New to FriendlyChristian.com? Check out the FAQ page to learn about the site. Wondering who the heck I am? The My Story page is a great place to start. Thanks for stopping by!
Click here to subscribe via RSS.
Click here to have posts delivered by email.
This message will automatically disappear after your 3rd visit.
From a recent conversation I had with a classmate:
“It was our first time going to this church. The pastor got up on stage and told us to stop focusing so much on ourselves and to focus more on bringing Jesus to the people outside of our church. My wife and I disagree with that logic. We feel that we need to concentrate on bettering ourselves, and once we get to “that point,” that’s when we’ll focus our energy on other people. We just can’t agree with the pastor, so we stopped going to that church.”
This is a tricky one if you ask me. On one hand, I agree with the pastor. We Christians like to stay within the safe confines of our church/home/neighborhood. If we really believe that people are going to Hell if they don’t know Jesus Christ, shouldn’t we spend more time finding ways to inform the world of their horrific eternal consequence? Instead we like to get fat: feed me, feed me, feed me! Book after book after book, small groups, podcasts, church three times a week: me, me, me…what about the Great Commission? Of course this doesn’t represent all Christians.
On the other hand, I can see where my classmate is coming from. We’ll never be the poster child for Christianity; that guy already came and went. It’s an intimidating challenge to publicly wear the Jesus badge. People love to put Christians under a microscope and closely watch for any excuse to say, “and she calls herself a Christian?” The last thing we want to do is make a mockery out of Jesus by prematurely evangelizing/representing Christianity. For the most part, I’d argue that a Christian who truly is ‘going for it’ is a good enough representative of the faith. I believe that the world has an extremely flawed opinion of what it means to be a Christian, therefore we don’t feel qualified to wear the uniform. ‘Christian’ is not synonymous with ‘perfection,’ but rather ‘forgiven.’
So what’s a sista to do?
- Read. Study. Learn about the God that we serve. Be prepared to give an account of your faith when asked.
- Understand that you will never achieve perfection.
- Don’t claim to have the answers to things that you really don’t.
- Keep it simple. It is simple, after all.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Loading ...
FWIW, I try to make a conscious effort not to point to an individual’s shortcomings and say see Christianity is false. I agree Bill I have seen a number of times on different forums where an atheist will say, “See this guy is a criminal and a Christian. Christianity Sucks.” There are points that could be made in that instance but that’s not the right one.
Sure I ridicule someone like Fred Phelps and his army of cousin-kids and I would only hold someone up like that to a Christian to highlight where the extremes of Christian doctrine could be taken if not guarded against, but I would certainly never make that representative of Christianity as a whole.
Perhaps the biggest arguments I’ve ever gotten into, online or otherwise, have been in regards to Christian doctrine itself and/or in regards to what i really think about Jesus/God as portrayed in the Bible.
I could probably be taken to task for somethings that I’ve said regarding Ted Haggard but I really just feel sorry for the guy. He is sooo gay and sooo Christian at the same time I think his brain is ready to explode. But neither of these factors makes any difference to me regarding homosexuality. Christian doctrine regarding homosexuality is just plain wrong IMO, I don’t care if Haggard is gay, the bible says it’s wrong or the Pope thinks it’s icky. Is Ted Haggard a hypocrite, probably, does that make Christianity hypocritical, no.
Bill,
I think people have a “flawed opinion of what it means to be a Christian” becuase there are so many versions of Christianity. For 2000 years Christian sects have been breaking off and doing there own thing. The spectrum runs from the Phelps crew to churches with gay bishops. Christians trot out the “not a true Christian” argument all the time and it gets confusing for all sides.
What does it mean to be a Christian? You could ask 10 different Christians and get 10 different answers. I don’t think it is simple at all.
@HappyNat
I think the joke is, “If you could ask 10 different Christians you would get 12 different answers”
I’m here all night folks, tip your waitress.
So stop focusing on ourselves and focus on what we want…No, that’s not right.
Why not stop focusing on ourselves and focus on others just like the bible tells us that Jesus did?
Presumably only sincere converts are actually required? I assume this because conversion by the sword seems to have gone out of fashion in recent years and I also assume that God wouldn’t be fooled by insincere conversions. That being the case then you cannot convert someone else, you can only provide an example that may allow another to convert themselves.
As long as Christians continue to put their own spin on scripture…To look at a verse and say “What does this mean to me” instead of “What does this scripture mean”…We will continue to have this argument.
As long as we have Christians who claim to have heard a “word” from God…even if that word doesn’t line up with what scripture says…We will continue to have this argument.
As long as people are willing to “water down” scripture simply because it doesn’t seem very “PC” in the world we find ourselves in today…We will continue to have this argument.
The only source for “Christianity” is God’s word, and as long as people are willing to compromise on what the Bible says, we will continue to have division in the church and on what it means to be a Christian.
Like it or not, ‘Sola Scriptura’ seems to be a fairly firm place to stand?
My opinion of what it means to be a Christian is that you call yourself a Christian. Generally (there are many exceptions), it means you’re a theist and you give the Bible some kind of special weight. In the U.S. in modern times, it generally means you reject science as a means of obtaining knowledge (except when it comes to medical and mechanical knowledge, excluding sexual matters), reject civil rights for homosexuals, and reject environmentalism (because humans are not natural creatures.)
What part(s) have I got wrong?
No. Issuing veiled threats and spreading false information are not good things.
On Christianity – A response to Ben:
This statement is not correct. I believe that like all other things, science must be weighed by what we find in scripture, but that doesn’t mean science is not good. The beginning of knowledge is the fear of God. All else can fall into place with that being understood first. Science and scripture can “co-exist” for Christians they are not contradicting ideas. In fact there is much scientific accuracy found in the Bible which was written well before it was proven to be true by modern science. For Christians, truth is measured with an understanding that there is a creator. The ‘big bang’ may not line up with creationism…And evolution as it is understood by many may not either…But much of ‘proven’ science does line up with scripture.
Which civil rights are rejected? Is marriage a civil right? If so, then why would a 50 year old man not be able to marry a 10 year old girl? Would this not also be viewed as a civil rights violation? The ‘moral’ line must be drawn somewhere. As Christians, we simply believe it has already been drawn by someone with a greater sense of morality then us. Praise God for that!!!
A lot of Christians are happy to support environmentalism, along with many other causes that are biblically based, as long as they are kept in perspective.
As John Piper points out,
I am a Christian, and by that, I attempt to follow scripture- all of it - and believe it is error-free, God-breathed truth (The Truth). I also love and welcome science. Ecclesiastes says, there is “notyhing new under the sun.” All of what is seen and unseen here and in our universe was created by God, and none of it is new …so why shouldn’t we embrace science? Sure, some theories may or may not correspond with what many believe as a part of the creation. The problem with this belief is there is still so much we can’t explain. However, no one can argue the universe’s magnificence, which most certainly does not discount God.
Their is a lot to be said for striving to live a better Christian life and to spread God’s message.
However, and I think this is a vitally important point for a Christian - both of these things can only be successful through God working in us.
If you read Ephesians 2:1-10, you only see the people Paul was talking to (us included) used as the subject a few times and the main ones are “…you were dead in your transgressions and sins…” and “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature.”
Most of what we read is how God creates both faith and good works in us:
“…the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”
“…God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…”
“And God raised us up with Christ…”
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
The moral of the passage is that all good things come from God, even things that we consider personal like our faith and our good works.
All of this is to say selfish Christianity is considered (or at least it should be) an oxymoron.
This is an important discussion. My only contributing thought is that the world in general is going to watch what we do far more than hear what we say. Our actions, our lifestyle, what we do day-to-day should match up with our Christ-centered life. Over time, those watching us will see the differences for themselves. In this way, we plant seeds and let God take care of the nurturing. Just my thought - Linda in California
It doesn’t matter whether you consider it ‘good’ (whatever that means in this context.) What I said was that you reject its status as a means of obtaining knowledge, a point which you then explained very well. Scripture is your way of obtaining knowledge; science tells you nothing unless it conforms with the knowledge you obtain from scripture. You reject the theory of evolution, sound 19th century science that has been confirmed over and over and is the foundation of all modern biology, for example.
The same civil rights that overturned the constitutionality of bans on interracial marriage- equal protection under the law, the 14th amendment. The argument that the law applied equally to the races because everyone had the legal right to marry someone of their own race was rejected - if someone wanted to marry another adult, denying them on the basis of their race is unequal protection under the law. Same goes for gender. Age discrimination IS legal and always has been.
Again, you confirm my picture.
Exactly. You don’t consider humans natural beings with a lifespan of eighty years or so, so concerns about the environment take a back seat to concerns about the supernatural eighty trillion years.
Thank you for putting what I said in your own words.
You almost had a good argument there and then you went an ruined it. 2 problems though. Under-age children (a bit redundant I know) are unable to give fully-informed consent.
Ben:
My pleasure. Just making sure we were on the same page!
Skeptigator:
Guess I must have missed the second of the (2) problems you were referring to. But I’ll address the one I did catch. My point is that we draw a ‘moral’ line in the sand at some point. We determine that it is not morally acceptable for kids to marry because they can’t consent. That is a moral standard which we have set.
I believe God has set a standard for us as well which just happens to be a bit more strict than the ‘current’ standard set by man…Which, given the current rate of moral decline in America, we will probably change in the near future anyway. Guess we’ll wait and see?
Jason, specifically on the subject of homosexuals and morality would you check out religioustolerance.org. It gives a lot of evidence that the interpretation of the bible verses. Essentially the anti gay stuff isn’t what is said but has been taken to mean that by successive translations and intolerance. I did post a long comment on it here whiich is very similar to one I made on Justice and Compassion. Let me know what you think.