{"id":1787,"date":"2012-05-19T13:18:25","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T17:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2012-05-18T13:18:58","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T17:18:58","slug":"what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html","title":{"rendered":"What Jesus Says to Those Hurt by His Followers [Daniel Darling]"},"content":{"rendered":"

[The following is a guest post by pastor and author Daniel Darling. For more about Daniel, see his website at danieldarling.com<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Lately I\u2019ve been working on a book project aimed at 2nd Generation evangelicals<\/a>.\u00a0In the last few years, there has been a surge of books authored by young evangelicals who have been hurt by the church. Some have stayed in the faith. Others have lost their way.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read a few and have been saddened by the myriad ways in which Christians can cause pain. These books serve as a helpful warning to my generation of church leaders. May we hold our power lightly and live out the faith we preach.<\/p>\n

But something else saddens me about the memoirs. Not only are many questioning methods and allegiances (a good thing, in my view), but the very essence of the faith.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They so dislike the bathwater of evangelical Christianity; they\u2019re throwing out the baby of orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

I understand the logic. If you\u2019ve seen theology poorly applied, it\u2019s only natural to question everything in it. But there is a danger. Simply because a leader, a denomination, a movement has misapplied Scripture in one area, it doesn\u2019t mean the totality of their set of beliefs is wrong.<\/p>\n

For instance, consider the raging debate about the doctrine of Hell fueled by Rob Bell\u2019s book, Love Wins. <\/em>I haven\u2019t read the book, but I\u2019ve read several reviews. Some of those who defend Bell are quick to share the most extreme stories of preachers using the very biblical doctrine of eternal Hell to intimidate and bully. I\u2019ve seen this myself.<\/p>\n

But simply because some have wrongly used this doctrine doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n

The tendency when we\u2019re hurt by other Christians (as I have been) is to look at those Christians and judge the infallibility of the Word of God by the fallibility of Jesus\u2019 followers.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d do better to stop looking at bad Christians and look anew at Christ Himself. And perhaps the obscure story of Malchus is a good place to start (Luke 22:49<\/a>\"\"<\/a>; John 18:10<\/a>\"\"<\/a>). Malchus is the Roman guard whose ear was cut off by Peter\u2019s ill-advised use of the sword in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter loved Jesus, but his embrace of the sword went against Jesus\u2019 teaching. Jesus not only rebuked Peter, but healed Malchus\u2019 ear.<\/p>\n

I always wondered why John mentioned Malchus\u2019 name. But I wonder if perhaps Jesus healing touch was not only applied to this soldier\u2019s ear, but also to his heart. Some have speculated that Malchus became a follower of Christ and a pillar of the early church.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know. But we do know this: Jesus is in the business of healing those who\u2019ve been hurt by His followers. There are many in our world today like Malchus\u2019s. They\u2019re ability to \u201chear\u201d Jesus has been cut off by someone who claims to follow Christ.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it. At its best, the Church is clumsy. We often operate with fleshly motives. We have agendas that go beyond the gospel.<\/p>\n

If like Malchus, you\u2019ve been hurt by the Church, the temptation is to live your life dwelling on the hurt. But that doesn\u2019t have to be the end of your story, for if you focus your gaze away from the offender and onto Christ, you\u2019ll find healing and hope.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a serious thing when a Christian takes up the sword of offense. People are hurt. Lives are damaged. We inflict a spiritual deafness to those in our crosshairs.<\/p>\n

But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus is bigger than any Christian\u2019s ability to offend. God is greater than the hurt. And those who feel the pain can find healing in the simple touch offered by Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[The following is a guest post by pastor and author Daniel Darling. For more about Daniel, see his website at danieldarling.com.] Lately I\u2019ve been working on a book project aimed at 2nd Generation evangelicals.\u00a0In the last few years, there has been a surge of books authored by young evangelicals who have been hurt by the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Jesus Says to Those Hurt by His Followers [Daniel Darling] - Activist Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Jesus Says to Those Hurt by His Followers [Daniel Darling] - Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[The following is a guest post by pastor and author Daniel Darling. For more about Daniel, see his website at danieldarling.com.] Lately I\u2019ve been working on a book project aimed at 2nd Generation evangelicals.\u00a0In the last few years, there has been a surge of books authored by young evangelicals who have been hurt by the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-19T17:18:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-05-18T17:18:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.logos.com\/images\/Corporate\/LibronixLink_dark.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dillon Burroughs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Jesus Says to Those Hurt by His Followers [Daniel Darling] - Activist Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Jesus Says to Those Hurt by His Followers [Daniel Darling] - Activist Faith","og_description":"[The following is a guest post by pastor and author Daniel Darling. For more about Daniel, see his website at danieldarling.com.] Lately I\u2019ve been working on a book project aimed at 2nd Generation evangelicals.\u00a0In the last few years, there has been a surge of books authored by young evangelicals who have been hurt by the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html","og_site_name":"Activist Faith","article_published_time":"2012-05-19T17:18:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-05-18T17:18:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.logos.com\/images\/Corporate\/LibronixLink_dark.png"}],"author":"Dillon Burroughs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html","name":"What Jesus Says to Those Hurt by His Followers [Daniel Darling] - Activist Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.logos.com\/images\/Corporate\/LibronixLink_dark.png","datePublished":"2012-05-19T17:18:25+00:00","dateModified":"2012-05-18T17:18:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d931a1eb5dc2e7bf29e30bb1ea7d0311"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.logos.com\/images\/Corporate\/LibronixLink_dark.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.logos.com\/images\/Corporate\/LibronixLink_dark.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2012\/05\/what-jesus-says-to-those-hurt-by-his-followers-daniel-darling-3.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Jesus Says to Those Hurt by His Followers [Daniel Darling]"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/","name":"Activist Faith","description":"Christian Inspiration, Christian Blogs, Christian News, Top Christian Blogs","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d931a1eb5dc2e7bf29e30bb1ea7d0311","name":"Dillon Burroughs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7e\/e7e0e064c658f0c59bfb3c9a1a05121bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7e\/e7e0e064c658f0c59bfb3c9a1a05121bx96.jpg","caption":"Dillon Burroughs"},"description":"DILLON BURROUGHS is an author, activist, and cofounder of Activist Faith. Dillon served in Haiti following the epic 2010 earthquake and has investigated modern slavery in the US and internationally. His books include \"Undefending Christianity,\" \"Not in My Town\" (with Charles J. Powell), and \"Thirst No More\" (October 2011). Discover more at DillonBurroughs.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/author\/dburroughs"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1788,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/1788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}