{"id":3881,"date":"2020-10-16T10:37:40","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T08:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/?page_id=3881"},"modified":"2022-06-14T22:57:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T20:57:30","slug":"scandals-in-church","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/faq\/scandals-in-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Scandals in Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"iframe-container\">\r\n<iframe id=\"lbry-iframe\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/odysee.com\/$\/embed\/silly-christian-what-about-the-scandals\/cd0777c2cac75c771efb11def9588b83aaae7125?r=FAzZWLEo32juNUAVjqRF1DHjcgsjYzoH\" allowfullscreen frameBorder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>How much I would like to deny that things go wrong in church, I\r\ncannot do that. Church is a gathering of often a messy group of\r\nhumans. People from all layers of society, people with their short\r\ncomings, people who still drag their sin loving nature with them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>However, Christians also believe that they need a Saviour. A real\r\nChristian repented of sin and puts his or her trust in Jesus. It is\r\nsafe to say that not all people who say they are Christian, really\r\ntrust Jesus or take the Bible as their guide. And this will cause\r\nissues which are hypocritical and surely not Christian-like. \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It is like any other organisation. We have to deal with flawed\r\npeople and we will have scandals because of this. Don\u2019t take me\r\nwrong! We are all flawed. Romans 3:23 <i>\u201cFor all have\r\nsinned, and come short of the glory of God\u201d<\/i>\r\nWe all need to be saved.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>When\r\nthe Bible talks about the church it is referring to a body of true\r\nbelievers. As said, a Christian is someone who trusts Jesus and seeks\r\nto follow and serve Him in the Christian community of the church. But\r\na Christians is just like a real person, like real people they will\r\nfail so now and then. Still, the Christian should be living close to\r\nthe Lord  and in doing so,\r\nthe Christian should look at sin as something detestable. Sin should\r\nbe despised in the eyes and heart of a Christian.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Now let\u2019s think about the apostle\r\nPaul. Surely this great guy was a true winner if it comes to doing\r\nthat what is right! I\u2019ll read Romans 7: 17-23 for you. I\u2019ll read\r\nto you from the Message translation:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\u201c<i>But I need something more! For if I know the law but still\r\ncan\u2019t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging\r\nmy best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don\u2019t\r\nhave what it takes. I can will it, but I can\u2019t do it. I decide to\r\ndo good, but I don\u2019t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then\r\nI do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don\u2019t result in\r\nactions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better\r\nof me every time.<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><i>It happens so regularly that it\u2019s predictable. The moment I\r\ndecide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in\r\nGod\u2019s commands, but it\u2019s pretty obvious that not all of me joins\r\nin that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least\r\nexpect it, they take charge.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Paul seems to be desperate about it as we can read in verse 24:<\/p>\r\n<p>\u201c<i>I\u2019ve tried everything and nothing helps. I\u2019m at the end\r\nof my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn\u2019t that\r\nthe real question?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The King James version is shorted:<\/p>\r\n<p><i>\u201cO wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body\r\nof this death?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>But Paul understands the situation and\r\nin verse 25 we hear him say:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><i>\u201cI thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Why? Read on in chapter 8 verse 1:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><i>\u201cThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in\r\nChrist Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>So yes, to conclude, there were,\r\nthere are and there will be scandals in Church. This will continue\r\ntill Jesus returns. Until that time we will have to acknowledge that\r\nchurch is not the same as a wonderful showroom in which all things\r\nare sorted and laid out perfectly. No, church is more like a hospital\r\nin which the sick get treatment for their illness. Looking\r\nat the church might result in a similar responsive the scribes and\r\nPharisees had when they looked at Jesus\u2019 followers. Why do you\r\nhang out with bad people?\r\nIn other words: What is wrong\r\nwith you all? It was Jesus\r\nWho said: <i>\u201cThey that are whole need not a\r\nphysician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,\r\nbut sinners to repentance.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>To which group do you belong? The\r\nself-righteous or those who admit they fail time and again.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How much I would like to deny that things go wrong in church, I cannot do that. Church is a gathering of often a messy group of humans. People from all layers of society, people with their short comings, people who still drag their sin loving nature with them. However, Christians also believe that they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3883,"parent":1086,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[225,308],"tags":[264,262,258,263],"folder":[98],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3881\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3881"},{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=3881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}