Posted on 04/23/2022 3:08:57 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
[T]oday’s churches are increasingly offering the same get-out-of-hell-free cards the culture offers; whatever you do is good because you are being "true to yourself" and are "following your heart" and "your truth."
That is not Christianity; that is enhanced 60’s hedonism. Want to be gay? Why not? Want to be a woman, just shave, grow long hair, take hormones, dress up, wear padded bras, and join the Navy and the women's curling team. Want to mess with little kids? Have at it, but make sure parents don’t find out. Want to be an anti-white racist, a cop-hater, a Marxist, or a corrupt pro-Russia politician with a job that pays hundreds of thousands of dollars a month because daddy lives in the White House? Go for it. Want to make personal happiness your priority? Why not? After all, what is more important than being happy? Want to avoid being insulted or suffering any form of anxiety? We will move heaven and earth to give you that safe space. Want to shut people up you disagree with? Great, happy to close down our business or website because your delicate sensibilities are offended. Want to deny that Satan exists? Better still. In fact, best.
Too many of our churches have watered down Christianity into a church of cowards, too cowed to speak up. They are told that "Jesus would never behave that way." Jesus behaved exactly that way. He was strong, not wimpy. He got angry, He didn’t slink away when confronted with disbelief and evil. He challenged His followers to give up everything for Him, to be strong and courageous, not to wuss out. He went to the cross for fallen, sinful human beings and never shrank from His mission like many of today’s churches are doing.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I have read through the first 50 postings here and am dismayed by some of the comments.
Yes, some/many of the Christian denominations stray from the fundamental message of Jesus Christ which is - set aside the things of the world and follow Him; love God and neighbor, etc. The difficulty enters every group because mankind is flawed, and when you assemble a group, those flaws are magnified. However, the opposite also happens - when good Christians unite to do charity.
The goal of churches is to evangelize individuals about the message of Jesus Christ, who He is; and why He came into the world to save sinners. So, there you have it. Every individual must change his/her life and behavior because each of us is not saved by the group, but one by one - all through the mercy and love of God and whether he/she will embrace it.
All Catholics, all Lutherans, all Presbyterians, all Baptists, all Fundamentalists, etc. are not lukewarm Christians. Yes, some are, and others are not. This is true of the clergy as well.
There came a time in my life when I realized that when I made decisions, it had to conform to what Jesus would expect of me as his disciple. I realized that I did not want to personally disappoint Him, and I did not want to continue to add to the world’s sin’s which caused him so much agony on the cross. Because we are flawed, it is a daily commitment that each Christian must make to adore, believe, and love Jesus, and have hope in Him as our Savior. We must rely on the grace of God to help us in our lives. We cannot do this on our own.
Berating them is.
And demanding they clean up their act before they even come to Christ is.
Jesus gave us the template for dealing with brothers and sisters in Christ who are in sin.
So if those folks were not Christians, then berating them does no good. Sinners will sin and them changing that will not make them righteous before God.
And if they claim to be believers, the person berating them did it wrong.
Legalism (theology)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalism_(theology)#:~:text=The%20Encyclopedia%20of%20Christianity%20in,deeds%20in%20order%20to%20gain
In Christian theology, legalism (or nomism) is a pejorative term referring to putting law above gospel.[1][2] The Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States defines legalism as a pejorative descriptor for “the direct or indirect attachment of behaviors, disciplines, and practices to the belief in order to achieve salvation and right standing before God”, emphasizing a need “to perform certain deeds in order to gain salvation” (works) as opposed to the doctrine of justification by faith – the belief in salvation through the grace of God, “bestowed upon the individual through faith in Jesus Christ.”[3]
Berating them is.
***It is not berating to point out open engagement in sin. That’s why Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery “go and sin no more”.
And demanding they clean up their act before they even come to Christ is.
***There is some truth to that. What is going on is people openly going against christian teaching with no intention of following the precepts but trying to access the benefits of christian fellowship. It is not legalistic to point that stuff out.
Jesus gave us the template for dealing with brothers and sisters in Christ who are in sin.
***People who openly discard the 10 commandments and christian teachings are operating as wolves in sheep’s clothing, as vipers, as false teachers, as hypocrites. Jesus was clear about how to treat those people.
So if those folks were not Christians, then berating them does no good.
***That is if one accepts your position that they were being berated to begin with. Were Ananias and Saphira “berated” when they lied to the Holy Spirit?
Sinners will sin and them changing that will not make them righteous before God.
***Non sequitur. “them changing that” —> who is them? The sinner or the supposed ‘berater’?
And if they claim to be believers, the person berating them did it wrong.
***Again, in order to address your argument one has to accept that they were berating. I don’t. You are engaging a loaded definition of legalism.
The goal of churches is to evangelize individuals about the message of Jesus Christ, who He is;
***A lot of churches these days deny Who Jesus is: He is God Himself. In my view, this is what leads to all that other apostasy.
“..When I was a non-christian attending church services, I was trying to find out what the teaching was, what it was based on, how to figure out its truthfulness with respect to other teachings, basically get at the facts....”
Yep...been there, done that...lol.
To a non-Christian, praise & worship might appear crazy at times as they don’t understand. That’s why it’s so important that the preaching portion of the service be to preach the Word as the Apostle Paul instructed, not some worldly “feel-good” story.
FWIW, for our new converts, we have a (strictly voluntary, but almost all of em go as they want answers) in-depth Bible study program that’s primarily geared just to them to help answer the very questions that you mentioned. It has an open exchange of questions/answers period as they go thru the study. They meet once/week for about an hour. Some of our regular folk, myself included, sometimes attend as it’s very informative.
“...A lot of churches these days deny Who Jesus is: He is God Himself. In my view, this is what leads to all that other apostasy...”
You’re correct, and certainly not alone in that view/opinion.
I dont condone calling out strangers for their sins, nor to i belueve the bible expects you to welcome habitual sinners into your life, Is it a church that preaches the Gospel or a social club? The wheat and the chaff are being separated ad we speak. Which side are you on? Saving souls or being a social butterfly?
“… the blandness and ugliness of the physical building will often be met and exceeded by what is actually happening in it: People milling about in flip-flops and shorts, chatting loudly in the lobby and in the pews. A jeans-clad church band playing music too hokey to be secular but too secular to be sacred… Never a moment of solemn silence. Never a moment of contemplation.”
I know someone who attends one of those “churches,” a place that performs same-sex “marriages,” celebrates “the blessing of animals,” and has an espresso bar in the lobby. You call that a church?
Wow!
For the new converts? How about for people who don’t identify as converts yet?
That’s why it’s so important that the preaching portion of the service be to preach the Word as the Apostle Paul instructed, not some worldly “feel-good” story.
***What I would like to see is a restructuring. Every church I’ve been to for the last 3 decades starts off with singing, then the sermon, then more singing. There is an identifiable group of people who skip the pre-sermon worship.
Here’s how I would like to see it structured: Sermon, snacks, singing. The singing and worship are for those who identify as christians and are expressing God’s WORTH in their lives [the word ‘worship’ comes from the old english phrase of expressing WORTHSHIP]. Let the seekers make their decision during the snacketysnack coffee sipping portion of the service.
Why have people express worth in sumthin’ they have no idea of its worth? It’s like inviting a nonbeliever to engage in communion — scripturally flat wrong.
That’s GOOD advice!
No, I’m not. And don’t address me, again.
I didn’t realize trolls were allowed on these religion threads.
Here's another:
Fella comes to church and is met by church member at the entrance who looks down on his choice of clothes to be wearing to church. The member admonishes him for his attire and the fella leaves never having heard a sermon or prayer.
They are making the NON-Prodigal son look GOOD!
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