I have read several entries on this site proclaiming the authors' irritation and disdain regarding Christianity. I have even read articles from Christian authors who take sides with the non-Christians, stating that they too are fed up with radical fundamentalist Christians, the kind who walk around slinging hellfire at every waking soul who does not show up in church on Sunday morning.
These Christian authors, however, go so far as to say that they keep their beliefs to themselves and are totally OK with the fact that others may not believe the same way. They stand under the banner of "Judge not, lest you be judged," but fail to understand the nature of judgmentalism versus evangelism.
So what is my point? My point is that I totally understand the absolute disdain that non-Christians have for Christianity. All growing up, I heard Christians respond to non-Christians by saying, "Don't look at me and hate Christianity simply because I practice it poorly. I am not perfect. Look at Jesus. Your judgment of my religion should be based on HIM and not ME." This is absolutely ridiculous. We Christians need to stop hiding behind 20th century cliches and realize that something is wrong in our modern religion.
My second point is that I have a hard time believing that someone is a Christian when they do not grieve over the sin of others, but instead accept it as ok, because they may believe differently. This may sound utterly judgmental and hateful to you non-Christians, but please hear me out. Christianity, by nature is an evangelizing religion. It must necessarily convey to others that their sin will separate them from God, and that they must believe in Jesus.
WHY??????
Because of love. IDEALLY, a Christian should be motivated to share his/her faith with others because they believe, as the Bible teaches, that all have sinned and therefore will suffer the wrath of God at the time of judgment. The Bible teaches that Jesus provided the absolutely only way to be free of this judgment, by dying for us to cleanse us from our sin if we submit to his Lordship over our lives. The Christian, knowing this, ideally would be telling you irritated non-Christians about these facts and about your sin because he loves you and because he knows that God deserves those for whom he died.
BUT.....Christians often do not preach this truth from the motivation of LOVE. They often preach it without practicing it. They often forget the fact that the only difference separating them from non-Christians, is the blood of Christ shed for them to redeem them. They did nothing but submit to his lordship. They earned no right to a higher standing, or to cast icy glances at sinners.
Jesus himself showed love to sinners, knowing that his LIFE OF LOVE would provide a solid foundation and prepare the hearts of his hearers to receive his message of truth, which DID talk about sin and hell and the fact that he is the ONLY way and that it is not possible for people to get to God through anyone else.
So Christians, where did we go wrong? We are hypocrites. We rebuke sinners and love each other, even when we have hidden sin festering beneath the surface. Why don't we start loving sinners, and rebuking ourselves. If we get real with God and allow him to cleanse us from our sin, some of the sin that will go out the window will be disdain for non-Christians. Then we will be able to love them as Jesus did, and perhaps provide a ready soil in which to plant seeds of truth.
But we must get real with God. We must humble ourselves and turn from our own wicked ways. We must repent of our pride, of our selfishness, and allow him to work his holiness in us. Maybe then, non-Christians would have an accurate understanding of the Church.
Non-Christians, as a result of this blog, I don't expect you to believe all of a sudden. But if you don't believe, I hope that it will not be because of the impression that I am hypocritical or hateful or judgmental. Maybe if we can start displaying true Christianity, it will allow you to make an accurate, informed judgment about the truth of the matter.
I am a Christian and yes I have responded to many blogs. Like I have said to them and will say to you I am not the perfect Christian but lately I have been trying to get right with him. I have been working on my potty mouth and some other things. I pray to him everynight to help me to get closer to Him and to help me with the sins that I commit so I can stop. One question are you saying that since I may not be all together I shouldn't say anything to people who are non-believers even if I am speaking out of love?
I hope that I didn't give this impression in the post. I am simply saying that we Christians often look at the specks in the eyes of the non-believers without taking into account our own planks. We look at the world in disgust and want to have nothing to do with them until they change their ways. Instead, we should love them, realizing that we were once just like them, and would still be just like them if it weren't for the love of Christ in our lives. We should always preach the Gospel, but we should never do so in pride or in "vain conceit." So to directly answer your question. You should speak the truth of the Gospel to people as the Holy Spirit leads. But do not be a hypocrite, or an actor. Be real, tell them you yourself are being radically madeover by God, but that he is a faithful healer and redeemer, and that He IS working out the sin issues in your life. If you stay humble and honest, the Holy Spirit will use you.
With all the crap going on about what religion is right and wrong, it all the more makes me want to follow the Buddhist teaching and not the Buddhist dogma. Buddha was not a god he was just some dude who thought of a better way to live his life.
I'm a non-Christian, and I didn't turn away from Christianity because of Christians preaching it constantly. I turned away because I don't agree with the dogma. I know a lot of wonderful Christians, and I'm truly happy that they are so happy with their religion. I was not, so I declare myself no longer a Christian. If God will punish me from that, he didn't do a very good job in making the news good, did he.
~C
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If you choose to life a good life then why would anyone be worried if God punished them or not.
The point I was hitting at... if someone lives a good life, but DOESN'T believe that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, why should they be damned to hell? That part of Christian theology irked me too much to continue to call myself a Christian.
~C
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You may have heard this before, but when you talk about living a "good" life, you are comparing yourself with other sinful people. You may be better than most, but you will never see yourself as "good" if you compare yourself with God's goodness and holiness. THAT is the standard that we are judged by, not by how good we are in relation to other people.
So by living a good life apart from Christ, I am not saying that you are a bad person, compared with others. But the root issue may be pride. We either can try to be good on our own, and earn it ourselves, all the while denying Jesus his right to be the Lord of our lives. Or we can humble ourselves, live for him, and let his sacrifice pay the penalty for the ways that we have sinned, even though our lives may be "good."
Except, I don't define a good life by sin. If you help others to the best of your ability and make some mark, I think you live a good life. If you harm others, especially intentionally, and don't feel the least bit bad about it or try to make amends, you don't live a good life. It has nothing to do with 'oh, it's a sin to lie' or 'it's a sin to murder,' as there are so many moral exceptions to those (more with lying than murder, but still). In saying this, I am not comparing anyone's life to someone else. I'm not saying 'oh, if you don't live a life identical to Mother Theresa, you've lived a bad, bad life'.
Again, I don't believe God would send people to an eternal hell for not believing in Jesus. He obviously didn't do a very good job demonstrating that Jesus was his 'son' if it was true. If you believe that, power to you, but pardon me if I refuse to listen to it anymore.
~C
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