How non believers may view Christian's.
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No you are hear to kvetch and complain and pretend you are better than others. Keep at it if you like. I'm leaving now...
But remember, it's an inside job. Stop looking outward so much. You will get better results.
Mathew
23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses.[a] 3 So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.
5 “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels.[b] 6 And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. 7 They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’[c]
8 “Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters.[d] 9 And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your Father. 10 And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you must be a servant. 12 But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
13 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.[e]
15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell[f] you yourselves are!
16 “Blind guides! What sorrow awaits you! For you say that it means nothing to swear ‘by God’s Temple,’ but that it is binding to swear ‘by the gold in the Temple.’ 17 Blind fools! Which is more important—the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 And you say that to swear ‘by the altar’ is not binding, but to swear ‘by the gifts on the altar’ is binding. 19 How blind! For which is more important—the gift on the altar or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 When you swear ‘by the altar,’ you are swearing by it and by everything on it. 21 And when you swear ‘by the Temple,’ you are swearing by it and by God, who lives in it. 22 And when you swear ‘by heaven,’ you are swearing by the throne of God and by God, who sits on the throne.
23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens,[g] but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. 24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel![h]
25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish,[i] and then the outside will become clean, too.
27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed. 30 Then you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have joined them in killing the prophets.’
31 “But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started. 33 Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?
34 “Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. But you will kill some by crucifixion, and you will flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing them from city to city. 35 As a result, you will be held responsible for the murder of all godly people of all time—from the murder of righteous Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you killed in the Temple between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, this judgment will fall on this very generation.
You are a liar, because I do not hate you or anyone else for that matter.
Off to work. Have a good day.
If you identify as an unbeliever are you my brother?
Are you going to apologize for bearing false witness against me???
Im not a false witness, I have spoken the truth. I believe in the Nicene Creed so im a brother. Unless of course you don't belive in the creed then I love you as my enemy.
You see where that judgment is getting you. You don't know anything about me or understand what im trying to show you.
I know you are confused... And I know you lied about me... I know you are judging the whole of Christianity and pretending you're not judging individual Christians at the same time. You seem to think you have nothing to do with what's going on here... See where all your judgments have gotten you? Probably not...
You believe I hate christians or im anti christ and thats not true. Im anti institution. I don't believe a pastor should be paying tiths to an affiliation to fund the church and bills. That means the pastor must please his affiliation. They demand he grows the congregation and bring in more money so he can keep getting funded. This becomes business minded and not christ minded. So christianity is watered down, the bar is lowered, and the focuse is butts in the seat and money in the plate. Im not eaven talking about you or most christians on this site. The church are blind guides leading others on the broad path. To be religious you also have to be a bigot, and in doing so you sow hate and devision amongst your brothers and sisters. This is the work of the adversary, not god. We can unite and be one through the creed but religon and the institutions get in the way and teach hate. Im exposing it. Also christians is god representative and example. Unfortunately christianity is a poor example for god so many become skeptical and no longer want to follow god.
I have been nothing but respectful towards you. Based on what you said and how you've acted towards me there's no other word I can use. The Bible says that if you hate someone you committed murder, so you're a murderer. I'm not gonna apologize for something that's true.
I will do this, I will apologize for anything that I may have said or done to upset you. I believe that you are upset because you haven't taken the time to speak with me and to understand where I'm coming from. I apologize if I didn't take the time to explain to you before we got to this point. But I've already explained all this. I don't think you read any of my messages except for the ones that pertain to you.
You're bearing false witness repeatedly against me. I can say to you that you know nothing about me so why do you keep doing that? I am not required to read every post in a thread before I respond to one or any number of things that somebody says. LOL @ you've been nothing but respectful toward me. You are a liar.
You reached an opinion of the 'institutions' motives for what they do, and that is your God given right to choose to do, form an opinion even if it is without knowledge and also even to offer counsel. In business, a corporation is considered a collective entity, a 'person' made up of individuals that constitute its body, i.e. the church. Each individual is free to choose whether to come or to go, stay or leave accordingly as his or her own discernment lead them. Presuming to know each one's motivation for existing seems, well, presumptuous. You can assert it as the truth all you like, you are at liberty to, of course, but doing that doesn't necessarily make it anything more than an opinion, and no one should receive it as such. Each one is given the liberty decide for themselves, the liberty to come to their own conclusions regarding any particular institution, whether to agree or to disagree, according to how they view it, right or wrong. That's the nature of that which comes with the freedom to decide, the imbedded personal responsibility to choose wisely.
You should pray discern be well informed and think things through before you open your mouth.Yes you should. And i'm not lying because there is nothing lovely and praiseworthy coming from you right now. I know this is not who you truly are and I forgive you.
Non-believer Being Predictably Critical of Christians:
1.) "a lot of times I am embarrassed to call myself a Christian,"
Apparently you do not call yourself a Christian at all; your profile does not proclaim you're a Christian... it says you are "unsure."
2.) "What is it that unifies the Christian faith?"
Your profile makes it clear you aren't a Christian, and this question reinforces that... if you WERE a Christian you would KNOW what unifies them.
3.) "What is it that Christians are doing to impact the world in a positive way?"
Again, another questions that simply verifies you aren't a Christian - you wonder what Christians should be doing because you are not one, and you have no idea what Christian life is about.
4.) "typically the impression is the Christian churches are full of gossip, that they are mean and bigoted, and they are hypocritical,"
Here we simply have an admitted non-believing, ranting about how bad all the Christians are.
You could hear the same at the local pub.
Conclusion:
1.) NUFAN, you've admitted in your bio you are not a Christian, and every sentence in your OP confirms that.
2.) Hopefully the members here will ignore your rants, and simply share the gospel with you. You need to meet Christ; you need to have a personal conversion. Nothing will resolve your dilemmas except repentance and submission to Christ.
3.) FELLOW CHRISTIANS, I hope ALL believers reading this will recognize this post as stereotypical complaints from a non-believer.
These are the things non-believers say. These are the common, ordinary, predictable things non-believers say.
We should not get worked up about any of it.
We should not feel defensive about any of it.
We should ignore most of it, and just share the gospel... non-believers will exaggerate all real problems while also creating false problems out of thin air.
God Bless.
.
It is not an opinion.It's a fact when it comes to doctrine faith and belief there is hate and division amongst Christians and this is because of the institutions, they promote it, they teach it. Why should I not be upset and call out an an institution and affiliation who are working together to shove poison down people's throat and leading people astray.