In the past week I've read two different news stories that used the word "Christian" to describe two different religions: 1) Jehovah's Witnesses and 2) Children of God. However, neither religion is Christian in belief or action. Here is a brief summary of each:
Jehovah's Witnesses: The religion known as Jehovah's Witnesses has been in the news since Michael Jackson's death. Some of his family members, including his mother, are Jehovah's Witnesses. I did read that Michael himself left the church in the 80's, but now Grandma Jackson is taking his children to Kingdom Hall services to help them deal with their father's death. One news headline referred to the Jehovah's Witnesses as a "Christian" religion.
Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian. They do not believe that Jesus was God come to earth. Instead their belief is he was once the angel Michael and that he only rose from the dead in spirit, not in body. They do not believe in the Trinity and do not accept the Holy Spirit as a person but rather as a force. They have other non-biblical beliefs about heaven, who will be saved, and where we will spend eternity. As I said, Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christian, by any stretch of the imagination.
Children of God: Yesterday the Associated Press had a story about a drifter who is believed to have murdered two couples on separate beaches over a span of several years. The thing that caught my eye was the headline: Christian drifter may have killed two couples. Wondering why they would call him a Christian, I clicked on the story link. Sure enough. Just as I'd suspected. The drifter in question was not a Christian. He was associated with the cult known as the 'Children of God'. If you Google the "Children of God" you can read all about this cult and find that they do not live by the teachings of Jesus Christ, which is what a Christian is by definition. They live by the skewed, sick teachings of David Berg. As I said in my post yesterday about the "Christian" evangelist Mr. Alamo, anyone can call themselves a Christian, but that doesn't make it so. The AP and the Children of God themselves can call it a "Christian" group, but it ain't. I know it. You know it. The AP knows it. And Jesus knows it.
The use of the word "Christian" to describe non-Christ-like people and organizations is truly getting tiring. It hurts me, more than offends me. My relationship with Jesus Christ is of utmost importance to me--it is who I am!--and to have people belittle that by calling horrible, sick people and very non-biblical religions "Christian" is wrong.
2 comments:
Prior to the invention of the Nicene creed in 325 AD (in which the doctrine of the Trinity was introduced to counter the theology of Arius), was anybody Christian? If one must affirm the doctrine of the Trinity to be Christian, it follows that there were no Christians in the three centuries preceding the council of Nicea since the doctrine was created at that council. Do you really want to say that?
Oy. No. I'm not saying there weren't any Christians prior to the Nicene creed. What I am saying is the Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in the Trinity, meaning they don't believe Jesus is God or that the Holy Spirit is more than a force like in Star Wars. One doesn't even have to call it "The Trinity" to be a Christian. But one does have to believe--or affirm, as you say-- in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in the way Jesus taught.
In John 16:7 Jesus tells the disciples, "But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."
Notice Jesus said "I will send HIM to you." Not "it."
In Acts 2:4 that promise came true.
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