Question: How can I believe Jesus when I see so many hypocrites in the churches?
Answered by TC Lo (盧天賜的回答)
Few things I like to bring to your consideration:
- I am not here to defend Christians. I am here to defend the validity of Christianity. Christians are to defend for themselves on the Day of Judgment. Some of the “Christians” may not be genuine Christians in the sight of Jesus. Here is Jesus’ own word in the Book of Matthews, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” I am not going to judge whether certain individual is a genuine Christian or not; such judgment belongs to God alone. The essence of Christianity is “The Will of God”. Therefore, the question is: Are the things you dislike about Christianity the teaching (or the will) of Christ? Or Are the things you dislike about Christianity endorsed by Christ?
- I am not saying a genuine Christian is a perfect person. I am saying Jesus—hence, Christianity—is perfect. A genuine Christian is the one who continuously seeks Jesus’ grace and forgiveness for his own sins. Yes, hypocrisy is a deadly painful thing to Christianity because it blunts the thrust of evangelism. No one can lead a life totally free from hypocrisy and Christians have no exception. Any one who claims that he is totally non-hypercritical is the biggest hypocrisy itself. However, we Christians are not to be measured by comparing to other people, we are comparing to our own past. After we became a Christian, the transformation power of Christ can and will change us. This is the Grace of Christ. Christ came not to make bad people good but make dead people alive. Measuring morality by our deed is very dangerous: If we do good, we become proud and look down other people. If we fail, we become discouraged and disillusioned. But if we life by grace, we become carefree and our life become joyfully abundant knowing everything is the grace of God.
- Part of the reason for Christianity’s rapid spread, historians have remarked, was simply that the early Christians were such nice people. They were caring for neighbors, the poor, and the widows; the very kindness of the Christians and their service to the hurting and downtrodden attracted new adherents. Should Christianity’s positive influence to humankind be ignored? Why don’t you focus on these nice people.
- If seeing Christians doing bad thing has become your justification to reject Christianity, then seeing atheists doing bad things should equally justify you to reject of atheism and begin to turn to God.
When you make clear distinction between Christian conducts and Christian teachings, all these problems can be readily vaporized. When you make clear distinction between Christian imperfection and Christ’s sinless nature all these problems should cease to bother you. We should fix our eyes on the sinless Christ rather than the sinners whom Jesus saved.
- 几件事情需要考虑：
我在这里不是为基督徒辩护，而是为基督教的可信性辩护。基督徒将在神的审判日为自己辩护。有些“基督徒”在耶稣看来可能不是真正的基督徒。耶稣在《马太福音》亲自这样讲：“凡称呼我主阿，主阿的人，不能都进天国。惟独遵行我天父旨意的人，才能进去。” 我不去論斷誰是真正的基督徒, 只有神才有資格去分辨. 基督教的精髓是“天父的旨意”。问题是：你所深恶痛绝的事情，是否是基督耶稣的教导呢? 或是被基督耶稣所认可呢？ - 我不是说一个真正的基督徒是一个完美的人。我是说耶稣—即基督教—是完美的。一个真正的基督徒是一个不断为自己的罪寻求耶稣的恩典和宽恕的人。
- 历史学家们认为，基督教迅速蔓延的部分原因，是因为早期的基督徒是非常好的人。他们关心邻舍，穷人和寡妇。基督徒的这种善良和他们对被伤害和被践踏的人民的服事，吸引了新的信徒。基督教对人类的积极影响可以被忽略吗？你為什應不向基督徒好的方面看?
- 如系看到基督徒做坏事是你拒绝基督教的理由，那么同样的，看到无神论者做坏事应该他是你排斥无神论，并开始转向神的理由了。
当你区分开基督徒的行为和基督教的教义，所有这些问题就迎刃而解。当你区分开基督徒的不完美和基督的无罪性，所有这些问题就不再打扰你了. (高玲譯)
