W2L
Well-Known Member
QUOTE RDKirk, Does that mean the Christians in China, Vietnam, and North Korea are not real Christians? This thread reads as though the only Christians in the world are in the US.
We are citizens of the kingdom of Heaven. We are each deployed to various nations of the world (1 Peter) to execute a mission of limited duration in the nation of deployment. When we complete our mission, we'll go home.
So we should observe these nations from the view point of aliens, pilgrims, and sojourners (1 Peter)--not as natives. We are diplomats on a diplomatic mission. We are not "home" in any of these nations.
No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please his commander. -- 1 Timothy 2
"Entangled." Remaining unentangled in the affairs of the world and concentrating on the mission given us by Christ is not apathy any more than a soldier fighting in Afghanistan without becoming entangled in Afghan politics is not apathetic.
Whether we are Christians in America, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Japan, India, or Pakistan, we all have exactly the same mission and should be doing exactly the same thing. QUOTE
Just think.... if 'Christians' in the usa did the same thing Christians in china did,
people in the usa would see a difference between Christians and pagans...
just like people in china can see the difference between Christians and pagans in china !
Its my opinion that the Church gets blamed because Christians get involved in politics. WE get blamed for wars. Paul said that we should not take Gods grace in vain, but that we should endure suffering and injustice, so that the ministry will not be blamed. We justify our political action by saying that we are standing up for the poor and oppressed, but im not sure getting involved in politics is the right way to do that. Perhaps if we stayed out of politics, we would not get blamed for anything, and we could still speak up when injustice needs to be confronted. IT would be a slippery slope however, because politicians create drama and false impressions which are designed to mislead voters. Perhaps just preaching the Gospel in itself is the best way to stand up for justice. I cannot say what is right or wrong, but i know that i personally cannot get involved in politics anymore. I figure that praying might have more value than arguing over politics, but i cannot know for sure. I only know that i feel lead to stay away from politics.
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