I thought of this awhile back and was wondering you all's opinion: I personally think the reason why so many people don't want to receive Christ is because Christians scare them away. Believe it or not, I also believe that a lot of Christians have managed to scare other Christians away. Thoughts?
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True or False?
- Thread starter Quiet Storm
- Start date
I think you might be right! Sometimes in our zeal to tell the whole world about the great love Jesus has for us, we tend to be a bit over powering. I know I was a bit much when I was a new christian, scared everyone to death; however now I know we need to be a lot more gracious and take it a little slower.I also think people who do not know the lord and His grace don't understand how we can stumble and still think we are christian.Most people think you need to be perfect to be a chriatian,they are not aware of the truth,it's too easy they say has to be more to it. Praise Jesus it is just that easy!
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ps139
Ab omni malo, libera nos, Domine!
Quiet Storm said:
I think you're totally right. Many people take the wrong approach to evangelization. Notice that in Acts, Paul didnt go around handing out tracts which basically said "Believe in my God or go to hell" (which is sadly true of many modern tracts) instead he took something that both he and the Greeks held in common, the "unknown God" and said, Now you can know who this God is! A lot of people try to witness to non-Christians with Bible verses, which I think is useless if the person does not believe the Bible has any authority.
When I witness to people, I do it logically and rationally, taking it slow, and building from the ground up...startign with, Do you believe in a Creator? ...then teaching them that this Creator has a personality, a will, and is perfect. And that we are not perfect, and perfection cannot abide with imperfection. Then they realize the need for some kind of mediator, which is Jesus.
A lot of times it is all about the approach, and its sad to say that some Christians beat people over the heads with Bibles and then expect those people to love Christ when they still don't even understand why Jesus died.
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princess_ballet
Senior Veteran
I don't see this so much in Catholics, but a lot of Protestants can be very pushy and very condenscending. I used to have a Protestant friend (I still have classes with her, but I can't consider her a friend) that looked down on me and would put me down all the time because I'm Catholic and that doesn't meet her levels of being religious. It's horrible. So, yes, some people do keep others away.
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I think sometimes Christians are the worst advertisement for Christianity, but we can't use that as an excuse to shy away from fulfilling the great commission
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I think that sometimes it is also just the excuse of the non-christian to not become a christian. They need to look to God, and not look to man
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I can agree to an extent, but then again Jesus wasn't a great example for Christianity (or, rather, what we believe it to be).Grace77 said:
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SAVEVERYONE
Well-Known Member
I can see it this way to our fight is not against flesh and blood, thus bring it to the point, when a non-saved person is approached by a christian, think about it, there being approached by Jesus, because in the spirit realm the demons and evil spirits see Jesus in the christian when witnessing, thus the reason some non-believers get scared, because the devil wants to get out of there Jesus is standing right in there with the christian, If you were the devil wouldn't you want to leave knowing Jesus is right there, so you can see it this way to if you want...
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i like that saveveryone, read through the life of jesus, when he approached demon possessed people the demon would fall to his knees and beg the son of god not to harm them. Hellfire preaching will scare some people, if you tell them they are going to hell but dont tell them why. That is plenty of reason for them to be scared. SHOW THE LOVE. They cant get scared if you do nothin but show the love, and sometimes that may mean stop talking to them about jesus, and tell them have a nice day, good points made in here
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OracleX
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Just never loose sight that everything that we do is for the glory of God. If we witness for the glory of God then the rest is in God's hands. We can not save anyone, that is the the Holy Spirits job to touch the heart and convict. We are here to deliver the message. Deliver for the glory of God and not your own glory and what happens happens. See when you do it for God's glory, God will be seen and God will change people. When you do it for your glory or pride or whatever, you are seen and you are powerless to change anyones heart, atleast towards Christ.
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LastMaxim
Soldier of Christ
Bowser said:
...I'd say that he was trying to say that the Jesus we think we know today would be far different than how we have come to think of Him...not everything is as nicey nice as we'd like to think it is these days, and Jesus will often give us over to be 'sifted', so that what is not of Him will be exposed, and hopefully removed. It's never a 'happy' process, even though it will bring greater things into our lives, and therefore more joy/happiness...this is not to say that God enjoys seeing us go through this (an important pointps139 said:
)...feel free to correct me Bowser ......we are involved in a war, and all of us are called to fight, but the battlefield is the fabric of our lives, and the world around us, including (first and fore most) the spiritual realm, not just a physical piece of land. Non-believers don't get the gist of why we're so fired up sometimes to see them come to know and love Jesus as we do, so that they might have the grace and love (etc, etc) that we enjoy...and it isn't a 'numbers game', as some would make it out to be, since every soul is extremely important. We do this out of love, not to meet some kind of 'quota'
...but just try to tell some people this ...
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CookiesRejectKidd
Meant to Live
hmmm...I believe this is true in sum ways....as far as scaring away other chrisitans go, it does happen...some christian feel uncomfterable worshiping w/ other christians just because their belifes are diffrent or just things that other ppl do in worship like lifting their arms or claping or dancing or speaking in toungs or having vision (or what ever you'd like to call them) ect... the ppl visiting a church may feel uncomfterable in the church they're visiting be cause that those kinds of things don't go on in their chuch.
Now christians might scare off non-believers becuz the non-believers may view the chistian(s) in question as too....(god what's the word?)...well I can't think of the word but htey might think that that christian may be trying too hard to get them to believe in something that they don't believe and don't want to believe in...there's probably thousands of other reasons why non- believers and christians both get scared away from christians...but I can't think of them at them moment...
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I once heard the best way to show someone the light is to listen...
In other words, it's sometimes best not to preach and throw words at someone but to just listen to them, listen to their questions, and answer them the best you can if they want an answer. Answer with your opinion.
Also, there's a bible passage about throwing your pearls to pigs and getting them trampled on ( I think it's in matthew?). Some people it would just be a waste to throw your pearls at, to throw words at... they're just too closed minded.
In other words, it's sometimes best not to preach and throw words at someone but to just listen to them, listen to their questions, and answer them the best you can if they want an answer. Answer with your opinion.
Also, there's a bible passage about throwing your pearls to pigs and getting them trampled on ( I think it's in matthew?). Some people it would just be a waste to throw your pearls at, to throw words at... they're just too closed minded.
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