Here’s a good passage to remember:
1 John 1.5-10 NLT - 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
People don’t bother to
But it’s more than that: We shouldn’t fixate on sin either.
We shouldn’t obsess about what sinners are up to. We shouldn’t analyze the devil’s works in order to understand it better,
Yet there are loads of Christians who firmly believe a significant part of our duties—if not our only duty—is to study sin, fight it, and condemn it.
In preparation these folks spend an awful lot of time on the dark side of Christianity. They wanna instruct the church in Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, and be ever vigilant to battle He Who Shall Not Be Named. (Forgive all the Harry Potter references, but there are an awful lot of parallels. It’s almost like J.K. Rowling grew up Christian or something.) Namely these areas:
- The fall of the angels, the fall of humanity, original sin, total depravity.
- Sin, mortal sin, unforgiveable sin, spiritual death, spiritual suicide, apostasy, heresy, works of the flesh, temptation.
- Satan and its fellow tempters: Unclean spirits, devils, demons, idols, antichrists.
- Spiritual warfare, exorcisms, intercessory prayer, hedges, umbrellas of protection.
- The End Times: Signs of the times, fulfillment of end-times prophecy, rapture readiness, tribulation, the Beast.
- Theodicy, judgments, punishments, double predestination, hades, purgatory, hell, second death.
True, all Christian theologians deal with this stuff, ’cause they’re part of Christianity. but they’re the stuff Jesus defeated and frees us from. We’re not to worry about this; we’re to focus on loving our neighbors, and having an abundant life
But
To dark Christians, our primary duty isn’t
Hence people don’t see them as bringers of light, peace, hope, love, and good news. Just darkness. Dark Christians make