How To Avoid Becoming A Christian!

So you would rather not become a Christian. Well then I have some very important advice to give you. If the rest of the world is anything to go by you will need some very good advice in resisting the power of God. I suppose that is the very place to begin- at the back of all my advice I would say the place to begin is to deny, as strongly as you can the very existence of God-that way he is stripped of all his power and authority. But that is very difficult for a couple of reasons: we live in a God believing, if not God-fearing, society and its hard to swim against the flow the logic and the evidence seems to be too strong- how can you blame God for things if he doesn’t exist in the first place I think we need to be more pragmatic that that- lets begin accepting that some kind of God does exist and loom for ways to ignore him- here are three broad principles: 1. Lesson one is to BECOME VERY RELIGIOUS That may seem an odd way to ignore him but Jesus Christ told the religious leaders of his day that they had never see God, heard God or allowed His word to dwell in their hearts even though they had him before their very eyes- he told the that even though they had all the benefits of being the people of God they had missed him altogether.. I think the best thing is for you to become as religious as is possible- go to all the meetings under the sun Carry out all your religious duties- without much thought and always remember that what is important is that you do what is required- never miss church or reading the bible, stay away from those people who are not religious. Leave your friends and family firmly I second place- or even third. Stick rigidly to the letter of the law and never mind the reason for that law, never mind the spirit of the law. Get to know the slightest minutiae of the law- know all 600 rules about the Sabbath but forget about the importance of people. 2. Lesson two is Don’t even try to understand the bible properly Always take it at face value- forget about the context of the verses in the promise box or on the pictures on your walls-that will only require you to think for yourself. Forget all that and those so-called paradoxes that Christians speak of will confuse you and frustrate you that you will want to give up and go back to your old life. Don’t concern yourself about how all the verses fit in with the rest of the Bible- e.g. The NT says- Love your enemy and the OT says An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It would also be good to forget about what the Bible really is- it is God’s way of pointing to Jesus Christ Heb 1:2 “…in these last days God has spoken to us by His son…” and John 5:40 “these are the scriptures which testify to me”…. If you could get to the place where you begin to worship the Bible- see the actual words as the word of God it will help. Begin to see that there is only one translation that would also be good. Keeping your eyes on the wood will mean you fail to see the trees-anything to confuse you. 3. Third lesson is to keep looking at other people and NOT JESUS. Let’s face it- it is pretty safe to look to and compare yourself with other people- they are sinners just like you and looking at them means you can blame them for not listing to God. How often have you heard it said of someone – I could never be a Christian if they are all like old Jones down the road? There are many reasons for rejecting Christ if we only ever look at the Christians: There is Mr. A who never tells the truth on the Income Tax form- or so we believe Mrs. B who is among the greatest of gossips in town Mr. X who is plain mean Mr. Y who beats up his wife on Saturday and then goes to church-to be forgiven on Sunday morning. And was it not the Christians who persecuted the Jews and attacked the Muslims in the Crusades? And what about all those pedophile priests? That’s the way to look at God- through the filter of His people- that will keep him at a safe distance. It is fatal to look at Jesus Christ- take a serious look at him and you are well on your way to faith- to giving in to His power. Forget that Mr. C has really changed since he gave way to God and became one of his people. Forget that the local fellowship of believers down the road are helping the poor and the down cast and empowering the people of the community- that is negative thinking and leads to a negative step-BE WARNED. Listen very carefully- 5:36 “…I have a greater witness [than john] – my teaching and my miracles. They have been assigned to me by the Father…” BE WARNED 4. Lesson four is to IGNORE THAT INNER VOICE We call that the voice of conscience and Christians say it is the voice of God. You can’t afford the luxury of listening- it will lead to doubts- so keep busy and never think. If you allow yourself the time to listen and think about it he will draw you to his side and that would be fatal to the person wishing to remain independent of God. You can accept that he exists but that doesn’t mean you have to follow him. Spend your time with the religious people, if you have to- they will leave you alone to your own devices. You see they are only concerned with the things of today- those things which are here and now- they have no time for this voice of God. Jesus says in v44 If you do all this then you should be safe On the other hand if you want to know God for yourself it will involve every part of you. Jesus says that faith includes: 1. Seeing God 2. Hearing God 3. Allowing His word to dwell in your heart. Jesus did not need any human witnesses but because he wanted them to be saved the destruction of sin he did appeal to both John the Baptist and Moses. In arguing the Hebrew way he was giving them three witnesses and they rejected all three. They thought of themselves as a privileged people who had the scriptures and spent their lives on studying them but they missed the point- they were so busy looking at the jot and titles of the law that they missed the spirit of the law and the whole point- the whole point was that they pointed, like signposts, to Jesus Christ, God’s messiah. Paul had the same background as they had yet he came to faith- Phil 3:5 “If anyone thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh I have more: circumcised on the 8th day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legal righteousness, faultless.” Presbyterians have a great spiritual heritage also- with the right commitment to the Bible but we do not worship the bible, we allow it to point us to Jesus. Its too bad when people reject what they think is the truth when, in fact, it is a parody of the truth- they reject Christianity because they think it is the same as religion when it is nothing of the kind- religion is all about rules and regulations, Christianity is about a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Jesus tells these religious leaders that it was his relationship with his father which empowered his work and that is the key for us also. Knowing Jesus Christ is the key and that is more interesting and more fulfilling than any religious practice. If you want to be left alone: Stay away from Christ Stay away from the Bible Stay away from the still small voice Jesus Himself says- “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest”