Dad comes home drunk and mad. He pulls a gun on his wife then turns the gun to himself, his little girl sits behind the couch crying. The police came and took the girl. She is now with a new family. Her first day of Sunday school she walks past the building and sees a picture of Jesus on the cross, the little girl asks the teacher "How did that man get off the cross?!" The teacher replied "He di............dn't!" The little girl argued "Yes he did, the night mommy and daddy died, he sat next to me behind the couch and told me everything would be alright. 66% of you won't re-post this.. but, remember. The bible says "Deny me in front of your friends, and I will deny you in front of my father." So repost this if you are part of the 33%
At the end of the status there is a charge to act. As I read it I felt as if the status is kind of saying, 'prove you're a Christian by...'
Does not reposting this mean that you are denying Christ? Does it mean you aren't really a Christian? I personally don't think so. Then what about the other side? If you do repost this does it prove your Christianity or make you a 'better' Christian? Again, I personally don't think so. I fail to see a connection between not posting a facebook status and denying Christ. (I think that a lot of people will read this status and think, 'oh, I have to prove my Christian-ness because so-and-so said I'm not a Christian if I don't repost this')
Thought, if someone were to live with this mindset how would they get through life? One could easily say, 'if you don't go to church x-many times this week you denied Christ' or 'If you didn't evangelize with everyone you saw, then you denied Christ.' If something as medial as facebook can cause you deny Christ then how much worse will the other factors of life be?
From a biblical point the alluded to passage in the status comes from Matthew 10. This is when Jesus is sending out the disciples, telling them what to do when they come to a town. The verse comes into play when people would deny the disciples, because by extension they we denying Jesus and by extension they were denying God.
I don't know if I should feel convicted by this sort of message or if I should question the people who sent it. Is this status an act of serving God? or is it a sign of a misguided faith? Am I rationalizing not posting it to make myself feel better? because I'm lazy? I don't really know the answer.
What do y'all think about this kind of post?
I do not like those posts! I always read them and think whether or not the person who posted it really felt it in their heart or if they reposted it because they had that moment of feeling convicted. I always feel like those posts are meant to convict people into reposting it. And honestly, if they were moved by the sort of thing that was talked about in the post, I would think they'd go ahead and write a note about it...it would not be good enough in their mind to just repost it as their status. With that said, I'm pretty sure I lean more to the side of thinking that the status isn't an act of serving God. I suppose you are getting the word out about God, but don't you think it should be done in a more personal way than a status that has managed to snake it's way through the Facebook community?
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you, I feel like facebook statuses are not a way to 'prove' that you are a Christian, or a Buddhist, or whatever else. Words are just words.
ReplyDeleteIt also bothers me when they say 'if you don't repost then you don't believe in God' or something else ridiculous. I tend to just see that as a cheesy way of trying to make the post seen more. And in posts like these, they are not generally true stories, so I feel like it loses some impact.
It also misquotes the verse: Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33, NIV)
I checked a bunch of other translations too (yay Biblegateway.com!) and the majority of them say 'in front of men' and a few say 'publicly' or something similar. Publicly confessing that Christ is in your life is not something merely done online, as McKinzie said.