Posted on 05/04/2015 3:26:20 PM PDT by NYer
In the book of Revelation, when Jesus catalogues the problems in each of several churches he gives a lot of great advice. Some churches need to “hold fast to what you have” others need to “return to your first love.”
But when he comes to the church of Laodicea, he has nothing good to say:
“I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 4:15-16).
Jesus prefers bad Christians to nominal Christians — Christians who struggle and fall and get up instead of Christians who drift along.
Let us count the way nominal Christians are a problem.
Nominal Christians are the hardest to reach with the Gospel message.
To those who once believed but do no longer, Jesus Christ is either embarrassing or irrelevant. Jesus is like your Uncle Bob — that uncle you met a few times in childhood but didn’t keep up with. You remember him with a pang of conscience for not sending a Christmas card or with overwhelming indifference.
Nominal Christians think of Jesus that way. Have you ever noticed that, nowadays anyway, lapsed Catholics talk about “Catholic guilt” way more than practicing Catholics?
Practicing Catholics have a quick way to kill guilt: confession. Only those Catholics who have abandoned the sacraments stay guilty. Either that, or they have hardened themselves against guilt. That makes it impossible for them to hear the truths of the faith — they hear them not as a freeing pathway, but as echoes from a regrettable past.
Nominal Christians give the world a false sense of the strength of the Church.
I have long been haunted by a comment a priest once made: “The 1950s were the apex of Christian civilization in America. We need to get that back.”
He was wrong — tragically so. The 1950s strike me as a time when people were painfully embarrassed about Christianity, even though I suppose most Christians then wouldn’t dream of renouncing the faith. The cultural icons of respectability were faithless: Ozzie and Harriet, the Cleavers and the Kramdens never prayed or went to church.
One gets the sense from those shows that people thought our society should be strong and good, but need not be Christ-centered. In fact, Ward Cleaver and the Honeymooners “imagined no religion” in exactly the same way John Lennon did.
Successive generations of TV families, those families who imitate us and vice versa, did the same — from The Bradys to the Cosbys to Everybody Loves Raymond, religion never made anything more than a cameo appearance.
The fact that each of these families would probably identify themselves as Christian didn’t show the strength of Christianity — it showed the weakness of Christianity. The American culture they created allowed people to be satisfied good “Christian folk” without Jesus.
Nominal Christians give us a false discouragement about our declining numbers.
Christians often feel disappointed that we live in a time of quickly declining membership and church attendance. It’s true:
We do.
But we probably misunderstand what is going on.
The numbers don’t tell us: “People used to believe, but now no longer believe.”
Instead, they tell us: “People used to have to say they believe, but now they can be honest.”
The American Religious Identification Survey that inspired Newsweek to write its cover story on “The Decline and Fall of Christian America” certainly showed the drop in people who go to church services or associate themselves with a denomination. But it also showed something else. Said the survey:
“Most of the growth in the Christian population occurred among those who would identify only as ‘Christian,’ ‘Evangelical/Born Again,’ or ‘non-denominational Christian.’ The last of these, associated with the growth of megachurches, has increased from less than 200,000 in 1990 to 2.5 million in 2001 to over 8 million today. These groups grew from 5 percent of the population in 1990 to 8.5 percent in 2001 to 11.8 percent in 2008. Significantly, 38.6 percent of mainline Protestants now also identify themselves as evangelical or born again.”
Ed Stetzer explains the phenomenon here.
Well ok then.
The Three might still be able to help a guy lower his score, nonetheless.
Now if I just just find a way to convince God to send a bolt down to a particular habitual leisure time golfer...
I'll let you guys know if I get a "yes" on that one. So far I'm not getting the kind of answer I'd like to hear.
I hear the Russians may break up the International Space Station into it's component parts, with the unstated threat being they'd set what is the "American" module adrift.
I don't guess any of that would come to pass soon enough to make a dent where I'd like to see a dent.
Hey... I know! Send another rock like the one in Mecca. Smoosh. bang bang Maxwell's silver hammer came down upon his head.
Then see if the mooselimbs still think they have a friend in high places that God [allegedly] approves of.
I stand accountable to God. If in some small way, God is angry with me on the Christian judgement day for not worshiping Jesus (and here is the problem with Jesus), he will probably understand that I just worshiping Him in his pre-NT covenant where man is responsible to worship God, rather than follow the new profit that absolves sin. Sorely Confused, I think not.
Thanks. I am honestly asking this question: How do you know if you are a 'good Catholic' who is going to heaven, or not?
We can't truly know the state of our souls in the light of God's Perfection. David said, if Thou, oh Lord, shalt mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand? For Catholics, we stick to what I mentioned before, especially the Sacrament of Confession, the rest we place in the infinite ocean of Jesus' Mercy. God is just, which is why we have Purgatory and Hell, but an honest and heartfelt effort, with the help of His Grace, mitigates that.
I used to kid around with a friend of mine who was newly converted that God doesn't expect us to be perfect; but if we love him, and love our neighbor the best we can, He'll give us an "E" for "Effort", and let us in!
Jesus' perfection-His Deity, His Humanity, Passion, Death, Resurrection and the Word and Sacraments He left the Church give all men the hope of salvation; it's up to us, then, to try and be perfect too: no one can, but we sure have to try our best!
Thanks for asking! I hope that answers! God bless you!
PS: Please pardon the humor; it is by no means irreverence on my part. I believe a genuine, innocent laugh is among the greatest of God's earthly gifts! I also used to tell my friend that I didn't care if I wound up in the last row of the "peanut gallery"- just as long as I managed to somehow get into Heaven! 😀
Thank you!
The funny part: it took me awhile to recognize the Stooges: never saw them in color before! Lol
Thanks again, GF, as always!
I think you mean “prophet” **a person who speaks for God or a deity, or by divine inspirationrather;** than what you typed “profit,” **a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something**
you asked: **what is the role of the woman named as “Birdie”?** My only reply, short of trying to remember all of the things each of the two ladies did, is: Imagine someone telling of their feeling welcomed in a new congregation because of a person there with the nickname of a person in your old church whom you respected for who she was and what she did. Similar to how, in physical appearance and cheerful personality Charlie Settlemeyer at Bethany, reminded me of Ivan Carson in the church were I grew up. The point of mentioning them and also Dr. Joe was how I found connections in the new congregation that welcomed me and my family, strangers, to my home congregation and that gave me a sense of finding a new church home. I was in the military and had been moving every 2 years from post to post and this was the first time I found a church where I got the sense of ‘you belong here.’ And I moved my membership from where I grew up to Bethany within a year and have been here ever since.
For that poster (the image posted) to work, one has to hear in their mind, Curly saying “boidies”.
For some of us here (like myself) that comes naturally.
But you are correct. The image had to have been colorized.
That's not confusion. You referred to the "Jewish faithful" who await the Messiah. Jesus is seen by them, to the best of my knowledge, as a part of history, and God is referred to by them as, "G-d" as His Name is considered to holy to mention, even to write.
The confusion lies more in the perception of how we see Jesus.
I can only speak for Catholics, because I happen to be one. We believe, as John Paul II stated, that "the Jews are our elder brothers in the Faith." We have our Messiah in Jesus, and await His return in glory. We believe He is coeternal, equal in power, knowledge, and glory with YHWH, Who is The Father, and with The Holy Spirit. We believe He took on our human nature to die in reparation for our (those of all humanity) sins; found His Church with its Sacraments; and rise from the dead with a promise to return one day in glory. We don't regard Him as a prophet, but as part of God from all eternity.
** Man wants to use Jesus to absolve himself of his sin, and by offering salvation and a free pass just for following Jesus who is their God is God.... **
Again, I can only speak for what I as a Catholic believe. Trust me, this is no free pass! Jesus did not come to take away the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. We believe that Jesus as the Messiah, at His first coming, made salvation available to all men, but that each one of us still has to work that salvation out with fear and trembling. It isn't a free, or easy road: it's an "all the while that you're awake, think before you act, examine your conscience, do the best you can, pray hard, confess your sins, make reparation, then go to sleep and begin the next day" kind of road. God is perfect: who can stand in His Presence? That is why Jesus took on a second nature in His Humanity. He did all in His earthly life, and gave all, for the greater honor and glory of God and the good of souls. We await His second coming, as the Jews await the coming of the Messiah- together.
That’s great, thank you! I’m other words, to me, anyway, it promotes a sense of continuity and family among the congregation, and welcome for new people. That’s really great expression of community! Thanks again, and God bless you!
Yes, a sense of continuity for me. and you are most welcome.
Yes, you are correct on both counts from your perspective,especially on the free pass. Sometimes I forget to not be cynical. Your post is an excellent summation of knowledge and I thank you for it.
How kind!! Thank you, and G-d bless you!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.