Just Let It Go!

I completely support preaching the Gospel to the world and following the Great Commission, as it is a command by God. I think using this command, though, to pursue one’s own agenda politically instead of trying to witness and be light to the world is very misguided and misrepresents Christ and His message.

Many of you reading this probably know about the Dearborn, Michigan incident. If you are not familiar and want to become familiar before reading this, then google ‘Christians arrested in Dearborn, Michigan’ and you will be able to read all kinds of articles on this situation. You can see videos, blogs, news articles, and letters from Christians and Muslim groups. I have been following it and the more I read about the main group the more I actually become frustrated. At first I was sympathizing with them, and now I am actually angrier with how the whole thing is being handled by the Christians. Maybe I am wrong and you can enlighten me, but here is my gist.

I wonder how much the witness of this particular group has been hurt by their responses to Dearborn, the mayor, the police, Muslims and Christians that disagree. The attitude is astounding, as there is no humility involved in their videos and from listening a few times, there seems to be an air of superiority over everyone. It is quite incredible. How do they believe what they are doing is going to witness to anyone? By talking bad about the Dearborn police, Muslims and anyone else that dares write against them, they have in effect ruined their witness. When we are persecuted for the faith, aren’t we supposed to praise God? I could not find one spot in the Bible where the believers were persecuted for being Christian, and then they complained about the ones who persecuted them. In fact they forgave them for it, which became a much stronger witness. How does getting on Youtube and blasting the people you should be forgiving, demonstrating any witness?

There is just so much that I see wrong with this scenario. I appreciate that they want to bring Muslims to faith, but attacking the very people you witness to does not seem to be the best path. How well do you think their witness is going to be to the police, Muslims and others now? How welcome will they now be anywhere, except with those that will agree with their views?

Lastly, they seem to tie politics to their faith way too closely. Where our faith should impact our politic, it does not mean there is an absolute correct government, does it? Where do we find that in the Bible? But this is a whole other blog. When watching the videos they seem to be more worried about being “right” then about people coming to know Christ. They do not want to look like a fool in the world’s eyes for the sake of Christ, but instead want the world to accept them. I can’t see any other reason for the continued videos trying to defame Dearborn police and the community. Listening to the videos from this particular, there does not even seem to be a concern with Christ, which I thought was their purpose. No mention of those coming to Christ, or how what they have done has impacted people for Christ, but instead it is just complaint after complaint of how they were treated. Hmmmm? Does not seem like being happy for sharing in the sufferings of Christ to me.

It just seems to me in this situation that the Christians picked up the stones and have started throwing them full force. Apologetics is defending the faith and not defending your position. This is one situation where Apologetics is not following 1 Peter 3:15. Where is the meekness and humility in this situation?

Think It Through

Have you ever embellished a story when you told it? You add a little something here to make it sound better, or take out something so you don’t look so bad. I know I have. Doesn’t make it right, but we have all done it. Why? Mainly because we are worried about what others think when we are telling the story. We add to it to look braver, smarter, or better in some way. We take away so we don’t look as bad, or so we look humble. We do it with a purpose. Typically a selfish purpose.

Now admitting that everyone does this in one fashion or another, why do you think the writers of the Bible included what they did? Why would they not leave some of it out or add to it? Christianity is completely different from any other religion in this sense. By the time the other leaders died in other religions they were seen as great men in their faiths and were pretty successful. Muhammad died in the arms of his wife, and was brought a faith that solidified the Arabic community. He was in his 60’s when he died. Buddha was in his 80’s and was seen as a great man who brought enlightenment to many people. He died surrounded by his followers who loved him deeply. When their followers write about them, it is in reverence and their holy books reflect how they were holy and how others saw them in this fashion.

Compare that with Christianity. Jesus was considered by the Jewish leaders, and He was a Jew, as a blasphemer. They said his powers came from Satan, and they killed Him at the ripe age of 33. None of His followers stayed by His side and He was not surrounded by loved ones at His death, but instead people hurling insults at Him. By all worldly standards His earthly ministry at His death was a failure, as He was utterly alone on that cross. If you were to write about Jesus, and you were one of the apostles, would you write it this way? Would you want in there that you ran away naked, or that you denied Christ three times? No way. You would leave that out, right? What would it hurt to leave that out of the story? If it was up to you to write, wouldn’t you make yourself look a little better? You might say that you had no choice but to leave because the soldiers kept you away, instead of admitting you were hiding afraid for your life while Jesus faced the mob alone.

Do you see the difference? Jesus is so much different in every way, as in how they were presented in their core faith writings. It means that they were very careful to include all the truth, even at the embarrassment of themselves, because it was about Christ and not about them. They were not worried about what others thought, but instead of about what Christ thought.

When you start to think through the faiths, you will see some other differences, as how they present themselves in their faith books. There are many other ways that they are different as well. All faiths are not the same. Christianity is definitely different in just about every way then all the other faiths out there. They are not all basically the same and they certainly do not promise the same things and they do not give the same path to attain eternal life. Christianity is set apart.

More to come. . .