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The Clarion \ Feb. 18, 2011
Sticks in our eyes: Problems witli Cliristianity
By Bryan Koffman
Contributor
“Judge not, that you not be judged. .. .How
can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the
speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log
in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the
log out of your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to take the speck out of your brother's
eye.” Matthew 7:1-5.
“Judge nof ’ is probably one of the most oft
quoted phrases from the Bible today, but it’s
also one of the most misunderstood. Ripped
from the context of Jesus’ sermon, the phrase is
much like the sound bites we hear from political
commentators, and mostly serves to support the
speaker’s own agenda, one that defends their
sinful actions. “Only God can judge me” is the
refrain of our generation, as if that’s a better
scenario: God judging me.
Jesus is not saying that we shouldn’t call
a spade a spade. He’s saying, “Don’t be a
hypocrite.” So rather than explain the issues
1 have with Atheism, I hope to first take the
log out of my own eye by reviewing the issues
within Christianity, more specifically, the
church. Much like the apostle Paul did in his
various letters within the Bible, I am hoping to
build the church up through loving correction.
First, we as Christians have a terrible
knowledge of the Bible, as evidenced by the
aforementioned decontextualized verse. We
forget that other parts of the Bible actually
call us to judge false teaching, false teachers,
2 Corinthians 11:13, and even one another
within the church, 1 Corinthians 5:12. Not in
the spirit of self-righteousness, but for the sake
of discernment and admonishment.
Most of us have never read the whole Bible,
let alone more than a chapter or two. This is
really disturbing considering how vehemently
some of us declare the absolute truthfulness
and inspiration of the book, or how blindly we
believe in a God we’ve read nothing about.
Even more frightening, is that atheists know
more about the Bible than the average Christian.
Not only do we Christians not know our Bible,
but it seems that the people who do know it
don’t believe it causing many to question its
validity.
Many of us don’t even know why we should
believe the Bible, leaving us to never ending
circular reasoning: “Why do you believe in
God?” “The Bible says so.” “Why do you
believe the Bible?” “It’s the Word of God.”
Christians, are you beginning to see why
much of the world doesn’t take us seriously?
My favorite reason we give for why we believe
the Bible is, “I tried it, and it worked for me.”
By that logic, I should still believe in the Tooth-
fairy. The Tooth-fairy does exist.. .right?
This lack of knowledge in the Bible has a
number of effects on us as Christians. Firstly,
most of us are scared out of our minds that
everything we’ve placed our trust in is a lie.
Christianity becomes a security blanket that
we fight to keep as academia and the scientific
community seems to reveal its childishness,
and we develop a huge cognitive disjunction
between what we believe about God and what
we believe about the rest of life. We end up
coming off incredibly ignorant and arrogant to
the rest of the world
Second, we base our beliefs on personal
opinion, sinful desires, or cultural sway, rather
than God’s opinion. This has differing effects
with differing cultures, just as the churches in
the New Testament each had their own issues of
misunderstanding Jesus and his Gospel.
Us fundamentalists typically adopt moralism
and demand it through political activism. The
Gospel to us is a sick, twisted kind of love that
says, “Be good, and then God will love you”,
and we attempt to legislate morality.
Unfortunately, we become blind to our own
sins of greed, pride, and gluttony, while we
point the finger at homosexuality, adultery,
and alcoholism. The “judge nof’ verse above
is actually for us. We forget that Jesus was
actually a friend of sinners, that he came to save
the world, because it is already condemned,
John 3:17-18. We forget that Jesus didn’t run
for a political office, nor institute his physical
kingdom over the oppressive Roman Empire,
but started an invisible one in the hearts of those
who believe. We forget that Jesus reserved his
harshest words for the religious and political
leaders of his day, Matthew 23.
Us liberal, emergent Christians adopt religious
pluralism and “tolerance” over the truth of Jesus.
We blindly talk about all faiths being equally
valid and pointing towards the same God, not
realizing how stupid we sound to every other
religion.
We talk about God in vague hippy terms that
make him out to be some kind of moralistic
therapeutic deity that only has attributes like love
and peace. We have Coexist bumper stickers,
even though the Bible says other religions are
the teachings of demons, 1 Corinthians 10:20,
1 Timothy 4:1.
We are offended that fundamentalist
Christians would dare call homosexuality a sin,
1 Corinthians 6:9, or that someone would write
such a “judgmental” article. We have no idea
what to do with the God of the Old Testament
who slays the firstborn of every person in Egypt
for the sins of Pharaoh Exodus 13:15. Many of
us don’t even go to church because we’d rather
not be preached to, even though the Bible was
written by preachers.
Third, we don’t know the Bible, so we
constantly fight with one another How many
unbelievers, let alone Christians, actually know
the church to be a place of love and unity? I love
the Church and so does Jesus. No, the church
is not perfect because it’s a place where sinners
come to be fixed and healed. But the fact that
we have over 30,000 denominations is really,
really sad, and I blame it on Biblical illiteracy
and rejection that leads to self-centered living,
instead of Bible and Jesus-centered living.
Christians, let us know our Great Savior Let
us read our Bibles like our lives depended on
it (because they kind of do). Let us submit to
the hard truths of scripture, rather than find
theologians that justify our sinful lifestyles.
Either that, or let’s get rid of the Bible and
recognize that we believe in a non-existent God
of our own invention, one that fits our agendas.
At least we wouldn’t be hypocrites.
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