Bullies and Saints – An honest look at the good and evil of Christian history

Two sentences from Chapter 4 sunk this book.

Chapter 4 “Log in the Eye of the Church” exposits the Sermon on the Mount. It draws to these summaries of the Christian life:

“The basic posture of a Christian in the world should be one of humble melancholy, accepting their card-carrying membership of the “league of the guilty”".

“It was the Master of the church himself who said I should worry more about my own sins that the sins of others”.

And, such a summary of Christian life is rather depressing.

Dickson has cast Christians to a pre-cross setting. Christ’s message to the world was not complete through the Sermon on the Mount. Christ’s message was sealed with his death and resurrection. The Christian lives in the glorious hope of abundant life of a Saviour – a Saviour that offers all Christians to mortify their sins in his flesh.

I need not adopt a “basic posture…of humble melancholy” as a life sentence. I only need adopt that posture until I have come to receiving Christ; that I fall to my knees that Christ may pick me up.

I need not “worry about my sins” for Christ has given me a daily means of mortifying those sins.

I can imagine that a Christian could take the two sentences to heart such that were paralysed of service to the Lord. They could became so melancholic, and so worried, that they never produced fruit. They would be the one of whom Christ gave one bag of gold only for them to return one bag of gold (Matthew 25:14-30).

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I’ve read the paperback Zondervan Reflective paperback, first edition, 2021. I borrowed from Lane Cove Library and enjoyed their wonderful Library to Your Door service during Sydney’s COVID19 lockdown.

 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

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