YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT I JUST GOOGLED – AND, OH MY!
About 106,000,000 results (0.54 seconds)
There seems to be a growing intolerance toward Christianity and toward Christians in America – bordering on downright hate! I am finding this in about every city, town and neighborhood I visit. I have given this considerable thought, but that cannot be right, can it?
Some of my Christian friends agree that Christianity is a turn-off to a lot of people, but most of them would argue that non-believers are just hostile toward the things and people of God.
So, I ‘Googled’ the phrase, “Why don’t people like Christians and Christianity?” Here is what I found:
About 106,000,000 results (0.54 seconds)
LinkedIn:
- Good Reason: Your moral integrity annoys people.
- Bad Reason: You’re judgmental.
- Good Reason: Your contentment and confidence make people uneasy.
- Bad Reason: You’re relatable. (Or just plain weird.)
- Good Reason: You stand up for the weak and vulnerable.
- Bad Reason: You act hatefully.
(Click here for the entire article)
THE GOOD MEN PROJECT:
Number 1: Child ‘Abuse’.
Number 2: Hypocrisy.
Number 3: Religious wars
Number 4: Judgmentalism.
Number 5: Issues around money
Number 6: Attitudes toward LGBTQ+ community.
Number 7: Hell and condemnation.
Number 8: The problem of suffering.
Number 9: Outdated gender roles.
Number 10: The Bible.
(Click here for the entire article)
CHRISTIANITY.com:
1. Religious Hypocrisy
2. Gospel Inoculation
(Click here for the entire article)
HUFF POST:
Number 1. Religion Causes You to Condemn Yourself
Number 2. Religion Causes You to Judge Others and Live a Life of Comparison
Number 3. Religion Makes You Feel Like God Owes You
Number 4. Religion Causes You to Live a Double Life
Number 5. Religion Focuses on the How Instead of the Who
(Click here for the entire article)
PEW RESEARCH CENTER – Why America’s ‘nones’ left religion behind:
(click here for entire article)
Are you getting the idea? Whether these reasons right or wrong in your opinion – and I disagree with many of them as egocentric – it does not change how others are thinking and feeling.
But, I do I think I understand a little about why an increasing number of people don’t like Christians and Christianity, the foregoing reasons not withheld. I think the #1 reason is that we Christians aren’t “Christian” at all.
- We like the idea of being saved from hell and to heaven.
- We like the ‘promises’ made in the Bible.
- We like the moniker of “Christian”.
- But, most of us have tried to skip from ‘stage 1’ of becoming a Christian to the ‘gimme stage’.
There are several stages of acceptance, commitment, growth, maturation, and engagement that must take place if we are to call ourselves, ‘fully devoted followers of Christ’, let alone calling ourselves simply as Christian.
I will make note just FOUR probable steps or stages of becoming Christian, by comparing it to preparation to a rocket launch to the heavens.
Stage one – being saved and becoming a Christian, according to the Bible, is actually the hardest to accomplish, despite what the evangelist or preacher would tell you. They often say, it’s easy. “Just repeat this little prayer”, and bingo! You are saved and can now be a Christian. Come to church, give your money and act right! Woo Hoo! I call this “DRIVE-THROUGH SALVATION” & “SPIRITUAL FAST FOOD”?
But that is not what Jesus says, and it is not what the Bible says. Jesus and the Bible says that you must:
- Acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, recognizing His sacrifice on your behalf, His power, authority, and majesty as God, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (For, it is with the heart a person believes in Christ as Savior which results in your justification, that is, you being made righteous — being freed of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God; and with the mouth acknowledge and confess openly that this is now your belief by faith, which results in and confirming your salvation.) (see Romans 10:9-13)
- Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to follow Me as My disciple, he must deny himself, that is, set aside selfish interests, and take up his cross daily by expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come, and follow Me, believe Me, and conform to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me. (see Luke 9:23).
- Jesus says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And the disciples were even more astonished, and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to Jesus, “Behold, we have left everything and have followed You.” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.” (see Mark 10:25-31).
Stage 2 of becoming a Christian is no easier than step 1, but you may be better prepared having completed the first step.
Now, buckle up. We are going to Stage 2…
Your Brother and Friend,
Mike Young
NEXT: STAGE 2 OF LAUNCH – Becoming a Fully Developed Christian.
(Additional and related series, “Tested By The Spirit in The Wilderness”)
(please bookmark this page or subscribe for upcoming episodes).
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