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
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