The Impact of the Christian Evolutionist on the Church

Jesus criticized the religious leadership for slamming shut the door of salvation:

• "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23:13) 

How did they close salvation’s door?

• "Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering." (Luke 11:52)

They took away the “key of knowledge” which was intended to open the door to salvation. How did they do this? Did they destroy the Scriptures? They didn’t need to do that. They merely perverted its teachings, obscuring the beauty and clarity of the Word.

Today, we have a new crop of Pharisees and “teachers of the law.” These too are part of the educated elite, who “have taken away the key to knowledge.” Who are they and how have they done this? These are the theistic or “Christian” evolutionists (CEs). They have perverted Scripture by claiming that the first few chapters of Genesis are merely allegory and not creation history. Why do they take this position? Well, if Genesis is not really an account about how God created the physical world, but rather a spiritual allegory, then this allegory cannot contradict the claims of evolution! Therefore, we can live together happily ever after with both Darwin and the Bible.

You might think that this is only a trivial compromise, but it is not. The Jesus/Darwin marriage is a transaction that affects the entire body of Scripture. How? For one thing, the writers of the New Testament and Jesus regarded these early accounts as genuine history and not mere allegory. For example:

• Death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. (Romans 5:14)

• For Adam was formed first, then Eve. (1 Timothy 2:13)

• For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)

• So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45)

• [Jesus] the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. (Luke 3:38)

• Enoch, the seventh from Adam. (Jude 1:14)

• When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.” (Acts 4:24)

• He also says, "In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” (Hebrews 1:10)

• By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:3)

• Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3)

• In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. (Hebrews 1:2)

• God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. (Romans 4:17) 

• Jesus replied, "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (Mark 10:5-9)

• “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. (Acts 17:26)

• For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. (1 Corinthians 11:8-9)

• But there is a place where someone has testified: "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet." (Hebrews 2:6-8)

All of these verses regard to the first three chapters of Genesis as historical! (And we haven’t even examined the OT commentary on Genesis 1-3!) How does the CE respond? The CE often claims that the NT authors didn’t really regard the Genesis account as historical. Instead, they were merely using language – pious distortions - that they knew would be acceptable to their audience.

However, by resorting to such an interpretation, the CEs turn the NT into an absolute mystery. Everything written becomes suspect. Perhaps everything in the NT is not a matter of truth but pious manipulation. Perhaps Jesus really didn’t rise from the dead, as the Apostles had claimed. Perhaps the Apostles reported this so that the believer might have hope? The Bible then becomes a closed book, useless for little more than entertainment. However, the Bible consistently claims to be “God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16) and fully the product of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 2:20-21).

The CE has “taken away the key of knowledge.” They have closed the Bible, and they seem to be undaunted by this.

Do they understand what they are doing? Perhaps not! Jesus called the Pharisees “blind guides”:

• Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit." (Matthew 15:12-14)

The Pharisees might have genuinely but blindly believed in what they were doing. Perhaps also the CE! In any event, they have done considerable damage to the church. Even Dale McGowan, Ph.D, Managing Editor of the Atheist Channel at Patheos, and author of Atheism For Dummies, acknowledges this, quoting Tullio Gregory:

• Once you cast doubt on man’s place in creation, the entire Biblical story of salvation history, from original sin to Christ’s incarnation, is also threatened. 

Even though he is a strong advocate for evolution, McGowan confesses that he is “conflicted” and troubled by message of BioLogos, a CE organization peddling evolution to the church:

• In a BioLogos video titled, “Adam and Eve: Engaging the Tough Questions,” an advisor notes that there are “a lot of proposals out there of when the first sin might have happened, what it might have looked like… we don’t have a simple answer on the question of the historical Adam…who were Adam and Eve, when did they live?” 

• This is always the first step in a crumbling theology – the suggestion that the answer is out there, it’s just very, very complicated. The problem is our ability to grasp the answer. But no worries, there are a lot of proposals. It all makes for an impressive simulacrum of rigor, an army of question marks in search of meaningful questions. 

As McGowen points out, Biologos has undermined both the clarity of the biblical message and the church’s assurance about it.

The CE has often counseled me that we “have to be humble about our interpretations of Scripture.” However, they are not at all humble about their dismissal of the first three chapters of Genesis as history. Nor are they humble about dismissing the NT’s clear assertions that Genesis is history. It would therefore seem reasonable to apply Paul’s invective to the CE:

• I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! (Galatians 1:6-8) 

Let us pray that they will no longer hide behind mystery or “that the answer is out there, [but] it’s just very, very complicated,” but would repent!

Jesus’ Offensive Parables

Jesus’ parables are offensive, perhaps too offensive and even embarrassing. I had often found them overcritical of humanity, especially the Jewish leadership, and therefore unhelpful in understanding others. Humanity just didn’t seem to be as bad as Jesus had portrayed them. For instance, Jesus’ parable about The Tenants:

• "There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.'  So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? He will bring those wretches to a wretched end." (Matthew 21:33-40)

Jesus was indicting the religious elite, promising to “bring those wretches to a wretched end.” Were they really as evil as Jesus alleged? The Pharisees had been widely regarded as pious, even by Jesus’ disciples. However, He accused them of killing all of the messengers – the Prophets of Israel – whom the Master, seeking what had been due to Him, had sent.

What a brutal indictment! But was it so? It certainly seems to be! The writer of the Book of Chronicles explained why Israel and Judah had been destroyed and exiled:

• But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:16)

However, it was more than just a matter of scoffing. God has explained His anger and frustration with His people Israel to Jeremiah:

• "In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword [Israel] has devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.” (Jeremiah 2:30) 

In anguish, Jesus referred to the same:

• "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37) 

Could God’s chosen and pious ones have committed such heinous acts? Evidently! However, we don’t see such evil in others, at least, not in our own kind. Jeremiah didn’t and therefore could not believe that Israel was worthy of God’s harsh indictments. However, as part of his spiritual training, God put this challenge to Jeremiah:

• "Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.” (Jeremiah 5:1) 

Although Jeremiah thought that this might be true of the riff-raff – those who didn’t know the law - he was convinced that he would find many righteous among the elites and his own priestly caste. However, God proved him wrong. Instead, these elites, even his own family, wanted to kill him!

How shocking to see the ugly reality beneath the polished veneer! And we see the same today! Our neighbors, who had greeted us every day with a broad smile, are now exterminating Christians at alarming rates, and if not exterminating them, then depriving them of jobs and livelihoods.

Jesus, wanting to be very clear with the elites in his audience, then brought His lesson home:

• "Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'The stone the builders [you leaders] rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.' Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this [messianic] stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."  When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. (Mat. 21:42-46) 

Israel would reject their promised Messiah – their Savior – as many Hebrew texts had warned. They would kill Him as they had their own Prophets. However, not now! Too many eyes were watching. Too many would protest.

Today, we are shocked by the extent of the hatred and persecution of Christians. How can it be? Even against a people who do not retaliate and whose purpose is to love their neighbor? Where did it all come from? Perhaps this hatred of the light and love of the darkness was always there (John 3:19-20), hidden away until the forces of evil sensed weakness and “victory.”

Jesus’ parables had once been an embarrassment to me as God’s words had been to Jeremiah. However, they now seem all the more relevant, accurate, and timely.

Why they Hate us

A Facebook Friend posted this: 

I couldn’t resist responding: “Well, it seems that you too are quite judgmental.” This response created a storm. One person responded in his defense:

•  He is not judgmental; he is just making an observation!

This is the way that the media usually responds when accused of conducting a war-against-Christians. At first, my friend refused to admit that he too was judgmental. However, I knew him to be a bold straight-shooter, and so I responded that I was disappointed in him, because he wouldn’t answer my question. Then he admitted:

• Daniel...I really don't give a shit whether you are disappointed in me or not. I hope that is clear. Was it my intention to demean church-goers? No...not in this post. This post was pretty clear...an observation… The most judgmental people I have met have been regular church goers. Now...I can certainly demean church goers, in a number of ways. But in this post, I was simply demeaning judgmental people who go to church.

My “friend” is a sharp and intelligent man, and so I was surprised at his incoherent response – denying but yet affirming that he had been judgmental. He later declared himself “a sworn enemy of the organized/patriarchal/religious system.” 

A “sworn enemy” generally has both closed mind and heart. The attacks against me became increasingly vicious, not only from my friend but also from others. This made me reassess what I had written and why the dialogue became what it did. “Why are we hated,” I asked myself. My “friend” thinks that we are judgmental. I have no doubt that he sincerely feels this way. But what makes him think us more judgmental (and condemning) than others? True Christians are forgiving and compassionate, aren’t we?

Jesus explained that since we belong to Him, we will be hated as He is hated:

• “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of me.” (Mat. 10:21-22)

•     “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)

As with Jesus, they will even put us to death, convinced that they are doing the right thing:

•  “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.” (John 16:1-2)

Progressives – the communists – exterminated Christians with the justification that we are regressive elements that need to be destroyed in order to create a better world. Did they really believe that? Perhaps! But what is at the core of such a distorted belief?

Jesus explained that He was hated because He revealed the truth about others (John 7:7).

The more I pointed out my friend’s inconsistencies, the more incensed he became. Why? Jesus explained:

•  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:19-21)

Jesus is the light, and He is hated for this. We too are the light (2 Cor. 5:19-21), and so we are hated. I know that this sounds arrogant, but we must arm ourselves with this awareness so that we do not suffer self-castigation when confronted with hatred. It goes with the turf, as Paul had warned:

• In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Tim 3:12-13)

If we refuse to embrace this uncomfortable truth, the deception of this world will embrace us. It will then become even more difficult to live the Christian life. We will retreat and blame ourselves and the church that we had been overly judgmental.

Also, if we shy away from the Bible’s teachings about the depth of sin and spiritual darkness, we will fail to understand what we are confronting and blame ourselves instead. Meanwhile, Paul warned:

• For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. (2 Cor. 2:14-15)

We are a stench to those who have rejected the light, but our experience gives us a different message. It insists that our colleagues are really good people, even truth-seekers. We, therefore, are prone to see things from their point of view and accept their disdain for the church.

Meanwhile, Jewish writers inform us that the Pharisees had been the most respected class of people in Israel, and it seems that they were, but this was only show. It was a show that Jesus exposed:

•   “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full… And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.” (Mat. 6:1-2, 5)

What looks good to us is hypocrisy to our Lord. Instead, the best of us are just like you – self-seeking at our core. We therefore need to be born-again and don’t forget that so do they!

My Facebook Friend – he’s kind-of a guru - hates me. I too have become his sworn enemy. However, knowing the root of his hatred, I don’t take it personally and therefore just want the best for him.

Evangelism is more than just Soft Cuddlies

Most Christians would define evangelism this way:

• Sharing the Gospel – the power of God unto salvation – in hope that it might bring faith by the mercy of God.

This is not a bad definition, but it is very incomplete. For instance, Jesus often sought to humble the arrogance of the self-righteous in hope that they’d see their need for the mercy of God. While He often simply taught His listeners that they needed to believe in Him in order to find mercy (John 3:16, 36; 5:24; 6:29; 8:24). He also preached the law to show them that they could not trust in their own righteousness.

On one occasion, the “experts of the law” tested Him, asking what they should do to “inherit internal life” (Luke 10:25). Jesus asked them what they thought. They answered with the two greatest commands – loving God and loving our neighbor.

Jesus then described what this looked like in the parable of the Good Samaritan and told them to “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37). Of course they couldn’t do so on any consistent basis, and they were humbled.

We require humbling. Jesus warned:

• "I tell you that this [tax-collector] man, rather than the other [the Pharisee], went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:14)

If mercy first requires humiliation, Jesus, in love, sought to humiliate the religious leaders:

• "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness…Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:23-28)

Jesus didn’t use this tactic because He hated them, but because He loved them:

• "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37)

The leadership needed to first see their need for mercy before they would cry out for mercy.

Love requires that God first humbles us. This is accomplished in many ways – some ways we find very troubling, like the prayer of the Psalmist:

• Pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek your name, O Lord. (Psalm 83:15-16)

Why do we require such harsh treatment before we become ready see the light?  This Jew required decades of depression to “cover my face with shame” before I would even begin to think about Jesus. I had been “wise in my own eyes” as the Proverbs describes:

• Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Proverbs 26:12)

Only the man who knows he doesn’t have the answer will be open to listening. In God’s mercy, He shut my mouth to open my ears.

What then is evangelism? It is lovingly giving the other what they need so that they can hear the truth.

Are Christians Self-Righteous and Pharisaical?

 For one thing, it depends on how you define these terms. In a just-published study entitled Are Christians More Like Jesus or More Like the Pharisees, Barna.org investigated this very question. However, their measures of what it means to be “like Jesus” and what it means to be “like the Pharisees” are somewhat questionable. Here are some of their statements that are intended to equate with “Actions like Jesus”:

• I listen to others to learn their story before telling them about my faith.
• I regularly choose to have meals with people with very different faith or morals from me.
• I am personally spending time with non-believers to help them follow Jesus.

According to the first statement, it would be un-Christ-like to do street preaching or to hand out Christian tracts without first listening. Therefore, we are no better than self-righteous hypocrites when we do these things and claim to be following Jesus! Consequently, I fail to see how these statements touch upon the question of pharisaism or even of being Christ-like.

Perhaps I’m just overreacting to the barrage of criticism systematically aimed at the church and Christians. We are routinely accused of being “Pharisees” because we make assessments about others’ behavior – especially in regards to sexual sins. Meanwhile, the “Progressive” church claims that they are more Christ-like, because they accept everyone, just as Jesus did. (Needless to observe, they are not very accepting of Evangelicals!)

Although Jesus did accept everyone, it was always with the proviso that they repent of their sins – the very thing that the Progressives refuse to require. In fact, Jesus insisted that we all had to repent:

·        But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Luke 13:3-5)

While the Progressives accuse us of “pharisaism” because we judge, Jesus did as much judging as anyone in the Bible. Here’s just a small sample of His denunciations:

·        "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23:13)

·        "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” (Matthew 23:25)

·        "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matthew 23:27-28)

In light of this, it is surprising that Barna would list the following statements as reflective of Jesus’ attitudes:

·        I see God working in people’s lives, even when they are not following him.

·        It is more important to help people know God is for them than to make sure they know they are sinners.

Rather than reflecting the Jesus of Scripture, these statements are more reflective of popular, unbiblical notions about a soft, mellow, and user-friendly Jesus. Instead, the Jesus of Scripture talked more about sin, condemnation and hell than anyone else in the Bible. However, today a holy and righteous Jesus offends modern sensibilities. He explained: “The world…hates me because I testify that what it does is evil” (John 7:7). Should it be any surprise that the world also hates us terrible “fundamentalist Christians” who also talk about sin (John 15:18-20)?

According to Barna’s understanding of Jesus, we are not very Christ-like. We judge and we make offensive distinctions between the saved and the unsaved, righteousness and unrighteousness. However, these are the very distinctions that Jesus made!

I’m not saying that we Christians should be immune from criticism. I criticize myself and also the church. We both deserve it and need it. Besides, it’s healthy to confess our sins. Humility and transparency are to be esteemed.

However, I do object to the one-sided disparagement of the church. It has descended from constructive criticism into destructive condemnation and has become a source of widespread contempt towards the church and has tragically caused many of our youth to turn against the church.

Well then, what does it mean to be self-righteous and pharisaic? Here are the statements that Barna associates with “self-righteousness”:

• I find it hard to be friends with people who seem to constantly do the wrong things.
• It’s not my responsibility to help people who won’t help themselves.
• I feel grateful to be a Christian when I see other people’s failures and flaws.
• I believe we should stand against those who are opposed to Christian values.
• People who follow God’s rules are better than those who do not.

However, these statements have little to do with self-righteousness or pharisaism. What then is it? Jesus told many parables to expose the sin of pharisaism – a trust in one’s righteousness and merit before God. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, he exposed the self-righteousness of the prodigal’s older brother who rejected him, because he regarded himself as more worthy than the prodigal (Luke 15:11-31). He was convinced that he was the deserving son, but the prodigal was being hosted to a celebration by simply returning and confessing his sin to his father. Convinced that he deserved better, it was the self-righteous brother who willingly excluded himself from the blessings.

Jesus told a parable about two people entering the Temple to pray. One was a rank sinner who understood his desperate condition before God, and the other was a self-righteous Pharisee who didn’t. Jesus introduced the parable this way:

·        To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'” (Luke 18:9-12)

The Pharisee merely congratulated himself. He lacked any consciousness of his own sin and need for forgiveness. He was in denial. His problem wasn’t that he had strong convictions. Instead, it was that he had erroneous convictions about himself – that he was righteous, deserving, and better than others. His problem wasn’t that he followed God’s rules and regarded them as more important than any other rules – the very thing that Barna suggests – but that the Pharisee was convinced that his adherence to the law made him a superior and deserving person.

Meanwhile, we are maligned as Pharisees because we follow the teachings of the Bible and regard them as the ultimate revelation of truth. However, Jesus never taught against these beliefs. Instead, He reaffirmed them!

Also, Barna indirectly maligns Christians because they might feel grateful for the freedom they have in Christ (John 8:31-32), when they see the moral confusion of non-Christians. Such gratefulness for the blessings we have in Christ has nothing to do with self-righteousness or pharisaism but everything to do with the goodness of Christ to His children.

Nor is it pharisaic to observe that we are acting more morally than another. (We all make such comparative assessments!) However, it is pharisaical to take credit for it.

Jesus did a lot of judging. Contrary to Barna, He stood “against those who are opposed to Christian [Biblical] values.” Arguably, everything He said was in judgment of a distortion of Biblical truth. And we are supposed to think and act like Jesus (1 Peter 1:15). Therefore, it is inconceivable that by merely making moral judgments or by insisting on repentance, we are un-Christ-like, as the world would tell us!

Barna wrongly equates self-righteousness with the statement, “It’s not my responsibility to help people who won’t help themselves.” However, Jesus taught that there are times that we have to shake the dust off our feet, as a sign of God’s displeasure, and move on. He also warned against throwing our pearls of wisdom before swine (Mat. 7:6). Therefore, it is sometimes Christ-like to not extend ourselves to others. Sometimes, we even harmfully enable people by helping them.

You might think that I am making much out of nothing. However, the secular world has no reservations about calling us “hypocrites,” thereby encouraging acts of violence against the church. We are termed “homophobic” and “Islamophobic,” essentially pasting a target on our backs. Consequently, many are now seeing the target and have begun firing away. Here’s one example:

·        The Southern Poverty Law Council's decision to label ministries that oppose same-sex "marriage" as "hate groups" led directly to the Family Research Council (FRC) shooting, according to a chilling new video. 

However, the mainstream media refuses to adequately report the very violence they incur. This merely perpetuates the problem.

Some Christians believe that when wrongly accused, we should merely rejoice. Yes, we should rejoice, but we should also denounce the injustice. When the high priest unjustly ordered Paul to be struck, he protested:

·        "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!" (Acts 23:3)

Was Paul’s response un-Christ-like? Certainly not! Jesus responded similarly at His arrest and trial. May the Lord also give us wisdom to respond in truth and grace when mistreated and maligned.

Returning to the question of self-righteousness – It is we Christians who have been freed from this life-consuming preoccupation of trying to prove ourselves and our worth. This abscess has been absolutely filled by our Savior who has given us the gift of His righteousness. Therefore, we no longer need to deny the ugly things we carry within. Instead, we can be transparent and cry out, “Christ has set me free!