C cares, of the world

Fear no evil: Christian witness in a time of darkness

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2016/12/fear-no-evil-christian-witness-in-a-time-of-darkness/

Despite the relative security many of us enjoy, fears loom large. At the close of a year that seems particularly dark, as we peer ahead into the unknown, it’s worth reflecting on how the historic Christian faith positions believers to respond to a culture of fear.

Several years ago, my attention was drawn to this question after coming across Rodney Stark’s The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries. In this book, Stark, a sociologist, contends that it was a series of devastating plagues that were key to the seemingly miraculous growth of the early church.

In AD 165, and again in AD 251, terrifying epidemics descended upon the Roman Empire, killing between a quarter to a third of the population. Contemporary accounts describe widespread panic as family members abandoned their loved ones at the first sign of disease, sometimes tossing them into the roads even before they had died. As a result, many victims were left without food, water, and basic care that could have dramatically increased survival rates.

Christians, however, soon gained a reputation for their boldness in the face of death. The bishop Dionysius, for example, described how Christians “showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ.” When infected, they “departed this life serenely happy,” having willingly drawn “on themselves the sickness of their neighbors,” and having accepted their suffering with good cheer.

Indeed, for Christians such as these, the epidemic became “a time of unimaginable joy,” a chance for believers to witness to their faith by offering themselves as martyrs (Stark, 81-82).

Stark makes clear that it was Christian doctrine that motivated believers’ courage in the face of the terrors of the plague.

While their non-Christian neighbors retreated in fear, Christians found in their faith both a source of comfort and a call to action. They knew they were their “brothers’ keepers,” that it was “more blessed to give than to receive,” and that they ought to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Stark, 84)

To further understand the radical claims of the Christian faith, Stark suggests taking another look at Matthew 25:35-40: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…” It was by loving one another sacrificially that Christians reflected God’s own sacrificial love. Because they believed that God loved all humanity, they also believed that their own love must extend beyond family and tribe.

These were revolutionary concepts at the time, and by taking these teachings to heart, early Christians earned a reputation—even among their enemies—for their radical loving-kindness.

Christian compassion and fearlessness in the face of death had lasting consequences.

Although many Christians perished from the plague, those who survived developed an immunity that enabled them to continue nursing their neighbors in ways that seemed nothing short of miraculous. As a result, many pagans, abandoned by their own families, owed their survival to the care of Christians. Not surprisingly, many of these survivors became converts themselves.

Stark concludes that it was the witness of faithful Christians at this time of crisis, together with demographic consequences of the plague, that played a decisive role in the phenomenal growth of early Christianity.

After reading Stark’s account of the rise of Christianity, I was struck by the contrast between the sacrificial behavior evidenced by early Christians, and the reputation of many American Christians today.

Looking back over recent American history, it is discouraging to note how frequently fear, rather than sacrifice, seems to have motivated Christians to act.

In issues ranging from tax policy to gun control to concerns about religious freedom, are Christians motivated more by faith or by fear?

And what about terrorism? In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, many Americans found in terrorism and Islamic extremism a new source of fear. Many American Christians, quick to draw clear distinctions between “good” and “evil” in the “war on terror,” led the way in calling for an aggressive, militaristic foreign policy aimed at protecting the nation’s security and the American “way of life.”

But what if American Christians simply refuse to be “terrorized”—if, like their sisters and brothers in the early church, they perceived the threat of failing to bear witness to Christ’s love a greater evil than the threat posed by terrorists to their lives and livelihoods?

At first glance, such a radical re-conception of values might seem dangerously naïve. Yet is it really any more naïve than the actions of those early Christians who exposed themselves to the terrors of the plague for the sake of their neighbors, and for the gospel of Christ?

While one might argue that such a posture of willing sacrifice constitutes an untenable foreign policy for a modern nation state, perhaps it is time for American Christians to identify first as Christians, and only secondly as Americans.

What might happen if, rather than scrambling to protect our own well-being and interests, American Christians instead prioritized the radical command to love their neighbors as themselves?

In light of this fundamental reorientation, whose rights would American Christians be most likely to defend—their own, or those of their neighbors? Would freedom be defined in terms of the freedom to have, or in terms of the freedom that comes from letting go—a freedom that enables one to love one’s neighbors more profoundly?

At a time when some fear the dissolution of democratic institutions and civic norms, and the possible erosion of basic rights and protections, what if Christians across the political spectrum fearlessly commit to doing justice and loving kindness, without regard to consequence?

If Christians were to embrace a culture that calls them to offer themselves as living sacrifices, might they not discover in the end that they have little left to fear?

Hypocrites

Feb 12 2017 QBC English [Kingdom Living II] Kingdom Piety

http://thewardrobedoor.com/2015/05/are-all-christians-hypocrites-yes-maybe-and-no.html

The revelations about Josh Duggar have brought to the forefront a much broader discussion about Christians and hypocrisy. (If you need a recap, here is The Washington Post’s excellent timeline of the entire situation.)

Does his criticizing the sexual behavior of others, while engaging in not just sexual sins, but criminal molestation, mark him a hypocrite? Are Christians, in general, hypocrites for so often critiquing the behavior of others, while failing to live up to their own standards?

As a Christian, my answer would be yes, maybe, and no. Let me explain.

Part of answering the question comes with identifying what it means to be a hypocrite. If someone is a hypocrite because they fail to live up to the moral standard they proclaim, then Christians are clearly hypocrites. In fact, we might be the biggest hypocrites on the planet.

The Person we claim to follow and whose live we attempt to emulate was perfect. We base our moral standards on His perfect example. And we fail to live up to that. Every single day.

But even more to the point, unfortunately, we are particularly hypocritical in terms of our criticizing certain sexual sins. We have made those behaviors, especially involving homosexuality, to be somehow more worthy of condemnation.

Not only that, we have done this while ignoring our own proclivity to sin, even sexually. There is not one of us who is blameless. From pornography to adultery, from lust to molestation, we have repeatedly failed to live up to the standard we preach.

Often times, even in the midst of this failure, we have displayed arrogance and a lack of self-awareness. In that way, yes, we are hypocrites.

If you are speaking of Christians as being part of some exclusive club of hypocrites for excusing their own behavior or mistakes, even heinous ones, made by those within their circles, then I believe you are wrong.

This is not a trait peculiar to Christians, it’s a very human one. And it’s one that reinforces the biblical teaching of the fall. We all have succumbed to the effects of sin entering the world and we all want to make excuses for our mistakes.

Yes, Christians have been quick (perhaps too quick) in accepting the statement of Josh Duggar and seeking to move past it without being overly concerned if he truly understands the gravity of what he (and to some extent, his parents) did. But Christians are hardly alone in this.

The majority of feminists have not rejected Lena Dunham over what she did as a child to her younger sister. Hollywood continues to embrace Woody Allen despiteaccusations of sexual abuse from his adopted daughter, not to mention marrying his step-daughter 35 years his junior.

Despite admitting to and being arrested for the rape of a 13-year-old girl as a 44-year-old, Roman Polanski has continued making films and has been repeatedly honored by the movie industry, including an Oscar for Best Director in 2002.

Maybe Christians are hypocrites, but in this way, we (unfortunately) reflect our surrounding culture. That does not excuse hypocrisy. It simply recognizes it as a temptation to which many succumb.

No, all Christians are not hypocrites.

Christians aren’t automatically hypocrites for holding to a moral system even when we fail to meet those standards. True hypocrisy enters the conversation when we dishonestly claim to personally meet that standard.

It’s not hypocritical to say people should eat more vegetables after you’ve just had a hamburger. It is hypocritical to say people should be like you and eat more vegetables when the only green thing you’ve had in the last six months was a bottle of Mountain Dew.

While there are numerous Christian leaders who have been dishonest, most followers of Christ are upfront about failing. In fact, it’s part of our theology.

The very nature of embracing Jesus is admitting that you have failed and will continue to fail. Christians may have done a poor job of explaining it, but it is no less true.

We aren’t proclaiming perfectionism just a perfect moral standard met by a perfect Person. In that way, in our best times, we are far from hypocrites.

In one sense, it absolutely matters if Christians are hypocrites. We should be striving to better follow Christ and have our actions reflect Him. That is a given.

But in another sense, the issue of hypocrisy often becomes a surrogate for a much different claim—the Christian moral standard is wrong.

People claim Christians are hypocrites … therefore we don’t have to listen to them when they talk about morality. Because they fail to live up to their own standard, their contribution to a discussion about morality is worthless.

But actions are right or wrong intrinsically, not based on the person condemning or condoning it. Lying does not cease being wrong simply because a murderer disapproves of it.

Demonstrating the validity and trustworthiness of biblical morality is a much larger task than one blog post could contain. The same is true, however, of its rejection.

It takes much more than one cable talking head ranting about Josh Duggar and Christian hypocrites to disprove anything at all about what the Bible says about morality.

Are Christians hypocrites? Yes, maybe, and no. Do any of those answers say anything about biblical morality? Only that everyone fails to adhere to it, which is what it has claimed all along.

Melt Them Down & Put In Circulation

Date: 6/2006.101

Preaching Magazine 6 June 2006
Chuck Swindoll relates that during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men to the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there. After investigating they reported: "The only silver we can find is in the statues of the saints standing in the corners."

To which the radical soldier and statesman of England replied: "Good! We'll melt down the saints and put them in circulation!"

That brief but direct order states the essence of the practical goal of authentic Christianity. Not rows of silver saints crammed into the corners of cathedrals, but melted saints circulating through the mainstream of humanity. Where life transpires in the raw.

On campuses where students carve through the varnish of shallow answers. In the shop where employees test the mettle of everyday Christianity. At home with a house full of kids, where R&R means run and wrestle. In the concrete battlegrounds of sales competition, seasonal conventions, and sexual temptations, where hard-core assaults are made on internal character. On the hospital bed, where reality never takes a nap. In the office, where diligence and honesty are forever on the scaffold. On the team where patience and self-control are checked out.

The cost factor of being a saint occurs on Monday and Tuesday and throughout the week. That's when we're "melted down and put in circulation." "Sunday religion" may seem sufficient, but it isn't. And pity the person who counts on it to get him through. (Dallas Seminary Daily Devotional, 5-30-06)

Walk with God

Date: 11/2005.101

Dr Doug Cecil - PM 102 Evangelism class

Cut through all the fluff. How is your walk with God?

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