Bully - to frighten, hurt, or threaten (a smaller or weaker person) : to act like a bully toward (someone) : to cause (someone) to do something by making threats or insults or by using force.
Here is the definition of 'bigot' from the same dictionary -
Bigot - a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.
Many people say that God is a 'bully', but is that true?
Does God use intimidation with us to get us to repent? Is hell really just a 'scare tactic'?
God doesn't have to provide salvation for any of us. He could throw us all into hell and He would be just. But in His great love and mercy to us, He provided a way out. It is through the death of His Son, around 2,000 years ago.
I guess some would think that God has the option to not throw us into hell. Basically, those people think that human beings are basically good and don't need God's help. They think God is manipulating people into a relationship with Him and using hell as a scare tactic to make them cooperate with Him.
God doesn't work on principles of manipulation. If God were like us, He would be a manipulator. He would be weak like we are, and would have to use some kind of force to make us love Him. He is not like us though. God doesn't force us to love Him. We can't love Him anyway, until we have a new heart. We can get that heart when we repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for our sins.
God doesn't have to bully us around to get His way. We either do things His way or we don't do it at all. There are consequences for rejecting God. But there are eternal blessings for responding to Him.
Christians, people who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord/Savior, have been called, 'bigots'. But is that really true that Christians are bigots?
The problem the world has, is that it doesn't know how to separate the fine lines of an issue. They throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak. A true believer in Jesus Christ has boundaries. Those boundaries are defined by the word of God.
According to the world, Christians are bigots. They are bigots because they have boundaries. The boundaries are upsetting to the world because the world knows that the boundaries show everyone what is not acceptable.
Scriptures give us boundaries. They are the real 'safe places' given to us by God. The world does not like boundaries because they don't want to give up their evil activities which trespass against the boundaries. So, they turn the table on Christians and call them 'bigots' because of the boundaries God has set around them.
Notice how the definition of 'bigot' involves hate and intolerance. Even though one has boundaries, that doesn't mean that they hate those who break those boundaries. But the narrative of the world says that Christians are bigots and that implies the action of hatred and intolerance.
An example of this is the owner of Chick-fil-A. He wrote a statement saying that he believes marriage is made up of one man and one woman. He was accused of being a bigot because of his stand. Who's the one who is intolerant here? Nothing was mentioned about hating or harming Gay people in any way. The man even stated that homosexuals are treated the same way as non-homosexuals. There was nothing said about hating homosexuals or even putting them down. But because he simply took a stand for marriage being made up of one man and one woman, he is considered a bigot.
So, when God's boundaries for us are employed by us, watch out for the name calling! In a Postmodern world, people can't have their own boundaries any more! Well, I guess they can have them, but only if they don't violate someone else's selfish desires.
No comments:
Post a Comment