\u201cThere are two groups of people who should not be shocked to discover that a member of the Duggar family is a sinner,\u201d says Todd Friel, writing for the CHRISTIAN POST, \u201cChristians and non-Christians.\u201d This, he says, is what makes the Josh Duggar story a disaster.<\/p>\n
Christian Surprise<\/p>\n
The subject line from an email sent by a popular Christian website stated: \u201cChristian world rocked.\u201d Really?<\/p>\n
Based on his own admission, Josh sinned, repented and got saved. Why in the world would Christians be appalled to discover an unregenerate 14-year-old boy acted wickedly?…<\/p>\n
Have we forgotten that the Apostle Paul was a murderer before God saved him?<\/p>\n
Non-Christian Surprise<\/p>\n
Here is the headline from the magazine that decided to go rooting though Josh\u2019s closet: \u201cBombshell Duggar Police Report.\u201d<\/p>\n
This might be the bigger tragedy of the Josh Duggar story: unbelievers consider it a bombshell when it is discovered that a Christian has a shameful past. This ought not to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Christians were as loud about the Gospel as we are about being the moral majority,\u201d he concludes, \u201cI suspect there would be five results\u201d:<\/p>\n
1. Unbelievers would not see Josh Duggar as a hypocrite; they would see him as a typical born-again believer who is forgiven by an amazingly gracious God.<\/p>\n
2. Unbelievers would not see Christians as a mere special interest group that seeks to impose values on other people.<\/p>\n
3. The Gospel would be shining brightly.<\/p>\n
4. Somebody might get saved.<\/p>\n
5. Josh Duggar and his family would be going about their business today as a typical Christian family saved by grace alone.<\/p>\n
Friel says he doesn\u2019t blame the world. He blames us — Christians!<\/p>\n
Is it possible we have become so obsessed with imposing our values on unbelievers that the world sees us as self-righteous Pharisees and not as blood-washed sinners? … I would have shouted from the rooftops, \u201cIf you think Josh is wicked, you should meet the rest of us! That is why we are Christians! We need forgiveness for being wretched, vile, wicked rebels. If you are a rebel too, Jesus died for you! Run to Jesus! Join the wretched club.\u201d<\/p>\n
With this shout, Friel encourages all of us, too, to turn this apparent \u201ctragedy\u201d into an \u201copportunity\u201d to share the GREAT news that Christ died for \u201cperverts, liars, thieves, drunkards, abortionists, Wall Street fat cats, skid row bums, suburban housewives, blue collar workers\u201d and everyone else!
\n \u201cIt is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life\u201d (1 Timothy 1:15-16).
\n________<\/p>\n
Source: \u201cThe Duggar Disaster\u201d by Todd Friel, posted CHRISTIAN POST\/Christian Post Blog, 5\/22\/15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThere are two groups of people who should not be shocked to discover that a member of the Duggar family is a sinner,\u201d says Todd Friel, writing for the CHRISTIAN POST, \u201cChristians and non-Christians.\u201d This, he says, is what makes the Josh Duggar story a disaster. Christian Surprise The subject line from an email sent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[523,3681,846,3680,3399],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}