The Problem With Christianity

Why do people have such a problem with Christianity? Why does it seem that Christians are the ones that are always under fire? We shouldn't be surprised by this because Jesus told us “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 15:18-19)

People will always have a problem with Christianity for various reasons. But there are 2 big issues that our world has with the claims of Christianity and these two issues always come up.

The first is that Christianity is objective not subjective. You may be asking, "what do you mean?" Well I am glad you asked. Christianity believes that there is truth and falsehood. That there is a right and wrong. In others words sex outside of marriage can't be right for you and wrong for me. It is wrong all the time and people have a problem with that. Christianity cannot be true for me and not for you, everything is not relative to how we feel. There is truth and there is error. There is right and there is wrong.

The second issue is that Christianity is exclusive. When Jesus walked the earth He made certain claims about Himself. Here are His words;

• And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.(John 17:3)

• I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

• For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. (John 3:16-19)

The Bible is plain, concise, and to the point. They ONLY WAY to heaven, the ONLY WAY to know God and have a personal relationship with Him is through Jesus Christ.

So whats the problem if the Bible is clear about Christianity being objective and exclusive?

Jesus himself told us, people love their sins more than Him, they love the darkness rather than the light. I was there at one point in my life, I loved my sins more than God, but one day God opened my eyes to my sinfulness, to my love for the bad stuff I did and I was broken by His grace. In my brokenness God picked up the pieces and is making a masterpiece. Don't let the love of your sin, whatever it may be, keep you from the grace of God.

A Strange Place for A King

Thought I would repost for Easter. This is a poem I wrote during Christmas season

Strange Place for A King
By. Joshua A. Aguilar

A king foretold is coming to our land
A baby born in Bethlehem,
He wasn’t born in a royal home,
But in a manger, not even His own
A Strange Place for a King

This King grew and at his appointed time
He spread His message of the kingdom throughout His land
He came to His own but they received Him not
So He reached out to the outcast and those who would listen
He sat and ate with the outcast, prostitutes, sinners
He receives them and us for we were His mission
A Strange Place for a King

The time has come for His mission to come to completion
But it wasn’t in a castle or on a Throne His Just position
God and sinners reconciled was His perfect plan
He was nailed to the cross for the redemption of man
A Strange place for a King

2000 years later as we dwell on His birth,
His life, His death, His resurrection and Ascension from earth
This Jesus, this king, the savior of man
To all who receive Him, in His kingdom they’ll stand
And In this sinner’s heart, His throne will reside
A Strange Place for my King

One day He will come and call us all home
And on that day with an ever grateful heart
I will kneel at His Throne.

Cultural reflection

In our small group we briefly discussed that most of the Corinthian believers were gentile, mostly Greeks. The Greeks had a cultural tendency to pick their favorite philosopher or politician and hold them up on a pedestal, sometimes to the point that they treated them like gods. We see an example of this in Acts 14 when Paul and Barnabas performed miracles, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The people responded to them by calling them zeus and hermes and they wanted to sacrifice animals to them. The Corinthian believers were doing this, some liked Apollos, some Paul, some Cephas (Peter), some just said Christ meaning they didn't need anyone to teach them. They weren't just saying I like this teacher over the other they were saying we are better than you because we follow the teachings of Apollos or Paul and so on. This was causing divisions in the church and it was tearing up their unity. The question I have been reflecting on and would like you to reflect on is, What cultural baggage, if any, are you bringing to Christianity? to your church?