesus with its mouth while protecting the very self Jesus came to confront. A person can say “Jesus is Lord” and still live as if ego is lord. That line is not poetic exaggeration. It is one of the deepest problems in religious life. Because the word Lord is not supposed to be decoration. It is not a slogan. It is not a sound people make to prove they are on the right side. It is not a badge of Christian identity. To call someone Lord means that person has authority. It means the life is no longer self-owned. It means the ego no longer gets final command. It means the teachings of Jesus are not inspirational material to be quoted when convenient, but living demands that judge the one who claims him. So the question becomes simple.
The God They Inherited, manuscript p. 273. Transcribed from the supplied manuscript; line breaks normalized.
The definition above is an editorial summary of this chapter, not a separately named theory or a claim of scientific proof.