Questions about Social Media

DukeJohn said:

As a Christian, with many Christian friends. i find that on facebook or other social media, that they sometimes (more times than not) will share one of those "Share if you love God and aren't afraid to prove it. remember what the bible says if you deny me in front of your friends i will deny you in front of my father" pictures. well i saw a few of them, and while i Will NEVER Deny God, I didn't share it, and i just feel like its wrong to post those kinds of things because they are forcing people to do things they shouldn't have to, to prove their love for God. But not sharing it Does not mean you Deny him does it?

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No, it does not mean you deny him. If someone asks you directly, then you should give a reply.

Fb is silly. Its like those chain letter things.
You dont need to particpate, nobodys forcing you to. But its kinda superficial, like proving you love God by clicking a button. You can prove your love in other ways, dont feel bad that you dont share or like everything on FB. Its manipulative...so thats why I dont use it anymore.

If someone asks you..be ready to have an answer though about the hope you do have.

DukeJohn said:

As a Christian, with many Christian friends. i find that on facebook or other social media, that they sometimes (more times than not) will share one of those "Share if you love God and aren't afraid to prove it. remember what the bible says if you deny me in front of your friends i will deny you in front of my father" pictures. well i saw a few of them, and while i Will NEVER Deny God, I didn't share it, and i just feel like its wrong to post those kinds of things because they are forcing people to do things they shouldn't have to, to prove their love for God. But not sharing it Does not mean you Deny him does it?

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God won't guilt you into telling others about Himself.

I just ignore those things. There are lots of them and they are meaningless.

People seam to think that FB gives them the ability to express their views to others in a way that they would never do in person.

DukeJohn said:

As a Christian, with many Christian friends. i find that on facebook or other social media, that they sometimes (more times than not) will share one of those "Share if you love God and aren't afraid to prove it. remember what the bible says if you deny me in front of your friends i will deny you in front of my father" pictures. well i saw a few of them, and while i Will NEVER Deny God, I didn't share it, and i just feel like its wrong to post those kinds of things because they are forcing people to do things they shouldn't have to, to prove their love for God. But not sharing it Does not mean you Deny him does it?

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Personally I hate those kind of messages, I feel they are to demanding, and not spirit led. I started using facebook to write bible messages for my friends to read, I was surprised by who actually read the stuff. Just drop the occassional J bomb on facebook. Let your friends know you love Jesus.

Joh 13:37-38 KJV
(37) Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.
(38) Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.

Mar 14:66-72 KJV
(66) And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest:
(67) And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.
(68) But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch; and the [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] crew.
(69) And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them.
(70) And he denied it again. And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilaean, and thy speech agreeth thereto.
(71) But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.
(72) And the second time the [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

Joh 21:14-17 KJV
(14) This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.
(15) So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
(16) He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
(17) He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

here we have the definition of denying Jesus - to say that you do not know Him when under great pressure; and the mercy and love of God, to give as many opportunities to confirm that we do know Him as we used to deny Him.

the example you gave is in fact a denial of Jesus, in that it attempts to use fear to motivate people - fear is the weapon of the devil, not God; and such as use fear to motivate others are already yielded to the devil, and in denial of the Lord of mercy and grace, although they likely don't realize this and are therefore not guilty of denying Jesus in the eyes of God. you might post the scriptures above in response to such immature challenges...

DiscipleHeLovesToo said:

here we have the definition of denying Jesus - to say that you do not know Him when under great pressure; and the mercy and love of God, to give as many opportunities to confirm that we do know Him as we used to deny Him.

the example you gave is in fact a denial of Jesus, in that it attempts to use fear to motivate people - fear is the weapon of the devil, not God; and such as use fear to motivate others are already yielded to the devil, and in denial of the Lord of mercy and grace, although they likely don't realize this and are therefore not guilty of denying Jesus in the eyes of God. you might post the scriptures above in response to such immature challenges...

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I was thinking this as well. Trying to bind the conscience with something trivial is really a denial in itself.

DukeJohn said:

As a Christian, with many Christian friends. i find that on facebook or other social media, that they sometimes (more times than not) will share one of those "Share if you love God and aren't afraid to prove it. remember what the bible says if you deny me in front of your friends i will deny you in front of my father" pictures. well i saw a few of them, and while i Will NEVER Deny God, I didn't share it, and i just feel like its wrong to post those kinds of things because they are forcing people to do things they shouldn't have to, to prove their love for God. But not sharing it Does not mean you Deny him does it?

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Total bologna. All of that amounts to chain letter superstition stuff and spam. I delete every single appeal to emotion forward this on e-mail that comes my way. And I don't do Facebook. That mess is totally ridiculous.

Just look at it this as reason gazillion to quit Facebook. If psychology experiments without informed consent, helping countries put innocent people in prison by giving out their private info when asked, issues with clergy being locked out of their accounts for using their tonsured names instead of their legal names (and being told to provide legal documentation to get their accounts back), collecting all those texts you started typing and decided not to send, flat-out being told by Facebook execs in press releases over the years that they don't care about your privacy, and the sheer drama haven't been enough. Perhaps this one will send another person to anti-Facebook land.

I just ignore them, you are right they are silly and meaningless, it doesn't prove one thing or another because you answer. the originator of the message has no CLUE about us so why bother?

I ignore those things or ANYTHING that resembles chain messaging. Such a the most common one I see "I'm writing this to see who reads my page, comment or like this so I know you read this. If not you may be removed!". My feeling is people really mean that they can remove me because they obviously have no idea how FB works. You don't have time to read everyones facebook page. Its impossible and a waste of time. If something important is happening on a friends FB page it will show up in my news fedd usually because it tends to get lots of comments and so on.

You are "sharing" it, by leaving it up on your
wall instead of deleting it.

I agree with everyone else saying just ignore it. You're not denying him by not soliciting what many call the modern form of "chain mail". I actually find it annoying when I see people do that. I friend of mine wrote an article a while back about facebook etiquette for pastors and church members. You might find it helpful. He talked about something like this on point #5.