The Church speaks out in the media

[Xenocrates]

BCK, What are you doing? Read this:

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

...like believing in Aliens, Gay Rights, Feminism, Agnosticism and all that junk. Never-the-less, in Thessolonians, we read:

...They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

...and as such:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient

My point? There's no need to point out where the church has spoken out.

When there is no crisis, nobody listens to the church. People only care about what the church has to say when the country is in a crisis. Didn't you notice that? The church has ALWAYS been speaking, it's just that the listeners choose to be deaf. You should never let anyone who accuses the church of being conveniently silent to get under your skin. You have NOTHING to prove to them. These people (not necessarily referring to anyone here) are HYPOCRITES.

They are the SAME people who will be flooding to church as soon as they hear of impending disaster. I can't forget that WatchNight service we had on the eve of the new year 2000 - the place was PACKED to capacity with people who we were seeing for the very first time. Apparently, they got wind of the media frenzy that the world would end in the year 2000.

Terror, my friend, has marvelous ways of putting the fear of God in people. However, where these same people see no need to seek God, you will here this sort of diatribe often:

• "...the church not doing enough"
• "...Jamaica has more churches per square mile than anywhere else, and yet we're the most violent..."
• "...this one funny nuh rasta..."
• "...why isn't the church speaking out?"
• "...only the church is to blame for...[insert favourite scapegoat here]"
• "...in Jamaica, for every church, there is a bar..."
• ...and all that nonsense.

It's all HYPOCRISY Bck. Let anyone of these people become threatened for their lives, and see how fast they beat a path to the nearest chapel. It's at times like those, BCK, that the Bible teaches us that God says:

...since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you...

...and as we both know, master BCK, there are only 2 things that are certain in life:

• Death
• The Judgement

So let them jeer. Let them It is only for a time.

[AngelsKiss]

Its because we live in a blamed filled society and I don't mean Jamaica alone, it's the same where ever you go.

Too often in stead of taking responsibility for our actions we find some one or something to blame.

However, it doesn't mean we should stop educating ourselves and each other. Hopefully one day it will stick.

So I look at what BCK is doing as educating those that are always complaining that the church does nothing. Hopefully one day they will get the message.

[BlackCryptoKnight]

So I look at what BCK is doing as educating those that are always complaining that the church does nothing. Hopefully one day they will get the message.

[Xenocrates]

Its because we live in a blamed filled society and I don't mean Jamaica alone, it's the same where ever you go. Too often in stead of taking responsibility for our actions we find some one or something to blame.

- True, but the problem is that people who are quick to cast blame are hypocrites. Anyone who is quick to blame someone is only seeking the fastest way to make themselves seem innocent. Proving their accusations wrong doesn't annul the response of blame casting. So long as they want to cast blame, they will continue to do so, no matter how often you prove them wrong.

Instead, prove to them that the only reason they want to blame someone else is because they're guilty of hypocrisy, with an irrational double standard. If a blamecaster is made to see the error of his intent instead of the error of his argument, it proves to be a far more effective campaigne. Prick the heart of the man, not his arguments.

However, it doesn't mean we should stop educating ourselves and each other. Hopefully one day it will stick.

- Did you know that people who CHOOSE to believe a thing CANNOT be persuaded otherwise? Can you be indoctrinated into some other religion? Exactly my point.

People have to WANT to hear. Everybody knows that the church is not silent. Proving that they aren't doesn't solve the problem. Look at the cynical responses! The problem is that people don't WANT to hear. How are you gonna tell a man who doesn't want to hear the truth that the truth is such and such? Once a man is set a certain way in his heart, such he shall be until death.

So I look at what BCK is doing as educating those that are always complaining that the church does nothing. Hopefully one day they will get the message.

- Those who complain that the church does nothing will continue to complain, not because the Church is doing or not doing anything, but because they already DESPISE the church and will seek ANY reason to detract from it. So it doesn't matter what good the church does, these people will continue to be DEAF and BLIND to what the church is doing. If a man started a thread and said that the church is silent, just ask that man when last he attended church... case closed.

[AngelsKiss]

-

- Did you know that people who CHOOSE to believe a thing CANNOT be persuaded otherwise? Can you be indoctrinated into some other religion? Exactly my point.

Nothing is impossible when it comes to the Father. I wouldn't be seeking to doctrinate anyone. I would be trying to educate them by spreading God's message.

If we allow God to work thru us any thing is possible. If God wants someone to change then it will happen.

To say that ppl who complain about the church despise the church suggest that you know what is in a person's mind and heart. I think you should leave that judgement for God.

Sometimes ppl see a thing a particular way simply because they may not have thought it out carefully, they simply don't know or because of their own personal experience. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to enlighten them.

[Justice]

- - Those who complain that the church does nothing will continue to complain, not because the Church is doing or not doing anything, but because they already DESPISE the church and will seek ANY reason to detract from it. So it doesn't matter what good the church does, these people will continue to be DEAF and BLIND to what the church is doing. If a man started a thread and said that the church is silent, just ask that man when last he attended church... case closed.

I don’t despise the church and I am certainly not seeking to detract from it, in fact I don’t think it is possible to detract from the church, you would only be hurting yourself in the long run. However, I personally think the church can do more and is not doing enough, an organization such a Red Cross is only as big as the church body world wide and yet still whenever there is a disaster the Red Cross get mobilize and help people. In Jamaica whenever there is a disaster people don’t turn to the church for assistance they turn to the Member of Parliament, the church have shirk there responsibility all in the name of hoarding money and building big church.

I long for a day when I can see a church that is active, mobilize and have the energy that they have challenging the “Charter of Rights”. The church should be the champion against state terrorism, state brutality, they should stand up and let criminals know that we are united and we will give you up if you refuse to turn over the guns (and don’t tell me these church people don’t know the criminals, most churches are found in ghettos or near ghettos and the mother and sisters are sometimes members) the church need to stop arguing about when is the Sabbath, who is going to hell, which church is better who have more members and who have the bigger church.

By the way I attend youth meeting last Friday, didn’t get to go to church on Sunday I was a bit tired. You know Xeno I have a Pastor and a Deacon with whom I have these discussion and they don’t come off as arrogant as you sound, people have real concern about the church in the public, their motive, their involvement and where they are going. It’s not for believers to shun them and call them hypocrites but to try and understand why they think so. The only people living in Jamaica that believe that the church is doing enough are those people who have the ‘shade of Christianity’ drawn over their eyes, they are so caught up in their belief that they forgot their cause. Jesus never came to save the saved, he came for the unsaved, it is not for the believers to shun none Christians but to convert them and if they have real belief that the church is not doing anything then maybe you should try and understand where they coming from, why they think that way and not just disregard it has hypocrisy.

[Justice]

If God wants someone to change then it will happen.

God ‘can’t’ force any man to change if the man doesn’t wish to change. Christians need to stop sitting on their backside and wait on God to make change and go out and be the warrior, the champion of change. The church should lead from the front and start the revolution, the complete change that will see the upliftment of God’s people.

[Justice]

More and more in Jamaica you find that a lot of young men gravitate towards Rastafarianism, its not because they were given a choice, but more and more they believe that Rastafarian speak the language of their plight and the church is too caught up in the bible and what happened a thousand years ago. They believe that the church is concentrating on the past and not seeing that today I am hungry, today I am clothes less, today I need love. Don’t tell them about Jesus death without showing them how Jesus can help them get out of their squalor. I believe that when the church realizes this, then the revolution will begin and a new world will be born.

[AngelsKiss]

God ‘can’t’ force any man to change if the man doesn’t wish to change. Christians need to stop sitting on their backside and wait on God to make change and go out and be the warrior, the champion of change. The church should lead from the front and start the revolution, the complete change that will see the upliftment of God’s people.

No one is talking about forcing a change and even if God wanted to force a change he could.

What I am talking about is allowing God to be the driving force. Yes we need to make change happen, but mostly importantly we need to allow God to work thru us.

[jamerican]

This how i see it society tends to blame the church etc other then blaming them self. We the people have a part to play but we tend not to. for example people who are friends with gunman, drug lord or some illegal sh!.t they them self dont turn them in. Police and Politician inna too much rass mixup and corruption it not just the average joe or jack doing this. Another thing crime is not going to go down If there no Job, food on there table,education and can pay them bills but still you have some greedy b.!tches who want quick money. anyways i have another class to go too later.