I work with a man who claims to be a Christian. Not a "Sunday Christian", but someone who dedicates himself to spread God's Word.When I first moved to Richmond, he invited me to a get-together at his house. I went, thinking it would be great to meet new Christian friends..but when my friend Julie and I arrived, it was not exactly what we expected. First of all, everyone was drinking. And smoking. I was a new Christian, and was trying to quit an eight year pack a day habit, and they told me I should have "just one" if I really wanted to, which I did. Julie got pretty mad, and referenced Romans 14:21 that says you should not do anything to cause your brother to stumble (to me, privately). They were playing secular music, and God was not part of the equation. At all. Now, my coworker isn't just someone who says "yeah, I'm a Christian", he's a leader in his "church", which is actually a breakaway sect of "The Way International", as Julie and I found out later in the evening by asking a few subtle questions. Yes, a creepy cult. Clearly, they weren't following God by their actions.
I have been very wary of him ever since, and have become sensitive to his foul language, and just his worldliness in every aspect. Knowledge I gained from the website Julie and I read on "The Way" allowed me to confront him on his unbelief of the deity of Jesus Christ. He admitted that he does not believe that Jesus is God, and we didn't really talk for a while after that, though he bugs me. Alot. He is leading other people astray, misrepresenting Christ, and making a mockery of living for the Lord.
Last week I brought it up again, the differences in theological belief...if we are both reading the same Bible, where does the discrepancy lie? He said he'd never heard of the trinity, and that Jesus was born of a virgin, and had "perfect blood", but was not God, only the son of God.. a man. I couldn't think of any scripture to give him to contradict his statement, and when I said I didn't see the Lord in him, what with the foul language all the time, he said that we need to "shake religion up", and that nowhere does it say not to use bad language, we are only not permitted to use God's name in cursing. At this point I felt he was just twisting things around, so I just let it go, and felt very frustrated and mad. When I got home that night, I started my research. I went to work, googling the trinity and Christ's deity..at first I saw this verse..
Mark 10:18
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone.
And I got a little worried, but then I found a whole bunch of verses that do say that Christ is God..I was unpreprared to refute him that day, but I was glad that I did the research..cause next time, I'll know that I know that I know, and have the proof to back it up. I gathered all of the verses onto a few pages, printed them out, and gave them to the "false prophet" (my private nickname for him)..verses both on the trinity and on Christ's deity. He read at least some of them, and them wrote down one verse ..Timothy 2:5, where Christ is referred to as a man..well, duh! I know that part, you're just missing the biggest part..oh yeah, I also told him that I didn't think he was saved. I don't want him to miss out on salvation because I was too polite to say something.. the truth hurts, but in this situation, I think it's merited. Oh, and as for the cursing..Ephesians 5:4.
I have listed the verses I found on this page as an easy reference in case anyone has a similar situation.
7 comments:
Angela, I love "your big mouth" as you labeled it. I love that the Holy Spirit led you to all the exact scriptures that He wanted to say to your co-worker. Isn't He just Amazing!? Now you can relax and know that you did the part assigned to you and God will take it from there. I get very frustrated too when I see people making a mockery of our Wonderful Lord. He is still in control and your testimony here is certainly proof of that. Don't you just love when he uses you? (edie7777 at tx dot rr dot com)
He IS amazing! It is hard to imagine living as I used to, without the hope and comfort I have in Him, and it makes it painful to watch others try to make it their own way..you and I both know it doesn't work! I asked to be used daily, and when I don't get in the way cool stuff happens!
"And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life." (1 Jn. 5:20).
What an amazing testimony of boldness! I'm praying for "the false prophet," and that you would be granted wisdom to speak to him. He is probably still trusting in his own goodness (Prov. 20:6), but Romans 3:10-20 should help with that.
I just want to encourage you to keep being bold with God's word, it is never in vain :) God bless you.
Penn,
Thanks so much for your prayers. I do pray for him, too, but unfortunately I think of him as "the enemy" most of the time. Thanks also for the verse. I will add it to my list!
Good post Angela.
I wrote a comment to a journalist this past week concerning 'nominal Christians'. This is what I would call the guy you work with who claims to 'spread the Gospel'.
I received a reply from one of her fans. So, I wrote to him, as well. He was defending the journalist in his view of James Dobson's comments about Barak Obama's theology. Here is the link:
Blogger Lashes on James Dobson
My reply was in defense of the church.
Angela,
Sorry, my link didn't come through. Here is the address;
http://deityquest-jeleasure.blogspot.com/2008/07/blogger-lashes-on-james-dobson.html
Angela,
In response to Jesus asking "Why do you call me good",..etc.
Jesus (the man, the physical flesh) is refering to the human vessel He (as the son) dwells in.
In fact, the writer of Hebrews (2:9-13) says He perfected Himself through His sufferings.
I know this is somewhat confusing. What we need to do is look at the Holy Trinity in terms of flowing from God. So we have God The Father (Spiritual existence), The Son (spiritual existence in what God took from Himself and placed in the Vessel, the person of Jesus) and The Holy Spirit (The Pneuma, the force of air or breath. Pneuma is the Koine Greek word for 'spirit' from which we get our words, such as 'pneumatic tools'.
Jesus can ask "Why do you call me good" as Jesus, the flesh, the man, must continue to pass through this world working to continue His perfection. The flesh endured temptation to sin against God. When Jesus was crucified on the Cross, God did not die. The flesh died.
This in itself will blow your coworker's theology out of the water.
Oh, I feel that I do need to discuss one thing with you that I will not put on the Web for liability reasons. Can you email me that I may email an extension of this conversation to you?
jeleasure@comcast.net
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