I received your mailer a few days ago and you made some interesting points that I wanted to comment on. 

The caption for the picture was intriguing:  Isn’t it time for faith to become beautiful again?  And since there was a giant cross on your mailer, I am assuming you are referring to the faith mentioned in the New Testament.  So my answer to your question is as follows:  Faith(the faith mentioned in the New Testament) always has been beautiful, is beautiful and will always be beautiful.  The myriad of groups out there purporting to represent that faith have never been, are not and never will be beautiful.  You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.  There is only one faith promoted in the New Testament(Eph. 4:5), and it is amazing and beautiful. 

Either the premise on your mailer is wrong, or you are looking at groups that purport to have the faith of the Bible, but who do not.  The mere fact that they disagree with each other means that either all of them are wrong, or at best, only one of them is correct.  Paul made this very clear when writing to the church in Ephesus when he referred to the oneness of the church, which includes only one faith.  Differing faiths that contradict each other are clearly juxtaposed to Paul’s point.  And if what Paul wrote is not good enough(and if it isn’t you can stop reading now), how about what Jesus said about the matter?  In John 17:20-21, Jesus was praying to His Father, asking that Jesus’ disciples be “one” just like Jesus and the Father are One.  They don’t disagree about things.  They are united.  Jesus only ever said what the Father wanted Him to say(John 12:49-50).  Nothing more(Jesus did not add anything) and nothing less(Jesus did not take anything away or not speak something the Father wanted spoken).  And because my desire is to be one with the Father, just as Jesus is One with the Father, I will only speak what Jesus has said.  That could be the “red letter” words spoken specifically by Jesus in the Gospels, it could be things that are written in Acts through Revelation(John 16:12-13 – Jesus had more to tell His disciples, but they were not ready for it, so Jesus would send the Holy Spirit to tell them what to say) or it could be things God presented in the Old Testament(when the OT refers to God, it is apparent that Jesus is included – see Jude 5 as Jesus led Israel through the wilderness) as well as a variety of other verses.

Since the caption of your picture intrigued me so much, I flipped over the card and started reading.  There was some good and some bad.  I shall not emphasize one over the other, but merely see what scripture says about what you wrote.

You mention that many people feel disillusioned about Christianity these days.  I agree completely, and is there any wonder why?  People who claim to be Christians are constantly disagreeing with each other.  How is that possible?   Jesus said His people should be one(John 17:20-21); Paul reiterated this to the church in Ephesus(Eph. 4:5).  It is sad that so many are in a state of constant disagreement over what the Bible says.  I wouldn’t claim to know why any more than anyone else, but it seems like a lot of people just want to state their own opinion instead of stating what the Bible actually says.  People are constantly misquoting it or making up things that just are not in there.

“Christians”[and I am putting that term in quotes because by their actions it can easily be understood that they are not disciples of Jesus] being judgmental, political and against people is a somewhat accurate statement.  Christians are supposed to make judgments.  Paul told the churches in Galatia that if they saw a brother or sister who was caught up in sin, there were supposed to do what they could to get that person back to God(Gal. 6:1).  In order to know if someone is sinning, you have to make a judgment(i.e. a determination) that what that other person is doing is sinning.  If Christians are not supposed to make a determination of whether or not someone else is sinning, Paul’s statement is a waste of parchment.  Jesus also told His followers to make a determination as to whether or not someone was sinning.  In Matt. 7:1-5, Jesus famously said not to judge someone else, or at least that is what it says if you just read verse 1.  But if you continue reading, He makes the point that if you have a bigger problem(sin – described as a beam) that is blocking your vision, how can you help someone else who has a smaller problem(sin – described as a speck).  Jesus’ conclusion was to remove the beam from your own eye, THEN you will be able to help your friend remove the speck from their eye.  This requires judgment(i.e. determination) that the other person has sinned, as well as that you are also guilty of sin.

Romans through Revelation are a series of letters being written to either individual people(Timothy, Titus, etc.) or to churches(one or more groups of people) addressing the problem of sin that needed to be corrected.  And it wasn’t just people correcting their own sin, often it was one person correcting another person’s sin.  This was done not to be judgmental, but to help that other person remove sin from their lives so they would not miss out on eternity with God(Jam. 5:20)!

As we live in a democracy, people(including Christians) can voice their opinions about laws and government.  A true Christian(not the fake ones I have been referring to) should attempt to influence those around him toward God and away from sin(see Jam. 5:20 again).

A true Christian should be against sin . . .  period.  No exceptions.  It doesn’t matter what the sin is.  All sin separates people from God.  Shouldn’t we want to bring people closer to God and help them to NOT be separated from God?  John makes that same point in I John 5:1-5.  It is only through believing in Jesus that anyone can overcome the world(referring to the effect of sin on a person separating them from God).   And part of that is keeping His commandments(I John 5:3).  Does this mean that by keeping commandments we can save ourselves?  No.  Paul told the church in Ephesus that they were saved by grace through faith; since they were not saved by works, they had no room to brag about their salvation(Eph. 2:8-9).  This helps us to understand that as those who are saved, those who are actual disciples, have no room to “lord it over others” or to look down on sinners because we would be in the exact same situation, but for the fact that we accepted God’s gift(i.e. grace).  Instead of looking down on sinners, Christians are supposed to look to sinners and share how we were saved from our sins, in the hope that a sinner will accept the same gift(grace) that we did.

All people should be respected(depending on how you are using that phrase).  The simple fact of the matter is that no sinner is worse than any other sinner.  No Christian is better than any other Christian.  And a Christian is only better off than a sinner(not better) because the Christian’s sins have been forgiven, while the sinner’s sins have not.  The forgiven Christian can look forward to eternity with the Lord.  The sinner can only look forward to eternity without the Lord(and who could look forward to that?).

There is no need to discuss racial equality because all are the same(Gal. 3:26-28 – although this verse is speaking specifically about Christians, nowhere in the NT does it ever say that anyone should not share the gospel with anyone else, in fact the first known non-Jewish Christian was an Ethiopian – Acts 8:27-39).

I am uncertain as to what “ways women are being held back or mistreated.”  Any person(man or woman) being mistreated is a bad thing.  Christians are supposed to be kind to one another(Eph. 4:32).  Jesus said to do to others as we would have them do to us(Luke 6:31), but this can be misapplied.  For example, if a drug addict asks you for drugs, you don’t give them to the addict.  That only harms them, and Christians are supposed to help, not harm, people.  If a person is sinning, faithful Christians need to help that person with their sin, and part of that help would be stating that the person IS sinning.  If you ignore their sin, it won’t get any better on its own.

In our society some “Christians” seem to think that some sins are worse than others.  Since any sin separates a person from God, they all do the same horrible thing.  It is true that some sins have a more devastating effect on others(e.g. murder); however, scripture does not list sins by gradation.  Sin is sin.  Christians need to make sure that they are applying ALL of God’s word equally.  We are not supposed to over-emphasize some sins and ignore other sins.  We need to bring up all sin, not to put others down, but to help lift them up.

A lot of “Christianity” is very far from Jesus.  Jesus was humble.  He was(and still is) God, yet He humbled Himself to live in a human body, having to deal with all the same kinds of problems we do every day.  That is WAY beneath Him, but He did it because He loves us.  He was kind.  God always has been and always will be kind.  He loves everyone.  He doesn’t want anyone to perish(eternally); He wants everyone to repent from their sins(II Pet. 3:9).  Many look at God’s judgments, as depicted throughout the Minor Prophets(Hosea – Malachi) as not being kind or loving, but in fact He was.  He was trying to get them to stop sinning because He knew the eternal damnation they would experience if they did not repent.  He wanted them saved, not lost.

Jesus never accepted any sin.  When a woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, He told her to quit sinning(John 8:9-11).  He did not accept her adulterous lifestyle.  It was wrong and He told her so.  He did not condemn her, as under the Law of Moses a person was condemned by two or three witnesses(Deut. 19:15).  The others had left, so Jesus was just one person.  He could not condemn her(to death under the Law of Moses).  There is not a single instance of Jesus being confronted with sin and He just accepted it.  He was consistently calling on people to repent, just as John the Baptist was doing just before Jesus began His public ministry(Matt. 3:2).

Jesus did not necessarily heal everyone He encountered.  There are generic references to people bringing sick people to Jesus and He healed them.  There are also references to Jesus healing specific people.  But the healing(physical) was not the message.  The message was a call to repent.  The message was a call to believe in Jesus.  He was bringing spiritual healing(i.e. healing from sin).  The physical healing only helped for a short while.  Every person Jesus healed, even those He raised from the dead, eventually died.  If Jesus’ goal was to heal physically, He failed miserably, and God never fails!

Jesus came to seek and save the lost(Luke 19:10 - spiritually lost as a result of their sins).  That is what He came to heal people of, the effect of sin(being separated from God – Isa. 59:1-2).  Jesus did not come to condemn the world, as the world was already condemned/lost(John 3:17).  He came to help us by dying on a cross as a sacrifice for sin(Heb. 9:11-15, esp. v. 15).  Through His sacrifice, IF we accept His grace/gift we can have our sins forgiven.  Since sin brings death, having our sins removed means we have a new life.  That new life is not just like our old(sinful) life.  It is a new life where we turn our backs on sin(Rom. 6:1-4).  It is not new physical life(what good would that be as we are just going to die in a few years).  We have something much better; we have life that is eternal; it is a spiritual rebirth!  And that lasts forever.

Jesus does bring hope(of salvation – I Pet. 1:3-5), healing(from sin – John 1:29), reconciliation(with God – Rom. 5:10) and joy(limitless joy – pretty much the entire book of Philippians).  All of these things, and much more, need to be emphasized.  However, to ignore sin and only promote “nice” things about Jesus is to only look at part of the picture.  It would be the same as only talking about sin, and never talking about forgiveness.  Jesus spoke about heaven, but spent more time warning about hell.  He spoke about both, and we need to do the same.

Worship should be joyful.  If it isn’t, we are doing something wrong.  Psalm 66 and many others emphasize the need for joy in worshipping the Lord.  If worship, or anything else, is without love, it is useless(I Cor. 13:1).  Worship must be both physical and emotional(meaning there is both an outer and an inner worship taking place).  As an example, singing is supposed to be external(singing) and internal(making melody in our hearts) – Eph. 5:19. 

All of God’s word needs to be taught, not just those things that will make people feel good.  Jesus made a lot of people feel bad(e.g. rich young ruler - Mark 10:22; Pharisee – Luke 7:47(Jesus said the Pharisee loved him “little”); teachers of the Law and Pharisees – Matt. 23:13-36; the thousands of people Jesus had feed the prior day who then left Him – John 6:61-66; an entire village – Matt. 8:34).  Jesus did not come to make people feel good, He came to save them from their sin. . . if they were willing to be saved.  If they did not want to be saved, Jesus would not force anyone to accept Him.

God is good(Ps. 103:8).  God is beautiful(Song of Solomon 1 – the woman’s sensual experience of the man is a reference to how we should view God as being attractive to us in every possible way).  God revealed Himself more fully through His Son.  Those who ignore Him do so at their own peril.  He is the ONLY source of salvation.  And if anyone adds to or takes away from anything He said or did, they will only serve to condemn themselves and anyone who follows them away from the Lord(Matt. 15:14).  God is not a buffet; we cannot pick and choose what we like and ignore what displeases us.  We are either with Him, or we are against Him(Luke 11:23).   There is no middle ground. 

God’s people should be inviting.  We know that sinners are just like we WERE.  They are lost, just like we were lost.  There is nothing they can do by themselves to be forgiven of their sins, just like we could do nothing to save ourselves.  A Christian is not a better person than a sinner; they are just a person who is saved from their sins.  Realizing that, there is no reason to look down on sinners(Luke 7:39).

I hope you made it to the end.  I hope you listened to God’s word(references throughout).  What I say is immaterial.  What God says is what matters!  Take care.