I get this complaint a lot, especially a couple of years ago when I was a more active blogger. "Why don't the true loving Christians rise up and throttle the obnoxious ones we see in the media?" My answer is, agape doesn't work that way. If we "rose up", we'd be no better than those getting the world's press.
But then I got to thinking about other statements I've heard in the media: "All Islam is bad because those professing that the Quran is love aren't silencing the extremists". I can also imagine people in ancient Rome saying "all Jews are bad because they won't rise up and silence the Pharisees".
I'm planting this seed, and would like to hear your thoughts, gentlemen: I believe Satan uses people within churches to denigrate and discourage the faithful. How do we fight this? SHOULD we fight this, or should we pray all the harder, love all the more, and let the Lord and the Holy Spirit do their job?
I call what I'm looking for "Agape Christianity" (redundant, I know, but I'm trying to differentiate it from "media Christianity"). I looked up the phrase on Google: other than a sermon by that name, which I have saved to listen to later, it appears exactly NOWHERE on the internet.
How interesting.
So, I want to avoid making another denomination here - but what action do we take to forward the cause of Agape Christianity in the world?
--Dr Ken (looking forward to your thoughts) FP
Dr. Ken, I think you are right. Satan destroys churches from within. If he were to attack from outside the church it would rally the church members to want to come to it's defense.
ReplyDeleteBy attacking from within the members will fight against each other and make Satan's job much easier.
I believe we have to use the weapons that we have prayer and love. I think we definitely have to pray harder and love more when confronted by differring factions within our churches.
I also think we need to gently remind people "It's about GOD, not you". We are in church to praise and worship God, not the preacher, or any other member of the staff or congregation.
As far as hypocrites go: If you let a hypocrite get between you and God guess which one of you is closer to God.
I would like to hear what anyone else out there thinks about this.