Christian criticisms

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

There are three great criticisms, as I see it, that followers of Christ often receive in this day and age, in countries that practice religious freedom: i) the exclusivity and offensiveness of the Gospel message they preach and spread; ii) the manner in which they claim their understanding is correct; and iii) the seemingly "disunity" of the churches.

Firstly, Jesus' claim He was "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6) is at the heart of the Gospel. Christians rightfully echo the declaration of Peter and the early apostles: "Salvation is found in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given to men which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The Gospel is the power of God (Romans 1:16). We preach the free gift of salvation through no one's merit (Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:18-19, John 6:47, John 5:24). John MacArthur, one of the leading Christian voices in the world, is often criticized for his views on cults and heretics in Christianity today, and all those outside of Christianity today. His answer is what our answer should be. "There is nothing more loving than the truth."

Secondly, are Christians arrogant? Do they lack the humility that Jesus Christ always had? Well, of course we do, and of course, in some respect, we like all people will have some degree of arrogance in our corrupted beings. But its a false argument to say Bible-believing Christians are arrogant in their knowledge of "the way, the truth and the life." If we believe Scripture, we are believing what God has chosen to tell us, as the author, overseeing the Superintending Holy Spirit, and speaking through the character and literary style of those whom recorded His word. The Gospel message needs no interpretation. God cannot lie or deceive, and He does not change His mind or His will (Psalm 19:9, 33:4, Malachi 3:6, Romans 3:4, James 1:17, Hebrews 6:17-18). Jesus not only proclaims the word of God as nothing less than truth, but He asks the Father to "sanctify" us by the truth (John 17:17). Thus, being assured of what He has told us through Jesus Christ and the Scriptures is not only warranted, but it is part of the believers' responsibility and conformation.

When I was in school I was arguing with somebody over a topic. Somewhere along the line, we both realized we were being foolish in arguing over this topic, because when we were honest we knew we didn't really know the whole truth about the topic. When we picked up an authority on the subject, and read about it together, we were easily able to understand what the truth was on that topic (whether we liked it or not, whether we admitted we were wrong or not, etc). This was because though we hadn't initially seen eye to eye on the topic, we did see eye to eye on the authority of that topic.

Thirdly, when we learn about God and what He has thus far revealed to us, in His Word, we understand whom our Creator is and whom are Joy is. While small differences in non-Gospel related subjects have led some Protestants to worship in some churches rather than others, one of the great joys on this earth are we are always united by the truth and joy of the Gospel, the gift of our eternal life. We are truly brothers and sisters of the same body and we are constantly working together to do the Lord's work and praying together for each other. On any given Sunday in my church, you are bound to find not only members of other Methodist churches, but members of Baptist churches, Pentecostal Churches, Congregational Churches etc. When my wife and I go away we will attend any close Protestant church. On some Sundays, even when we are home, we will attend an Episcopalian Church to rejoice with our brothers and sisters there. The love and unity of believers is something that cannot be adequately put into words.

I remember one day when I was working at a place serving food. Two of the other servers were from a local Pentecostal Church. Pentecostals have a reputation of being a bit more, lets say, outgoing. As they served folks food they would be singing hymns, telling each recipient that Jesus loved them. Now this wasn’t a Christian shelter- I couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed by it all. Surely, some folks just wanted a hot meal without the personal conversation. But sure enough, as the day progressed, I felt more and more at ease with my brothers’ way of evangelizing and walking as Christ walked, and surely, so did some of those folks at the shelter.

While I have never been to a Pentecostal Church, I learned a lot about how these brothers and sisters lived and worshiped that day. At some point they formally invited me over to their church for service. It was a bit on the other side of town, and while I could certainly make the trek, I haven’t yet, and may never (I don’t even think I have the address anymore). Maybe sensing this, maybe not, when we were all walking out, the bigger guy of the two stripped off his hairnet and turned to me. “Hey brother, we’ll catch you on the rebound.”

“The rebound” may be an odd term, but I kind of like it. He was referring to the afterlife, where he knows, as well as I do, the promises of God in the Bible will come true for all believers. We may not see each other in the meantime, but both those guys are part of my walk as a Christian, and we are all part of the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is visible and strong. It preaches one way back to God, Jesus Christ. It is confident because it believes God and Jesus Christ. And while the body of Christ may not worship in the same buildings, we all worship in the same truth and spirit (John 6:63), and through our relationship with each other, the community, and the lost, we try to live a life worthy of our calling, always in the unboastful understandment that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.