Anything and everything goes nowadays…except Jesus Christ. 
Hinduism, Mohamedism, Budhism, Shintoism, Atheism, Zoroastrianism, Animism, Enviromentalism…all the ism’s are just fine…no problem. But Jesus. He has got to go. We do not want Him anywhere near us, or in the conversation, or to even see the name in print. Jesus Christ is just bad…that’s all.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ claimed to be the living God. He claimed to be the One sent from the Father. Incarnate as a man. He was good. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, raised the dead. He forgave sins. And for that He was staked to wood and left to sufficate and bleed to death.
I think there are two main reasons that the world hated Him then, and why the world still hates Him. He said He was the One. All other claims to divinity, or roads to righteousness are counterfit…phoney substitutes. That’s reason one…the exclusive claim to Godliness, and the undoing of the religious projects designed to bring people up to a level of acceptabilty towards gaining favor with God.
Reason two is that we have a natural aversion to God. Because of our sinful nature, we want to be our own god. We want no one telling us how we should live. When true goodness, true Godliness enters the picture, we feel threatened and want to snuff it out, lest we be exposed in our lesser state. “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.” ( John 3:19 )
There is also a third reason, much lesser than the first two, but still a factor (I believe). The legalistic, moralistic self-righteousness and judgmentalism of many Christians. This creates a comic book characterization of Christians and the Christian faith. Much of which is earned and well deserved.
There is an answer for this problem of Jesus hating. It lies in Jesus Himself. He holds out the only true hope for fogiveness and reconcilliation with the Living God. His love for sinners is great. He died for the sins of the whole world. Not just a few. He welcomes all unto Himself and desires that all come unto Him. In Jesus Christ there is always hope, there is always forgiveness, and there is always love and authentic life.
That ought to be good news for a world that is hopelessly lost without Him. It ought to be.
Filed under: Hating Jesus |
The Old Adam Lives! 
It ought to be……….but the natural man always leans toward working his way to God. Any religion I can think of does this.
I witnessed to tow Muslims last week and they both shared one thing in common; they both feared dying knowing that they had not done enough good in life to make up for all the bad they had done. They feared when they stood before allah, the scales would tip down on the bad things and he would send them to hell.
What a way to live your life; fearful of hell everyday.
Of course I told them I has assurance that when I stood before God that all my sins would be forgiven, not because I’m a good person, but because I’m a bad person who has been forgiven.
I shared the Law and Grace and left them to God.
Wayne,
You are truly a soldier for Christ!
Whenever I witness to Muslim women (easy to spot because of the garb) I always tell them that they are free now because of Christ and they do not have to wear that stuff.
I tell them in no uncertain terms that Christ has died for their sins every bit as much as He died for mine.
We throw the seed…the Lord will do the rest.
Keep on keepin’ on, Wayne!
– Steve
Steve, do you actually just walk up to Muslim women and tell them that Jesus died for their sins? What do they say?
Brigitte,
I have, and I still do. Not every time. But once in awhile I will approach a woman that is covered, so that it is obvious she is a Muslim.
Sometimes they are annoyed. Sometimes they say thanks (just being polite I think), and once in awhile we actually have a conversation about Islam, Jesus, religion in gereral.
I had a terrific conversation once with a woman who was covered head to toe in black. It lasted about ten minutes until her husband came into the store looking for her. I introduced myself to him and said, “I was just telling your wife about Jesus.”
He didn’t say a word, but gave me a look that would kill and grabed his wife and stormed away.
Thanks be to God that we are still able to speak to Muslims(at least in this part of the world) about Christ and not have to worry about being murdered. (at least for now)
Take care, Brigitte.
– Steve
Good post, Steve. ALL other religions are dead ends. Jesus is God’s unique, irreplaceable Word to this tiny world. Our message has not changed in 2,000 years.
“…God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
Political correctness and religious pluralism be damned!
Preach the Lordship of Christ and let the chips fall where they will!
Thanks Pastor.
By the grace of God we will not be silent.
– Steve
Stevooo
Who knows, maybe in the next 2000yrs Jesus will prove everyone wrong and finally validate his claims.
Tick Tick Tick
John T.,
I think Jesus validates His claims…one heart at a time. One changed life at a time.
For those that know Him and that He knows…there is no other life. He is their All in All.
– Steve
That’s very brave Steve. I hope the women don’t get into too much trouble for just being approached. From reading “Infidel” one can see how tough this religion is on females.
john t., what is obvious is that it is Our time that is running out. Tick, tick, and we’re dust.
John T.,
Not too brave on my part. If we were in Saudi Arabia, then it might be brave.
Almost always when I go up to a Muslim woman, they are alone. That one instance was an exception. You are right, John, I guess it’s possible they could get into trouble. Nothing like the trouble they could be in for, if they were never spoken to, or had some other conception of Jesus.
Tick, tick, tick… “from dust we came and to dust we shall return.” So true, John…so true.
– Steve
*Political correctness and religious pluralism be damned!
Preach the Lordship of Christ and let the chips fall where they will!*
I love that!
I pray that more Christians would take this attitude…..
Wayne,
That’s my Pastor! Pulls no punches! A true bulldog for Christ in the tradition of the Apostle Paul and Martin Luther.
NO ADD ON’s to Christ. NONE.