"EXTREMISM" - THE MAKE-UP OF A CHRISTIAN EXTREMIST

Is there such thing as a "Christian extremist" you ask?  Ofcourse there is!  What I don't know is whether or not these people know they are not pleasing God with their ways.  Today, I am attempting to help you identify a Christian extremist and also help you check yourself for a negative approach to Christianity.  God bless you as you read:

Let me start by trying to define a 'Christian extremist.'  In my view, a Christian extremist is one favoring immoderate uncompromising views on debatable issues in Christianity. Better yet, one who advocates or resorts to measures beyond the norm, to push his/her 'opinions' on Christian issues forward, often unconsciously(maybe consciously) hurting people and causing division.  He or she has more of a 'political' position on Christianity as opposed to a 'spiritual' position.  Mind you, the term 'Christian extremist' is negatively connotated and is synonymous with these words:  fanatic - madness- single-mindedness - obsessiveness - monomania - immoderate -  With these traits, you cannot please God and you are very dangerous to Christianity as a whole.

How do you know if you're a Christian extremist you ask?  Here are some specific traits of a Christian Extremist:

TRAITS OF A CHRISTIAN EXTREMIST

The person...

-HAS A STIFF/HARDENED HEART

A hardened heart is a 'closed' heart and such a heart is not open to positive change.  Such a heart is not a Godly heart and can exercise very little or no love at all.  Remember that a person whose heart is hardened avails his heart for negative influences, better yet, Satan's seed of influence.  God works with hearts that can listen to His voice and obey, heart's that can be moulded and re-moulded.  God is like a potter, and no potter can work with dry/hardened clay.  A person with such a heart is bound to cause problems if he/she finds himself trying to represent God.

-INTERPRETS BIBLE VERSES OUT OF CONTEXT

Christianity as a whole preaches love, the gospel is a loving message!  However, you find people who call themselves Christians and have a very offensive nature and as such always interpret Bible verses on the negative.  They seem to be comfortable telling others that their approach to things is wrong.  Remember, Christ was a symbol of love!  So if you find yourself interpreting the gospel and Bible verses in a way that gives it an 'un-loving' meaning, then you could be harbouring some extremism in your heart.

-SATISFIES POLITICAL MOTIVES RATHAR THAN SPIRITUAL MOTIVES
 Extremists will almost always focus a bit too much on Christian politics.  In the ideal situation, the church is supposed to be one body and free of politicking.  Any entity that calls itself a church is supposed to help guide its members toward salvation, or help them pave the way toward God's kingdom.  An extremist will pay more attention to frivolities like the superiority of one denomination over the other and as such, abandons his/her spiritual growth for troublemaking.

-IS VERY 'RELIGIOUS' BUT LESS 'CHRISTIAN'

Extremists are often extremely religious.  Being a 'religious' person and being a 'Christian' are two entirely different things.  A religious person is one who does everything required by his religion e.g going to church every sunday, reading the Bible regularly, praying everyday or at particular intervals and the like.  The fact that you read the Bible a lot and go to church does not make you a Christian...that makes you a 'religious' individual.  You can be religious about anything - your hair, shoes, food, clothes, beer, parties, music, academia e.t.c. How much the content of the Bible and the teachings of Christ have sank into your lifestyle is what makes up the 'Christian' in you. There are atheists who make better Christians than people who call themselves Christians! You can't call yourself a 'Christian' when your approach to Christianity does not allow you key-in to the reality of loving one another, living positively and in unity. 

-IS MOST LIKELY A DENOMINATIONAL CHRISTIAN

An extremist will often down-talk other denominations of Christians.  This is an agressive behaviour and it exhibits no love.  All the people who call themselves Christians have one main goal in mind, and that is 'SALVATION' and salvation obviously won't depend on the denomination you belong to.  If it did then no one will make it to heaven since denomination was created by man, not by God.  Your church cannt take you to heaven, it can only guide you.  The Christian inside of you is what will lead you to heaven.  Before Christ came, there was what the Bible refers to as 'worship.'  Religion came to be as society evolved.

-ALLOWS HIS/HER FEELINGS INTERFERE WITH THE VOICE OF GOD

Very often, the voice of man interferes with the voice of God, and for an extremist, such interferance is on the high side.  Christians need to be as objective as possible when reading, discussing and interpreting the content of the Bible.  When you allow your preconceived opinions influence your interpretation of the Bible, you are interfering with the voice of God.  Very often, your preconceptions can lead you to disobey an obvious divine instruction, ignore a prophecy and in turn you'll miss out on the blessing that should have followed.  You must let God be God.

-LISTENS WITH EARS BUT NOT WITH HEART (CLOSED HEART)

An extremist is usually out of touch with his/her conscience and therefore has a distorted view of what's right and what's wrong.  The heart is our conscience, God planted it in us that we may sense what pleases Him and what doesn't.  When you listen to people with your ears alone and close your heart, you can't come up with the likely position God would love you to assume and as such, you do more harm than good.  When your heart is closed, you're serving yourself alone.  Christ had an open heart, therefore, all Christians should have an open heart.  You create by far more positive impact with an open heart than you would with a closed heart.  An open heart is like a fountain of love, constantly pouring out love.

-LACKS EMPATHY, ONLY ACCEPTS VIEWS THAT CONFORM WITH THEIRS

A Christian extremist lacks the ability to identify with the feelings, thoughts and views of other Christians, especially when they're not of thesame church or denomination.  Christ was a very empathetic individual, that was why he prevented people from stoning the prostitute to death.  Christ was very empathetic, that is why he agreed to help the gentile woman (even though he initially refused) whose daughter had an evil spirit [Mark 7:24-30].  If Christ could be so empathetic, and you say you're a Christian (Christ-like) then you should be a very empathetic fellow.  I mean, you can't get any more Christian than Jesus Christ himself, can you?  So Christ is our standard (or 'benchmark' if you like).

-IS VERY JUDGEMENTAL AND FAILS TO REALISE THAT GOD IS JUDGE

Christian extremists are very judgemental Christians.  They tend to think that they're so near perfection that they find it very easy to give approval to and point accusing fingers at their fellow man and fellow Christians for correctness and incorrectness thereof, in their practice of Christianity.  If you must correct a fellow Christian, you must do it with humility.  God will 'probably' approve of a humble correction, but not of judgement.    'Judgement' is a privilage that God reserved for Himself.  Under no circumstances should a mere human being judge his fellow human being.

-APPROACH TO CHRISTIANITY IS NOT LOVING OR EXHIBITS VERY LITTLE AND/OR CONDITIONAL LOVE:

For example, a person who is of this position - "You must be from my church else I don't recognise your Christinity." Or "you must satisfy these Christian conditions before you and I can talk." - For God's sake, how are you going to increase the righteousness of the world or save souls if you've placed a wall between yourself and those that need to be saved?  You're selfish!

-SPIRIT IS STILL YET TO BE BROKEN BY GOD BECAUSE THEY'RE RESISTING THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT

A Christan Extremist is still under his/her own control, not God's control because they are still self-serving.  In other words, they haven't been broken by the spirit yet.  This is usually the result of resisting the voice and desires of the spirit and paying more attention to one's own voice and desires.

-TRIES TO CONTROL THE WORD OF GOD AS OPPOSED TO LETTING THE WORD OF GOD CONTROL HIM/HER

A Christian extremist lacks humility in approaching the Bible.  Your approach to reading the Bible must be the humble approach i.e. read it as if to seek knowledge NOT to support opinions.  Seeking knowledge is assuming you don't know anything and letting the word of God control you (this is the humble approach), but where you already have an opinion and you're trying to validate them with the Bible, you're not being humble and you're likely to cause problems in doing so.

-IS A STUBBORN INDIVIDUAL WHO HIDES HIS/HER STUBBORNNESS UNDER CHRISTIANITY

It isn't uncommon for people to bring their stubbornness into the church or into Christianity.  Yes, such people are 'religious' (very religious sometimes) but they lack the 'spiritual' edge to their practice of Christianity and as such, are not changing positively on the inside.  Their spiritual growth is stagnated as a result.  Though they call themselves Christians, they're always arguing and having feuds with other children of God, even those in their own church.  Some even go as far as having feuds with their Pastor or Reverend Father.  This is not good for Christianity.

-MOST OF THE TIME, THEY'LL TELL YOU SAINT PAUL IS THEIR ROLE MODEL (lol)

But they have completely misunderstood the circumstances surrounding Saint Paul's missionary journey.  Saint Paul went to more places than Jesus Christ Himself went and touched numerous lives as he carried the gospel.  Saint Paul won countless souls for Christ.  So you must ask yourself, how many souls have you succeeded in bringing to Christ?  As an extremist, chances are you're scaring people away from Christ and Christianity.

These are some other traits that are self explanatory:

-CAUSES MORE DIVISION AS OPPOSED TO UNITY IN THE CHRISTIANDOM

-LOOKS DOWN ON OTHER CHILDREN OF GOD

-ALWAYS BELIEVES HE/SHE HAS SOLUTION TO HIS/HER OWN SPIRITUAL ISSUES WHEREAS IN REALITY, NOBODY HAS MONOPOLY OF DIVINE KNOWLEDGE AND GIFTS...GOD DELIBERATELY SPREAD THEM KNOWING THE WEAKNESS AND AUTOCRATIC NATURE OF MAN

-THINKS HE/SHE IS PLEASING GOD BUT IS PLEASING SELF (SATISFYING/JUSTIFYING PERSONAL IMPERFECTIONS)

CONSEQUENCES OF CHRISTIAN EXTREMISM

-YOU DIVIDE GOD'S KINGDOM

-YOU MISS OUT ON GOD'S BLESSINGS

-YOU SCARE PEOPLE AWAY FROM CHRIST

-IN SHORT, YOU DISPLEASE GOD

CONCLUSION

The Kingdom of God has no use for an extremist.  Extremism can only have a positive impact when applied to fighting 'demons' spiritually as there is no compromise when it comes to fighting/dealing with evil in the spirit (i.e in the supernatural or metaphysical).  So, for the love of God and your fellow human beings, do away with Christian extremism - you're doing neither yourself nor anyone else any good!  

Thank you for reading

George Onoja 

-