Posted on 12/04/2016 7:53:32 PM PST by ReformationFan
A lot of people have seemed pretty shocked by the leftist media’s assault on Chip and Joanna Gaines.
BuzzFeed, along with other liberal sites, went after the Gaines family this week for committing the crime of being Christian. Sure, they didn’t put it like that exactly. Instead they accused Chip and Joanna of attending a church led by a pastor who doesn’t believe in gay marriage. But, as anyone with even a trivial understanding of the world’s largest religion already knows, every authentic Christian church in the world teaches the same thing. There has never existed a real Christian church that disagrees with the Gaines’ pastor on this matter. There have existed many apostate churches that deny Christ’s teachings on marriage and sexuality, but they are not Christian in any way other than their name (and often their names aren’t all that Christian, either).
Anti-Christian forces in our culture have attempted to divide Christianity into two groups: bad Christians and tolerable, if not good, Christians. The bad Christians are the ones who take the moral teachings of Scripture seriously, and the tolerable Christians are the ones who think the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, all Scriptural references to marriage and sexual morality, all of the Pauline letters, and the entire Old Testament, expired sometime within the last few decades. According to the tolerable Christians, we can now do, say, and believe whatever we want and still be Christian, so long as we throw, “Oh yeah, and Jesus is the Messiah or whatever, sure,” at the end of it. Anti-Christian leftists are fine with these sorts of Christians, mainly because these sorts of Christians are not Christian. That’s the most striking characteristic of the tolerable Christian: namely, that he isn’t one.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaquilareport.com ...
I am not a homoPHOBE. They don’t scare me a bit!! I hate their decadent filthy life style and pray they will find JESUS. But I fear them NOT!!!!! I love the show and if they have queers on there , I will not love the show.— CLEAR?
To be a Christian is to be counter cultural. If a Christian opposes the hedonism, fornication, drug use, pornography, political corruption, unrestricted abortion and open homosexuality, the Christian will encounter disdain, hostility and persecution.
It may be earned, however, if the Christian thinks the gospel equates to persuading a secular country to be Christianized without its people actually believing.
We know how the story ends. . .here on earth at least and if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we will have a wonderful forever. . . .
“You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matthew 10:22
I would warn, however, against resting on any kind of “cultural Christianity” — even an old fashioned kind.
The more spiritually versed a Christian gets, the more he or she knows he or she has to go right to Jesus, and no amount of civic piety can take the place of this. The civic piety may be a side effect and serve as a witness, but it can’t ever be a source of Christian virtue of itself. Only Jesus can do that.
When even fundamentalism gets THAT fundamental... God will guaran-blessed-tee ya that showers of blessing and rivers of righteousness will flow.
And when the unbeliever starts complaining, not even about the creches and the Christmas lights, but “Jesus this, Jesus that, what a bleeping nuisance you are about Jesus!” then we know we have presented the right kind of witness.
Well, Catholics are being attacked ALL the time, it seems. Does that mean Catholics are doing something right?
Amen!
There’s the kind of spiritual kickback that comes from putting faith in Jesus, and then there’s the secular annoyance that comes from wanting to “force religion” on a “secular” society.
Christians who are doing the right thing should see the former, not the latter.
I had a very amusing run-in the other day on FR where a certain unbeliever just steamed about the way my Freep page yacks about Jesus.
I grinned, and warned him that he was headed for hell (a fate that I warn about too).
Sputter, sputter, sputter!
Well a few days later this fellow is now commenting about Mike Pence and is sure that Mike Pence can stand up to “gays” in his Christian faith... something appears to have happened. Yeah, he’s still acting like a bit of a jerk, but I think the point got across that Jesus can punch back, and hard! At this point I don’t presume to be a junior Holy Spirit and pester the person... but just pray.
It's only going to get worse as the time grows near for the return of our Lord and Savior. Wonderful people like the Gaines and those who uphold Christian values that don't change with the whims of society should expect the perilous times to come:
Really? If a Christian stands in the public forum to denounce the decadence and seeks its cessation for the benefit of the society he inhabits, he will be ridiculed whether he mentions Christ as his motivation and or if he doesn’t. Secular culture at its core is hostile to all moral law whether it was propagated by Stoics, Jews, Christians, Muslims or moral philosophers. At the core of moral law is a concern and respect for the dignity of the individual despite societal pressures,desires and whims. A culture that that seeks pleasure for pleasure’s sake infringes on individuals whether they be children, women,the weak or the less fortunate. The Christian dictum to “love thy neighbor” is an adage to show respect and be charitable. Anyone who objects to the destructive effects of decadence, will be disparaged by the secular majority. It has always been as such.
This is always going to be a problem, till Jesus comes again.
What amazes me is how reluctant people are to lean on Jesus. The mercy when one does is indescribable.
The worst thing a Christian can do is to stand on pride and gin up his own strength. (I can TELL you about that, having done that for years after I first believed. While I got on “okay” I really did not have the divine comfort.) The best thing a Christian can do is to let himself be weak apart from pride, and lean on Jesus and find himself imbued with a new supernatural strength.
Yes, REALLY.
A proud shell of Christianity does nobody good, except by accident.
Secular folks are very KEEN to notice any opposition that is based on pride. They are KEEN because their OWN game is also based on pride!
No, this is to go down the supremely wrong road. And just because the historical church did it doesn’t make it Jesus’ desirous will, only His permissive will.
Praying is always the first and best choice in many instances.
God bless you.
Sorry but your argument does not make much sense. Whether you be a Christian,other faith based “moralists”, a stoic or a secular moral philosopher you will always be in the minority and will, by the nature of your consensus values, be counter cultural. Christians, as are many others, are stunned and dismayed on how America has devolved over the past fifty years. Hedonism and self destructive behavior has always been present but was never celebrated as a good or desirable thing. Today it is openly embraced, celebrated and in many ways has become the norm. People who see the downside and object publicly are in fact disparaged and are out of the “mainsteam”.
Yes. There is also a sense of peace because we can pray for those who heap ridicule on Christians for our faith and we can rest in the knowledge that God loves them and desires that ALL come to repentance and faith. Not all will, but that is between them and God. That is, I think, the supernatural strength you speak of. Letting the Holy Spirit speak, love and work through us to reach the lost and then giving God the glory for hearts and minds changed.
Good observations.
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