Goodbye Christianity
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 – And to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
There are many groups of people out there that would like to see Christianity disappear. Countless numbers of people, societies, groups, and organizations are hell-bent on the diminunization and extinction of the people who label themselves as Christ-followers.
A recent CNN story ran about the Christians in Iraq and a Catholic priest said that if something is not done soon, then it could very well “close the book on Christianity in Iraq and the Middle East.”
I know people in many different countries who have been persecuted, some killed, for their faith in the Risen Savior.
Closer to home, there is an ever-growing contingent that lessens the voice that Christians have while increasing the voice that other religious groups get. I think of the school district that my kids go to and a simple thing such as naming holidays. The schools have said that we will get a winter and spring break each year, but we are not permitted to call it by the Christian name. Yet we are given holidays that celebrate Muslim and Kwanza holidays as well.
Psalm 33:12 – Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
There are groups in our government that are striving to remove Christian symbolism and speech (check out what Houston did in censoring pastors in the pulpit!) and yet increase other religious symbolism and speech.
Many people are saying goodbye to Christianity because our government is making it increasingly difficult to be a Christian. And I am not talking a lukewarm Christian. I am talking about someone who is truly in love with the Lord of Lords!
Those of you who know me know that I am NOT a person who gets involved in politics. Here is a very widely known secret, I don’t even vote in elections. Tried it once, the guy turned into one of the biggest liars in all of the political office. Some people will tell me that not voting is wasting a vote. I disagree. Not voting IS voting. It is saying that I cannot tolerate evil, whether it is on the right or the left. I don’t lean left or right, I stand on solid rock!
I do not get involved in politics for the simple reason that, religion has been made a scapegoat in too many political battles. The left has their agenda and it is different from the right. But both use the same Bible verses to make their point clear. Unfortunately, the people quoting those Scriptures, do not know anything about Bible study and are taking ALL of the Bible out of context.
I want to go a little deeper here. Give you some of the reasons that I choose to stay out of political battles.
First, politicians, at least in this age, are very self-centered. They want THEIR agendas followed, usually not the agenda of their constituency. But Jesus was all about being meek. The Christian faith is a faith of free will, not forced agenda. One of the few times we see Jesus get riled up is not at the government, but at those who were supposed to be His people when they turned His house into a place to make money rather than worship God. Now, there is a difference in letting your faith guide your political choices and letting politics enforce religion. For example, I hate Obamacare. Not because I am a Christian and Obama has repeatedly done things to marginalize Christians in America, but because it is one of THE WORST pieces of legislation out there. Before it came out I read all 11,588,500 words of the Obamacare legislation because I wanted to know how it was going to affect me, a small business owner. there was nothing religious about it. It was purely in self-interest that I read it, and, consequently, hated it.
Deuteronomy 15:7-11 – “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Next, there is NOTHING in the Bible that advocates going to war (outside of holy war, but those have SPECIFIC rules and guidelines, such as being called by God directly), favoring the rich over the poor, cutting funding to “the least of these,” letting people go hungry in our own nation and around the world when we have MORE THAN ENOUGH to feed the WHOLE world, limit the rights of a certain group of people, devalue education, and turn away those who have no place safe to go.
Let’s look at immigration for a moment. Abraham and Sarah were told by God to pick up what they had and start walking. Moses, Miriam, and Aaron led a nation out of Egypt and ultimately into a new land, Even Jesus spent part of His childhood as a foreigner in a foreign land. The book of Exodus says that we know what it feels like to be foreigners in a foreign land.
IT IS NOT BIBLICAL TO TURN PEOPLE AWAY!
PERIOD!
EXCLAMATION POINT!
Can we stop thinking about our own selves for a minute? Face it, when it comes right down to it, we mask our own selfishness in the Bible, the Torah, the Qu’ran or any other supposed holy book out there. Why don’t we want immigrants in this land? Because they might be terrorists and kill us all. Or they might use up all our money. Take all our jobs. Whatever. But if you are scared about that, do NOT try to make it into a religious argument.
Or look at the gun debate.
Personal note, I HATE GUNS!
Get rid of them.
Beat them into plowshares.
I think guns have their place. A shooting range. In Call of Duty: Black Ops. Watching Expendables 3. But not in real life or on the street.
But Fred, what about hunting? Great, learn to use a bow. Or, better yet, create preserves that allow hunting and all the guns must stay within the confines of the preserve. You want to go hunt? Go to the preserve and hunt all you want and then return the gun to the owner of the preserve.
Titus 3:9 – But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.
But we seem to make it a religious argument when we say that Christians support gun legislation.
I don’t!
But regardless of your political views, gun debates should never be brought into a church, whether pro or con.
So what happens when we try to politicize Christianity? It gets watered down. It get s lost. And people say goodbye Christianity.
And how should we handle those who are murdering our brethren in other countries? Pray for the families of those who are killed. Pray for the displaced that they will escape their Egypt and find the Promised Land. And pray for the killers. That they will realize that the saving grace of the God of those they killed is more than enough to cover their sins of killing innocent people.
It is time to say hello to Christianity. But as a community of believers UNITED under a single purpose, to love the hell out of people with a God that is much bigger than any political viewpoint.
Acts 5:29 – But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
boyradd 
I respectfully disagree and agree. I am not a theologian and am not a great communicator and I respect your opinion. I wonder what those who suffered in the Holocaust would say? Those who may have been able to speak out before Nazi propaganda got a firm hold. I wonder what Corrie Ten Boom or especially Anne Frank in defense of her family would say. That is why to me it is important to vote, yes, perhaps sometimes more against a growing idea that could send us reeling into a world of intolerance possibly against us as Christians. To me your not voting is apathy I wonder if the world got really evil and your children were threatened if you would wish to go back and take a stance. As far as guns, again, the Nazis had them all. As far as immigration, I am all for legal immigration to me your using Abraham and the old testament is like throwing bible verses out hoping they will stick. I do think Christmas wants us to be compassionate and that is how we must deal with immigration but not everybody has good intentions nor as a nation are we able to support everyone, but that is a very complicated issue not proven right in my mind by just saying God told wanders to wander and settle where ever. He wanted his people safe and to stand strong together. I interpreted what you said as believing there is a good just world if we all just believe it so….I for one will use my right that I have today to vote for the best person for my country state and city and for the future of my grandchildren. Just my opinion for what little it matters.
Hi Nancy: Thanks for your reply. It was not easily come to that I decided to stay out of politics. I know what happens in the world, it isn’t like I live in bubble. But when I see that both the right and the left live by the same evil daily, I cannot, in all integrity, support someone who counters something that runs against what I believe. As I listen to all news networks and actually research a lot of the current events, I can honestly say that if I were to support any of those politicians I would be supporting something that I vehemently disagree with. I understand that they are doing their best and not all are corrupt or morally bankrupt. I pay my taxes to our government because I am called to “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” But biblically speaking, that is as far as I am called to go with politics. Until money doesn’t matter in elections and marketing is limited to the candidates, it will always be one of two people with the biggest bank accounts winning. And looking at Obamacare as an example, I am sure there were some righteous thoughts about putting it together. But in reading the 11 million words of it, the amount of riders and loopholes (for example, why are our own elected officials exempt from the law?), it turned into a program that favored the makers of the bill rather than those who it supposedly was out to help. Then, let’s take it a step further, even thought he left got it adopted, the right is now vowing to abolish it. So let’s play this out. The law went into effect and required millions to get on their program. Now the right is going to come in and abolish it, thus causing havoc among the millions who were part of it, not to mention the people who will lose their jobs because of it. And the law itself, do you realize that all of the benefits I received for using Obamacare I had to repay on my taxes in the form of it being seen as “additional income?” Not really much of a benefit. The only benefit I received for the entire year from Obamacare was $30 in discounts for the entire year. That is just an example. the government rolls something out that has righteous intentions, is changed by the party rolling it out so they don’t have to suffer being part of it, then the other side vows to abolish it, not caring about the millions already affected by it, and in the end, it all ends up lining the pockets of the government because all of the benefits are taken away in the taxes that I pay. We can make the same argument for Benghazi, Ferguson, Katrina, Iraq, Iran, housing, increasing minimum wage, gun control, abortion, homsexuality and marriage, and many others. Whatever happened to love, Nancy? Whatever happened to the simple call from Christ to take care of the least of these and love one another as I have loved you? That is what Jesus calls us to a life of service once we claim His name. And that service is meant to be simple service. Those involved in the holocaust and Corrie ten Boom and others can be paralleled to those Christians in Iraq and Syria and Eqypt and Nigeria. And those Christians are asking us to pray for their killers. They have much more understanding of the Bible than we do, Nancy. Just a thought.
Absolutely, we are called upon first to pray and pray diligently for those who are in persecution. We are first and foremost to love others as Christ loves us, yes, even our enemies, certainly that they would come to know our savior. The older I have gotten (63) have become more cynical regarding politics and “politics” who may go into politics with good intentions but come out with their pockets lined. It seems this is the way it has always been. The politics who don’t play the “game” can’t get in because they don’t have the money or name recognition…but, isn’t that where we should as Christians be? Looking for those who have the right motives and we vote for them where as so many vote because of some minuscule reason, like the color of their hair or skin or party or just they recognize the name. I believe as Christians we have a responsibility to do the best we can, for ourselves and future generations. As for Obamacare Is could not agree with you more…people think they are going to get something for nothing and it NEVER works that way, you sell your soul to the devil in a manner of speaking. But, if you didn’t vote then pardon me but don’t you then get what you get? I didn’t vote for that, didn’t want it but in a democracy majority rules…which brings me back to as Christians we need to pray and do what is the best we can. I understand your feelings I really do, but I believe them to be asking for all people to play fair and expecting that the world will play fair….that is where my cynicism comes in I don’t believe they will play fair and I have responsibility to do the best I can ,living where I live ,and try to uphold what God puts in my heart to try to make this a better place for my grandchildren voting even if it doesn’t work my way. I know I cannot or will not change your viewpoint nor will you change mine. I am not a passafist I will defend my country and my children and their children and yours to live freely and peaceably, if someone is going to hurt my children or any innocent person I would use a weapon to defend them (if I owned one, I dont because I have not trained myself but if I felt threatened by this government or any government I would). Let us just hope God continues to watch over us his children.
Please excuse the grammatical errors I did not go back to edit.
Fred, thanks for being vulnerable! I couldn’t agree with you more on all points especially as a pacifist. No where did Jesus support killing in His teachings for his presence brought a new law of love. All the commandments are fulfilled by loving your God and neighbor as yourself.