Hypocrite : inconsistent about their beliefs, puts up a front
Believers aren't perfect; and they shouldn't be because God accepts imperfect people. Christians need to be humble and not self-righteous about their beliefs. Every religion has hypocrisy, and we cannot blame Christians more than other religions. We should expect the church to be full of broken people.
1) Ex. The church as a hospital, filled with people who are hurting and in need of God's grace
1) Rebuttal: there needs to be a difference between the doctors and the patients, i.e. the clergy and the lay-people.
People who use the Bible and Christianity to justify wrong actions need to read their Bible more closely.
1) Ex. Martin Luther King Jr. did not tell the white churches who justified slavery to be more liberal in their Biblical interpretations, he told them to read it more closely. Christianity was the basis of the Civil Rights Movement.
Video debriefing:
One example of a group of Christians setting a bad example is the Westboro Baptist Church, whose actions have garnered scorn from non-Christians.
Book discussion:
"Many people who take an intellectual stand against Christianity do so against a background of personal disappointment with Christians and churches." (Keller p.53)
- if you have a bad experience it is difficult to reason through it.
- sometimes you start with a bad experience and move on to intellectual curiosity and disbelief.
-ministers have a negative connotation, especially when they abuse their roles by taking advantage of people. Children are raised to view them as "God's messengers" and when they take advantage of this position, they need to be held accountable. Simply stating that all other religions and organizations have leaders like this doesn't make it more understandable that Christian clergy act the same way.
If Christians want to be more like Christ, what was Christ like?
- compassionate
- humble
- repentant
- others-focused (time, possessions, jobs)
Sin:
1a) God allows people to sin to bring others to Christ, or to bring you closer to him. Despite your sin, God can do good things through you.
1b) We shouldn't say that sin is a good thing, otherwise, people will not feel as bad about it.
FREE WILL:
Biological: environment and genes cause people to behave in certain ways. Free will means that no other parties influence your decision, and you DO have outside influences: hormones, people, parasites, environment, food.
What you you want to do most, you do. However, you don't always do what you think is right.
Religious: Do we have free will? Does God create certain people for hell?
-rebuttal: If it is God's will that people go to hell, why should we try to help them?
-answer: We are called to love others, even with a sovereign God, and we do not know who he has destined for the kingdom.
Predestination makes my head spin and seems to be a major inconsistency in the Bible. I choose to believe that God gave all people absolute and total free will and that it is an individuals choice to come to or run from Christ. I don't think you are always saved just because people have come up with this theory of predestination to explain complex principles in the Bible. If someone is predestined to be saved it really doesn't matter if you are called to love them, God will draw them to Himself right? The whole idea of predestination is just flawed in my opinion. You can't have BOTH free will and predestination. They are conflicting and opposite views of scripture. So I take free will to its logical conclusion and say that people have the power over themselves to make poor choices and good choices and that people have the power to come to Christ or not or to walk away from Christ after once knowing Him. I don't understand how people can hold some kind of in the middle view on this. They are literally opposite views.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't think God allows people to sin or not to sin. I think people choose to sin or not to sin. And if it has the benefit of bringing people closer to God then it is an unintended good consequence of a poor choice. Sometimes poor choices just make you run from God, or die, or get in a car drunk and hurt someone else. I think some things have absolutely no real true purpose. Some things just suck. Not God's doing, not our doing just the product of living in a fallen world. Kids dying... just sucks. My friends daughter has CF and really, I hate it and can see no good come from a small little girl slowly drowning on her own mucus. I can see no good from being abused. Maybe it alters the course of our life but who knows how much of that is genetics, resiliency or medication :P I think life is more about chance than people want to admit. They feel safer thinking God is micromanaging the world. I feel scared thinking God is allowing/causing horrible, painful things to happen to people.