Christianity's Greatest Threat

There are all kinds of problems facing Christianity.  This is not news- it has been that way from the beginning.  Whether it is persecution from Roman authorities, corruption and sale of indulgences in the Middle Ages, extremism from Islamists, or sexual misconduct among clergy, one thing is for sure- the Church has always faced problems.

So what is the greatest threat Christianity has ever faced?  I believe that threat is something that we are facing right now and it is becoming more and more pronounced every day.

Some would say the biggest threat to Christianity is a militant homosexual agenda.  I don't think that is it.  Some would say the biggest threat to Christianity is growing governmental interference.  Again, I don't think that is it.  Some would say the biggest threat to Christianity is the persecution going on all over the world.  While this is a big deal, I still don't think that is the biggest problem.

This is what I think the biggest threat to Christianity is. 

We have turned the Great Commission into the "Great Option" and have moved Jesus' command to "go into all the world and make disciples" to the shoulders of professional, paid clergy.

Seriously- are you making disciples?  Are you even a disciple yourself?

Why have we turned the clear words of Jesus- "MAKE DISCIPLES"- into something that is optional?  When did that become the sole responsibility of pastors?  Is there anyone, even serious dedicated Christians, that would say that making disciples is a priority in his or her life?

Sadly, the answer is no. 

God has set up life in stages- you move from being a child to being an adult.  One of the marks of adulthood- physical adulthood, that is- is the ability to reproduce.  Right?  As children, our bodies are incapable of reproducing.  As adults, however, we gain that ability as our bodies physically mature.  In fact, adults who are unable to reproduce have some kind of biological problem.  The default state of mature adult human beings is reproduction.

The same is true for Christians.  When we are immature in our faith, we don't have the ability to make disciples.  However, as we grow in the faith, we gain that ability.  Following that logic, if you are not making disciples- replicating your character and faith in another person- then one of two things is going on- you are either immature or you have a problem.  The default mode for a disciple of Jesus Christ is to make disciples.

So, which is it?  If you are not actively engaged in making disciples, are you immature or do you have a problem?  If you are immature in your faith, that is okay.  We don't criticize children for not being able to reproduce- in fact, if children could reproduce, it would be a disaster.  It's actually a good thing for an immature Christian NOT to be able to make disciples.  Your challenge, like the child, is to grow and mature in your faith before you can make any disciples.

However, if you have been in the faith for awhile and you are not immature in your faith, and you are not actively engaged in making disciples, you have a problem.  Yes, you do.  You have taken the command of Jesus and made it into something that is an option for you.  Do you think Jesus takes this lightly?  Do you think that He was kidding when He gave us the Great Commission, saying, "I say this to you, but you really don't have to take it seriously.  I mean, it's really not that important for people to walk with Me.  It's really not that important that people surrender their lives to Me.  It's far more important for you to live your own life accomplishing your own goals.  I get that.  But if you have ANY of amount of time whatsoever, would you PLEASE at least consider maybe making a disciple, pretty please?"

This is the greatest threat facing Christianity- Christians who do not make disciples.  That's it.  The problem isn't out there- the problem is inside.  It is inside our churches, inside the hearts of believers, and it will destroy the church.  Churches that are filled with people who prioritize making disciples are great churches indeed.  Churches that relegate disciple-making to professional paid clergy are awful. 

So what about you?  Can you honestly look at God and say, "I take making disciples as seriously as You do?"  Have you been guilty of making the Great Commission the Great Option . . . .  and opted out?  If so, you need to repent.  You need to repent of that as strongly as you would repent of the sin of adultery, or murder, or kidnapping, or embezzlement, or theft, or any other sin.  You need to ask God's forgiveness for all the missed opportunities to grow His kingdom.  You need to ask God's forgiveness for ignoring something that He specifically commanded us to do.

Then, you need to find someone and disciple him or her.  Begin to replicate your faith in another person.  Find the person who needs to grow in his or her faith and guide them.  It may be that you actually win this person to Christ.  Once you win him or her to Christ, teach that person the faith.  Walk with him or her through the dark valleys of life.  Teach that person the Scriptures. 

This is the way faith is passed on.  This is the way the world changes.  To change the world, you have to change people.  Only the gospel of Jesus can change people.  Disciples are people who make other disciples.  Let's not settle for playing church anymore- let's not settle for a watered-down version of the words of Jesus- "Go into all the world and make disciples"- like we have for so long.  Let's take seriously His command and prioritize the making of disciples in our lives.  At the end of the day, at the end of your life, it's going to be the only thing that matters.

Why do Christians seem to like guns so much? Part 2

As a student of history, I love looking at trends throughout the world in different cultures, different countries, different governmental philosophies, and so on and so forth.  I enjoy learning the lessons from history and applying them to my life.

The Miss America Pageant has taught us two things- one, everyone wants world peace, and two, it ain't happenin'.

Why?

History has shown us that peace will only happen one of two ways.  In order to live in peace, one of two things absolutely has to happen.

One, we will have to trust in the inherent goodness of people.  We have to turn from being selfish, self-centered, immoral people to being decent, law-abiding, wonderful people.  All criminals will have to stop being criminals, all nations will have to stop going to war, all terrorists will have to stop blowing up buildings and shooting up shopping malls, and all bullies will have to stop bullying.

That's option #1.  I'm not too optimistic about that one.

Option #2, though, is observable throughout history.  Here it is:  there must be a balance of power.

I am a child of the 1980s- I grew up in the waning days of the Cold War.  I grew up under the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union constantly in the back of my mind.  However, nuclear war with the USSR never happened.  Why?

Was it because the USSR was a good, moral country with concern for human life?  Hardly.

It was because they knew that if they nuked us, we'd nuke them back.  They would have nothing to gain and would lose everything.  In other words, there was a balance of power.  Therefore, there was peace.

It is this way in everything- where power is balanced, there is peace.  Countries that are mutually capable of defending themselves from the others are rarely, if ever, invaded.  When everyone has the same amount of power, the people live in peace.  Only when there is an imbalance of power- one side has more than the other- is there the threat of war or hostilities.  A major imbalance of power resided in Germany and Poland in 1939.  The Wehrmacht was light years more sophisticated and deadly than the Polish army- the Wehrmacht Panzer tanks easily slaughtered the Polish cavalry (yes, cavalry as in horses versus tanks) in the blitzkrieg.  Where there is no balance of power, there is tension, warfare, and lack of peace.

This is also true within a country.  Yesterday I wrote about the seemingly contradictory phenomenon that the most peaceful and non-aggressive people in the world- Christians- seem to value gun ownership highly.  Private gun ownership is essential to balancing the power between the people and the government.

When there is a balance of power between the people and the government, there is peace.  If the government is armed and the people are armed, there is peace.  If one side is armed and the other is not, there will be hostility and oppression resulting in tyranny.  Christians know that having a balance of power is essential to a free society where liberty and freedom are a reality. 

I would challenge anyone who disagrees with me to name one tyrannical dictator who allows his people to keep and bear arms. 

A few years ago, I played soccer with a bunch of students from Iran.  As we were hanging out on the sidelines, I asked them about the Iranian president at the time- Mahmoud Admadinijad (spelling?)- and what they thought of him.  "Everyone in the world hates us because of him," one student said.  Another student told me that his uncle had been killed by the Iranian government for political dissent. 

I asked why, if everyone hated him so much, do the people not rise up and throw him out.  They said, "We can't.  The government has all the guns.  We aren't allowed to own weapons."  They were shocked when I told them that in America, you could walk into any shop and simply buy one, that the right to keep and bear arms was not only legal, but was protected in our Constitution.  Their jaws literally dropped.

See, in Iran, there is no balance of power between the people and the government.  Therefore, there is tyranny.  The Iranian government would think twice about oppressing its people if the people were armed.  There would be no arrests for political dissent, no oppression, no tyranny.  There would be peace.

The same is true in any society, any culture, and any people.  Having a balance of power is essential to a free society.  I would almost go as far as to say that gun ownership is essential to having a free society.  I know there are many who disagree with me, but if they were honest with themselves, they are operating under the assumption of Option #1- that people are good and virtuous and peace will naturally happen because that's just what good people do.

Like I said yesterday, Christians are peaceful people.  Jesus had no time for the gun-totin' shoot-first-ask-questions-later cowboy thing that some people have going on.  That's not what I am talking about.  Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek, to be willing to suffer for being wronged, to pray for our enemies and love those that persecute us.  That is clear in His teaching.  Please don't think that I am advocating violence or anything like that.  I am advocating for peace.  I am simply saying that peace is only achieved in two ways- the goodness of people (which I don't see happening) or the balance of power between people.  Since option number one isn't happening, the only way for peace is to have a balance of power.  Therefore, gun ownership is the key to peace.

Why do Christians seem to like guns so much?

It's the old stereotype- God and guns.

Many people question why people who are nonviolent in nature- Christians are probably some of the most non-aggressive, peaceful people on the planet- would be armed to the teeth and decry any attempt to pass new gun control legislation.  After all, didn't Jesus tell us to turn the other cheek?  Didn't Jesus say, "Those who live by the sword die by the sword?"  Why, then, the Christian obsession with guns?

There is no answer to this question, because it's the wrong question to ask.  You will never understand the desire of so many Christians to possess firearms if you only ask that question.  Christians AREN'T obsessed with guns.

However, Christians ARE obsessed with freedom and liberty.

I was interviewed by a former student of mine who was a political science major.  He was doing a research paper on the Second Amendment and why conservatives were so pro-gun.  He called me up and asked me, "Why do you Christians cling to your guns like there is no tomorrow?"

I answered, "Because I will fight to the death to protect my freedom to worship as I please."

There was dead silence on the phone.  I continued.

"Christians," I told him, "do not see their primary citizenship as American.  Sure, we love America and believe that America is the greatest country on this earth.  We agree that the principles upon which it is founded- life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness- are the best principles to build a government on.  However, we don't believe that government is the giver of rights.  We believe GOD is the giver of rights.  We hold our God-given rights so near and dear that we refuse to live under tyranny and oppression.  We don't believe that God wants His people to live under tyranny- He wants His people to be free."

"We carry guns, not because we want to harm people or because we are obsessed with violence, but because we want to be left alone to worship God as we please.  This is the purpose of the first Amendment- that Congress shall make no law establishing a state religion, nor prohibiting free practice thereof.  We are not violent people.  We do not advocate violence against anyone or anything.  We are peaceful people.  However, if the right to worship God as we please, whenever we please, however we please, is abridged or threatened or prohibited by any means, we will fight.  We refuse to live in a place where our freedom to worship God is not guaranteed."

I went on.  "If you study history, governments typically do not allow freedom of religion.  The vast majority of governments in this world have some kind of restriction on worship, whether it is outright banning of Christianity under Communism and Islamist governments, or soft persecution by extra taxes, etc.  The only time governments do not infringe upon the rights of people to worship is when the people are armed.  Then, governments leave the people alone."

"We Christians know this- we've studied history and we know that an armed populice leads to limited government.  We Christians are not obsessed with guns- we are obsessed with freedom.  We believe that we have inherent human rights given by God that no government can take away.  Gun ownership is simply a means to ensure that we will always have those rights.  That's it.  That's the answer to your question."

He pondered that answer for a second, then he asked, "Do you think Jesus would have carried a gun?"

I answered, "Well, obviously guns weren't around at that time.  However, His disciples were armed at all times."

He said, "They were?"

I answered, "When Jesus was arrested, Peter took out his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus, one of the people there to arrest Him.  Now obviously, this sword was concealed or the guards would have disarmed the disciples before arresting Jesus.  So, Jesus apparently had no problem with His followers carrying weapons.  He warned, however, about their use when He said, "Those that live by the sword die by the sword.  Jesus was not an advocate of violent revolution nor of any kind of aggression.  He even taught people to turn the other cheek.  Like I said before, Christians are very peaceful people.  It's just that we believe there are some things that are worth dying for, and one of those things is the freedom to worship and practice our religion as we see fit."

At least he listened.  I doubt he agreed with me one bit and probably thought I was crazy.  However, I felt that I had answered his question exactly the way I wanted to.

People, Christians are not obsessed with guns.  We are obsessed with liberty.  We are obsessed with the freedom to worship God as we please.  We are obsessed with the right to free speech and assembly, whenever and wherever we please.  We are obsessed with the right to privacy from unwanted intrusion and the protection of our loved ones from any kind of aggression.

This is what we are obsessed with.  The United States of America is moving away from the concepts of liberty and freedom- we are increasingly monitored and governed by a growing government, and this should cause a great deal of alarm among freedom-loving people.

I sum up this blog with one of my favorite scenes from Karate Kid (the Ralph Macchio version) when Daniel and Mr Myagi are in the fishing boat:

Daniel:  Did you get in many fights when you were a kid?
Myagi:  Plenty.  Myagi hate fighting.
Daniel:  But you like Karate.
Myagi:  So?
Daniel:  So, Karate is fighting- you train to fight!
Myagi: (slowing looking at Daniel) Is that what you think?
Daniel:  (hesitating) No.
Myagi:  Then why train?
Daniel:  So I won't have to fight.

Exactly the Christian position on gun ownership.  Daniel knew that if he had the reputation for knowing how to fight, he would live in peace.  Nobody would bother him.  Christians know that if they own guns, we will be able to live in peace, living a life of liberty and freedom- us and our children.  We have no desire for violence against anyone.  We simply want to live in peace and freedom in this great country that we call home.  Without a second amendment, however, there would be no first amendment.  By possessing the strength to resist tyranny, we ensure that we will never have to.

Everyone to your own tent, America!

Last night, President Obama addressed the nation on why we should go to war with Syria. 

The nation yawned.

Other than the pundits on TV who whipped themselves up into a frenzy, nobody was really listening.  I heard crickets.  As a matter of fact, as a soccer fan, I was almost happy that people seemed to care more about the fact that the United States beat Mexico 2-0 to ensure a place in the World Cup in Brazil next year than they did about what the president said.

Why this apathy towards something so important?

As always, we see a Biblical precedent for this- it is found in 1 Kings 12.

After the Golden Age of Israel (King Saul, King David, and King Solomon), Solomon's son Rehoboam comes to power.  The people of Israel come to him and say, "Your father placed on us a heavy burden; now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."

King Rehoboam went to his advisors for some wisdom.

One set of advisors, the older men, said, "If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants."

The other set of advisors, the younger spoiled brats who grew up with Rehoboam, said, "Tell them that my little finger is thicker than my father's waist.  My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it heavier.  My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions."

In other words, the older guys said, "Treat the people with respect; listen to them and be a servant.  You will have the hearts of the people.  They will trust you and follow you."  The younger guys said, "Screw you all.  I'm king, I'll do what I want."

King Rehoboam listened to the advice of the younger people and told the nation of Israel what they told him to say.  What was Israel's response?

Verse 16- "When all Israel saw that they king refused to listen to them, they answered the king, "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son?  To your tents, O Israel!  Look after your own house, O David!"

In modern English, that basically says, "Fine.  You won't listen to us?  Screw you.  From now on, we'll look after ourselves.  We won't listen to you, we won't follow you, we won't back you up, we won't support you.  Don't count on us for anything.  From now on, we'll just look after ourselves."

Exactly what the American public said to Obama last night.

America has tuned this president out for the same reasons that Israel tuned out Rehoboam:  Obama has refused to be a servant of the people.  He has treated his position as president more like a king than an elected official, and in return, has lost the hearts of the American people.

Did Israel hate Rehoboam?  No. 

Does America hate Obama?  No.

It's just that we aren't listening anymore.

We don't particularly care what he has to say.  Everyone has gone to look after his own tent.  Everyone has said, "What share do we have in this nation?  We no longer have a president that represents us, nor do we have a government that acts as we want it to.  We don't hate it- it's just that we don't care anymore."

This is the reason that there were crickets after Obama's speech last night.  No one is listening anymore, because Obama has lost the heart of this nation.

He has refused to do anything about Benghazi- no one has been punished or brought to justice because of it.

He has refused to reign in the IRS.  It is still targeting conservatives.

He has refused to do anything about the national debt.  We are still having to borrow money to run our government.

He has refused to reign in the NSA and its activities spying on the American people.

He has refused to do anything about Lois Lerner or Eric Holder- these people still hold positions of power and receive paychecks from the government, even though they are criminals.

He has cut out a hot meal for veterans overseas while taking a one-week $100 million vacation to Africa.

All of these actions are modern-day Rehoboam statements, and as a result, he has received the same message from the American people that Rehoboam received from the Israelites.  Apathy.  Silence.  Lack of support.

Things didn't end well for Rehoboam.  President Obama would do well to read Scripture and find out how these things end up.  However, those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

Everyone to your own tent, America.