Monthly Archives: January 2006

Pat Robertson is Part of the Religious Wrong

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Pat Robertson quotes from 2005:

“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,’” on his 700 Club television program, August 22, 2005. Read about it here.

“I didn’t say ‘assassination.’ I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’” in response to the media backlash of his statements on August 22. That statement was followed by…”[if President Chavez] thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it.” Read More

”I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover, if there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city,” Read More

“He was dividing God’s land, and I would say, ‘Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,’” suggesting Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed (according to CNN)

“What they’re basically saying is, ‘How dare Pat Robertson quote the Bible?’” said by Robertson spokeswoman Angell Watts to those who criticized Robertson’s remarks. “This is what the word of God says,” Watts told the AP. “This is nothing new to the Christian community.” Read More.

Pat Robertson does not speak for me and I’m not sure that he is the voice of God to the US and certainly not to the world. Pat Robertson makes my case that Christians need to live a personal, authentic faith, rather than a public, insincere faith. Robertson has turned more people away from Christianity through his extreme statements. He was a big supporter of Bush, but in both the Chavez and Sharon incidents Bush has disavowed Robertson’s statements. Most conservative Christians are distancing themselves from him and he is a huge embarassment to the church.

We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. Hey, I never said anything about assassination! But if so many Christians want to jump on the boycott wagon, we might as well hold our own spokespersons accountable for their actions. Pat wants to be a spokesperson for the religious right and he will be held accountable for what he says and does.

Making Disciples Is No Excuse

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I would say that, for me, discipleship is more of a strength than is evangelism. I’m not sure that the two need to be separate in a person’s life, but I recognize that most Christians gravitate more towards one or the other. This “gravitation” can be a problem, however, when we do one and neglect the other. A follower of Christ actively engages in both. Indeed, Christ, even in the act of evangelizing the lost, made sure his disciples were right there with him. Then, when they were ready, he sent them out to evangelize and make disciples. In other words, Jesus used evangelism to disciple his disciples to become evangelizing disciplers. He was the first to incorporate the multiplication method (or the 222 principle from 2 Timothy 2:2).

When we aren’t seeing people come to know Christ, sometimes we offer the excuse that we are disciplers, not evangelizers. When that is the case in someone’s life, evangelism is not happening, but neither is true discipleship. In my life, I have only seen a couple of people come to Christ in the past year. My desire is to see more people come to Christ even though I gravitate more towards discipleship. My desire is based on the belief that I can’t be an effective discipler if I am not an effective evangelizer. I never want my desire to disciple followers of Christ to be an excuse for a lack of lost people coming to Christ.

As pastor of The Church at the Gate, I want to make sure that we teach the whole gospel of God. As I equip others to use their gifts for the glory of God through the church, I hope that they will learn that discipleship and evangelism are inseparable partners. Both are only possible through the power of the Spirit, so if I do discipleship in the flesh then it is powerless, but if I disciple others in the power of the Spirit then much is accomplished and people come to know Christ. If I evangelize in my own power, no one will come to the Truth. But if I evangelize in the power of the Spirit then many will come to know him and there will be more people to be discipled and trained through the church.

We all have different strengths and gifts, but all of us have been commanded to bear witness to the Truth and to reveal the glory of God and to be ambassadors of reconciliation, in short, to be evangelizers. We have all been commanded to make disciples of all the nations and to train others to do the same, or, to be disciplers. We are commanded to do both, regardless of our strength. In the end, it’s not about what I’m good at anyway. In fact, it’s more about my weakness when it comes to displaying the glory of God.

Boston (42° 21′ , -71° 7′)