by Norm Johnson

Created on: November 28, 2007

Who put the hate into Christianity? People who call themselves Christians, but are not really Christians. Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt 11:28-30). True Christianity involves coming to Jesus and learning to be like Him. There was no hate in Him, only love. Even when He was being brutally tortured and murdered His response was, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). That should be the attitude of any true Christian.

However, there are many false Christians in the world. 1 Corinthians 11:13-15 tells us that Satan has his own brand of false Christians. "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." Whoa! Did you catch that? Apparently Satan has ministers working for him! If Satan has ministers working for him, don't you think there is a good chance that he has some false Christians being guided and taught by these false preachers?

There are many people who have taken the name of Christian without really having their hearts transformed by the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that we must be "born again" in order to be part of His kingdom, which is what a Christian is supposed to be (John 3:5). Like your first birth, it is all the work of a parentyour heavenly father through the Holy Spirit. The human heart is naturally evil. "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint," according to the Bible (Isaiah 1:5). We have less chance of doing good without God changing our hearts than a leopard has of changing his own spots or a man the color of his skin (Jeremiah 13:23). So consider this, if someone accepts the basic teachings of Jesus and the Bible on an intellectual level, but never really has their hearts changed by God, it is the most natural thing in the world for them to hate and want to kill and exercise power of others.

I am afraid that the bottom line with hate in Christianity is that there are a lot of "tares among the wheat." Jesus told a parable about a farmer who planted a field with grain, but when the crop came up there were weeds in it (Matt 13:24-30, 36-43). The man's workers were surprised and asked from whence came the weeds. The Farmer replied, "An enemy has done this" (verse 28). The farmhands wanted to pull out the weeds, but the wise farmer cautioned against it, "No; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them" (verse 29). Both the grain and the weeds were to grow together until the harvest (v. 30).

So what does He mean by this? Well, the farmer is Jesus, the field is the world, the good seed are the true Christians, and weeds are Satan's counterfeits, and the enemy that placed them there is the devil (verses 37-39). The story clearly illustrates that among God's true followers there will be Satan's counterfeits, right up until the harvest, which is the end of the world. When Jesus comes again, He and His angels will look after the job of removing the false Christians from among the true. Hence the reason for hate in Christianity. It is because there have always been, and still are, false Christians in Christianity.

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