Stage In The Sky

This is Part Three of my series where I set out to abolish the fear so many Christians have of being called Judgmental. It’s making Christians look bad. It’s giving Atheists and Agnostics good reasons to reject Christ. And it’s silencing those who should be speaking up, while enabling those who need to hear the truth.

First off…let’s go ahead and address a major fallacy with “Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged!” You guys know you’re still going to be judged, right?

I could be wrong, but the way people like to spit out that quote, it’s as if they think God’s gonna be like, “Oh! I see you didn’t criticize anyone or call out anyone’s bad behavior! Well come on in! Beautiful heaven awaits. Hey, let her in! She didn’t judge anyone. So I’m not going to judge her.”

“But Rock! Christ tells us our sins will be forgiven! He knows we’re imperfect and we all fall short. So it doesn’t make sense for Christians to judge others or feel bad about the things we’ve done.”

Yes, there are Scriptures that talk about God blotting out our sins/transgressions. The Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 2:13-14 that Christ canceled out our sins when he died on the cross. But as I mentioned in my last part, there are conditions to the benefit of having our sins forgiven. The word “if” means something. Even John 3:16 mentions that “whoever believes”…Believe is a verb. That’s an action. You demonstrate whether you “believe” based on how you choose to live.

A lot of people don’t want to know those conditions are. They’re content with their surface-level understanding, accepting parts of the Bible they like while rejecting the parts that don’t conform to their lifestyles.

I keep bringing up this Christian vlogger who claimed she got a BBL (Brazilian Butt-Lift), because she and the Agnostic’s reaction inspired this four-part essay. It wasn’t just my disappointment in her shaming language, but the effect Christians like her have on dissuading people from putting their faith in Christ.

I say that because, for years now, I’ve embraced the criticism of “you’re too judgmental.” Even from a secular point of view, it makes sense that people would tell me this because, if I may say so myself. I’m an intellectual.

To tell me “don’t judge” is to tell me “don’t think/don’t form an opinion.” And no, I don’t go looking for something to point out. But when you’re well trained, using your mind as a muscle the way I do…yeah, it’s difficult to hide the truth from me if things aren’t adding up.

And as a Christian who reads the Bible everyday…again, you become better trained discern what’s right or wrong according to the Scriptures. So I’m not sitting there looking for unholy things to point out.

In the video, she goes on to say, “As much as I love having a Christian Audience, I don’t want the judgmental ones who speak as if they’re perfect or holier than thou, I want the ones who are humble and know that a walk with God is not spotless.” 

To most people, this sounds like a reasonable statement. Sounds harmless. She didn’t say anything wrong, right? But to a thinker such as myself…something isn’t adding up. Allow me to explain.

First off, calling someone “judgmental,” is judgmental. A lot of people do this, where they attach a label to someone without even realizing they’re being judgmental. “Rock, your standards are too high,” is judgmental.

I just finished watching a Jason Whitlock video where a bunch of NBA personalities claimed Jason was a horrible person who hates black people. That’s a judgment. People are cool with doing things like this, but the minute you call out something immoral…it’s wrong?

This is a shaming tactic where people are trying to get you to stop thinking for yourself, or at the very least, keep it to yourself so they can keep doing whatever they want and feel good about it. 

What most people don’t understand, is that “Judging” has at least three different meanings in the Bible. There’s judging to condemn, as in saying someone’s going to hell. I don’t do that. There’s judging in the sense of executing God’s punishment. I don’t do that. 

Then there’s judging in the sense of discerning what is right and wrong. We should absolutely do this! Here’s a list of Scriptures backing up what I say, and I can debate with the best of them why we should. 

Matthew Chapter 7 says “Judge not lest ye be judged” because the standard by which you judge others, you too will be judged. If you continue to read the rest of that chapter, you’d come to a better realization that Jesus was talking about hypocrites. He was talking about people who use the Scriptures to dictate and take advantage of others while they themselves were living however they want, benefiting from the charity, obedience, and reverence that their followers poured into.

I believe those Scriptures were super important for a long time, at least for a thousand years, because most of the common people could not read the Bible. They relied on the priests and clerics to reveal God’s will, which left them vulnerable to avarice and corruption, the greedy using God’s word to manipulate the masses to serving their will instead of God’s. That’s how you had the crusades and constant warfare amongst the European kings, and corrupt popes like the Borgias.

Christians today can’t use the same excuses as the poor farmers and serfs living before the 1400s. The Bible is free online at BibleGateway.com and you can walk into any church on a Sunday for a service at no charge.

The “Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged” scriptures at Matthew 7 are for hypocrites. I’m not a hypocrite. I fully understand that I will be held to the same standard that I criticize others. In fact, it strengthens me. Every time I declare these things I’m putting more pressure upon myself to live up to what I’m saying.

I realize that this is a high standard to live by. But it’s not like I just rolled out of bed and boom, I got these standards. I have this standard because I believe…I humbled myself and submitted to being led by God’s word the Bible.

When people use the bulk of Matthew 7 that talks about how we shouldn’t judge…I don’t think they understand what Christ was saying starting at verse 15. 

There Jesus talks about the false prophets. He explains that they may come to you in sheep’s clothing. How do we know that they’re false prophets? Well, Jesus explains that the good fruit falls from the good tree. In verse 20, Christ says, “Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” 

Thus, Ladies and Gentlemen…it is your duty to judge and discern what kind of fruit you’re dealing with. That is your personal responsibility. It was the responsibility of those who followed David Koresh at Waco. And it was the responsibility of all who died following Jim Jones in the 70s. 

In Hannah Brown’s interview, she says that people get Christianity and Religion messed up. She says our faith is not to judge others. This is wrong. John 7:24 explicitly says, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with righteous judgment.” 

The best way to hone your skills and judge with righteous judgment is to read the Bible and apply God’s principles to your life. 2 Timothy Chapter 4 is one of the most powerful examples of Scriptural evidence of how we are commanded as Christians to judge. Starting in verse 2 it says: 

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” 

Boom! Seriously, when they ask “why do you believe in the Bible” it’s because I see evidence of Biblical truth which goes on to strengthen my faith in that which I haven’t seen. The above scriptures are so self-evident. It’s the main reason why the hook-up culture and sex before marriage and the divorce rate it’s mostly due to Christians who accumulate teachers to suit their own passions instead of following Biblical doctrine.

That’s why in 2024…I’m no longer just gonna nod along and smile when people call me judgmental. It’s not cute anymore. We are living in the last days. The ship is going down. And I don’t want to see you perish with the wicked.  

Now…when I hear people call me judgmental, I see the line of horsemen riding out to protect your ego. I see rockets firing from gunships called pride. And I think the Christians who want to silence me care more about hurt feelings than saved souls. I say that, because there are a lot of Christians who know I’m right, but they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. So, they stand on the ground of, “it’s their choice,” while ignoring the fact that it’s my choice to say something.

But more than anything, I see a lack of shame. It’s there. Someone’s convinced you that shame is weakness and holding you back, so you locked it up and buried it away, ignoring the warnings to the point that you’ve become deaf to it. 

Ladies and gentlemen, shame is not all bad and wretched. I believe God gave us shame for the same reason he gave us fear. To help us preserve our lives. 

When you’re standing on the ledge of a tall building, it’s fear that prompts you to be careful and step away from the ledge. Right?

When you’re doing something wrong in God’s eyes, it’s that Shame that’s prompting you to stop and feel sorry for what you’ve done. Even if you’ve never picked up the Bible, you have it. That’s why you can’t explain it when you feel terrible about something you’ve done even though it’s not illegal or you haven’t hurt anyone. Romans 2:15 alludes to the fact that God imprinted his moral law in all of our hearts. It’s also called a conscience.

That woman who washed Jesus’s feet cried tears of shame and she was rewarded with Christ’s forgiveness.

Jeremiah, was called the weeping prophet. When Jerusalem was under siege from Nebuchadnezzar in 586BC, Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 6: 13-16, : 

“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. 14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace. 15 Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. “So they will fall among the fallen: they will be brought down when I punish them,” says the Lord. 

I don’t want to see you fall. So I choose to speak up. I try to do it with love and kindness, but depending on my audience, I may have to be more assertive.

Lastly, let me hit on the issue Self-Righteousness. Because I commented on the above meme and a woman more or less warned against judging from a place of “Self-Righteousness” which prompted me to stop and reflect on my own motives.

First off, what is Righteousness vs Self-Righteousness? If you cherry-pick, you can find a scathing scripture at Romans 3:10 that says “there is no one righteous. Not even one.” And if we take that at face value, who am I to say anything? I mean…it’s not like I’m righteous, because no one is. Right?

I did some digging and came across this Website . It says, “The Bible describes the righteous person as just or right, holding to God and trusting in Him (Psalm 33:18–22).” They go on to say, “The bad news is that true or perfect righteousness is not possible for man to attain on his own; the standard is simply too high. The good news is that true righteousness is possible for mankind, but only through the cleansing of sin by Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.”

Alright…so then, how is a person “self-righteous”?

The same website explains, Biblically speaking, self-righteousness, which is related to legalism,. Legalism is a term Christians use to describe a doctrinal position emphasizing a system of rules and regulations for achieving both salvation and spiritual growth.

Based on that, “self-righteousness” is the idea that we can somehow generate within ourselves a righteousness that will be acceptable to God (Romans 3:10). They say, “Jesus spends a great deal of time and energy warning His disciples about the dangers of self-righteousness, making it clear that, without Him, they could do nothing (John 15:5).”

They even go on to say, “It would be an understatement to say that every believer is plagued by this attitude. It is in our sin nature to try to do something to merit our salvation. The costly freedom of grace, bought for us by the blood of Jesus with no contribution from us, is difficult for our prideful hearts to understand or appreciate. It is far easier to compare ourselves with one another than it is to recognize that we cannot measure up to the standards of a holy God. However, in Christ we can know true righteousness.“

I honestly wondered if this applied to me. By my sticking to the Scriptures, especially in calling out those who indulge in lifestyles described at 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, am I being legalistic? Am I trying to “do something” to merit my salvation? Am I being self-righteous?

I will continue to reflect on that question and I pray that God works on my heart, but I can answer with complete certainty that I don’t believe I’ve come this far in my Christian journey without God. There are some Christians who are really good about crediting God with almost everything they do. Like, every time you compliment them on an individual level, they respond with, “it’s because of God.”

I confess…I don’t do that so much with every day people unless I feel really moved to do so. Most of my gratitude and the credit I give him is in essays like this, but mostly prayer. I don’t think I’m that kind of Christian that I’m constantly saying, “it’s due to God,” is because…and I may be wrong here…my belief in Him is so strong that it feels like it should go without saying. I’m talking about random things like. “Good job at work today!” and someone will respond with, “I give all glory to God.”

I’m like, yes. Sure. I knew that. It’s through him that all things are possible. So, should I say nothing positive about you, or should I just cut to the chase and thank God that Michele looks nice today? I’m being a bit facetious, but I do believe in being genuine. Not repetitive, or saying things just because it’s expected to be said.

I know it was by the grace of God that I committed to reading the entire Bible twice over and I’ve thanked him thousands of time, almost every morning for blessing me with the opportunity to have a relationship with him. It was by His grace that I was blessed with wisdom and understanding. There were countless times that God sent me people who helped me to understand.

But I get it. It is reasonable to look at me, hear my words and think I’m being Self-Righteous. One of my late cousins bumped heads with me when she told me that I needed to do a “Pharisee Check.” But after calling her up, we talked it out and I understood why she said that. This is an issue a lot of Christians have when you speak on an issue that they’re either struggling with or they’ve failed in the past.

My cousin was offended because i wrote about Single Mothers in this essay…because she used the kind of single mother I was talked about, she took offense. This woman was in her 60s. She was a single mother decades ago. And instead of acknowledging that she didn’t make the best decisions (when she was younger), she lashed out at me with “maybe you should do a Pharisee Check” to basically keep me from thinking I’m something special or better than her.

It’s easy to see it from her perspective. The Pharisees had a similar attitude and Jesus rebuked them. But are we all to stay silent because no one is righteous? Should no one speak up because we all fall short? I don’t think so. Galations 6:1 tells us that if we see others ensnared by sin, we should gently and humbly help that person to the right path.

I can’t think of a single Christian or Biblical figure other than Jesus who didn’t have some plank in their eye, some flaw, or shortcoming that stumbled them. But if everyone stayed silent, thinking to yourself that you are wretched and unworthy to say anything…would any of us be able to obey when Jesus said “go therefore and make disciple of all the nations?”

Truth be told, I think when some people accuse you of “sounding self-righteous,” they really mean, “you sound like you can’t do no wrong,” or “you act like you know more than everybody else.” And of course, I think this is all to protect the person’s ego.

“How is it about protecting their ego?”

Well…what if, I really do just happen to know more than you? If I’ve read the entire Bible twice over, and you’ve only read bits and pieces of it, doesn’t it make sense that I might know more about what’s in it? And again, I think this hits back to my first post about our obsession with equality, thinking we’re all on the same level, as in “we’re all sinners” that means we’re the same…and this is only surface level thinking. The kind you’re comfortable with.

Because if you look deeper, you’d realize that we’re only the same in that we all need God’s grace and the cleansing of sins which was made possible through Christ’s death. However, our knowledge, our strength, our discipline, our obedience, and our affection for Christ…we are not the same. We are individuals and will be judged as individuals. Some of us (a lot) won’t make it. And instead of being threatened or feel defensive by those who YOU deem to be superior…you could just apply yourself and try to get better.

If you’re upset that someone knows more than you, just start reading. It’s free. All it takes is time and effort.

As I’m going to mention in my next post, I’m not above reproach. I certainly have my own vices and I’m not about to pretend to be worthless just to make people feel good.

But I will share this…When I was a kid studying with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they used to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven and nothing about it sounded appealing to me. They’d speak about it as if the Kingdom was going be filled with nothing but the boring mild-mannered Jehovah’s Witnesses I grew up with and I didn’t like them. I honestly felt, I’d rather just be dead and conscious of nothing than have to go on living in an eternity where everyone in the Kingdom acted like those people.

For those who don’t know, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in the concept of Annihilationism, where this is no hell and people burning for all eternity when they die. The belief is when you die, you’re simply conscious of nothing. And, back then, I favored that more so than being in Kingdom of Heaven with nothing but Jehovah’s Witnesses.

But as I grew up, HOWEVER…and read the Bible, immersing myself in Christ…I changed my ways. My faith in God is so strong that I’m not worried about Judgment Day. If God rejects me, I accept his judgment because I know I’ve fallen short so many times and trust that God’s ways are just.

Even if that means, as Atheists would like to argue, that I died for nothing. That my entire life being spent having resisted temptation, died a virgin, and missed out on all the pleasures that everyone else indulged in…I don’t care. While the reward of everlasting life is nice. There’s a more important reason why I choose to live this way.

It’s because I believe that once upon a time, a man was nailed to a cross and died in my place. He was perfect. He never did anything wrong. But he sacrificed himself so that I could have the gift of everlasting life. What kind of man would I be if I’m like, “Nah. No thanks. I’m good.”

I live my life because I love, respect, and honor God. It’s out of love and respect for Christ that it bothers me when those who call themselves Christians display this nonchalant, cavalier, I’m “forgiven-no-matter- what” attitude when it comes to disobeying our Lord. And yes…there is a bit of sadness when I see how the disobedience has inadvertently made my life more difficult. Such as the difficulty in finding a beautiful God-fearing wife who’s also willing to wait until marriage to have sex.

“So, you’re bitter. Is that what you’re telling us, Rock?”

Bitter. Resentful. Jealous. There’s no denying that I am suffering. It’s embarrassing to admit. When researching Bitterness, this website says, “The person who is bitter is often resentful, cynical, harsh, cold, relentless, and unpleasant to be around. Any expression of these characteristics is sin against God.” Hebrews 12:15

And yet…to my close friends, I don’t think they’d describe me as any of that. Over the Christmas break, I was invited to many functions. There’s even a woman from my old church group who reached out and encouraged me to come back because “others really benefited from you.”

Even my Worldly associates seem to appreciate having a Christian like me around because a lot of Atheist and Agnostics…the Christians they don’t like are the ones who call themselves Christians but don’t stand on their principles. There have been plenty of functions where I’ve gone to events and got into deep debates where the non-believers walked away with a greater respect for Christians like me who talk the talk and walk the walk.

In closing, what I really want to get across is despite my knowledge and obedience to the Scriptures, I’m constantly checking myself to make sure I’m not overstepping my bounds, to make sure that I’m not self-righteous or acting like a Pharisee.

I think the “Suffering” I endure does not come from bitterness or jealousy. I hate the world as the Bible tells us we should. And that hatred comes from my love of God and the loved ones I want to see in the Kingdom of Heaven.

But more than anything, the suffering I endure comes from the fact that I am ridiculously hard on myself. Seriously, as much as I’ve been critical of others…you have no idea how much I tear myself apart for my own weaknesses and worldly desires. I deny myself. But if I didn’t have the desire in the first place, there would be nothing to deny.

Which is why I continue to pray for God to work on my heart. Because it’s not easy.

I’m very much like the plot of the 1990s movie “Speed.” Where if I slow down past a certain point…if I stop being productive or stop working towards some goal or accomplishment, that’s when I become aware of all the pain and suffering I’m enduring in my attempt to pick up the cross and follow Christ. That’s when I really struggle. (Matt 16:24-26)