Posted on 11/21/2023 9:49:08 AM PST by Morgana
Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and I can already taste my wife’s delicious turkey. But let’s face it, it’s not always fun to gather with your extended family around the holidays and break bread with them. In fact, for many of us, it’s more of an obligation than a celebration, and we really just can’t wait until it’s over—at least, that’s how it always was for me growing up. Later in my life, we pretty much tend to stick to immediate family only for our holidays, and it’s much more bearable, even if we do differ ideologically. At least the people that are closer to us know our boundaries, and won’t cross them.
But that’s not true for everyone. Sometimes, we marry into a large family that has a tradition of getting everyone together for the holidays. And you always have those cousins who love to talk politics at the table. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, so long as everyone agrees, it’s the little progressive fresh-out-of-college hotheads that ruin everything. They grew up in church, still claim to be Christians, but have been indoctrinated with all the latest liberal trends and are now defending drag queen story hour at the dinner table.
Your aunt, who used to sit with you in church when you were a kid, has recently embraced the feminist movement and now believes it’s okay for women to have abortions. She refuses to acknowledge abortion as murder, and this, frankly, pisses you off. And for whatever reason, some of these people are now defending “gay marriage” and believe people should be able to use whatever public restroom they choose, despite the danger it poses to women and children.
You wonder, how did these people change so much? These people are supposed to be Christians, yet they have embraced the world and its ideologies. How can I get through this holiday season dealing with these people?
The Apostle Paul has the perfect answer for you: “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.” (1 Corinthians 5:22)
You see, there is a reason Paul warned us against breaking bread with such people. These people are not Christians. Christians do not embrace the world, its ideological movements, and its irrational thinking. Christians are born again, have a mind renewed and transformed by the gospel, and seek to follow Christ and honor God in all things. And these two contradicting worldviews are at enmity with one another and cannot coexist peacefully. One side is the mission field while the other side are the missionaries, and the only spiritual enterprise we’re to have with such people is a call to repentance and faith.
Of course, this does not mean that we are to never spend time with or interact with our lost family members—but our primary purpose in these interactions should be to expose them to the gospel. And sitting around the Thanksgiving table with them—a table that is meant to serve as an act of worship and thanks to God for his providence—does not do this. When we pray with false converts, it gives them the impression that we’re praying to the same God. In essence, you’re putting your stamp of approval on their supposed conversion. But when we pray for them as we should be doing, particularly, for their repentance, they’re going to be offended. When we confront them with their sin and error, they’re going to be offended. If we say nothing, we’re doing them no justice.
So, if you’re wondering how you can get through the holidays putting up with people in your life, extended family, or otherwise, who claim to be Christians but make you want to vomit with their worldly obsessions and liberal ideologies, then heed the Apostle Paul, take comfort, and excuse yourself from the situation. It’s biblical, and it just might do exactly what God intends it to do, as His word never returns void.
“But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.” (1 Corinthians 5:22)
Mic drop
I LOVE IT!!!
Gets a "whatever dude".
It seems to me that Jesus ate a meal with “many tax collectors and sinners”.
I don’t see how you help anyone by shunning them...
Ping!.............
That should get the lefties fleeing in terror.
;-)
Very few articles on The Dissenter have authors named.
The moral of this story is...Just turn the tv on to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day Marathon during dinner and you all will be just fine!
See my post 10
1) Since there's no 1st Corinthians 5:22, I'm assuming this is in reference to 1st Corinthians 5:11. For the sake of context, I put verses 9-13 below (NIV):
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you."
2) Verse 11's "do not eat" may have been alluding to public displays of friendship or approval of someone's position of authority (i.e. acknowledging these people as being church leaders). I'm not sure if eating with a family member during Thanksgiving applies as much as, say, attending a banquet honoring hedonistic church leaders or any other meeting honoring them (even if no food is involved). Don't honor false teachers and, perhaps this is the context, don't be around them enough for their teachings to corrupt you. Again, a once-per-year event like Thanksgiving to be around family is probably not what Paul was teaching, even if some of the family members are hedonistic Dims.
I agree. Jesus was harassed by Pharisees who refused to live the spirit of the law and only the letter of it. No wonder he told them God could make Sons of Abraham out of stones!
When I meet with family for Thanksgiving, I am forgiving, just as I hope God and Jesus will forgive me.
If they lead bad lives, that’s not for me to judge, but rather God’s.
Matthew 7:1: “Do not judge, or you will be judged. 2For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
And Justa, then that same St Paul you quote in I Corinthians said in Romans 12:
14 Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but enjoy the company of the lowly. Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone.
19 Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”
20 On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
My brothers and their wives are all gun-toting Christians. My wife’s family mostly has TDS. This would make for an interesting Thanksgiving except the my siblings live in California and my wife’s are in Utah. I live in Utah so I just sit at dinner and smile and keep to myself. The only other alternative is to toss some grenades around the table. That would be bad manners.
Someone suggested that you talk politics at the Thanksgiving dinner table so that you’ll end up having fewer Christmas presents to buy.
We have rules that everyone observes. No politics, no religion, no geopolitical events.
There are so many things you can start in conversation from art to books to music to architecture, and even movies and some philosophy.
Unfortunately, today’s denizens are singularly ill-educated, illiterate and have the shortest attentions spans rivaled only by a chicken. They also seem to need combat and insult as way to distinguish themselves as persona non grata at future Thanksgivings.
But it would be fun. Might as well get some entertainment value out of it.
Did “ many tax collectors and sinners” bear the name brother?
What is The Dissenter?
JEFF
MAY 9, 2022
https://thedissenter.substack.com/p/reformation-charlotte-has-become
(A working hot link will be posted in a follow-on post.) freepersup
Reformation Charlotte began in 2018 as a group of guys who were passionate about Evangelism, Theology, and Apologetics. While the name, Reformation Charlotte, has come to be known primarily as a conservative Christian blog, it didn’t begin that way. Originally, it was the news website for our apologetics group.
Since then, we’ve come to believe that a parachurch ministry was not necessary for the type of Evangelism work we did, and we simply worked on mission under the guidance of our local church. But the blog remained and morphed over time into a well-known internationally recognized and trusted news source.
This is why we decided that instead of a localized name like Reformation Charlotte, which is named after the city we lived, worked, and evangelized in, our blog needed a more widely accepted name that reflects the type of journalistic work we do here. Interestingly, that name has become The Dissenter.
We chose The Dissenter not out of spite or purposeful intention to actually dissent from fellow brothers and sisters, but because we found that much of what calls itself the Church today is actually not the Church. Therefore, we dissent from much of the mainstream Evangelical circus masquerading as the true Bride of Christ and we consistently report accurately, truthfully, and boldly to the best of our ability.
Our goal is not to be contentious, but to see that the Word of God goes forth. The Word of God is controversial enough and we do not believe that we need to add to it for it to be effective. We believe that when the Word of God goes forth, it accomplishes God’s purpose. Therefore, we seek to be obedient in advancing good doctrine, exposing error and bad doctrine, and equipping believers to practice discernment in their own daily walk.
Under our new name, all links that pointed to Reformation Charlotte’s domain (reformationcharlotte.org) will redirect to the new domain that we have been sitting on for quite a while: DISNTR.com. All of our past work still exists and can be found on the new site. And we will continue to own and maintain the old domain name so that all links posted in the past will continue to redirect to the new links on the new site.
And, as always, we will continue to offer exclusive, ad-free content at our Substack site to our subscribers and supporters which can be found at https://thedissenter.substack.com. Here, you will get exclusive access to timely posts that Big Tech disallows, along with full access to our podcast archives.
We thank all of you for your patronage and hope to see you at
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