Yesterday I had lunch with a heart surgeon who is also a renowned expert on snake bites. I was quite surprised to learn that applying ice to a snake bite is exactly the wrong thing to do. He told my son and me that applying ice to a snake bite actually makes the situation much worse.
I remarked to him that I thought ice would slow down the process of the poison spreading. He told me that snake venom doesn’t work like that and then launched into a technical explanation, (that I won’t try to repeat), of how the poison molecules chemically react to ice. Suffice it to say we should not use ice to treat a snake bite. (So much for conventional wisdom.)
While in Texas speaking to prisoners one of my teammates told me that an inmate wanted to speak to me about witchcraft. I had just told them that in my misspent youth I had practiced black magic as a warlock and he had some questions. When I talked to him he told me that he had looked at Christianity, the Muslim religion, and Wicca, (witchcraft), and Wicca made the most sense to him.
He launched into an attack on Christianity beginning with the crusades and ending with slavery and essentially blamed the ills of the world on Christianity. I politely listened and then told him that he was mistaken. Throughout history, “men”, in the name of religion, have misrepresented God and Jesus Christ. It was in fact the most religious people on the face of the earth, the Pharisees that were successful in crucifying Jesus Christ.
I told him that I worship Jesus Christ and not religion shaped by men and women. Further I have read the Bible and have never seen anything that would remotely suggest that we should launch crusades against non-believers and slaughter them. In fact unlike the Muslim religion it states just the opposite.
As for slavery, it has been around for thousands of years, actually since the beginning of time. One thing African Americans often tend to forget is that every nation has been subjected to slavery, and not just Africans. Moses led the Jews out of slavery in Egypt. And to be fair history proves that without question that it was actually the Christian conscience that removed slavery from the United States.
Wicca or witchcraft worships satan. It condones evil as being right and good as being wrong. Slavery begins and ends with satan and Wicca worships him. If anything Wicca is responsible for the crusades and slavery and a million other evils in this world.
The problem is that most people do not rely on “fact” in their quest for answers. It was obvious to me that this young man had not read the Bible and after questioning him he admitted as much. His “looking into” various religions was more about him thinking about it and coming up with some ideas based on whatever was running around inside his head. It kind of reminds me of my thinking that ice was the best treatment for a snake bite, when indeed it turns out that my solution is the worst thing one could do to treat one.
I conclude that it is dangerous to make illogical decisions on what is running around inside our heads instead of basing it upon fact. If one does not read the Bible or hear the word of God, it is impossible to know what God has to say, is it not?
It is not lost on me that most people refuse to read the Bible. Unfortunately that leaves them with little other choice than to form their opinions of Christianity based upon what they see “Christians” do or what someone else tells them. That is hardly the best way to make a decision as weighty as determining one’s eternal destiny.
No matter that is the way it is. If people in the name of religion act like hypocrites, or idiots such as when the crusades were transpiring, it undeservedly gives God a bad name and not them.
Ironic isn’t it…
It grieves me to no end to have someone mistakenly think I represent God just because I happen to believe in Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as my Lord and Savior. Sure as the sun comes up I will say or do something stupid and they will say, “See I told you all of those Christians are hypocrites. He’s no better than an atheist like me”.
Christians are not perfect; we are just forgiven of our stupid sins. But fair or not, society looks at us as God’s representatives and when we mess up, Christ gets the blame and not us individually. We should be cognizant of this at all times and try our utmost to refrain from engaging in bad behavior and making our Father look bad. In fact if we act like Christians we will shine in their eyes and more people would want what we have and our Father would rightly get the praise.
Hey, I didn’t make that up; it comes directly from the Bible. See how this Bible study thing works…
Matt. 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.