A Letter To The Self- Righteous Christian

Dear possibly self-righteous Christians,

This is a rant about Christians. To be more specific, it is a rant about the fundamentalists, the self righteous, and the just plain annoying holier than thou attitudes of Christians.

I want to start this article off by saying I believe in what Jesus of Nazareth taught during his lifetime. I believe in what he said, and in what he died for. I believe that his followers should be following his example.

Does this mean I believe I should harass people? No. Does this mean I should get angry or upset when people have different beliefs? No. Is it my job to make people change their mind and believe in Jesus Christ? No.

Let me flush this out for you. The God I believe in is an all powerful being. He is the ultimate example of good. Now this all powerful, all good being does not force anybody to believe in Him. He wants everybody to believe in Him, He made this very clear to the ancients. Yet He does not force Himself upon anybody.

If we believe in what Jesus taught we must believe that Jesus is God because that is what he died for claiming. If we call ourselves Christian that means we are calling ourselves Christ-like, which is the meaning of the title. This means that we trust Jesus as God, and are trying to be more like him.

Jesus did not force himself on people (I could make a joke here but I feel it would be inappropriate. I am sure that you can figure out what I am insinuating). He taught whoever came to him everything that he had to offer. He taught his disciples to do the same.

Matthew 10:14 “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.” These are the words of the God we follow. He doesn’t say camp out nearby these people and drive them crazy with your message. He says share the good news, and if they don’t want to hear it, move on.

I think that a lot of believers have an issue with the idea of moving on. Here is what I think the root of that problem is, Hell. Many believers figure they must convince people that Jesus is the way the truth and the light or they will end up in Hell. Makes sense on a superficial level.

Let me ask you this. Does God really want to burden you with the salvation of all the non believers in your life? No. He said share the good news, be a good witness and He will do the rest. If you have shared your faith in Jesus with others and they made it clear that they don’t want to hear it, then you need to be a good witness. That means being showing love and respecting their wishes. Harassing them just draws images of fundamentalists to mind. That is not what we want to have anyone associate with Jesus.

It is not our job to save. That is the role of Jesus. It is not our role to judge. This is also the role of Jesus. Not our burden to bear, this comes up a lot in scripture. When we try to do his work for him it is as if we are trying to take on his role. Isn’t that why the Satan fell? Satan wanted the position of Jesus.

I wrote this short hub because I spend a lot of time on the forums. People are always threatening others with Hell, telling them they will face judgement or some other form of negative sharing. Seriously, our job is to spread the good news, not threaten people with bad news. If you shared your beliefs, or people know what you believe there is no reason to threaten them. If they don’t know your beliefs, there is no reason to threaten them. Just share your beliefs.

Don’t think you can do God’s job for Him. He is God, you are just a person. Accept your role and be in awe of His.

Just because your words never seemed to reach somebody doesn’t mean a thing. You don’t know if you are the only person sharing with them, you don’t know what God is doing, you don’t know what the person is doing in their own hearts. You are not their only hope, or their last hope.

Maybe they don’t want the hope that you offer. That is fine too. God gave us the ability to choose disbelief. It is literally a God given right. Please stop breaching their rights. Live and let live right?

Finally the issue that bothers me the most, please stop calling atheists anti-Christs. The two labels are not interchangeable. An atheist is somebody who does not believe in God, this does not mean they are the Antichrist. I beg you to read everything that the Bible has to say about the term before ever using it to label a person.

I hope this article didn’t come across as me lecturing, it was meant more as a rant. I cannot believe the theology that I find on this site. It makes it hard for me to want to call myself a Christian. Until I remember that it isn’t about the followers, it’s about Christ himself. Am I ashamed of Jesus? No. So I will call myself a Christian. Am I ashamed of some of His followers? No, because that is not my shame to bear. Am I worried about some of His followers? Yeah, I am.

Philos,

Calynbana