WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! Uhhh….

That was one of the weirdest things ever. How can she even claim to be a Christian?! Totally odd!

I don’t think you should give up going to church though. I still have a hard time going to church after my dad died, but I don’t want to give church up. There are some very good churches out there, you just have to find them.

And what’s wrong with Calvin…? LOL.

But remember “Many will come in My Name, saying I am Christ, and will deceive many.” How do we read? Is Jesus implying that they will claim to be Christ, or make claims that Jesus is in fact Christ, but hold to a different gospel?

In answer to your comments…
Yes, I hate “The Message” as well; out of curiosity, I looked up Romans 1:18 and still found it to say “But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth.” If the people you mentioned read it, they should do well to listen to these words.

The 3rd chapter of 2 Timothy reads as a laundry list of the things we see today. This litany ends in saying that such people have an outward form of godliness but deny its power. They try to “make” Jesus savior without “making” Jesus Lord of their lives.

“[Always] turn away from these types.”

Yes, there exist the Pat Robertson – type soothsaying idolaters (Eph. 5:5: Phil. 3:18-19), Word of Faith witches, Latter Rain kundalinists, Todd Bentley devotees, fatalistic Calvanists, and just plain anomian perverts; these are all transparent enough and should be avoided. What is not so transparent is what they all hold in common: selfishness and idolatry. Yes, superficially it is obvious, but when we take our eyes off of Christ and put them on people aren’t we guilty of the same?

What then is a “real” Christian?

Christ said “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” The Greek word used here for poor is “ptochos” –abjectly poor, without hope, not “penes” –the struggling poor. The only true Christian is the one who comes to Him recognizing that there is nothing to offer for the sins committed in his/her life and begs for His mercy. S/he cannot hold an unforgiving attitude towards others in light of this awesome grace. Being gratuitously declared just by His grace, s/he cannot but respond in total submission to the whole of His royal loving Law in light of the outstanding debt s/he was forgiven. If this is not our Christianity, we must keep seeking, keep asking, keep knocking until we receive from Him His Holy Spirit.(Deut. 4:29; Luke 11:5-13) No chant, “sinner’s prayer” , or any other recitation will ever cause it magically to happen. Even faith and the desire to do His will must be sought from God.
“for by grace are ye saved, through faith –and THAT not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Søren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Christian philosopher said, ‘When Christianity entered into the world, people were not Christians, and the difficulty was to become a Christian. Nowadays the difficulty in becoming a Christian is that one must cease to become a Christian. One best becomes a Christian without “Christianity.” Not until a person has become so wretched that his only wish, his only consolation, is to die–not until then does Christianity truly begin.’
John 12:24-26; Matthew 10:38-39

The point of the post (other than it being another rant) was to underscore the difficulty of finding someone (particularly a woman) who professes to be a Christian and actually MEANS it.

This isn’t hypocrisy we’re dealing with. Hypocrites at least acknowledge that certain acts are sin, even if they still do it themselves. But these guys don’t even think they’re even doing anything wrong, despite the clear commandments of Scripture. That’s not hypocrisy, that’s apostasy.

Paul at one time wrote, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel.”

If you think about it, there’s no reason for me to have any qualms with Christians who are in fact real Christians. They may struggle with sin, but the key thing here is the very fact that they’re struggling. They haven’t made peace with their sins, instead they resolved to fight it.

Then there are those who take on the mantle of Christianity and then proceed to deny half the writings of Scripture (you know, sort of like the way Obama does.) I believe these types make up the vast majority of the Christian world too. Clouds without mist would describe them aptly.

I consider it far more dangerous for my spiritual well being to be with someone who thinks the world of say, Benny Hinn, than with someone who is merely agnostic. It’s better to be with the unsaved than with someone who is not merely ignorant, but under delusion.

And yet such a simple criteria has made it virtually impossible for me to find a Christian girl whose eyes remain open, and whose judgment hasn’t been clouded by sin.

Such a sad world I live in.

I would think that anyone who is really seeking truth would put aside selfish lusts, selfish ambition, and pride, and seek the truth of the matter. Didn’t God say to seek first His kingdom and righteousness and all these things (that the Gentiles seek so fervently) would be added to him? And didn’t He also say that he who comes to God must believe that He is, and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him? And didn’t He also say that there is no one good?

The arguments I’ve seen here stem from ignorance. Maybe better time would be spent seeking the scriptures to become fully assured of the faith, rather then criticizing Christians and their hypocrisies. To the heathens: even hypocritical Christians are closer to God than you are.

Just sayin’.