It is very hard for a non-Christian to understand why there is
such a diverse set of beliefs between churches. It is true that in
the past, non-believers would have simply reacted to contact by a
Christian, but in today's society people are ever more knowledgeable
about the world and religion. Leading many non-believers to have
formed impressions about certain religions based upon TV and the
internet, and it does not matter whether the information is true or
not. A non-christian can clearly and easily notice differences
between Catholics, born-again Christians, Mormons and others. Would
you not agree that to a non-believer, that they would see the
diversity of belief as justification to think that no-one knows
exactly what to believe? So if non-believers think that no-one
really knows what to believe, then it only confirms to him that they
should not bother to believe anything.
The truth is simply hidden from all non-believers behind a mask
of religion and that we as believers are fully to blame for it.
Believers will obviously know and understand that Christianity is all
about a personal relationship between the individual and God, a path
to give your life to Him, and to improve yourself and do the best you
can with your life. Sure there is a lot of other stuff; like
attending church, reading the Bible, praying and lots more, but
essentially the most basic belief is all about that relationship
between a person and God.
Yet if that very relationship was explained to to non-believers;
they would clearly see that because every human is different, they
could conclude that every relationship with God is unique, and
therefore that would help to explain to them about the differences
that they see in Christianity, such as Methodist churches,
Presbyterian churches and Pentecostal churches. Christian
individuals normally join a church which suits their own personal
relationship with God, which will more than likely include people
with similar relationships and beliefs.
As you may know I was brought up within born-again churches, and
I think that I would not be unfair in saying that fellow believers,
either excluded other churches from being within the one-true-path
(such as Catholics) or simply didn't know which Church did or did not
fall within the requirements of being part of the one-true-path. It
is one of those grey areas of Christianity that is very rarely talked
about, except by non-believers because such things of squabbling
between churches only confuses things more. But once again we are
back to talking about impressions, we all have our own impressions
about religion and about groups of religious people. Our impressions
are not always true!
But I would like you forget your impressions for a while, and
consider this question; Does a relationship begin only when a person
starts to believe in God? Indeed it is not a question that I had
ever heard before, yet I believe that it is vital to consider it.
Think about it for a second, God knew about you and your whole life
before you were ever born (that's what the Bible says). Therefore
would it not be right to assume that there was a relationship before
you became a believer. Sure this relationship might have consisted
of you ignoring him for long lengths of time among other things, yet
the relationship was still there. How else would he have guided you
into believing in him; the relationship was only one sided perhaps,
yet it was still there.
I think it is a very refreshing thought to understand that every
human on this planet has a relationship with God, the thought alone
can show you the potential of such a wonderful thing. I have heard
it said many times from Christians, that non-believers need faith not
to believe. To some extent I would agree but I think in many cases
that non-believers just don't care and are simply too busy living
their lives to think about it.
So what am I suggesting? I am suggesting that instead of
preaching to people that they need to come to church and turn to God,
that we teach them about their relationship with God. To tell them
that even though their back has been turned away God, that he has
been watching them for their whole life; that God has seen everything
that they ever done, their wrongs and their rights, the failures and
achievements. We need to teach that God has wanted to be there for
them to help them through all of their problems. To explain to them
that God wants to start afresh with them, that he is willing to
forgive all their wrongdoings if they will walk with him in their
lives, and accept him into their heart.
There is no price for us to
pay to earn forgiveness, because Jesus came to the world and took all
our sins onto his shoulders and paid the price for us. That's right,
he knew about all of your sins and about all of your future sins and
paid the price for them, and all you have to do is accept the free
gift and accept Jesus's sacrifice that he made for you.
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