FRED PHELPS WAS NOT A REAL CHRISTIAN!!! It is fascinating to me just how how many Christians strongly assert that Fred Phelps was NOT a real Christian! Not a Christian? Says who? Under what authority can anyone make this claim? Did Phelps not read the same Bible? Did he not accept Christ as his Lord and Savior? Did he not pray to the same God? Did he not devote his entire life to the Lords work - much more devoutly than the average Christian who just shows up to church on Sundays (however ill-guided his ministry may seem to most)? What makes a Christian a real Christian these days when over 50% of Christians cant even name the four Gospels according to a recent Pew survey? To borrow from Christian theology, everyone is a sinner. Period. Sinners are saved by grace. Period. Whether salvation comes via faith alone or by works is always a debate, but lets just agree that Phelps shared the same views of grace and salvation as most mainstream Christians - that he was saved by the gift of Christs sacrifice on the cross. Sure, Fred Phelps was a sad hate-filled bigot with bizarre marketing tactics, but MANY Christians have been on the wrong side of history MANY times, and hindsight is 20/20. What exactly gets him kicked out of the club? The level of self-righteous arrogance required to make ANY claim who IS and ISNT a real Christian is simply astounding! This is to assert that you know the heard and mind of God himself! Could a Christian utter a more insulting phrase to another? QUESTION: How would you (Christians) like it if other Christians told the world that YOU werent a real Christian? Who else isnt a real Christian these days? Joyce Meyer? Joel Osteen? Ken Ham? Pat Roberston? Rick Warren? Rick Santorum? Rick Perry? Franklin Graham? The Apostle Paul? I could probably make a Biblical case for all of them Judgment is mine, sayeth the Lord. If Christians have a problem with Phelps behavior, so be it. But, thou might protesteth a little too much when you try to kick him out of your own club and claim ignorance to his views. A club, I might add, that would have been more than happy to have in as a leader 50 years ago. To scapegoat Phelps out of Christianity just screams of denial and distancing, Dont hate me because of that scary man. We only shared 99% of the same beliefs! MY POINT: It makes me nervous (and sad) to see Christians screaming rally cries over who is a real Christian. Dont see any harm in staking your claim to a particular sect of Christianity? Ask the average Afghan what a real Muslim is these days. Some Christians will claim that Phelps was not a Christian at all. Other Christians will claim that he was one of the most devout Christians alive, a sort of idealistic martyr of his day - not willing to be swayed away from his unpopular religious convictions by modern culture and opinions. This problem of what is a real Christian is a real problem. However, its a problem for Christians to address (honestly and rationally), not for me.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 06:46:37 +0000
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