Why Internet Discussions Drift to Religious Discussions

Have you ever been perusing the comments of an article and then wonder how in the world people started talking about Nazis  or Atheism or Christianity and how that relates to the article above?  I'll tell you.  Everything relates to your worldview.  It is the lens through which people discuss issues and ideas.  This is why what you believe about God, Government, Society, Culture, etc. matter in the general sense.  Those beliefs inform people's opinions about specific issues.

What we see on the Internet is the same clash of worldviews that has been going on for centuries.  Most of the commentary is ill-informed and harsh because those discussing the issues have been largely educated by the corrupt American public school system.  They don't know that when God was taken out of the schools, that He was indeed replaced by another god:  Man.  The religion is known as Secular Humanism.  One of its proponents was John Dewey (no, not the Dewey Decimal System guy, that's Melvil Dewey - I've been mistaken on that before myself).

They have their own tenets of faith.  They have their own writings.  They have their own god.  The belief, and this stems from the Renaissance, is that Man as Man is the ultimate standard, the ultimate measure of all things.  That this is a religious view is lost on most people.

Instead, they like to belief that rationality and logic are the highest ideals and that Man does not need an appeal to anything greater than himself to have a well-ordered society.  And how has that worked out?  Not so well if you can read the signs of declining culture.  Jaques Barzun's magnum opus, From Dawn to Decadence traces this decline in Western culture.  Francis Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live also traces the decline from a Christian philosophic perspective.  And there are many good books on this subject.

The problem is that most people you encounter on the Internet just don't have the mental capacity to effectively debate one another on these issues without devolving into name calling.  Eventually all threads lead to Godwin's Law.  How unfortunate.

As this is my own blog, I can say what I please without being shouted down as it were by the ignorant masses who usually can't comprehend the references being made.  So, I will say this:
  
The Christian worldview is far and away the best, most logical, most beneficial, most intellectually satisfying of all the known world religions.  This is because it is true.  

It is true because it is enlivened and imbued with the very life of our Creator God, Jehovah.  God says that He will remove our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh.  He says that He will make His home with us in our hearts.  That we will be His people and He shall be our God.

No claim of my being evil, or stupid, or ignorant, or biased changes the fact that God exists.  No shouting down of my opinion changes the FACT that Jesus the Christ came to live on this earth, die for our sins, then rise again to absolve ALL who believe in His name of their sins.

This fact cannot be shouted down in this post.  It can be ignored.  It can be ridiculed.  But it cannot be taken away! 

Now, I cannot help that the fact that Jesus stated that HE is the only way to God is incredibly offensive to some people.  I didn't say it.  I simply believe it.  I cannot save any of the people who call me evil, call me other names, etc.  Only God can save you.  I can only give you the warning as best I can.

One more thing I want to point out.  Invariably, it is the "tolerant" who show themselves to be the most intolerant.  It is the "easy love, anything goes" people who get the most angry and who show the most hate to those who disagree with their views.  It is the Liberal Left who are in fact the most authoritarian group in any society.  Their god is big government and they legislate by democratic fiat.

Remember that Benjamin Franklin said

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb getting together to decide what's for dinner."

So, to all my critics who click on my name, I hope they see this post.  I hope they see that they will be held accountable to God for their vitriol towards Christians.  Remember that God will not be mocked.  Please, please, please turn around and repent while you still have breath in your lungs.  Don't give up on God.  He really is chasing you.  Anyone who is sincerely seeking is welcome to send me an email for more information on how you can have a relationship with the living, risen Christ, Jesus.

For the rest, know that God will not always call, nor will you always hear his voice.  Seek God while He is near... Here is the rest of the verse from Isaiah 55:

⁶ Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.

⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
¹¹ So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Whose Kingdom are You Really Serving?

I think the Christian leaders we have today still exalt themselves to the detriment of others.  They claim that they are doing God's work, but what do we still see?  We see Charles Stanley get divorced.  We see many of them enjoying opulent lifestyles while the people struggle to send in $5 per month.

I believe the Christian culture in the West has been built as a mirror culture to deceive Christians and get them looking at the wrong thing.  How is Christendom different from the world JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have built?  Greed?  Check.  Licentiousness?  Check.  Pride?  Double-Check!

Even as Christians, we are made to believe that God's blessings are on the large para-church ministries while God has passed over the common church.  We are made to desire wealth and prestige.  This is not what the word of God says.

Theologians don't get a pass either.  Through the centuries they have exalted those at the head instead of those who labored in obscurity.  Paul is lauded while the other apostles are derided because they didn't write letters that survived to modern times.  But is this a fair characterization?  How do we really know what happened?  Why do we assume that just because they didn't write part of the Bible that they were failures?  Is it only the strong that rule in Christianity just like in the World?  Does might make right even in Christendom?

I don't believe so.  I believe Jesus called 12 apostles.  One, (Judas) chose (wasn't predestined!) but chose to walk away and betray Jesus.  ALL 11 of the remaining apostles made a difference in God's Kingdom.  We simply haven't heard the story of Andrew or Phillip or Bartholomew.  The book of Thomas is out there, but "not considered canonical."

Perhaps we need to revisit what the Protestant churches decided to take out of the Bible.  Apparently the book of Judith was in there until Martin Luther decided to exclude it.  Perhaps we have simply been done a disservice by our Protestant forbearers. And certainly the modern church has done a disservice to us by not properly explaining church history to us.  I don't believe Martin Luther's rebellious split from the Catholic church was necessarily ordained by God.

As a case in point, I was commenting on an issue on a blog and the discussion was flying back and forth.  A catholic poster mentioned that "this issue has been discussed for hundreds of years in the Catholic church and a pretty good conclusion arrived at."   It got me to wondering what other knowledge has been hidden from us.

Of course, it's not really hidden on purpose, but I believe most Protestants are making an ad hominem fallacy by disregarding ALL of the Catholic teaching just because they disagree with some of the other teachings (like Mariology).

Here's the bottom line:  We all have a contribution to make and God uses even the smallest act of service irrespective of it being recognized in our culture today.  Jesus said plainly that the first would be last and the last would be first.

I'm not so arrogant to think that I am going to be one of the "last" chosen first.  I know I enjoy blessings in the West that many in the world do not.  But I am making the argument that all of those we see exalted right now are not necessarily going to be rewarded above the church family in China in an underground church.

We must get our eyes off our brothers and sisters here on this earth and make our comparisons with what it says in the Word of God.  Jesus told us exactly how to be great in the Kingdom of God:  Be a servant to all.  Take courage.  God sees all of us.