Tag Archives: Christianity

Uncategorized

Christian Unity

As I’ve gotten involved in various Christian organizations or causes, there inevitably comes disagreement and eventually a split of some kind. You have to choose which fork in the road to take, and the number of people you find yourself among are about half of what they were. Eventually, there’s another fork and another and another. Maybe not among the same group, but in different ways, you’re growing more and more specific in your beliefs, and you may eventually find yourself among a very small group.

This has always troubled me. But my friend has this to say:

“There’s rarely if ever such a thing as perfect unity between creatures who learn discursively, so we should not be under any unrealistic illusions of unity. What we can expect are alliances and sharply defined unity and division with everyone we enjoy fellowship with. This requires effort and charity, but it is worth the investment and necessary.

Division is necessary, but it does not necessarily mean we are ultimately divided. Paul said that without division, we’d never know what is right or wrong. I love and am united with sincere Christians who believe fascist propaganda. Ultimately, we are united, in Christ, but on their idolatrous, fearful error, we are divided. The ultimate unity, in spite of division is what the world will look on and admire. As iron sharpens iron through debate and friction, it produces deeper and more meaningful unity.

False unity: ignoring of division, and neglecting iron sharpening iron is not admirable. It requires no effort. It’s lazy, and there is no love in it. I despise the “agree to disagree” attitude. It’s not Christian.”

The good news is you are learning from different people and organizations, and eventually, you don’t need them anymore. You still need fellowship, but you don’t have to be taught about a certain topic any longer. Hopefully, as we get older and more mature and you find that the group you identify with is smaller and smaller, you have unity on important topics with local Christians. Even though they may not know as much as you, and they occasionally say things you disagree with, you can teach them what you’ve learned. Maybe they’ll come to agree and maybe they won’t, but you have unity on the important doctrines of the faith.

Reject Socialism

Inconsistent Christianity

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how Christians can’t expect the culture to change without first living consistently with what we say, and with what the Bible teaches.

How can we begrudge anyone a government subsidized Obamacare plan while we receive government money for our kids’ schooling, Social Security, etc.? If we all rejected the old socialistic programs we benefit from, maybe the Lord would see fit to end Obamacare.

There’s a free summer lunch program at the public high school. I know people who take their kids there. I wouldn’t say they’re rich, but they’re upper middle class or middle class, and they are conservative Republican types. Why do they accept a government handout? I don’t get it.

Bojidar’s quote I posted ‎was a good example. Christians don’t stand up to a tyrannical pastor. How in the world are they going to stand up to a tyrannical magistrate who has much more power over us?

One aspect of God’s judgment on this country seems to be that there are few manly Christian men. They don’t go out to do evangelism. They don’t do anything of consequence. They just warm pews, and suffer through a feminine sermon on marriage advice. I pray that I would be a manly, Godly man.

In fact, I came up with a corny rhyme, but it’s just to sad to use much: “There are no men to resist like there were in ’76.”

Conversation

Youtube Conversation

I enjoy discussing Christianity in the comments of Youtube videos. On one video about gun rights, an atheist posted about how God shouldn’t be brought into conversations about rights.

I responded to him and we had a fairly long conversation that was already over, when another guy posted a couple comments saying this video wasn’t the place for this type of discussion. Here’s how I responded:

You said, “Why are we not all focusing on our countries second amendment issues right now?”

1. Laws are based on morality.
2. Morality is based on religion.
3. Laws that have been passed in this country are still based on a morality and a religion–just not Christianity, because of a radical and false interpretation of separation of church and state.
4. Yet The rights found in the constitution are a result of Christianity.
5. The religion being practiced by our government today (secularism) is antithetical to Christianity.
6. Therefore the laws based on that false religion will be antithetical to the rights derived from Christianity.

So just hoping to find common ground with atheists (or any non-Christian) and work together is not really going to solve the problem. We need to return this country to its Christian roots to have any hope of maintaining our rights.

Besides that, why do you care what we talk about?