The Church and disputes with the World

<p>THE CHURCH AND DISPUTES WITH THE WORLD It is understandable that the world will have reason to dispute with Christianity in general and with the Church in particular because the belief system of the Church is based upon a spiritual reality that is not understood by the material and non-spiritual rationality of the world. If you talk to a person of the world, you will not expect them to believe that God in Christ created the universe, and that Jesus was raised from the dead and is now Lord over the Universe and Lord over our lives. </p> <p>Christians understand the material and non-spiritual rationality of the world, but they also understand a transcendent reality that comes from the revelation of God to our spirit so the Church does not have to be engaged in disputes with the world because Christians can engage in good will discussion within both kinds of realty. They can have healthy debates with all people and agree to disagree with each other on all kinds of day-to-day issues that depend solely upon observation rather than revelation from God. </p> <p>A Christian can live effectively in the world of material rationalism and be successful and productive and operate with a motivation of God’s love to bless everybody in that world that God loves creating no basis for antagonism. A Christian can let that love be on display knowing that it is only the Grace of God that changes the basis of reality for an individual from the natural realm into the spiritual.</p> <p>1Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges (to discern, examine, determine if right