Bullet for Christ- didn't finish previous...

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dove_unique

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#1
#1
Seemed to have posted without my permission :p

Hi everyone,

So you've probably all seen this, and if not its great to make you think.

Two masked gunmen burst into Sunday morning worship in a 2,000-member church. They say anyone who stays is going to take a bullet for Christ. The choir, the deacons, and most of the congregation run for the doors. Only 20 stay. The gunmen pull off their masks and say to the preacher, "You're hypocrites are gone, you can start preaching now."

A bunch of friends and I have an email disscusion going and i'm just looking for a few more ideas to throw around.

I'm guessing that most of our first impression will be "I won't run, i'm not a hypocrite!" But then, hypocrites are sinners, just like us liars, theives, murderers, etc etc. AND the church is also there to help non-believers get the opportunity to accept Christ.

What do you think?
 
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NazariteNation

Guest
#2
#2
dove_unique said:
Seemed to have posted without my permission :p

Hi everyone,

So you've probably all seen this, and if not its great to make you think.

Two masked gunmen burst into Sunday morning worship in a 2,000-member church. They say anyone who stays is going to take a bullet for Christ. The choir, the deacons, and most of the congregation run for the doors. Only 20 stay. The gunmen pull off their masks and say to the preacher, "You're hypocrites are gone, you can start preaching now."

A bunch of friends and I have an email disscusion going and i'm just looking for a few more ideas to throw around.

I'm guessing that most of our first impression will be "I won't run, i'm not a hypocrite!" But then, hypocrites are sinners, just like us liars, theives, murderers, etc etc. AND the church is also there to help non-believers get the opportunity to accept Christ.

What do you think?
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Personally, I can't imagine a better way to move on into eternity than to die for my Lord & Saviour however, it's hard for anyone to say what they would do unless they were actually faced with that situation. I certainly wouldn't want to die old, dillussional, and confined to a hospital bed... talk about real torture...
 
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lil-rush

Guest
#3
#3
I'd like to think that if presented with such a situation, I'd take a bullet, but if Peter defected what's to say I won't?
 
MahogonySnail

MahogonySnail

Banned
#4
Jan 8, 2009
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#4
What a totally naive scenario lol. I don't think taking or not taking a bullet is any proof of whether they are a hypocrite or not. It's like "here you go, here's a gun, now shoot me and prove that I'm a christian". Perhaps the people who ran had wisdom and common sense, and used the opportunity to escape when they had it. Much like Jesus or the apostles often escaped from those who wished to kill them. Perhaps the people who ran knew that God's will and purpose for them on earth was not yet over, perhaps they had children to feed, widows to take care off, people who would be worse off if they had died.
 
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carpetmanswife

Guest
#5
#5
i loved the story and the sentiment behind it ,food for thought i say..thanks for sharing:cool:
 
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lil-rush

Guest
#6
#6
MahogonySnail said:
What a totally naive scenario lol. I don't think taking or not taking a bullet is any proof of whether they are a hypocrite or not. It's like "here you go, here's a gun, now shoot me and prove that I'm a christian". Perhaps the people who ran had wisdom and common sense, and used the opportunity to escape when they had it. Much like Jesus or the apostles often escaped from those who wished to kill them. Perhaps the people who ran knew that God's will and purpose for them on earth was not yet over, perhaps they had children to feed, widows to take care off, people who would be worse off if they had died.
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I understand what you're trying to say. Throughout history, many people have kept their true identies as Christians hidden, or they have hidden out so they would not be killed for being Christians. But hiding your identity as a Christian is not the same thing as saying no or running away when someone asks if you are a Christian.

In fact, history shows that people quite often died for their belief in Christ. One need only buy a copy of Foxe's Christian Martyrs of the World to see this. If presented with an ultimatum of choosing either Christ or denying Him, one should feel inclined to choose Him.

And Jesus and the apostles never ran away from such an ultimatum. They ran away from people who wished to kill them. They were denying nothing. In fact, by running away they displayed what their beliefs were. In the scenerio presented in the OP the people who ran away did not display what their beliefs should have been. By running away they were saying "No, I am not a Christian."
 
MahogonySnail

MahogonySnail

Banned
#7
Jan 8, 2009
7,576
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0
#7
Maybe I missed the point of the OP :). The gunmen gave the people an opportunity to escape - they took it. Sounds like common sense to me.
Maybe the better story would be that the gunmen ask the people to deny their faith in Christ or be shot, if a "death or denial" choice was the point of the OP. Missionaries in overseas countries are taught how to escape from danger, not to put their nose to the gun and ask the gunman to pull the trigger. It proves nothing other than a person is able to take a bullet. As I said running away is not an indication of whether someone is a christian or not, and it is not a denial of Christ. When the Romans persecuted the christians, many of the christians including apostles went into hiding in order to avoid being fed to the lions. But they weren't any less of a christian than those captured. I don't doubt that people have died for their belief in Christ. But I feel that martyrdom is only martrydom if it is God's will to be martyred. Anything else is more like an early and unnecessary death.
 
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lil-rush

Guest
#8
#8
yeah, I think the story wasn't 100% clear, but the intent of the OP was to give a "deny Christ or die" scenerio, I do believe.

What I'm trying to say though is that running away is not always akin to denying Christ. When Christians of the earliest centuries hid they were not denying Christ, because if they were found they would readily admit to being a Christian. In the OP post however the people were asked straight-away if they were Christians and their answer was a demonstrative no.
 
MahogonySnail

MahogonySnail

Banned
#9
Jan 8, 2009
7,576
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#9
OK so a run out the door = denial of Christ - got it. But still I believe the point of test, is death or denial, not "stay or leave a church". Anyway let's think about another flaw in the scenario. The idea that church is a place for the ones who weren't hypocrites. So 1980 people left and 20 stayed.. but it really should be the 1980 people to stay and hear the sermon as they need to hear it. That's going to be one upset preacher too, since his audience size has dropped by a significant amount. I think most preachers would like to preach to the unconverted, rather than the converted. Maybe the 20 should have been told to leave, and the 1980 to stay. IMO.
 
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lil-rush

Guest
#10
#10
lol. that would make more sense I suppose. Of course, it'd be best to just have everyone stay so they could all learn from the preacher. Either way, I think we are over-analyzing. Yay for over-analyzation!
 
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dove_unique

Guest
#11
#11
MahogonySnail said:
OK so a run out the door = denial of Christ - got it. But still I believe the point of test, is death or denial, not "stay or leave a church". Anyway let's think about another flaw in the scenario. The idea that church is a place for the ones who weren't hypocrites. So 1980 people left and 20 stayed.. but it really should be the 1980 people to stay and hear the sermon as they need to hear it. That's going to be one upset preacher too, since his audience size has dropped by a significant amount. I think most preachers would like to preach to the unconverted, rather than the converted. Maybe the 20 should have been told to leave, and the 1980 to stay. IMO.
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I like your thinking there;) Yes...totally agree.
 
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