In part 1, I began to answer the question of why some find Christianity offensive by removing Christians from the discussion. At first blush it would seem that there is no place else to go. In all actuality we can and will go to the fist and the last place, God.
Here again I will have to provide context because man has raised people and things to godlike status and called them God. They have perverted the one true God with their cultures and practices and religions. They have claimed an ancestral, supernatural, or cosmic relationship between their Gods and the one true God. Some have elevated man to godlike status. And some even try to present counterfeits and call them God.
Before you cry out and ask why my truth is better than your truth or how dare I tell you that your God is not the one true God, please bear with me because we will get to that.
I believe in God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three are the whole, and none could exist without the other yet they operate independently and at the same time in concert with each other. And in no way am I referring to modalism. It is a hugely difficult concept for a finite mind to try to understand let alone explain and I have to admit I am far from fully grasping it. But for this discussion, I do not think I need to dive any deeper here. I do want to bring in a couple verses here to illustrate this, however.
Genesis 1:26 – “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…”
Matthew 3:16-17 – As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Matthew 28:19 – Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
So, I tend to assign a basic attribute to each to help get my head around it all. These would be: God the Father – Creator, Jesus Christ the Son – Savior, Holy Spirit – Helper. Please understand this does not come close to adequately describing God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. This just helps me to understand basic concepts by keeping these in the forefront of my mind.
One other thing I would like to clarify here is that when I say “offended by,” I do not mean to apply that God or Christianity offend anyone in any active sense. I cannot think of any reason why God or Christianity would set out to offend as there would be no purpose in it. The offense is a perception by those who find offence or feel offended. It is that person’s feeling or understanding that leads them to those conclusions and is wholly contained within them. And numbers do not change this fact. A group of people that feel offended would never mean that God or Christianity must have actively worked to offend them. It simply means that the members of that group, no matter how large and diverse, all share the common feeling or perception.
So let us begin right here with the first issue; God.
If God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are all one, then you cannot have any without all. Any who claim that Jesus was just a prophet, or was just a holy man, or does not exist must also deny the existence of God. For some, God must exist but Jesus is not Lord or never existed which is counter to Christianity. If their theology is founded on this belief, then not only are they forced to deal with their concept of god, but any and all arguments based on their “god concept.”
I guess this is a good place to identify what the offense actually is. If we could distill it down to its essence I believe it is the concept of Absolute Truth. In a world of relativism, there is no absolute anything. Everyone is just a correct as everyone else which, I might add, is self defeating. If I say that you are wrong and I am right and you say you are right and I am wrong and my position is as true is yours, then you cannot be right. (if you want to explore this further, look up self-referential inconsistency).
Back on point, an absolute truth means there is no possibility of degrees or change. And in the context of our discussion, any absolutes are defined by God eliminating any chance that they can be or will change. As God exists outside any human moral or intellectual relativism and outside time itself (I am who I am, Exodus 3:14) accepting God requires accepting the concept of absolutes beyond the control or influence of man.
Expanding upon this a little further, acceptance would also require one to admit that they were wrong. I think that this is the most difficult thing a person can do because of pride. We will try anything to keep from losing face. We will do whatever we can to justify our position, beliefs, or actions so that we do not have to admit we are wrong. We all do it time and time again. No one wants to be wrong.
Most often admitting that we are wrong also means admitting that someone else is right. Understanding this is very important to a Christian, but often unrealized. It is not the person who is right. It is God who is True and it is the Holy Spirit that is convicting. It would be wise to get out of the way and let God work (He must increase, but I must decrease – John 3:30).
After God, I think it is logical to move onto Sin. Let me begin with a few verses.
Romans 3:23 – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
1 John 1:8 – If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:10 – If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Romans 3:10 – As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.
As a Christian, there had to be a point where I accepted the fact that I was a sinner in need of a savior. It did not matter what my sins were. Sin is no more a matter of relativism any more than Truth is. Any opinion that I am good enough because I have not done anything that bad is simply wrong because it is not a matter of how bad, it is simply yes or no. Without Christ, the person who stole a candy bar shares the same fate as a mass murderer.
And from this simple principle comes a flood of responses. “I am not that bad.” “A loving God would never condemn me.” “The good I have done outweighs the bad.” “I want no part of a God who could condemn this beautiful person.” “Just because you think it is sin does not mean it is. I don’t think it is and my position is just as true as yours.” The list can go on and on but the bottom line is that these are all feeble attempts at justifying sin.
Why would anyone need to justify their sin? Up to this point, it almost sounds like sin is just a character flaw so why try to justify it. Well, there is a cost. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). Basically, if we have sinned we will not receive eternal life.
At this point the typical response is “Who are you to judge me.” But in all reality it is Jesus who judges, not man.
I do think it is pretty clear to see that because in Christianity there is realization that no one is sinless and because of that sin we are condemned some find this offensive. No one wants to grouped with those who they think have far worse sins then they and no one wants to miss out on eternal life because of sin.
In part 3 we will cover the one last thing that some find offensive about Christianity.
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