Christianity Needs to Return to Being a Good Example

A comprehending observer would realize that, however ill-considered Chau’s plan was, it made sense to him given evangelical assumptions about salvation and eternity. Leave North Sentinel Island alone makes perfect sense if what you believe about God has nothing to do with your eternal fate. If there is no afterlife (or if we can’t know anything about the afterlife) then what Chau was doing was the height of foolishness.I don’t know much about the details of Chau’s faith per se, and he seems to have worked in some capacity for the All Nations sending organization. His diary entries suggest that he believed that reconciliation with God through Christ is the most important thing in life. It is a life-or-death issue for everyone, and thus something you’d lay down your life for. This is logical, if you assume what evangelicals believe is true.The Journal‘s response to Chau’s death stands in stark contrast to the media coverage of Jim Elliot and the Ecuador martyrs in 1956. In particular, Life magazine gave enormously sympathetic (one might say fawning) coverage to Elliot’s death and that of his missionary companions in a spearing attack by Waorani Indians.The difference in coverage surely has to do with the fact that Chau seems, at first glance, like more of a rogue actor than Elliot. But the contrast is also a gauge of how much American culture has changed in the intervening six decades. A national magazine such as Life in 1956 would at least resonate with the attempt to bring Western civilization to people they called Stone Age savages. But Life also faithfully represented Elliot’s evangelical agenda, as he explained that he and his colleagues were under divine commission to preach the gospel to all nations.Six decades later, we live in world where academic and media elites are allergic to the notion that one culture is superior to another....

Faith,to Stile writes:This idea that we should just be nicey nice and never preach the gospel to anyone is actually a sentence to eternal misery for those we encounter. If we really love people we want the best for them.

Stile writes:Forcing your beliefs on others is not wanting the best for them - it's wanting the best for you.

Being rude and forcing your views on others is bad and wrong, regardless of how logical it may or may not be.There are many ways to set a good example and allow others to choose to investigate your motives if they desire.Spread the word using good methods.

If we suffered an economic collapse or another major 9-11 type attack, forcing us into war, the streets would run thick with preachers and society likely would have them arrested.

Phat writes:Quick question. How many here think that the Apostle Paul "forced his beliefs" on others?

Phat writes:If we suffered an economic collapse or another major 9-11 type attack, forcing us into war, the streets would run thick with preachers and society likely would have them arrested. Whether that would further add fuel to the fire in a war of ideologies is uncertain as of yet.

Theodoric writes:Two questions. Why and why?

jar writes:Paul, if Paul even existed, was incapable of ever forcing beliefs on anyone once he lost the power he had under traditional Judaism.

Phat writes:You always thought that Jesus should remain a property of Judaism and that the new religion was in effect the problem.

jar writes:As a Pharisee Saul had power, power to actually force and impose things on others under pain of execution.But Paul of Tarsus had no such power.

Phat writes:I suppose you would argue that Christianity was spread by people such as Constantine and Robertson and Swaggart.

Phat writes:We really dont know if Constantine was an instrument of GOD or not....but we *know* that Pat Robertson was used more by the worldly spirit of greed and power than he was used by the Holy Spirit.

Phat writes:As for Christianity, we have discussed what it is, what it should be, the source of it, and the content thereof. I believe as Gamaliel said in Acts--if the motive is of Divine Origin, nothing will ever stop it but it is of human origin, it will fail of its own accord.