Tag: Christian Education

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Christian Bullies

Seems like an oxymoron–how can a Christian be a bully? I’m not talking about people who claim to be Christian but live their lives in the pursuit of the misery of others. The Bible condemns such behaviour as pagan, and such people do need to question why they can claim to be Christians at all.

But were you a bully in days past? Throughout my ministry I’ve met youth who made the lives of their peers a living hell, often while wearing the name of Christ, thus dragging His name through the mud.

Because of Christian bullies, there are many more hearts hardened to the Gospel. You, the “Christian example,” participated in the marginalisation of the weak and outsider. You picked on her, you embarrassed him publicly. You contributed to the daily misery and tears, sometimes even to the point of physical illness; possibly self-destruction.

Is it any wonder your victims steer clear from all things Christian? The real tragedy for your victims is that on the day of judgment no one can claim an excuse that they were bullied away from the Gospel. Can you live with this?

Now you are a Christian adult. You are active in all the right causes, you give to missions, you read your Bible and have your devotions, you raise your children to be Christians, and say all the right words. You might even write against bullying.

Do you think this undoes the pain you’ve caused in the past? Do you think you are absolved  of any responsibility for restitution?

Consider this:

Matthew 5:21–26 (ESV)

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

As a bully, you’ve already accomplished vss 21-22. What have you done with 5:24-26? Your victims “have something against you.” You might still harbour the lying rationalisation that those you hurt somehow brought this down on themselves. Jesus’s Words in the Sermon on the Mount cut right through this nonsense.

So, back to you. Are you still bringing gifts to the altar, while leaving the hurt to their hurting? God doesn’t need your activism; but you do need His Righteousness and Holiness.

Micah 6:6–8 (ESV)

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

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Non-comformity

“The non-conformist today is the believer in the Christ of Luther and Calvin. He is the unreconstructed sectarian. He continues to hold that man’s whole self must be interpreted by Christ and in terms of Christ as Christ identifies himself by his Spirit in His Word. And Emerson would be as anxious to keep this sort of non-conformity at arm’s length as the ecumenical movement is anxious to keep him out of the “larger church” and the educational institutions of the land.”

Cornelius Van Til, Essays on Christian Education (The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company: Phillipsburg, NJ, 1979).
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Cults

Cults, or “alternative religious movements,” whatever. It is important to know what a specific cult believes if you are speaking to a member of a group; knowing, for example, what Mormonism is all about is helpful if answering a Mormon’s questions about your beliefs, or framing good questions for them.

Lots of people, even Christians (who should know better), are uneasy with the “cult” label, because it brings up the “cult=bad, truth=good, and I believe the truth and so I’m good” scenario. If we’re uneasy because we don’t want to be rude, that’s understandable; if we’re uneasy because we don’t believe there is such a thing as religious truth, then we’ve got a problem.

Let’s assume that we do believe in truth in religion, that some things are true in matters of faith and some are false. If you are Christian, the limits of truth are set out in the Bible. It is God’s opinion on the matter, and our faithfulness to it can be measured relatively well. I understand fully that if you are a member of a group outside of the limits of Christianity, I will be a cult member to you. That’s ok, write your own blog.

Cults differ from Christianity in several important ways, but the name of the group is irrelevant. A Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Oneness Pentecostal, etc, will all claim to be Christians, but a simple inspection of Scripture will show that they mean different things by the words used.

Keeping it simple, cults will do one of the following:

1) de-God, God: make God less of a God, more of a man

2) deify man: make man into god

3) deny the deity of Christ

4) deny the humanity of Christ

Mormonism manages to do pretty much all four; Jehovah’s Witnesses #3 for certain; Gnosticism #4.

Check out Colossians 1; Philippians 2; John 1; 1 John 2, 4, & 2 John are the ONLY places in the Bible where the name AntiChrist occurs. For all the hype about that name, it might be a good idea to know what it’s about.

Scripture, the Bible, presents a problem for cults: God’s Word is clear and understandable. Cults must do one of the following with respect to the Bible:

1) ignore it (Islam)

2) “de-mytholigize” it (liberalism that has an anti-supernatural bias; ie., the miracles are myth, not truth)

3) supplant it (Mormonism. Gives lip service to Scripture but depends more upon other books).

4) mistranslate it (Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot get their doctrines out of any normal Bible, so they have created a translation that deliberately mistranslates key passages.

5) twist it (selectively quoting out of context, ignoring the intent of the author).

Is my church/Bible study/discussion group a cult? Ask yourself a few questions:

1. What do they believe about Jesus? Is He God with us, or something less?

2. Are you told that you will become a god, or become God, or something like that? This is Mormonism, and apparently from Witness Lee’s quotes, the teachings of the Local Church.

3. Can you freely fellowship with other Christians, or are you banned from others’ company?

4. Are you told you must become worthy of salvation? This is a denial of Grace, and very dangerous. It is also a universal mark of a cult.

5. Does your group use a strange Bible? Can the doctrines taught be found in any Bible, or only a unique one?

6. Can the teachings of your group be found without special Bible footnotes, or study guides? Would anyone, just using a good translation, be able to find the same doctrines?

7. Does your group use only selective verses for study, or are they read in full context?