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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Promoting and Defending God and Attacking Each Other

Does God need people to promote and defend him? Apparently so! A large portion of Christian financial resources go to do just that. From Ken Ham's Creation Museum to most of the religious programming on television, the overwhelming message of Christians is one of promotion and defense of God - and things associated with God, like the Bible. The other major focus of these media efforts is attacking each other. What happened to the Gospel?

From time to time I like to check out the folks at Chick Publications - just to see what they are up to at any given moment. They are one of the premier sources for Protestant Fundamentalist Christian tracts. I noticed on my latest visit that they were advertising a new T-shirt with the caption "Please don't go to Hell" plastered accross the front of the garment.

I did a little survey of the subject matter of their tracts and found sixty-one tracts devoted to a "Basic Gospel" message. I also counted 69 tracts devoted to things like Homosexuality(4), Halloween(8), Anti-Catholic(9), False Religion(20), Hell(9), Communism, Mormonism, Global Warming and Jehovah's Witnesses. Many churches accross the United States purchase these tracts and distribute them to the general public in an effort to hook new converts.

Groups within the Church of God culture are not immune to this phenomenon either. Notice some of the booklet titles from the Church of God International: "The Origins of Our Calendar," "Who Changed the Sabbath to Sunday?" "Evolution: Fact or Fallacy?" "The Restoration of Sodom," "The Coming Blood Moons - What Are They?" Notice some of the titles from the United Church of God: "Creation or Evolution - Does It Really Matter What You Believe?" "Is the Bible True?" "Life's Ultimate Question: Does God Exist?" "The Rapture vs. the Bible" "Bible and Archeology (Parts I and II)."

What happened to the message(s) that Jesus Christ gave his disciples to proclaim to the world? Was Christ God's representative to mankind or not? If he was, why isn't the entire focus of these Christian organizations the message(s) that he gave them? Does God need us to promote and defend him? And what do you think God's take on Christians attacking each other would be?

Aren't you attacking Christians Mr. Blogger? I'm asking some questions. I know some fine people who use all of these materials. I accept them as my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I expect to see them in God's Kingdom. I'm just asking: Are we waisting the resources that God has given us on things that "He" never asked us to do?

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