Persécution et l'esprit
Écrit par Mark Van Steenwyk : 26 juillet 2005
Ce soir nos pièces étudiées par rassemblement de maison de John 14-16 comme nous travaillons notre voie par cet evangile. En particulier nous avons parlé de la persécution, qui est soulevée comme thème dans cette section. Vous ne pouvez pas lire ce passage dans l'ouest sans sentir un sens de débranchement. Il tenterait de supposer que la raison nous ne sont pas en particulier persécutées aux États-Unis est parce que nous avons la « liberté religieuse. » Mais si nous assumions cela, nous aurions tort. Je pense que la sévérité de la persécution peut être moins ici, mais je crois que la persécution d'une certaine forme est des résultats normaux de la fidélité à un au Christ.
Jetez un coup d'oeil à ces vers, et soutenez avec moi comme j'explique pourquoi je pense que la persécution est de pair assortie à la fidélité au Christ :
John 16:7 - 11 À moins que je parte, le conseiller ne viendra pas chez toi ; mais si je vais, je te l'enverrai. 8Quand il vient, il condamnera le monde de la culpabilité en vue de le péché et la droiture et le jugement : 9en vue de le péché, parce que les hommes ne croient pas en moi ; 10en vue de la droiture, parce que je vais chez le père, où vous pouvez ne me voir plus ; 11et en vue de le jugement, parce que le prince de ce monde se tient maintenant condamné.
Il me semble que si nous cooperating avec le travail de l'esprit (et de lui semble que beaucoup de-si pas les plus-églises ont la pensée et le praxis pneumatological intensément faibles) dans le charger de la conviction (IE. montrer ce qui est erroné avec le monde), puis les gens obtiendront le renversement avec nous. In other words, there should be a positive correlation between a culture’s resistance to the Spirit and their resistance to the Church. Thoughts?
for further reading . . .
- None Found
so are you saying that a reason that persecution is so minute here in the United States is because we are hindering the spirit and not being as culturally offensive as we should be?
I’m saying it is part of the reason. Now, I don’t think we should be offensive just for heck, but I think a robust Christianity would be offensive to our culture. However, I think our freedom of religion and our roots in Christendom are also factors in why persecution isn’t very widespread.
How offensive ought we to be (without trying to be)? What robust qualities of Christianity ought to be stressed, and how much?
It isn’t about stressing any robust qualities of Christianity. It is about living out the robust qualities of Christianity. It isn’t as though we need to amp up what we’re already doing until people get upset. It is about doing those things that Scripture indicates are normal, but society deems as abnormal. Here’s a couple examples that pop into my head. Feel free to add or challenge:
1) It seems we are to respectful of boundaries…in other words, we know that there is a time and a place for sharing our faith, and those boundaries are dictated by society. What if students in particular, but maybe even workers at high schools, were to share their faith? I know that is extreme sounding, especially because it involves minors, but we should at least think about it before dismissing it.
2) Who are the Samaritans in our day with whom we should stand in solidarity? The lesbian? The muslim? The white trash racist? Christians should befriend those who are rejected by culture.
3) How about pointing out corruption and oppression within our churches?
While doing these things might not incite open reaction from the Government or society at large. People would get upset if we did these things.
Part of the problem is that Christians have formed a “counter culture” that is really just a “sub-culture” and thus takes on all of the characteristics of the regular culture, but with a twist. We’ve become vanilla coke when we should have become jolt.
Indeed…or perhaps we should strive to be green tea in a soda culture.
maybe Christianity’s influence on American culture is more like Crystal Pepsi or Pepsi Blue . . . it was good while it lasted but has now faded into a distant memory and possibly even forgotten!
[i cannot even find reference to Crystal Pepsi on the Official Pepsi website]
There are a lot of people doing options 1, 2, and 3. My mom has been practicing her faith in a public school for almost 30 years, there are a lot of teachers AND students doing that. Christians are sticking up for Samaritans all over the place in America, and I think there are lots of people trying to point out corruption and oppression. Do we just need to do it more? Or are you suggesting a qualitative change?
I’d assume that the people that do those things have experienced unkind words. I think some persecution, at least verbal persecution does happen in this country. But it is remote and softened. Partly because of the freedoms afforded us and other cultural matters. But I also think it is because too few do enough and often those that do something don’t go far enough. Let’s use the example of Christians in schools. My experience in rural Minnesota, which is a place that is by no means hostile to the Gospel, was that very few students lived out their faith demonstrably in schools. Those that did were often made fun of (a form of persecution) and often the other Christian students didn’t stand with the ones being mocked. I expect it is similar in many schools.
In other nations, people are being persecuted for merely professing faith. In our nation, which assumes that many are Christian and that this nation has Christian roots, it will take the peculiarity of the Christian life lived to provoke a response.
One last thought. I think many demonstrations of faith go unnoticed in this country because of the strong categorization between the social gospel and the preaching of the gospel. Many times, Christians do good deeds and they seem indistinguishable from the deeds of others. We have concluded that doing the deed itself is enough and one need not draw attention to Christ when one does the deed.
So, if I can deduce an answer to my question in your reply, you consider it a matter of degree rather than of kind in regard to the conduct of Christians that ought to engender persecution. In other words, you think people are doing the right things, just not to the proper degree.
I would say that. But I would also say that not enough people are doing the right things. And some Christians are doing the wrong things.