Posted on 04/22/2019 8:24:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I grew up attending a Fundamental, Independent Baptist church, and no, those aren’t capitalized by mistake. That’s because the words “Fundamental” and “Independent” were displayed prominently on our sign, our church bulletin, and anywhere else the church name appeared. It wasn’t just that we were “Baptist,” or even a “church” – because any ragamuffin group of heretics could band together and call themselves a “church” in these United States – no, we wanted the world to know we were “independent” of any top-down control, and we believed we had the “fundamentals” of the Christian faith. Of course, those were the days before “fundamental” began to mean something else entirely, but for us it meant a certain set of theological beliefs and lifestyle legalism, beliefs and practices we were correct on and everyone else was, well, just plain wrong.
I’m by no means disparaging those still in such churches or any other church, because all have their own unique set of idiosyncrasies, but in my church, if the King James Version was good enough for Paul, it was good enough for us. In my church, the world was created in six days around 6,000 years ago, and any opinion or scientific & historical evidence to the contrary was “denying Scripture.” In my church, the “rapture” could happen at any moment, sweeping us all away while the world burned. Oh, and Jesus turned water into grape juice, of course, because the “devil’s brew” isn’t anything the Son of God would EVER make, much less drink.
In my church, the girls wore culottes, “Hollywood movies” were of the devil, and any form of dancing would lead straight to fire and brimstone. And God help you if you were caught holding hands with your girlfriend in youth group.
That’s some of my church-upbringing story, at least as far as I can remember it, mixed here and there with a bit of hyperbole, just for fun. If you grew up that way too you’ll recognize it, but anyone with any sort of religious upbringing they no longer completely adhere to has their own stories - plenty of good memories, and good people, but plenty also to poke a little fun at when we grow older, hopefully wiser, and more aware of the big world out from beneath our particular steeple.
Churches, denominations, and especially religions themselves tend to be like that to varying degrees - open-minded on some things, closed-minded on others. Some are open to change at every social whim, while others attach themselves to stubborn tradition even as the world proves them wrong time and again. Even the churches in the “middle” understandably have to pick a set of beliefs and try to stick to them, else they might as well be the Lion’s Club and not a church.
Interestingly, the things that divided us along the lines of religion when I was a child in the 80’s don’t divide us so much now. Today, as long as a basic belief in Christ exists, churches typically don’t put down or refuse to associate with other churches or denominations based so much on theological or even lifestyle differences. Oh, there are still “Fundamental, Independent Baptist” churches around (“picking” on those only because they happen to be from my experience), but even many of those have relaxed some of their “standards,” seemingly better understanding that the body of Christ is much bigger than their little corner of it.
After all, the dirty little secret is something many Christians won’t say out loud but know deep down - if the Bible were clear on everything, there wouldn’t be so many denominations, sects, and even cults that genuinely interpret it differently on so many topics. Thankfully, we as Christians have become more humble about our faith, more open, more understanding - tolerant even - and to some degree that’s a good thing. (And no, I don’t mean that in a “leftist” way at all.)
No, it’s no longer theology that primarily drives the conflict between Christians today. It’s something else entirely. Now, the real conflict in America’s churches often boils down to support or rejection of one man, and sadly that man is not Jesus Christ.
Pro-Trump evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., Robert Jeffress, and Franklin Graham, men who see the big picture and have chosen to support President Trump despite his flaws, are castigated by anti-Trump Christians as charlatans and fakes, hypocrites who have abandoned their faith and even are preaching “another Gospel” besides Christ’s.
“There is another Gospel in our country right now, and it is the Gospel of Trump,” Red Letter Christians founder Shane Claiborne preached during a protest service near Liberty University last year. “It doesn’t look much like the Gospel of Jesus.”
Clairborne considers the faith proclaimed by Christians who support Trump to be “toxic Christianity,” and he isn’t alone, not by a long shot.
“The moral convictions of many evangelical leaders have become a function of their partisan identification. This is not mere gullibility; it is utter corruption,” wrote former Bush speechwriter and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson.
Katha Pollitt writes of the “discrediting of evangelical Christianity” as being a “good thing” to come out of Trump’s presidency. “They’ve sold their souls to Donald Trump, who has partaken freely of practically every vice and depravity known to man. Urged on by their leaders, 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump—more than voted for George W. Bush, an actual evangelical—and now everyone is laughing at them. It’s about time.”
Former congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, on the other hand, citing a host of issues from abortion to Israel to religious freedom, stated she has “never seen a more biblical president” than she has “seen in Donald Trump.”
In other words, Donald Trump is either a devil or an angel, depending on which side of the political divide you fall. And although a majority of self-professed Christians do support the president, far too many of the ones who oppose him are quick to condemn the rest of us as somehow unworthy of Christ’s calling. In a weird way, they’ve become more legalistic than any of the legalism the church of my youth could have ever dreamed up.
It’s easy to use religion to justify your political beliefs and we all do it to some extent, especially when it’s possible to literally make the Bible say anything you want. In the end, however, shouldn’t we all agree that God is good and wants good things for his people? Given that, and given the amount of BAD things that happen to people under socialist, communist, totalitarian dictatorships that implement policies today’s leftists advocate, those of us who place God on the side of President Trump and conservatives have a pretty solid case, regardless of that last “bad” thing Trump tweeted or said.
“God on the side of...”
A good time to reflect on the Third Commandment.
He is an imperfect man, a sinner and maybe even an adulterer (by strict definition) but will tolerate and even encourage the free practice of your own religion.
The alternative party will impose a strict top down controlling state religion. They will even refuse to call it a religion, but it is. Not a hard choice at all once you boil it down.
Hostility to Christianity as a feature of Democratic party politics has increased considerably since Bush was President.
Christians can support alternatives to that hostility including President Trump.
We do not have to cheer on the hatred of Christianity.
No orthodox church or church member follows a fallible human rather than The Christ. If you are a solid Christian, you obey the government leaders God has permitted to rule, as long as they exercise proper judgment.
This author is snarky.
I’d rather focus on the New Covenant...
The idea that Trump is guilty of all manner of sin is founded in the belief that wealth can only be amassed by crime. The adjunct is that money corrupts. Both of these are Marxist delusions aimed at discrediting free enterprise.
Mueller demonstrated once and for all that Trump is above reproach.
Were there a tiny glimmer of crime in his past he would have been crucified. Unwittingly, the electorate has managed to elect a president who is as pure as the driven snow.
The Bible Transcends Trump , America , politics and all the things of this world
You want clarity and stop fighting ? just read the Bible
Furthermore you don’t need a building , giant edifice or anything to be a believer in Jesus Christ
“Christians” who are against Trump are Godless, Satanic sodomites.
Peter was far from perfect.
There was a time when his faith wavered and another when he lied under pressure.
“Peter was the devoted and fallible follower of Christ,” says the Rev. John “Bud” Traylor, former president of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
“And I also like to add, ‘Whom Christ made into a living stone that Christ used to build his church,” continues Traylor, who serves as interim pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Baker. He’s also served as an interim president of Louisiana College in Pineville and was a longtime pastor at First Baptist Church of Monroe.
“Peter was impetuous,” adds the Rev. Paul Counce, pastor of the Cathedral of St. Joseph and a canon lawyer. “He was brash, and he probably spoke from the heart before his head kicked into gear. Remember in John 21:17, when Jesus asks, ‘Peter, do you love me?’ He asked Peter this three times, and on the third time Peter became impatient, because Jesus kept asking.”
Though Jesus had already been crucified and risen from the dead at this point, the irritation can be detected in Peter’s voice when he answered in verse 17, “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.”
To which Jesus answered, “Feed my sheep.”
Jesus used the metaphor of himself as a shepherd leading his flock as an illustration of his role as head of the church. Peter eventually would take Jesus’ direction and lead the church.
“Jesus knew Peter’s flaws,” Counce says. “He even told Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan,’ at one point, when Peter said Jesus didn’t have to suffer.”
This happens in Matthew 16:21-23: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’ Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’”
“Peter was trying to get Jesus to turn away from the cross,” Traylor says.
“Jesus knew what he had to do to have victory,” Counce adds.
The Bible does a good job but life requires far more knowledge listed in only one book. Narrowness is dysfunctional.
If one takes verses out of context, yes...they can say what you want.
However, if read in context then they don't.
I didn’t see who this “one man” was in the first paragraph so I stopped reading.
Was anyone we know?
RE: I didn’t see who this “one man” was in the first paragraph so I stopped reading.
I’ll give you a hint — It’s not Jesus Christ.
So you didn’t find it either? Strange.
Very nicely put.
I use the KJV/AV precisely because it is derived from the Textus Receptus, unlike the Westcott-Hort Higher Criticism renditions favored by the Marxists calling themselves Progressives who infiltrated the seminaries decades ago.
You cannot legitimately make such a categorical assertion.
RE: So, you didn’t find it either?
Not if you stop at the first paragraph.
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