Vervolging en de Geest
Geschreven door Mark Van Steenwyk: 26 juli, 2005
Vanavond ons huis dat bestudeerde delen van John 14-16 verzamelt aangezien wij onze manier door dat Evangelie werken. In het bijzonder spraken wij over vervolging, die omhoog als thema in deze sectie komt. U kunt niet lezen die passage in het Westen zonder een betekenis van te voelen losmaakt. Het zou verleidend zijn om te veronderstellen dat de reden worden wij niet in het bijzonder vervolgd in de V.S. is omdat wij „vrijheid van godsdienst.“ hebben Maar als wij veronderstelden dat, wij verkeerd zouden zijn. Ik denk de strengheid van vervolging kan minder hier zijn, maar ik geloof dat de vervolging van wat vorm een natuurlijk resultaat van zijn trouw aan Christus is.
Neem een blik bij deze verzen, en draag met me aangezien ik verklaar waarom ik denk de vervolging met trouw naar Christus samengaat:
John 16:7 - 11 Tenzij ik wegga, zal de Adviseur niet aan u komen; maar als ik ga, zal ik hem naar u sturen. 8Wanneer hij komt, zal hij de wereld wegens schuld wat betreft zonde en oprechtheid en oordeel veroordelen: 9wat betreft zonde, omdat de mensen niet in me geloven; 10wat betreft oprechtheid, omdat ik naar de Vader ga, waar u me kunt niet meer zien; 11en wat betreft oordeel, omdat de prins van deze wereld zich nu veroordeeld bevindt.
Het schijnt aan me dat als wij met het werk van de Geest (en het schijnt dat veel-als niet de het meest-kerken intens het zwakke pneumatological denken en praxis) hebben in de taak van overtuiging samenwerken (d.w.z. tonend wat met de wereld) verkeerd is, dan zullen de mensen verstoord met ons worden. 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.