Whenever Christians engage in an exchange on the Internet about anything of almost any substance whatsoever—gays, hell, universal salvation, infallibility of Scripture, women as clergy, cushions on pews, colognes worn by pastors, cookies vs. donuts, off-key hymn belters—it’s inevitable that some Christians will start declaring that other Christians in the conversation aren’t really Christian at all.
I can’t imagine being at an Elk’s Lodge meeting, and having one of the members stand up and say something about the minutes of the last meeting, or whatever—and then having another guy stand up, point at the first guy, and bellow, “You’re not a real Elk! You’re not Elkian!”
Right? You’d think that guy is crazy. Of course the first guy’s an Elk. He’s at the Elk meeting. He’s wearing the Elk parade-leader’s hat. He’s Elkian.
If you’re a Christian who has ever declared that someone who says they’re a Christian isn’t, please stop doing that. It makes all us Christians seem just a little more stupid. You have no idea who is and isn’t a Christian, okay? Worry about your own soul. Let God worry about everyone else’s.
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mcoville Says:
This underlines an ethical conundrum which revolves around how and what defines as "horrible things".
In any normal context what Abraham did to Isaac would be considered child abuse. The result would be a post-traumatic stress disorder that the boy would probably never entirely recover from. The father would have the child removed from his care and his access restricted. Either he would be treated for psychotic delusions (hearing voices telling him to kill his son) or the real person who told him to do this would be charged with mental cruelty (or whatever legal equivalent is on the local books).
Then we would have a Nuremburg-style trail where Abraham pleaded that he was merely doing what he was told by an authority and Yahweh pleaded that Abraham misunderstood what he was asking him to do to prove his loyalty and/or that he never expected the man to actually carry out the instructions and, besides, he wasn't dead so where was the problem? Meanwhile Isaac would be in intensive and lengthy therapy for severely traumatised children.
Nowhere does the Bible acknowledge that the Yahweh god was directing that Isaac be subjected to pain and suffering and permanent psychological and physiological effects resulting from the trauma. Nowhere does the Bible indicate that the Yahweh god did anything to remove the traumatic memories from Isaac. He would have had to strike him deaf as well, since the story was obviously part of the often repeated folklore of the day.
So here we have a horrible act by Abraham under the direction of the Yahweh god which Christians do not recognize as such. Instead, the authors represented in the Old and New Testaments re-labeled this sick behaviour as "righteous" behaviour. In the next literal breath the Biblical authors are raging against cussing which does no significant long-term damage to anyone. I happen to find overuse of swear words (such as f*** and s***) to be irritating and, sometimes, offensive. That, however, is nothing compared with what Yahweh is reported to have made Abraham do to Isaac.
It seems that many (all?) Christians have a damaged moral perspective. In spite of the fact that Jews and Christians believe themselves to be tainted from birth because an ancestor ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they cannot effectively tell the difference between the two. If "god" or a "christian" does something it is "good", but the same act is "evil" if someone who is not-a-christian does it. Context. Context. Context.
Obviously, the christian "conscience" is not to be trusted here.
Yeah, and to me, there’s a HUGE difference between judging the state of someone’s Christianity in a private conversation with your spouse, and doing it to their face. It’s been my experience that there’s a certain type of Christian–and that there’s way more of them than I, for one, ever thought could possibly exist–who, when they want to criticize you, can’t fast ENOUGH tell you how un-Christian you are. Those are the people that I think need to be …. put out to pasture.
Okay…I didn’t say all that. I actually plugged your book! NOW are you happy?
On a more serious note, I was talking about this to my husband, and reminding him of a very specific moment in my life when I realized I was judging other Christians’ hearts. It broke my own when I realized what I was doing, and let me tell you, I was being mean about it. Not to their faces, just saying things to my husband about them and, well, he called me on it in a big way (although lovingly). I cringe looking back on that day, and yet I see that in others’ comments quite often. Sigh.
To what in this post could your friend have possibly taken objection? Does he or she think it’s COOL when some Xtians accuse other Xtians of NOT being Xtian? What kind of Nazis do you hang out with?
And sure. Disavow me. Sure. No problem. I’m sure hell’ll be lots of fun for you. Bring marshmallows!
Thought I’d mention…I shared this post on my own blog, and a friend wasn’t too happy with it. You’ve gotten me in trouble, are you happy?!? Anyway, I totally backpedaled and said I had no idea who you were. That’s okay, right?
I agree that no one should sit in judment of another, whether he/she is a Christian or not. God knows whose are His (2Tim.2:19). that is what counts.
During the ages/eons, only the elect will be given the free gift og faith (Eph.2:8) and an earnest of God's Spirit (1Cor.2:10-16; 2Cor.1:22).
The rest of mankind will be given these gracious gifts at the consummation of the eons (1Cor.15:22-28).
Jeep
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