Transcript Hypocrites and Backsliders: Human Nature and the Christian

Hypocrites and Backsliders:
Human Nature
and the Christian Life
• Lesson-001: Introduction
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2 Peter 1:3:
“According as His Divine Power has given us all
things that pertain to life and godliness...”
"Divine Power" is from the Greek THEOS, the
word for God.
God's own omnipotence is the source of the
power we have to live the Christian way of life.
The word for "power" is DUNAMIS and refers to
God's omnipotent power.
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2 Peter 1:3:
• The omnipotence of God is available to every
believer in order to live the Christian Spiritual
Life.
• "HAS GIVEN" is the translation of the
PERFECT/PASSIVE/PARTICIPLE from
DIDOMI.
• The word means to give graciously.
• The perfect tense means that this divine
omnipotence was given in the past with the
result that it has been permanently given to us.
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2 Peter 1:3:
• The passive voice is the voice of grace in which the subject
receives the action of the verb.
• God does the giving, we do the receiving.
• It is unearned, unmerited, undeserved but God gives it to us
anyway.
• The participle identifies this as a principle.
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2 Peter 1:3:
• "ALL THINGS" refers to everything which is necessary to
live the Christian way of life.
• "THAT PERTAIN TO" is simply the preposition PROS
and it means face to face with or belonging to.
• "LIFE" is the Greek word, ZOE (zo-way) from which we
get the word zoo or zoological.
• It is not the same as BIOS from which we get biology.
• The latter is the function of life whereas the former refers
to the principle of life. "living."
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2 Peter 1:3:
• Translation: "HIS DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE HAS
GRACIOUSLY GIVEN US EVERYTHING BELONGING
TO LIVING AND GOD-LIKE-NESS..."
• As Dr. Kenneth Gangel says in his commentary, "All that
believers need for spiritual vitality and godly living is
attainable through our knowledge of Him.
• An intimate 'full knowledge' of Christ is the source of
spiritual power and growth."
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As Don Marquis pointed out, "A hypocrite is a person who—
but who isn't?"
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THROUGHOUT HISTORY, few behaviors have been
condemned more often and more soundly than hypocrisy.
Almost 3,000 years ago, Homer wrote, "I detest that man, who
hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks forth
another."
In the sixth century B.C., Lao-tzu said, "To pretend to know
when you do not know is a disease."
In the fifth century B.C., Confucius said, "Hold faithfulness and
sincerity as first principles," and "[The superior man] speaks
according to his actions."
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There seems to be little Jesus of Nazareth hated as
much as hypocrisy; he condemned it more than
anything else.
Jesus claims that hypocrites "have neglected the more
important matters of the law—justice, mercy and
faithfulness" (Matthew 23:23).
Peter advised, "Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice
and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every
kind" (1 Peter 2:1).
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In the fourteenth century, Geoffrey Chaucer called a
hypocrite, "The smyler with the knife under the cloke."
Shakespeare: "With devotion's visage and pious action
we do sugar o'er the devil himself."
Moleire noticed an interesting consequence of
hypocrisy, which is as true today as it was then:
"Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable
vices pass for virtue."
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During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson gave
some insight into the underpinnings and history of
hypocrisy:
“Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men,
women, and children, since the introduction of
Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined,
imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch
towards uniformity. What has been the effect of
coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the
other half hypocrites.”
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Christian Hypocrites!
Hear the Charge: “Those Christians, they say one
thing and do another, why should we believe them?
Why be a Christian when they are such hypocrites?”
It is true that many Christians are hypocrites and are
not as good as the Unbeliever.
Famous preachers of Christianity have swindled hardearned dollars from others. Some pastors do not
practice what they preach.
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The Christian Defense: Do not judge Christianity
based on the actions of those who claim to be
followers. Judge Christianity solely on the actions and
life of Jesus Christ. He never let anyone down. He
never abandoned anyone. He was not a hypocrite. His
love is not conditional on your actions, His gift of
Salvation is available to everyone, regardless of who
they are or what they've done.
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But does this address the problem?
Are we destined, as one website says,”If you are Christian,
you are a hypocrite.”
Is there no hope to overcome hypocrisy?
Look at the carnage such hypocrisy leaves:
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Church of Christ minister for 10 years - What a Waste!
“Grew up Lutheran, became "born again" when 16
and from there decided to dedicate myself to the
Lord. Did the whole Jesus-freak thing in high
school, attended Bible college, seminary, learned
Greek.
I came across some people from the Church of
Christ (conservative) and was pretty impressed but actually I was just pretty naive and idealistic.”
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I left Lutheranism which I viewed as irrelevant, dry,
and out of touch. Within a year I was preaching for
the Church of Christ.
Did this for ten years. During this time, I was so
miserable that I couldn't put on any weight and
usually weighed 125 pounds. Also thought of
committing suicide frequently ... pretty much on a
weekly basis. The people treated me in such a
mean, contemptible fashion it was unbelievable.
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Others, also, were treated poorly and made to feel not
welcome. Some were doted over and treated like royalty. I
moved to new churches three times, and each seemed more
hypocritical than the last. Christians were the most stingy,
egotistical, racist people I knew. Some were nice ... just ... not
the ones in control of the church.
The stories I could tell of Christians doing mean things to each
other in the name of "doctrinal purity" or "for the good of the
cause". You would think I'm stretching the truth when really I'd
only be touching the hem of the garment.
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Finally, ten years into this BS, the church I was with cut
my poverty level salary by 67 percent because I wasn't
converting one family a month (as per my quota), and
because I was a Yankee and few other things.
Suddenly, I couldn't make my mortgage payments, I
went bankrupt, lost everything I had, was evicted from
my home and as a thirty-something, had to move back
in with my parents when I had a wife and two kids to
think about.
I wanted to die.
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In the end, technology saved me. I was able to
transition into the IT field. My wife (who is still a
hard-core fundamentalist) went back to school and
finished her computer related degree. We have
been living in others' basments for five years and
are just about able now to afford a home of our
own. The church screwed me royally but I'm almost
back on my feet.
The moral of the story is: Christianity isn't what it
claims to be.
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There is nothing wrong with their highest claims
(peace, love thy neighbor, ...), the problem is they
consistently do the opposite "in the name of the Lord"
and there is something about religion that brings out
the most mean-spirited things in people.
Christians always doubt their faith, but people who
leave christianity never doubt that they made a
good choice. I can attest to that as leaving the
church was the best thing I've ever done. Won't
you do the same?
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Why I'm An Ex-Baptist
“My parents were never really super-religious. My
sister and I were in childrens chior and Sunday
school. We went to Vacation Bible School in the
summer and also to church camp. We stopped
going to church for awhile up until i was 15. My
parents were having marriage problems and my
dad decided that we needed to start going back to
church. I started going to the youth sunday school
classes.
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The people were all really nice to me and I needed
friends. Eventually, I started going on Wednesday
nights to the youth meetings. They were a lot of fun.
one wednesday night, i decided to get saved. i was
listening to a speaker one night and for some reason, it
hit me. i was a shitty person. i had been living all those
years without truly knowing God. i was going to hell. i
looked around and saw all of my new friends and
decided that i wanted to be like them. i wanted to know
what it was like to experience god like that.
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i wanted to be good. i broke down crying in the service
(as a lot of people did) and one of the youth leaders
took me aside to talk to me. that night i asked jesus into
my heart. i took everything i had done very seriously. i
wanted to be a part of that group. i wanted to know that
i wasnt going to die and go to hell. i tried so hard to be
a better person, but it always seemed like i wasn't
doing enough. i started attending church everytime the
doors were open.
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i read my bible everyday. i told other people about my
god. i used to really get depressed that i wasnt doing
enough. i spent as much time as i could talking to the
youth ministers about what was going on. i really
trusted these people. they would tell me things like i
couldnt call myself a real christian if i associated with
non-christians. my very best friend at the time did not
go to my church and i was encouraged to start bringing
her or stop hanging out with her. i got baptized a couple
of months after i 'got saved'.
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i satyed involved with the church and even went on the
spring break ski trip. when i returned from the trip, i
found out that my mom had left my dad two days
before i got back. i was devastated. i didnt know what
else to do, so i turned to my church friends. i became
so involved with my church and my friends from church,
that i was never home. i could trust those people and i
knew that they cared about me because i was their
sister in christ. i became involved with what they called
'disciple now weekends'. basically they were weekend
long brainwashing sessions.
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families from the church would offer to host a group of church
kids in their home for a weekend long bible study. each group
was assigned a youth minister. our parents were told to drop
us off at the host family's house on friday evening. if we had
cars, we werent allowed to bring them, because we werent
allowed to leave all weekend. we couldnt make phone calls or
have anyone outside the group over to visit. the weekend was
devoted to hours of intense bible study. it would often last until
2 or 3 in the morning. the only time we would leave the host
home was when we would go out to witness to people.
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it was mentally exhausting. i went to those every time
they had them up until my senior year. after that, i
started to see that the church wasnt all it had once
been. i got tired of hearing my friends judge other
people for thier actions. i loved everyone, i didnt think i
was better than other people just because i was a
christian. i started to go out with my old friends again.
my church friends did not like that at all. when i lost my
virginity, i told one of my friends from church. she swore
that she wouldnt tell anyone, but i started notice the
looks i was receiving from my other church friends.
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the first time i tried pot, somehow it got back to
everyone at the church. i was an outcast after that. they
wouldnt talk to me at all. it really hurt me that all of the
people who had once been so close to me could turn
their backs on me overnight. ive never been to church
since. when ive told my story to other people who claim
claim to be christians i get one of two responses. #1...i
must have never truly been a christian. had i been a
true christian, i would have never left the church.
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#2...all of my friends and ministers from church were
not really christians. if they were, they would have
helped me rather than turn their backs on me. as far as
im concerned, i was doing everything i was supposed
to do. most of my time was devoted to being a
christian. how was i never truly saved? the one thing
that i dont understand to this day is who the christians
really are. if i wasnt one, and all the people at church
weren't christians, where are the real ones?
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the people at my church were very judgemental, racist,
homophobic, sexist, and they particularly enjoyed using the
fear of hell and being left behind in the rapture as tools for
winning souls.
most other churches that i have ever visited are the same way.
why would i want to associate myself with a group like that?
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sex, lies, slander and abuse in the brisbane bible belt
Why Left: forced out of the church by slanderous accusations
and innuendo [lingering doubt] that i was unable to defend
myself against, also saw the blantant hypocrisy
Story: Ok. I joined gateway baptist church in november 1994,
i felt accepted at first but, but soon i got the impression that
people didn't want to know me, didn't want to hang around me,
i'm a recovering alcoholic but i'm extremely intelligent and
come from a middle class family.
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it was obvious that the majority of these loving caring
christians didn't want me in their little society, the first
cell group i went to the people at this group subtly tried
to force me out of their group so i stopped going to the
cell group during that time a girl i had absolutely no
physical attraction for accused me of harassing her to
go out with me, when i tried to tell people i had no
interest in this woman apart from her giving me lifts
home from cell, no one listened to me which i found
rather distressing.
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throughout 1995 and 1996 i continued to attend gateway
baptist church with my late freind rodney, rodney was a real
ocker australian football player type he was a great guy and
the greatest freind ive ever had, he passed way in october
1996 the sunday before he passed away he went for coffee at
a trendy cafe where most of these people attended after
church not one person talked to him that evening, he phoned
me the next day calling these people "______’s" and
hypocrites, this was his last impression of the loving nature of
christians he died the following friday of a heart attack.
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i continued to attend gateway[ as i had a small handle of
freinds]while getting interupted while having
conversations with freinds, getting looked at as if i was
going attack them by females, and basically giving the
brush off by these loving caring christian people in the
church. in feb 1997 i started seeing this woman i had
liked for sometime [ i was nearly 2 years sober by this
time] the relation ship turned co-dependant and i abused,
shoved, pushed, but never hit kicked or bashed, but i
abused neverless. [i might add that even before the abuse
started one of freinds was attempting to break up the
relationship because i didn't fit into their little group.]
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any way in july 1997 my girlfriend did what i would have
done in her situation - she left me - i was completely
devastated, so i started drinking again, i went to the
family/relationships pastor for help and he basically called
me a loser, my ex girlfriend accused me of raping her but
never pressed criminal charges[ lingering doubt ... if i was
able to defend myself i would have cleared my name] the
pastor in question later during a phone call tried to trick
me into admitting i raped her ... it didn't work [like hell i
was gonna admit to rape when she always consented to
having sex with me]
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in april a good friend of mine distanced herself from me for
reasons unknown [lingering doubt] and in june 1998 i had
started a program where we took street kids from a teen
challenge youth hostel out to dinner at McDonalds after church
[i might also admit that only a small minority of the christians
who came along lowered themselves to talk to the street kids
on one of these nights an altercation happened between me
and a female youth worker [which i admitted my wrongdoing to
the pastor, the head of teen challenge and a freind who
worked a teen challenge] this woman took it on herself to
accuse me of stalking but not press charges [lingering doubt]
which is weird because i only ever rang her at work about the
programs ...
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it was then i decided to leave the church when the head
pastor of gateway refused to assist me, and the head of
teen challenge took the side of the youth worker who had
told a blantant lie, now i'm engaged in long term
relationship [with a non christian] and i no longer abuse
and i feel better about myself now, i'm collecting
information about abuses and corruption and lies in the
church..to make a website if anyone has any info please
contact me at [email protected] my case is not a
lone case ... it has happened at the christian outreach
centre and garden city christian church. Both are almost
neighbouring churches of gateway baptist.
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recovering fundy
•
Hi. I hope you have the time to listen to my somewhat lengthy
story. If not, just delete it. I'm a college student and I'm 25
years old. I was raised in the fundamentalist pentacostal
charismatic churches. I am now suffering from severe mental
illness, and I struggle with alcohol and pill addictions. I think
that my current situation had much to do with fundamentalism,
and the cult-like atmosphere I was raised in. This started in the
early 1980's, a time when it was easier for cultish churches to
cut people off from the world.
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I don't remember internet and cell phones and technology
being available to keep poeple "connected" to readily
available support if they were feeling isolated or
depressed, so I'll just assume that this technology was
not available at that point in time. My mom was "on fire"
for the holy spirit, and made us spend hours listening to
the ramblings of a crazed holy-roller, who preached the
inferiority of women, the evils of contraception, that
people who had no faith were the only ones who needed
doctors to fix their problems, that TV and radio was a sin,
sexuality was wicked and shameful, and how we were all
going to burn in Hell.
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The congregation was obsessed with the impending
doom facing the human race, the apocalypse, and all of
the nonsense in Revelations.They taught only a hard
line draconinan Old Testament "morality" (anything BUT
moral if you ask me), the teachings of Paul (a disturbed
chauvinist and freudian nightmare of a man who never
met Jesus, so I hear), and an expanded version of
Revelation (a vague dream recorded by John of
Patmos). Curiously, the teachings of this supposed
Jesus were absent.
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I noticed that this church was obsessed with locking
themselves away from the world, and retreating into their own
disturbed fantasy world, with a hateful angry God who would
punish them and allow Satan to decieve them. All pleasure
and fun was a sin. You were supposed to spend all your time
reflecting on bigotry, self-reproach, disgust at sexuality, and
the damnation of the other six-billion on earth. Females,
especially, were to reflect on the fact that they were worth half
of what a man was, and that their function was to be
submissive broodmares for the cult. And always remember to
vote Republican.
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There were demons around every corner, trolls hiding
in every book, homosexual agenas with an army of
abortionists, lesbians, gays, witches, and liberals sent
to tear our families apart and confiscate our guns and
bibles. We would have two choices, be tortured to
death or go to hell.Inside, I grew to hate God. I hated
Church. I became so conflicted, that I didn't want to be
honest and admit to myself I had doubts! I was so
scared of Hell, I thought that I could lie to myself and
God and act like it was OK.
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By the way, this is very destructive to a developing
child with a genetic predisposition toward severe
mental illness: paranoia, manic depression,
obsessive compulsive disorder, generalized severe
anxiety disorder, addiction ...... I ended up with all
of these family curses! But like I said, I tried to act
like everything was OK. But it was not. I thought
God hated me because I was doubting, and
because I thought "his rules" were wrong, and I
was nothing but a lowly sinning female trying to
rise above her appointed station in life.
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I was terrified of my budding sexuality, and felt
disgusted by my own maturing body. To make matters
worse, attention was drawn to it by the others, and I
endured years of "Godly punishment" through
inappropriate attention, harassment, fondling, etc.
Good people are doing sins....what does this all mean?
I hated myself I hated God. I hated the world. I was
paranoid, fell into a deep depression,became
obsessive compulsive about my perceived damnation,
became despondent, and suicidal by the age of nine.
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I hated the world. I was paranoid, fell into a deep
depression,became obsessive compulsive about my
percieved damnation, became despondent, and
suicidal by the age of nine. They said it was because I
was demonized and put me through a bunch of
cockamamie rituals, where they would have
convulsions, yell in jibberish (tongues), and cry and
moan. Mental illness was a constant all around me. I
had no point of reference for what was normal.
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I accepted the fact that I was damned, and turned to
drugs, alcohol, and bulemia. I figured I better actually
commit all the sins I was already being judged for. I got
involved in abusive relationships and my main mantra
became "f**k it!" School was my only sanctuary from
the madness,as well as my friends' houses. Especially
the friends of mine who were into crystals and pot
smoking. The church recognize my back sliding, and
that my brother was having seizures from "demons"
(epilepsy, another one of our family curses).
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Instead of comforting us, and finding us some help, they used
it as a wedge to drive between my parents, claiming nonsense
that little bro was being punished because my dad refused to
come to cult meetings and God wanted my mom to break up
with him and put us away. They were just trying to isolate each
one of us in a corner by ourselves so we would be stuck
without support So we could become drones for their cause- a
christian theocracy, pat robertson style. My family was being
torn up! Thank goodness that mom left when she did! And
these people have the audacity to say they stand up for
Christian love and "family values!"
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This is all very confusing to a kid. Right is wrong, fantasy is
reality, good is bad, truth is lies, crazy is normal, pleasure is
pain. I deconverted mentally when I was ten years old, but I
was still forced to attend the awful brainwashing sermons. I
even had a very joyful conversion salvation experience at the
age of nine .... but that free and wonderful feeling was crushed
immediately by the dogma and shaming techniques of the
chuch .... at first I thought it was because I had backslidden
into sin (all of my third grade indescresions, like growing
busoms and chewing bubble gum in class) ....
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now I know that I had risen above the church's lies
and dogma for just three glorious fleeting months
to touch something truly loving and divine, the
essence of Nivana, if you will .... and I was quickly
"rescued" from it by the arbitrary rules of BibleGod.
These people are dispicable and they need to be
stopped from forcing their dogma on others
through legislation. It is no family values..... Now I
am trying to get my life back together, trying to
deprogram all of that venom from my head.
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The recorded message still plays in the back of my
mind whenever I feel vulnerable ..... the ultimate "kick
me while I'm down" .... designed as a constant
reminder of those awful people .... to drive me back to
their jesus jail whenever tragedy or misfortune strikes.
I've become an agnostic, exploring as much book
knowledge as I can, with the help of my secular
professors at the public Bowling Green State University,
majoring in history. True history, not neo-conservative
Christian group-think garbage.
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I explore the internet .... (thank goodness for that
wonderful tool that is the info superhighway!) ... for
support and others likeminded, and I've become an
independent liberal. I've studied comparative
religion and culture, and I keep a constant watch on
the christian right wing. I am still on my journey out
of fundyism. It's been long and painful. But I owe it
to myself, my friends, my fam. I think if there is a
God, she is insulted by the lies told about her in the
Bible and by fundies!
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I hope this helps anyone else out there in cyberspace
who was in a situation similar to mine, or has a buddy
who is. I know all of your stories were extremely
valuable to me, and helped me realize that I was not
alone, and that I need help.
Thanks a bunch, and thank goodness for the internet,
my salvation from ... well, salvation!
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