The great depression of the thirties was over and World War II was just beginning. My folks owned a movie theater in a small south Arkansas border town. Most of hollywoods productions were B westerns. They were cheap to make and the public was still very much tied to the land. My favorite western hero was Gene Autry but then he joined the military. Then came Roy Rogers and so many more. The most violent scenes you could see in the cinema of the early forties was Indians attacking a wagon train. The Indians were always shown as the bad guys and the cowboys always the good guys. That is when they confronted each other. So we kids took our heroes from the cowboys. Our favorite game was to play cowboys and Indians. It was often hard to choose up sides for no one wanted to be the bad guy (Indian).
History and maturity has shown me how warped the movies were in making the Indian always the bad guy. Kids did not question the movies, and we never wondered about our heroes. All were just as the movies showed them. But we now know that sometimes the Indians were right. Too often the US government initiated abuse, broken treaties, stealing of land, and so many other things just to satisfy the greed of man. It is not a new story, almost throughout history conquering nations stole the birthrights of those conquered. Does not make it right but there it is. By this time you may be asking what all this has to do with Christians and Non-Christians.
Depending upon which side you take, one of these two is good and the other bad. I would like to attempt to represent both sides, in part. Even with the brevity of this article, neither side will completely understand but perhaps see just a bit of light in understanding why one side is the way they are. Before I attempt to shed light on this difficult topic, let me define the two terms. In this way, we at least will have some common ground.
A Christian is a person who by personal action has accepted the Holy Bible as true. I want you to understand that the operative word in that sentence is personal action. Just claiming to be a Christian does not make it so, nor the child baptism, or any other man made rites or traditions. It first begins with a personal action. Now to complete the definition of a Christian. The name itself partly defines it: Christian, to be Christ like. That implies acceptance of Jesus of the bible who claimed to be the promised Christ: Messiah. That is acceptance, not just acknowledgment. You see, the bible tells us that even Satan, or the Devil acknowledges Jesus. Jesus told a ruler of the Israelite that a person must be born again, so we are born one time in our physical body through child birth. We now are a member of our surname family, all physical. No one can change that, genetically you will always be of that flesh group.
Now being born again the second time as Jesus meant it is to have a birth in the spiritual context thus being born into the family of God. God is a spirit, so we know that this rebirth is a spiritual one since we become by its performance a member of God's family. Church going is not the path, reading the holy scriptures is not the path, being a good person is not the path nor anything man can contrive. Jesus told us through the written scriptures that there was but one way: thru HIM. That is why it is so important for the acceptance rather than acknowledgment. All this has to do with faith, which I will cover soon.
Non-Christians are any person who does not accept the above path identified as the path a Christian must take. It is not a matter of birth, culture, location, or family, if you do not believe the Christian path, then you are a non-Christian. That means that at this point of your life you have not accepted Jesus as your savior, so you do not see any reason to emulate him. It does not say you are a bad person, as we claimed all Indians were when I was a child. But I will tell you this, that the bible tells us that our very best actions, our best intent, our best charity toward others are all like filthy rags (like used toilet paper) in the sight of God. I will also tell you that when Jesus died upon the cross, He did so for all mankind during any period of time. His act showed that God the creator loved all men, which includes women and children. What He hates is our sins.
