Why is the world hostile to Christians?

[Sidhe]

I don't think that's what he's referring too, I think it's when the rules of the past that are obviously defunct are used as an excuse for repression and or oppression if you think religion hasn't been guilty of this today and in the past then your sorely mistaken. Though Shalt not do Murder etc are a fine set of laws that stood the test of time, as for alot of the stuff in there it was neither meant for today's society nor even envisioned it. When you start placing silly tennants in a modern framework, and admittedly there are few I would say are silly in a modern context you are guilty of corrupting the message to suit political or societal aims, to having an agenda and to being moraly unsound.

 

[Kyriakos]

"Thou shalt not murder" is not that fine either. Since one doesnt have to view it as a rule. If you view things as rules then you cannot view yourself as free, since either way you can only on the one hand obey the rule, or dissobey it, but inr eality you are free to act anyway you want to, and not measure yourself in relation to what standards were set on you by something external.

Btw, classicalhero, dont you have any reply to my note about your post?

 

[classical_hero]

So you are not relying in yourself, but relying on your imagination, which in your view is something other than yourself. However everything you think is yours, and you inevitably realise the views of others in your own ways too. Your understanding of religious dogma is also yours, as is your impression of the notion of a god. In reality everything in your thought is yours, you just factionise internally and trick yourself into believing that now, in some strange yet real way, you have found something other than you.
Any person can come up with a religious belief, the only thing it takes is careless thinking; the mental gaps create themselves and one can always view them as spiritual/divine/whatever. Realise that what you sense/think of/view as a god/divine, has absolutely nothing at all to do with what any other christian does. Your faith is just an individual belief and nothing more, much like the invidual beliefs one has about politics.

I do not always reply to every reply to me, because if I did then, I would be here way too long. Plus it is late and cannot be bothered asnewring this one since it is very confusing to me this post.

 

[Quasar1011]

A perfect creator would have created a perfect world. He didn't. He ALLOWED Adam and Eve to sin to begin with, it's his fault for allowing it. He's able to see the future, seeing how he speaks through prophets, so he KNEW Adam and Eve would sin. Knew it. Allowed it. Wanted it.

Yes, God did create a perfect world. Free will was part of that perfection. If Adam and Eve didn't have free will, they'd have been robots. Do you want to be a robot, with only pre-programmed input to act upon? I don't.

Yes, God knew it. God allowed it. But God didn't want it. Sin can be defined as transgressing the will of God. How can you say that God wanted something that He didn't want?

Then we get into specific Biblical stories. Job and his suffering, allowing us to see what God's really up to? I wouldn't really care for a God who randomly picks on some guy, causing him great pain and suffering (of a righteous man, right?) just to teach us some lesson. He's God, he can teach us in a way that doesn't include pain and suffering. He chooses not to. He sounds like a sadist to me.

Nice comment, except that your facts are wrong. God didn't cause Job pain and suffering; Satan did. And this comes right back to why the world is hostile to Christians: God isn't running the world, Satan is.

2 Corinthians 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

God ran the world back in the garden of Eden, when He gave Adam authority over the Earth, to act as God's agent. But Adam disobeyed God, giving that authority to Satan. It's as if the title deed to Earth passed from God, to Adam, to Satan. When Jesus came, He did not dispute Satan's rightful claim over the Earth:

Luke 4:5-8
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.' "

So, the world is hostile to Christians, because Satan is running the world. We oppose his plan. When I say world, I mean world system, not the planet. Christians are not to endorse the current world system, as the apostle James wrote,

James 4:4
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

But, we are in an interesting phase of history. When Jesus came, he won back the title deed to Earth, by His death and Resurrection. However, Jesus is not at this time exercising His right to rule. So Satan is an interloper, a squatter, an intruder. Christians have the power, authority, and God-given task of casting Satan out of earthly situations. This is why Christians fight for righteousness in government, business, culture, and other areas of life. We don't want Satan to overrun Earth with evil.

Satan knows this, and makes war against the church. He attacks pastors and priests, causing many of them to fall into sexual evil or monetary greed. He attacks the average Christian too. The biggest war on the planet is not the war on terror, and it wasn't World War Two. It is spiritual warfare, between God's kingdom, and Satan's kingdom.

The good news is, God won't put up with evil forever. Jesus is coming back, to straighten this planet out!

 

[Sidhe]

I'd substitute Satan with human nature, if Satan were doing all this he'd of realised possibly a few million years ago as we started forming societies that his direct influence was not necessary and we're perfectly capable of screwing things up all by ourselves.

If I was Satan I'd of got the first flight of this hole and gone to explore the rest of the universe before I have to be back to inevitably be beaten by God in some post apocolyptic show down.

I see mankind once as children now as adolescents, we think we know better so we rebuke against our authority figure, we are rebelious intolerant and subject to stupid hormonal driven rage. One day we may grow up and put our differences behind us and become balanced and objective about our aims, then again thinking about it maybe not?

 

[Quasar1011]

I agree, Sidhe, that human nature is fallen. But man still has a conscience. Satan incites man to override his conscience, and do unspeakable acts of evil.

1 Peter 5:8
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy..."

 

[JollyRoger]

Hitler was not a Christian, get your fact right, because he hated Christianity. That does not sound very Christian.

"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to CHRISTIANITY as the very basis of our collective morality. Today CHRISTIANS stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the CHRISTIAN spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press -- in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years" -- Adolph Hitler (Taken from The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1, Michael Hakeem, Ph.D. (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pp. 871-872.)

 

[Narz]

Why is the world hostile to Christians?

I'm not hostile towards the religious anymore so than I would be hostile towards a fellow with down syndrome. However if the fellow with down syndrome started convincing me to take a drug to make me brain more like his I would certainly get away from him. If he continually bothered me about I would certainly resist and might even become a little hostile.

 

[punkbass2000]

Why is the world hostile to Christians?

I know I've already responded in this thread, but I've thought of something anew. It's not something against Christians, per se. If there was one thing I would say I dislike about what I understand to be a main thrust of Christianity, it's the idea that there is something wrong with us; all of us. A core, intrinsic and intimate guilt without true explanation, IMO.

 

[Masquerouge]

I'm not sure the world is actually hostile to Christians.

 

[El_Machinae]

Narz!

That post was amazingly witty - maybe a little mean, but still a great analogy.

A variant analogy would be your pot-smoking buddy who keeps offering you some. Though that's not very respectful of Christians, now is it.

 

[Quasar1011]

"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to CHRISTIANITY as the very basis of our collective morality. Today CHRISTIANS stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the CHRISTIAN spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press -- in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years" -- Adolph Hitler (Taken from The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1, Michael Hakeem, Ph.D. (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pp. 871-872.)

Anybody can call themselves a Christian. But it is much harder to act like one. As Jesus said,
"By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." (from Matthew 7:16-20)

Jesus didn't say, "By their words you will recognize them."

It's no wonder that Satan deceived Nazi Germany. You could even say deception is part of his job description.

Revelation 12:9
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

 

[El_Machinae]

The point is that he called himself a Christian. And it's not possible for a person to label someone else as a Christian, but only go by what people label themselves.

Whether he believe it is up to debate, but the whole "judge not, lest ye be judged" prevents you and others from saying whether he actually was a Christian.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

What's wrong with pot?
It's no worse than alcohol, imo.

(If you say hard narcotics, I say hjemmebrent ("home-burned"). It's what redneck norwegian farmers brew during the winter months.)

 

[El_Machinae]

If you're not a pot-head, chances are you don't aspire to be one, is what I'm saying.

 

[Xanikk999]

"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to CHRISTIANITY as the very basis of our collective morality. Today CHRISTIANS stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the CHRISTIAN spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press -- in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years" -- Adolph Hitler (Taken from The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1, Michael Hakeem, Ph.D. (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pp. 871-872.)

This really proves your intelligence. Your taking Nazi propoganda and trying to label it in a negative way on christians. I wouldnt consider anything hitler said to be the truth. Gimme a break.

Even if he was christian he didnt give a crap about christian morals. This is exactly the kind of thing a nutcase conservetive like Rush limbaugh would do to label a group. They would bring together two minor details and label the whole group a undesirable comment. He used the same strategy in his commerciels to call certain politicians neo-nazis.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

If you're not a pot-head, chances are you don't aspire to be one, is what I'm saying.

No... but I'm not talking about addicts. How about those who get genuinely pleasurable experiences?

 

[El_Machinae]

I believe that the pot-head really likes being a pot-head. Just like the faithful usually can enjoy being faithful. However, as an outsider looking in, the transition (to pot-head or faithful) would change me in a way that I don't want.

 

[Secular]

"Why is the world hostile towards me?".

It's not harrasment or hostility when the government forces a courthouse to take down the 10 commandments from its steps. Or when a community overturns a school boards minority decision to teach artificial design.

Never understood a martyrdom complex. Failure to advance an agenda does not mean someones activily against you.

On the other hand if some evangilist then says an act of god is going to strike down an obscure pennsylvania town that overturned the artificial design proposal.. could that be hostility?

 

[Narz]

Narz!

That post was amazingly witty - maybe a little mean, but still a great analogy.

A variant analogy would be your pot-smoking buddy who keeps offering you some. Though that's not very respectful of Christians, now is it.

Thanks. Remember Christians can only be offended by such statements if they view people with down syndrome or those who indulge in the cannibis herb as inferior people. I personally do not see them that way. I'm sure folks with down syndrome have a unique perspective that I could never hope to gain, however I have no desire for that perspective, I enjoy seeing things as I do and I don't want to limit myself or cut off my ability to be objective or use my reason. To accept Christianity I would have to do both because I would have to accept certain things I feel in my heart are not only false but contrary to some of my highest values.