I stole this title from Nicholas in my last post. The Christians he was referring to were well beyond the level of the guy in this post. I personally know this guy. He attends a conservative, Bible-believing church where the pastor preaches 55-minute sermons and is seriously trying to mature the people in attendance. He attends regularly and sits through these sermons.

Maybe his anger got the better of him or something, but his comment is just really disappointing. It’s not the first time people who regularly attend this church have made this same basic error. I know the pastor can’t be blamed for every single individual remaining immature, but the church as a whole is very immature, and this guy is just an indication.

I started a Facebook group with mostly people from this church and the purpose was to try to come up with ways to apply Scripture to the real world and not just worry about ourselves all the time. It has been a complete and utter dud (as I’m rereading this the last paragraph in this post is haunting me). Nevertheless, I keep trying to post things that might provoke some conversation. Because that’s the point we’re at. These people would look at me like I’m crazy if I actually tried to get them to do some of the things I’m thinking about or have been involved in. These folks and I are definitely not on the same page, and so we are still at the conversation level. So, between once a month and once a week, I post something.

I adapted this post to Facebook format and posted it there a few days ago. I got this response:

“Judging and gossip is sinning as well.”

I think it’s safe to say he was accusing me of judging and gossip. I’m not sure how it’s gossip to comment on a public Youtube video. And I’m certainly guilty of judging. Of course, judging righteously isn’t a sin and is something we all do dozens if not hundreds of times per day.

In fact, when this guy accused me of judging, he was judging me. He actually was sinfully judging me, because he was using a double standard–aka hypocrisy. He doesn’t know that there is righteous judgment and he’s not capable of recognizing hypocritical judgment.

Of course, the problem is that this guy clearly hasn’t read the New Testament, much less the Old Testament. He’s sat through hours of preaching and has been a Christian for at least four years that I know of. He’s been a newborn Christian who hasn’t learned the basics of the basics of Scripture.

If I was his pastor I would be shocked and ashamed and reevaluating everything I do. If the pastor is honest, this guy isn’t an exception, but the general rule for the level of knowledge of his congregation. And those who are the exception and know more about the Bible are still not actually accomplishing very much for the kingdom and neither is the church as a whole.

Of course, this is what their pessimistic eschatology teaches will happen. So when it happens, they expect it to happen. They don’t have an expectation that they are going to accomplish great things for God or that the gospel will actually defeat Christ’s enemies. But surely, the pastor thinks that a guy sitting through hundreds of his sermons will not still be completely retarded.

At some point, we (and I’m including myself), have to examine the fruits of our efforts to see whether the results are fruitful or thorny. The fruits of that church are thorns and they need to change. We need to be semper reformanda. I’m trying something new for my church situation, and I’m keeping an eye on whether it bears fruit, whether I and my family bear fruit through it. If not, we have to try something else.