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cbost6421
Registered Member
Date Joined Jun 2004
Total Posts : 65
| Posted 8/8/2004 9:23 AM (GMT -6) |   | I know we all on here debate alot of things.
I am a full-bore Open view theist, But I am a Christian First.
I think we all need to remember that.
To my story...
Several months ago I promised a girl at work that I would look-up some answers to why Christians were so Hypocritcial. SHe said somethign to the effect of "I just don't believe it anymore because every one at my church was just so evil, I learned alot, but I feel it wasn't real because they were all hypocrites"
MOnths later I finally got back to here this past friday.
now I want to say that this is where the Open View Belongs...
painting a picture of God so that people who would not believe in the normal picture of God, could believe in Jesus Christ as thier savior.
this is what I did. And At work the girl seemed very postivie in response. Please pray for her!
Below is a copy of the email...
Christian Hypocrisy...
{insert name of girl here}
I must first aplogize for taking so long to respond to your question. I have been researching my own questions first and I apologize if this seems selfish.
Secondly I want you to know that I am not looking at Hypocrisy of the Christian Church as an objective bystander, nor am I trying to "justify" everything the church is guilty of doing. Rather, I come at this problem from the same philosophical perspective that you do...as one who has experienced this phenomena. I too have been made fun of, gossiped about, lied to, not been showed mercy when I have sinned. I have answered tuff theological questions differently, and been called "unChristian", I've done my best to install a vision in other Christians whom I lead, and was called pushy or controlling. These are just a few of the things done to me in so-called "Christian Settings".
thirdly I want you to know that I am not a professional theologian or Christian philosopher. I would consider myself an "armchair" theologian, like the "archair quarerback" who yells at the T.V. every sunday afternoon during football season.
With this is mind, if you like or dislike my arguments/answers, seek a minister who you can trust (yes they exist, though they can be hard to find!)
Though I have been hurt by this Hypocrisy of the church, i have to say one thing, it has strengthed and renewed my faith rather than cause me to reject it. For me, there is a comfort in knowing that the God of Creation loves me despite what "His" church has done to me.
This is where I want to start with my answers. You had mentioned that you attended a baptist church and that this is where you learned alot, but saw the hypocrisy. I have noticed in my studies that there are alot of doctrines which the Baptists teach or imply that I believe are wrong and unbiblical (not related to the Bible).
For starters, Baptists believe in an all-controlling God. This God is all powerful, and all knowing. This of course supposes that God knew these Christians would be hypocritical, and of course since He is all powerful, He could have stopped them from being hypocrites.
Opposed to this, I think that God is more powerful than us, but HE chose to give us some power in making Free-decisions. This is what we in the philosophical/theological community call "free-will". Free will is formally defined as "the ability to decide between two decisions."
As a Christian, I believe that God has given us such a free will in order to choose to be loving towards Him or not. The problem of all sin is that we choose to be unloving towards God. God only dictates what is sin and what is not sin because He knows what is best for us, and doesn't want us to get hurt by it.
Hypocrisy in the Christian Church is a result of the misuse of free-will. God niether controls it nor does He fore-know free decisions. If He did such things He would not be a God of Love, and want a relationship with us, but He would be a God of control, dictating the actions of the world.
Hypocrisy of The Christian Church is not a sufficient reason to disbelieve in the Christian God when we look at God in this manner. In this view, called the Open View of God, we see that God is as much hurt by the hypocrisy of the Church as we are. If we take the Bible to contain His truth (as I do), we see this fact. God chose the jews and was killed (God in Christ) by thier hypocrisy. Later, in the Book of Revelation, God tells the seven churches all about thier hypocrisy and how "He will spit them out of His mouth." There is sufficent amount of scripture to support the fact that God is hurt by our Hypocrisy.
For this reason we should assume that not everyone who goes to church or claims to be a Christian really has given thier free-will over to God's desires for thier life. In my opinion, despite what some Baptists say, salvation is a process, not one instant moment in time. You must continue to be a Christian, you are not always a Christian. If you make a decision to be a Christian, then you must continue to make that decision for the rest of thier life. In the third Matrix Movie, the Oracle says something to the effect of "the real test of any decision is weather or not you'd make that decision again". There are many people who claim to be Christians, who aren't "making that decision again", becoming hypocrites everytime they walk into a church or open thier Bible.
In conclusion, I must say one other thing. I am not perfect, I do not always continue in this decision. I am hypocritical. I wish every day that I was perfect like Christ. But there is Grace to cover me. A grace that gives me a peace and love that I can't explain, and I can't run away from it for too long before I go back to being faithful to my decision. God is likened unto a lover who is wooing us back to His arms, not as one who is all controlling, leaving us at the mercy of His will.
Does any of this make any sense?
I hope this helps!
God Bless,
Chuck"athon"
"If you are a theologian you will pray truly.
And if you pray truly, you are a theologian."
- Evagrios the Solitary
stu.westga.edu/~cbost1/openviewtheism.html
"those who pray truly are theologians and those who are theologians pray truly"
-Evagrios The Solidary | | Back to Top | | |
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cbost6421
Registered Member
Date Joined Jun 2004
Total Posts : 65
| Posted 8/15/2004 11:20 AM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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Tom
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 8/15/2004 11:48 AM (GMT -6) | | Good stuff Chuck. I would have worded things a bit different, but I appreciate the approach. People who have been hurt by Christians need to hear other Christians own up to the fact that such things happen, that they've happend to us as Christians, and--in most cases--that we've been on the giving end. I'd only add that your friend, if she's as honest as she wishes hypocritical Christians were, ought to own up to this about herself as well. If she rejects Christianity because of hypocritical Christians, will she reject atheism because of hypocritical atheists? Or Islam because of hypocritical Muslims? She'd have to live on the Moon in absolute isolation. So I guess I like being honest with people who are struggling with the Church because the Church has screwed with them, but I also like those same people to be as hard on themselves as they are on the Church.
Slightly aside, a good friend of mine (and his wife) just lost their first baby at birth. Huge blow. Lots of questions. And you know, it's often said that people in pain don't want to talk about theology. But all the question my friend has been asking me this past week are theological ones: Why do these things happen in God's world? Where was God? If God can and does save infants who were in more trouble than our baby was, why didn't or couldn't he just save our baby? My point is, we can and ought to do theology when we win others to Christ. Frankly, I don't see how people are won apart from theology being in there somewhere.
Tom | | Back to Top | | |
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