Watch any comedy show these days or listen to public opinion and Christians everywhere are made to look like idiots. What we believe in and find precious is being trodden on by an unbelieving world.
We are the butt of jokes and the scapegoats for the worlds problems. Blame it on the Muslims and you’ll have a bomb staring you in the face. The “turn the other cheek” mentality of Christians has facilitated this in a big way.
While I agree with the words of Jesus, I believe we have not mastered what He meant by these words. After all, He went nuts in the temple didn’t He? No turning the other cheek there.
Then I come across the following video by The Chasers War on Everything - an Aussie production totally irrelevant to everything and anyone:
Makes me want to seriously punch something at how the unbelieving world wants to put down the One who died for it. They don’t trash Mohammed or Buddha. They trash Jesus - and do so in ignorance not knowing that one day, their proud knee will bow before Him in terror.
“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:8-11
But watching that video also made me think how parts of the Church make us look ridiculous - therefore making us fair game to a skeptical world. In particular, Catholicism.
It always amazes me when the world thinks about Christians, they think about Catholics. They lump us all into the same basket. Well I don’t pray to Mary or any other “saint”. I don’t care less about the Pope, don’t appreciate relics and couldn’t care less about apparitions or what happened at Fatima.
But millions do, therefore making the rest of us look like lunatics. Apparitions, and the crowds they attract are particularly embarrassing and attract attention as shown in the video above.
Relics are even more bizarre. Catholics should take note of the story found in Numbers 21:4-9:
“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”
Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”
Here we have people bitten by snakes and asked to “foolishly” look to the bronze snake on a pole and live. Christians would know that this is representing Christ’s crucifixion. Snakes represent sin. Bronze represents punishment. So it talks about sin being punished - exactly what Jesus did on the cross and was alluded to by Jesus Himself.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” John 3:14-15
So the story ended on a good note except that if you read on, hundreds of years later we see that this “brazen snake” became an object to which people burnt incense to and became, in effect, an idol. Hezekiah, an Israelite King who honoured God destroyed the relic:
“He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” 2 Kings 18:4
Check out the Wikipedia entry on the brazen snake here and you’ll see that it’s associated with occultism. In the same way, much of what Catholics practice is occultic in nature and is downright wrong when exposed to scripture.
The net effect of this is that an unbelieving world makes a mockery of our faith. Sure even in the Protestant movement there are heaps of things done in a questionable way.
Even the practice of worship where singing songs and raising hands could be looked on as foolish. But what difference is it to attend a Iron Maiden concert and mosh away while holding up your arm and doing the devil sign?
So are we soft targets? Probably. But only cause we represent peace and actually challenge people to question their lives in a way that most people would avoid in that it exposes their depravity in profound ways. But, because of all the depravity in organised religion, we provide ample ammunition for their attacks.
It’s a totally sad reality. Oh well, at least we don’t respond by bombing people. Chew on that for a minute.
Tags: Christianity, Moses, Catholicism, Catholics, Relics, Apparitions
People saying “God will bless you if you send money” and faith healers deserve nothing but our indignation. They’re exemplary of the worst kind of con artist. Non-Christians see them and think “If that’s a Christian, I don’t want to be one.”
Iron Maiden is good music? Not that I like Iron Maiden per se, but it’s a lot better than any of the contemporary Christian I’ve heard. Even the only Christian ska band, The O.C. Supertones, are pitiful compare with some of the heavy hitters of the ska/punk genre.
You might represent peace, but quite a few Christians resort to death threats when they don’t get their way, as in the Dover School Board trial. Don’t go painting with such a broad brush; plenty of Christians are violent.
I think you’re right, but not for the reason you think. Just look at this passage:
First, you “represent peace” by expressing a desire for violence. Then, you make the assumption that the “unbelievers” think Jesus died for the world. Considering all the pain and suffering that’s still around, it doesn’t seem that sacrifice did much good, if it even happened at all. Then you pull out the sanctimonious “They’ll be sorry!” card. Neither of these things make people amenable to Christianity.
But let’s go back to “pointing out the depravity” thing. Most people simply want to live their lives. They want to have a bit of fun, maybe enjoy a drink or a smoke or a roll in the hay from time to time, but are, at the core, decent people. Most of them actually do believe in god.
Then along comes a Christian who says “You shouldn’t be enjoying that! It’s sacrilegious! It’s depraved! You’re going to hell!” And you wonder why people are turned off to Christianity? You wonder why people are attacking you?
If Christians dropped the whole “You’re going to hell! You’ll be sorry when Jesus comes back! Send money!” mantra and instead talked about how everyone should be kind to one another for a change, which is what most people think is the real message Jesus sent, they’d see a lot less abuse.
I relate to the frustration of Christians being a target! It seems, as you say, that everyone else is entitled to their beliefs and can be respected for them - EXCEPT Christians.
I also agree with you that we, as Believers, have brought some of this on ourselves. Not just Catholics either; all the extremists doing things like bombing abortion clinics because we believe life is sacred and killing is wrong. Of course all Christians know that bombing is wrong and these are just nut cases who call themselves Christians, but the world lumps us all together. Then there’s the ultra judgmental among us who make non Christians assume Christianity if horrible and who would want to be one.
I also believe there is a spiritual thing going on here. People make Christians a target while other religions or beliefs and lifestyles are all respected because the enemy has blinded them. People are even ok with god talk, it’s just when we start talking about Jesus that everyone gets all upset! But as you and I both know, Jesus is the whole crux of the issue. Jesus is God’s way to Him; no wonder satan wants to make people see Jesus in the wrong way.
Layguy,
I think you’ve waded into a good issue here, but I disagree with your conclusions. Mainly, because I think that the gospel itself will always attract a reaction (often negative) even if it’s well presented (or perfectly presented, in Jesus’ case). And gladly standing up under unjust punishment or criticism is inherent in the nature of the gospel - the cross of Christ separates Christianity from any other religion, and should separate the way a Christian responds to criticism.
If a Moslem responds aggressively to mockery, that’s probably not unexpected. But please consider this passage from 1 Peter 2:
In 1 Peter 2 and 3, Peter uses that truth (the way the Jesus went to the cross) as the central reason why Christians should honour earthly authorities, slaves should respect masters (even evil ones), wives should respect husbands (even evil ones), husbands should love wives, etc.
I’m just somewhat concerned that this doesn’t seem to flow out of any of your comments?
You attack those who persecute Christians, and then your response is to persecute Catholics?
I too can take any belief system — distort it’s reality, ’spin’ scripture (none of the scripture that you’ve cited has ANYTHING to do with the point that you were trying to make), and then ostracize that belief system.
You’ve done EXACTLY what those who ‘make fun’ of Christianity do.
The worse kind of sin is when it’s done in the name of Jesus.
First you need to put your weakness aside (we will always be persecuted) and secondly you need to look in the mirror and ask for God’s forgiveness.
You will be in my prayers, brother.
Peace.
Don,
First of all, thanks for stopping by and commenting. Having said that, I disagree with what you say. First of all, I don’t “persecute” Catholics - I just point out that a lot of what they do is not scriptural and borders on idolatry. I don’t mock them the way the Chasers mock Jesus.
The scripture I used is exactly the point I was trying to make - the fact that mans depravity turns much of what was once “Godly” into an idol. So I don’t know where you are coming from.
I honestly don’t care if I’m persecuted for my beliefs. But when a pack of idiots make fun of Jesus as “a piece of shit in a toilet bowl”, that makes me mad. I’m surprised that you as a teacher don’t feel the same way.
But then again, checking out your blog tells me that you are OK with homosexuality and use “spin” to justify it. You deliberately forget to mention the Romans 1 passage and therefore endorse the practice making you a candidate for Romans 1:32.
But that’s just my opinion.
Mick,
Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comment and what you are trying to say. I agree with you from where you are coming from. People will always have one of 3 reactions to the Gospel. Loath it, accept it now or accept it later. So that’s all good.
And I hear where you are coming from in regards to Christ’s humble reactions while He was incarnate on earth - this providing an example of how we should live. And I agree with you about putting up with persecution.
But what I can’t stand is the ridicule of Jesus by a pack of twits looking for a laugh. And what gives them the material for their mockery are so called “Christians” practicing their faith in bizarre ways.
Instead of letting the simplicity of the cross shine through and doing good works so that people thank God for their actions, these people become fanatics because their faith is worshiping so called “signs” and apparitions and a whole manner of bizarre things.
you are so right I remember the case when they drew Mohammed’s cartoon and the whole Muslim world went crazy when they do something stupid about Christians, Jesus or even make chocolates in His image I don’t see Christians going crazy and it hurts Christians need to get passionate about Jesus like He is about us till He died for us I wonder how many Christians would do that for Him I don’t even like crucifix because God forbids making anything of any image on earth and worshiping that include images of Jesus we should worship Him by Faith it’s the whole point of faith why do I need a crucifix then?
There’s that sanctimony again…
Icelander - what you are against is religion. And I am in agreement with you. Even the Bible calls “religious people” “dogs” and describes religous activities as “menstrual cloth”.
You make a number of assumptions in your comments - especially the money thing and the “become a Christian or you go to hell” line. Again these are religious lines of thinking - and ones I am not interested in.
And finally I don’t assume unbelievers think that Jesus dies for them. Where you pulled that one from is beyond me.
Christianity isn’t a religion?
From this sentence:
You seem to be saying that believers are putting down the person who died for them. If unbelievers thought that Jesus died for them, they wouldn’t put him down. While it might make you angry to the point of violence that they put him down, to them it’s like putting down Santa Claus or the President: They don’t see it as a big deal.
No. True Christianity is not a religion. Religion demands you do something good to earn favour from God. True Christianity teaches that everything is complete in Jesus. Everything is done for you. All you have to do is believe.
True Christianity is faith - extremely different to religion - where works is the rule. And when humans “work” to earn their salvation, this is where hypocrisy is born.
In regards to the unbelieving world putting down Jesus, this is where a bit of respect can come in by the unbelievers. If they don’t believe the way Christians do, why can’t they just leave them alone? Why do they have to resort mocking Jesus to the point of Him being shit in a toilet bowl?
I know your response would be, “yeah but what about all the bogus Christians out there telling me to give money, or go to hell.” Like I said, this is religion - works. Very different to faith.