Defending The Faith Through Social Media

Looking for a healthy, loving, Kingdom-advancing way to defend the faith.

Have you ever seen a post that was anti-Christian and you wanted to publicly defend the gospel?
Where you successful?

I typically don't publicly respond to anti-Christian accusations for 3 reasons.

1. The person has written the post because they've been hurt, so my defensiveness will come at the wrong time.
2. There are other "Christians" going nuts-o' attacking the person who wrote the post, and I don't want to be associated with them.
3. I've never seen a major heart change or theological shift from any person who has written a Facebook status against Christianity and received replies (loving or not).

I've been thinking a lot about how much easier it appears to be to bash Christianity publicly than it is to defend it. Why is that? Doesn't it say multiple times in the book of Acts that Paul "proved" Jesus to be the Christ in front of crowds of people?

The truth is that Paul started off his preaching in almost every city by speaking to crowds of Jews. These Jews already "knew" God and understood that a Messiah was going to come and be the hope of humanity. Paul, who was a very educated Jew, probably didn't find it to be too difficult to put together a case for why Jesus was that Messiah. Jews believed the premises that God existed, created everything in the world, was in total control, loved his people, and was sending a Messiah.

I think this is one of the biggest differences between Paul's proving of Jesus to the Jews, and us trying to speak to a crowd of people with which we share no theological common-ground. Now Paul also was a witness to the gentiles, in fact it was his primary calling. But I think how he witnessed to them looked a little different.

Jesus said it was going to be by our love that we will be identified as followers of him. His greatest commands where to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. I think that is what draws people into Christian community and ultimately to Jesus our Savior.

Now how do we love people through social media? Good question, and I won't claim to be the expert.
I will say that a defensive stance isn't typically the best choice. People have been speaking against God and his people since he made himself known, and have spoken against Jesus as well as his followers. The result? Christianity has never stopped growing as a whole, and it continues to grow around the world. How? Through Christians loving God, loving each other, and loving those who don't yet know God.

My Conclusion:

I think social media is a good place to profess what you believe as your own status, but it is not necessarily the best platform to duke-it-out with people who speak against Christianity. Maybe send them a loving message, but don't comment on the ongoing public thread. Love people outside of social media, and you'll see people be transformed by Jesus. Then they will stop posting against him, and they will begin to love others as well.

My Disclaimer:

I am not the authority on this matter. I'm certain there are some people who can respond to posts with grace and love and insight through the Holy Spirit. I still send certain people private messages concerning their posts, especially if I know face-to-face contact would be near impossible. I would love to hear how other people view this topic of responding to aggressive, anti-Christian posts on social media. You are loved and have been shown grace, now go and do likewise.

More entries to come

Hello anyone who reads this,

Sorry it's been so long since I posted, I've been in a busy season of my life through the summer and the start of the school year. I'll be posting a lot more once the first month of school is over. Thanks and God bless you all.

Bible Verses that American Christians Ignore

This last weekend was Easter weekend, and I was fortunate enough to have my parents visit me all the way from Alpena! My dad and I were catching up and got into a great discussion about his childhood as a Catholic follower of Christ and all of the gruff he got because of his denominational beliefs. Once he moved to Alpena he found the Catholic churches there to be inactive and stagnate and decided to try out a different denomination that seemed to be actively pursuing God's heart for that city. He noticed that in this transition that many Catholics looked down on him and gave him gruff. No matter what denomination he was a part of, other denominations gave him gruff and both sides at one point or another told him he was going to hell because of the church that he belonged to! Unbelievable.

"Accept him whose faith is weak without passing judgement on disputable matters" - Romans 14:1
"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble"-Proverbs 3:24
"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires." - James 1:19-20
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matthew 7:1-2



In the Bible, Satan is call "the accuser of the brethren". He does a great job at it and does not need our help. Love your Christian brothers and sisters and get to know them without passing judgement over disputable matters. Be slow to speak and quick to listen, and be humble. God bless

Why do I skip Donna?

This morning I went for a walk to help stretch out my back (doctor's orders) and enjoy the sunshine. I had brought my headphones to listen to some worship (Lecrae). As I was walking on the sidewalk I noticed a frail looking black lady with a foot-cast walking on the opposite side of the street. I thought to myself, "now's the good time to do the Christian thing and go out of my way to smile and wave!" -I'm an idiot btw. So I waved and smiled at her, which she returned, and then it hit me...I'm a spineless hypocrite. I am a son of the living God who heals, and all I'm willing to offer this poor lady is a wave-smile combo?

I called out to her and jogged over and said to her, "I'm a follower of Jesus and I was wondering if I could pray for you." I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she was a diabetic and recently had all the toes on her right foot amputated. I told her (Donna is her name) that God can heal her and her diabetes and asked permission to put my hand on her foot and pray for her, to which she pleasantly agreed. I don't know if God healed her right then, or if he's going to be healing her in the future, but I shared with her who I serve and what He's capable of.

Why do I skip Donna?

Because I'm soo caught up in me. I was not thinking about what Jesus could offer this wonderful lady, but about what I could offer...not much. We as Christians can not claim to know the living, healing, life giving God and then hide him behind our backs. God isn't interested in people who are ashamed of Him, he said that if we don't become his ambassadors then He'll use the rocks!!!

Shark Tank

So my friend Miles recently introduced me to a show called "Shark Tank". This show is about 5 billionaires (sharks) who are giving a bunch of entrepreneurs an opportunity to present their business or product. The entrepreneurs come to the sharks asking for X amount of dollars for X% equity (ownership) of their product or company. Right there on the show the sharks and entrepreneurs barter and make a deal, or one of the sides reject the others' offer. I can't believe how fun it is to watch this show, I feel like I'm right in the middle of the deal and sometimes catch myself mumbling my own deal. It's very entertaining, however it also shows how desperately greedy these people are. Everyone is so hungry for money and many of them have mortgaged their homes, lost their children's college fund, etc.

It is no wonder why Jesus said that it is incredibly difficult for these people to enter heaven. They are breaking the first 2 commandments; 1. serving another god (money) and 2. worshiping something they themselves have created (their business, or product). It's sad when they feel a need for God, and try to fill it with $. God is provider, sustainer, fulfiller, protector. Money is a sad charade, a megaphone behind a smoke screen promising to be god in your life but absolutely, and more importantly, eternally incapable.

My personal blog

So today I'm starting a blog. This blog will be mostly for my purpose of recording my thoughts and circumstances as a public timeline. Hopefully these posts will provide you (the reader) with personal updates, encouraging scripture and thoughts, as well as the rest of the hubub that rattles within my mind. Enjoy, and I hope not to offend.