page two of "Christian Internet Apologetics"
14. Seek to agree with the person whenever it is truthfully possible. Watch for an opportunity to gently point out what they may have overlooked. Don't forget that you are a stranger, not an intimate friend of the writer. As an outsider, you might make suggestions like, "Have you thought about such and such?" Be on guard not to come across as "holier-than-thou"; make it decidedly clear that you are not better than they are. Friends meet on level ground. When writing to hostile people win them with love. (Most of us don't do a very good job of loving our friends).
15. Find out about the person, their childhood, parents, spouse, occupation, interests. Friendliness is a vanishing commodity. Sadly, Christians these days do not have a reputation for being friendly. If you are not able to be interested in the person, then perhaps you should explore what other gifts you might have and leave Christian Internet Apologetics to those who find themselves gifted with a genuine curiosity about other people. This ministry is not about being "The Answer Man".
16. We are not doing pastoral counseling. The people who correspond with us are from every conceivable background and every walk of life and religion. Email conversations can be casual and brief. Often a "thread" or series of emails may continue for a few weeks and abruptly fade away. This is one of the cool things about email. Our experience has been that the Lord will have spoken to and helped both correspondents.
17. When writing to Christians who are "hurting" (a code word), we encourage the person to actively take part in a local Body where they can receive pastoral help, prayer and teaching. If it appears that no such church exists in their area, we recommend that they start a home Bible class or a think-and-pray group. Lone Ranger Christians never flourish in their isolation from the Body of Christ. This is especially true of Internet loner Bible teachers and self-appointed prophecy experts. They are usually lacking in accountability to peers and elders and are often spiritually immature. In most cases they don't have an overall sound Biblical world view.
Note: In Christian life there are many differences in dress, worship, music, customs, liturgy, tradition. God evidently likes variety! It is not unusual for people to write us about some of these peripheral areas of the faith. It is always a pleasure to meet people whose practices in these non-essential areas are different from our own--because we learn and we appreciate more fully the richness of our faith. However, there is a core of central doctrinal issues at the heart of the faith that are not open to negotiation. We take care when such issues come up so that we deal without compromise, but in love and compassion towards people we meet who are in error regarding what Jude calls "the faith that was once for all time delivered to the saints."
One of us is especially discerning in exposing the differences between walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit. These days we find many Christians do not understand that only what God accomplishes through us has lasting value. (Our self-efforts do not count with God). We have discovered that many Christians today are not aware of what it means to live under the terms of the New Covenant and do not know the wonderful freedom of the "Exchanged Life" (Galatians 2:20) in not widely practiced.
18. It is OK to engage error--to challenge faulty teaching on the Internet. However, grace is more successful than condemnation. Anyone at all can publish on the Internet; part of our work is to confront those who are plainly in error, cultic, or presenting themselves as orthodox. We are not trying to shut down their web sites. We believe we can reach many of the misguided or misled Christians who have gotten side-tracked from walking with God.
Welcome to Christian Internet Apologetics.
An Anecdote
Meghan Daum has written a humorous article called "Virtual Love," (New Yorker magazine 825-9/1/97) describing an "affair" between two unattached professional people who met in a Chat Room on Internet. After many e-conversations and phone calls, this particular man and woman even flew back and forth across the country for several weekends together. Their Cyberspace romance was, however, ephemeral and ended as quickly as it began. Many Internet personal exchanges are shallow or superficial, but we have found this not to be the case when followers of Jesus Christ spend serious time communicating over the net. Our web sites have been around long enough now that we have met in person quite a few people we first got acquainted with in Cyberspace. We have been delighted that genuine face-to-face relationships often results from a conversation that began on the Web. For us, this is just one more conformation that God is at work in Cyberspace in a powerful way.
The Christian Milieu in Cyberspace
Christians are a small minority in the world. Usually we hang out only other Christians who are like ourselves in belief and life-style-within the boundaries of what could be concerned orthodox Christianity. Though we acknowledge that Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Messianic Jews, and Greek Orthodox people may be Christians we are not likely to number many of these "brothers and sisters" among our regular friends. We tend to find a comfortable group of Christians--just like us--to associate with and we leave it there. While we may talk to relatives, friends at work, and occasionally a fellow-traveler on an airplane, it is rare for us to engage ourselves in serious and ongoing discussions with non-Christians. On Internet all these daily constraints go out the window right away--thankfully.
As a result of our being ingrown as American Laodicean * Christians we may not be very aware that "church" is a totally unknown and meaningless word to most people in the world today. Or the idea of "church" carries with it negative connotations. Lots of people have never seen any form of Christianity in action except perhaps for an accidental TV evangelist while switching channels.
"Talking" to real people on Internet means that we must make a conscious and deliberate effort to speak ordinary king's English and to drop the code words and cliches we use when we are talking to other members of our in-group. Of course most Christians (we have come to believe) do not know the actual meaning of these code words and cliches anyway--but that is another subject.
Learning to Use the King's Good English in Cyberspace
Here is a list of words we suggest you avoid in discussing Christian life and issues on Internet:
bless, blessed, saved, "got saved," "in Jesus' name", sanctified, justified, called, minister, ministry, calling, anointed, anointing, heaven, swearing, glorified, worship, imputation, manifestation, revival, revival service, preacher, pastor, prophesy (verb), repent, righteous, unrighteous, intercession, covenant, baptism, Spirit baptized, "last days", "latter days", gospel, "preach the gospel", Holy Ghost revival, witnessing, glory, redeem, mercy, grace, expiation, propitiation, atonement, holiness, holy, charity, slain in the Spirit, born again, precious, rapture, lust, covetousness, sloth, redeem, redeemer, fornicate, "the flesh", "the Spirit", binding Satan, Lord and Savior, "personal Savior", Lordship salvation, baptized, Christian, sin, trespass, transgression, elder, deacon, angels, Trinity, transcendence, immanence, imminence, creation, judgment, incarnation,believer, soul, "the world," Church, "go to church", sabbath, "keeping the sabbath," "tithes and offerings."
cont to page three click here
