In our current era of questionable politics and economic decline.
What should the role of christians be during this time?
Crisis and hardship bring out the best and worst in people. Will the best or worst sides of christianity become prominent here? Will we be proud of our choices, or ashamed of not doing as well as we had hoped?
Somewhere along the line, christians appear to have become demoralized and depressed. None have big plans or goals anymore, which they are actively working towards. There isn't much of a support group, community or family anymore.
Most have an "army of one" isolationist mentality, where they will try and fail to do everything on their own.
How is it that christians have become a regressive and downtrodden demographic? Christians are supposed to be God's chosen who are a reflection and example of the amazing things people can achieve through faith, fellowship and belief. But somehow we've arrived at a point where we do not achieve much of anything. We can't seem to learn the basics or get our facts straight on many important topics and current events which are negatively affecting our own standard of living.
Where did we go right and where did we go wrong. How do we fix things and restore balance to nature, the world and society.
What do people think about this?
Good questions....genuine Christianity should promote unity and love....but that is far from what we see in what presents itself as “Christianity” today. Gradually over time, since Jesus and his apostles left the earth, Christianity took a downward spiral, eventually splitting into literally thousands of fragmented denominations, who all claim to teach the truth.....but Jesus foretold that satan would corrupt Christianity in exactly the same way as he corrupted Judaism. He led men in a direction that was opposite to what God’s word told them to do. So disobedience is what has afflicted mankind right from the beginning. It started with Eve who was tempted by the first rebel.....the first disobedient son of God.
We have never learned that simply *doing as we are told* would have saved us from all this tragedy and drama.
Here we are thousands of years later and we still don’t know how to do as Christ taught us.
Flawed human nature continues to lead us to do what WE want to do and believe, rather than what the scriptures teach us in quite simple terms.
Religion got in the way and humans took off in various directions by saying “I think”, rather than what Jesus said....”it is written”. And even when quoting scripture, erroneous interpretation gets in the way.
How can this be remedied? The scriptures have told us all that we need to know about what went wrong, and what God has been doing all throughout man’s sad history to bring it all to a head and to finish this sham of a life forever. We all know that this is not the life God intended for us to live, but he has been teaching us all the value of obedience by allowing us to choose to do as we are told....or not.
Free will was supposed to be a gift.....disobedience turned it into a curse.
By our choices, we will tell our Creator exactly what kind of people we are.....by having his word available to all, especially in this time of the end, we can see a clear separation between those who want to obey God in all things, and those who may want to do a little.....or nothing, and make their excuses.
Some people may insist that “believing” is all that is needed to be a Christian......but even the demons “believe”.
I have come to appreciate that “having faith” is not the same as “exercising faith”.....just as “having” a dog is not the same as “exercising” the dog......if our faith is not being ‘taken for a walk’, then it’s dead. (James 2:18-20)
In what ways are people not ‘taking their faith for a walk’? Simply by refusing to obey the Christ in all things....they pick the easy things, and ignore the things that are difficult or inconvenient. Yet, Jesus already told us that the road to life is “cramped” and the entryway is “narrow”....so only a relative “few” will find it.....so where does that leave the “many” who are traveling the easy road? (Matthew 7:13-14)
Matthew 7:21-23 tells us that these “many” are in for rejection....complete and utter rejection.
Who are we individually from God’s perspective, since he is the one who appointed Jesus as our judge? He doesn't read labels, he reads hearts.
Since the “many” seem to be oblivious to the fact that their “Christianity” is a meaningless sham, how do we find the truth......how do we locate the diamond in a pile of broken glass?
We know that the “wheat” exist in the world, but are outnumbered by the “weeds”. How do we find the “wheat” in amongst all the weeds?
Jesus answers......
”No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him . . . .This is why I have said to you, no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:44; 65)
Apparently, it is God who chooses us as much as we believe that we choose him....he has always drawn his people into one group, set apart from the rest by believing and acting on what God’s word teaches them....without division. (1 Cor 1:10)....this makes them different. And it is their difference that makes them unpopular. (John 15:18-21) They will be obedient to the Christ in all things, not just the convenient stuff. Like the first Christians, it is people who claim to worship the same God who are their most vocal critics. (John 15:18-21)
