- Introductions, as usual. Good question?
- Restatement of theme:
- “If this issue was the reason a non-believer gave as their obstacle to Christianity, what would we say to them?”
- Theme verse: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” (Matthew 13:19)
- Recap from last week:
- Last week we talked about disagreements between the church and the culture and between the church and itself, stuff like worship styles, abortion/homosexuality, the Crusades, witch trials, missions to the rest of the world, etc.
- Several of these (ones where the church really blew a certain response) could easily be used from the perspective of a non-believer: “I can’t believe in this Christ person because of what that ‘Christian’ abortion clinic bomber did.”
- Probably wrong ways to respond:
- Try to justify it: “Oh, well, abortion is killing people so they just got what they deserved.”
- Insist that all real Christians are perfect people: “Well, you know, real Christians don’t do stupid stuff like that. We’re better than that.”
- Say that what Christians do doesn’t say anything about Christianity: “Well, it’s all about Jesus. Even if every Christian was a horrible person, that doesn’t say anything about Christianity at all.”
- Better ideas:
- Admit that it was wrong and is not excuseable. (Assuming, of course, that it is. Sometimes you have to be really careful about distinguishing what is wrong and what isn’t. For instance, from C.S. Lewis, it wasn’t wrong for the folks in the witch trials to punish those, if any, who were seriously witches. Calling anyone you didn’t like a witch and ending up with thirty-odd people dead, however, is definitely wrong.)
- Point out that Christianity is not for perfect people, it is for the sick. “For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13) That’s the whole message of Christianity, of the Gospel, of the Cross—grace given to sinners just like you and I, not people that deserve it. Christianity is meant to be composed of lots of people whose lives are falling apart (and it is, even if you don’t always see if) and who rely on Christ to get it all back together, rather than of perfect people. “Confessing our brokeness…”
- Admit that a lot of Christians (or, at least, people that call themselves Christians) give Christianity a bad rap. We know Christians by their fruit. (John 15) We all do, sometimes. But, “Does our faithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (Romans 3:3)
- Know some of the history about these different events. I didn’t, but I found a nice summary at Stand to Reasons’s web site. I’m sure you could find a lot more online. Many of these events are often pretty heavily exaggerated.
- Ultimately, the point is to point them to Christ, with humility, understanding, and love.
- Some other worthwhile links:
- Next topic: “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance
- Let’s set up a real debate. We’ll split the class into two sides, and take turns presenting our points. I don’t think we have time to really do justice to the topic, but I hope we can get at some of the primary issues. 5 minute opening argument from either side, and then time for some question-and-answer responses? We may not get it all done this week; if we go to next week, feel free to bring in any other resources you have available.
- Informative links (I’ll print these out to bring as handouts to class):
- Now, I don’t suspect that many people will reject Christianity because of our position on the Pledge of Allegiance, although it certainly could happen. I do think, however, that a lot of people have big problems with Christianity because of the way we are involved in our government and in politics.
- What reasons have you heard that Christians ought not bring faith into politics? Are there good ones?
- “Don’t push your religion on me.”
- “We’re a secular nation, we must have separation of church and state.”
- What mistakes have Christians often made in getting involved in politics?
- Seeking power rather that to be obedient
- Criticizing those that disagree as “stupid”
- Not trying to understand the “other side”
- What does Scripture say?
- Why should we be involved?
- In a republic, everyone is a little part “king”—we all have a responsibility for the way our government works.
- Just like the kings in the Old Testament, we are to be faithful representatives of the true King.
- Everyone makes decisions based on their way of looking at the world. There aren’t any exceptions. Atheist, New Age, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, agnostic…they all have standards by which they base their decisions. We have to decide which standards we are going to use—if atheist, fine, but we can’t pretend that it isn’t promoting a set of standards based on an athiest way of looking at the world. Christian standards don’t imply that we make everyone convert, either.
- As Martin Luther King quoted often, “Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” (Amos 5:15)
- We have to remember, though, that God is in power—even over the government. He will not fail if our candidate does not get elected.
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