Avoiding Evil

There is an issue that keeps popping up on some of my comments that I feel needs to be addressed with great detail. It is the issue of protestants being too forceful and judgmental because they have the audacity to tell other people that they are sinners and need to be born again.

joseph j fell and his crew (meaning all who hold the same viewpoint) have become disgusted with us protestants. He says, “due to my great disgust with people (mostly Protestant) running around telling non-Christians “you need to be saved, you need to be born again, you’re going to Hell, etc” and often coming off very judgmental and condemning when they do, i am becoming more and more Catholic in my beliefs.” He also mentions that, “when people go around and start talking about how you’re sinful, you need to accept Christ, etc,and doing so in a very forceful and in-your-face, confrontational manner, i dont think that’s very productive.”

I have been doing a study in Acts and these comments simply fly in the face of Paul, Barnabas and all of the disciples. Paul went from city to city telling people they were sinners and that they need to accept Christ, by the leadership of the holy spirit of God I might add. There is case after case where Paul was very forceful and confrontational and what you are saying is that Paul was not very productive because he told people that they are sinners and that they need to repent. The men of the Old and New Testament were very forceful and dedicated to the very word of God and they did not just go hang with the secular crowd and accept everything that everyone did because it was the “politically correct” thing to do. Paul didn’t look at lost people and say, “oh well it is their choice to do what they want to do so I shouldn’t make them feel bad by telling them that they are sinful and they will not spend eternity with God.” Instead he went to the lost people, both Jews and Gentiles, and reminded them that they are sinners, they have sinned against a living God who punishes sin, and they need to repent and believe in him who was sent to die for them. He did this because he had compassion for them and loved them and wanted to see them come to salvation knowing that there is nothing greater for them! No believer in the Bible practiced this weak, politically correct, mumbo jumbo that has been mentioned, not the apostles, not the disciples, and certainly not Jesus!

John the Baptist - “…You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance…” (Luke 3:7-8) That sounds rather confrontational to me. Now some may say, well he was talking to religious leaders not unsaved people… *cough* *cough* I don’t know that I would call the religious leaders at that time saved… but for the sake of argument John also rebuked Herod and his brother’s wife telling of all the evil things they had done. Shouldn’t John have just kept quiet about the Evil’s of Herod and let him do whatever he wanted to do? Why shouldn’t Herod take his brothers wife since he is unsaved anyway, right? So that was just wrong of John to do such a thing and exploit the evils of lost people, they have a right to do what they want and they don’t need no Baptist telling them they are wrong! I think it is safe to say that John the Baptist was very confrontational about repentance from sins and this was right in the eyes of God but not in the eyes of man!

Jesus himself says to preach of forgiveness and repentance of sins, “…and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations…” (Luke 47) - How can someone understand that they need forgiveness if they do not first understand that they are sinners? Isn’t it important to try and help people see that they are sinners and because of that sin they fall short of the glory of God?

Peter - “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…with many other words he warned them: and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’” (Acts 2:38,40) - Peter tells the people of Jerusalem that they must repent for the forgiveness of their sins! He called them sinners! “Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:18-20) - Peter also shows that it is obedience to God to speak in the name of Jesus, to speak about what we have seen and heard! The ‘men’ of the day thought that Peter and John should not be so forceful and should not be preaching in the name of Christ and telling people to be saved, and yet they obeyed God over man.

Stephen - He was stoned for being very aggressive and confrontational to the ‘unsaved’ religious leaders. He did show his care for them by asking God not to hold their sins against him, but he did not hold back from speaking the word of God, even if it was controversial.

Paul - Paul is also a great example of a man in the bible who went from city to city telling people about Jesus, about sin, and calling for repentance. “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10) - Paul sounds very confrontational and judgmental to me!

If not telling people that they are sinners and that they need to be born again makes you a Catholic then certainly Paul, Stephen, Peter, and the rest of the disciples were not Catholic. Even though they told people they were sinners and that they needed to be born again they always did it in a loving and compassionate way, whether the people accepted it as that or not, and that is how we are to do it. In all things, as we share the Gospel we must share it in love, but do so without weakening the message and sugar coating the hard stuff!

It seems to me that in the Bible, telling people about sin, separation, repentance, forgiveness, and believing are essential elements in a believers life and that is the very thing that many people hate about us! Guess it all comes down to the question, do we obey God and therefore anger man or do we obey men and therefore anger God?

Pressed