Wise and brilliant words again on the state of Christianity today Daniel. I appreciate you so much.
At this point I’ll quote Jesus’s words proudly and boldly…..
Matthew 23:27-28 English Standard Version 2016 (ESV)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
I live near a large High Anglican Church in Victoria BC. Last Christmas we went to Mass. The female priest who combed her hair exactly as lesbians in Victoria seem to gave us the story of Jesus’ birth. I learned a lot. He was born in Occupied Territories! He and his refugee family were forced to leave their home and travel through Gaza to Egypt, due to the settlers invading their homelands! I did not know any of this. Her Assistant, same hairstyle, gave us a lecture on materialism and said ‘where you find money, you can’t find God’. Right at that moment I had been staring at the construction of Christ Church Cathedral. I am a real estate developer. I build things. I had been thinking ‘Man! I don’t even know if I could build this today. If I could…what…$5000-$10000 a square foot?’ So, no God there? Is that what she is saying? As we left I read a pamphlet on the organ there. Apparently, it is world famous. It was built in 2005 at a cost of $3M. For a large pipe organ. Cost to build today? $10M? And the alternative is a $10,000 audio system. Which would have zero grandeur but play the hymns just as well. All in all I enjoyed the choir. But was there any spirituality in that place? Not as far as I could tell. Politics squeezed it out.
That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. Nothing but corruption and some sermons instead of Christian ones. The Jesus Was a Refugee one is a favourite for these corrupters. All the circumstantial elements (travel, having nowhere to stay, being turned away from lodging) allow a fake comparison, so long as you ignore the actual context and the actual lesson and merely substitute your attitudes on things today that are not the same.
Two years before the covid hoax, I had "come back to the church" as a refuge from wokism (found a home in a Baptist church as opposed to the liberal one I'd grown up in). Then the yellow tape went up, mandates enforced, and I was outta there. Now, six months ago I gave another Protestant church a chance, which was quickly blown by the pastor who ranted at us about "white supremacy" and "LGBTEtc intolerance." I pointedly left halfway through his sermon, emailed my complaints and was figuratively shown the door. Have entertained becoming a Catholic, but it's just not in my blood. I'm done for good with religion, even though I mourn its loss.
I have a very strong faith. It sustains me. I would love to go to a church and once in awhile I try. I always think ‘does these people actually believe anything?’
Totally understandable reaction, but putting your trust/faith in human beings always brings disappointment. Put your faith in Jesus and you will never be disappointed. I wish you well.
Thanks, Debbie. I can and do put my faith in God, but not a "Jesus" I can't actually account for. Despite my baby boomer Christian upbringing, he exists for me only as myth. God and Holy Spirit are real to me.
You seem like a very sincere person. If you believe in God, why not believe in His word, the Bible, when it says “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. ? Jesus is not a myth.
One day, we will all meet God. Those who do not believe in Jesus will have to rely on their own righteousness and good works to get into heaven. Those of us who believe in Jesus will be able to rely on Jesus’s righteousness. Since we all fall short, we need Jesus to cover our shortcomings. Nothing else will work. Please take time to study the Bible and pray for God to show you the truth. Nothing is more important than your eternal destination.
The only way to know for sure where you will end up is to have a relationship with Jesus.
Debbie, how then will you explain the testimonies of thousands of men and women, from all stripes and beliefs, whose lives have been forever changed by the love, grace, forgiveness and beauty they experienced when they died for several or more minutes?
Not sure I follow you. Do you mean the near death experiences where people say they have spent a short time in Heaven?
The Bible is clear that many will have visions and dreams that will lead them to belief in Jesus. A missionary I know has seen this happen many times. Jesus evidently chooses to reveal himself in many different ways. This is not inconsistent with scripture.
Another possibility is that Satan loves to masquerade as an angel of light. It’s much easier to lead people astray with loveliness and beauty than with fire and damnation. Perhaps some are deceived?
I certainly do not profess to know all the answers, but I know that my relationship with God through Jesus is real and that the Holy Spirit dwells within me because of it.
You may not be “on the right side of history,” Daniel, but you are certainly on the side of Beauty, TRUTH, and Goodness. God bless you (even if you ARE an atheist, which somehow I suspect you’re not).
I agree. A few weeks back I was walking down my lane with my dog and a man approached me - a Jehovah's witness wanted to talk to me about Christianity. I said before you start can I say that someone like Jordan Peterson has done more to wake people up to the teachings of the bible than the church seem to be doing and furthermore the church have kowtowed before the god of woke instead of upholding Christian values on which this country is founded. Are you surprised he asked. Yes I said and he said well you shouldn't be they have done that throughout history.
A younger woman i know had Christmas dinner with us a few years back. She was raised JW but had left the church after enduring a 15 year long abusive, (Still has a scar on her face from it), marriage. She has been ‘dis-fellowed’. Her family wouldn’t eat Christmas dinner with her. At that time I don’t think her father had spoken to her in years. She is a strong Christian, just not a JW. These people do more to hurt Christianity than Sam Harris ever has.
Well, that’s an abusive family that happens to be alleged Christians. If they were living according to traditional Christian morality they wouldn’t be behaving like that. I also think you’ll find more families like that in Islam. Sam Harris is just a different kind of morally dead creep.
It is the JW belief. If you are an apostate, that is someone who was baptized and then walked away you are disfellowed. Cut out from the community. Her little sister, also now not a JW has not been disfellowed because at 13 or so she was not baptized. Still part of the family. But my friend, now 48, saw her family for the first time in about fifteen years this year. Organized Christianity has hurt Christianity. I am a christian. It sustains me. But I nearly completely believe the Church was set up to stifle Jesus’ teachings. Which are unique and radical.
What an excellent article. I agree wholeheartedly with you and I'm not even a believer in any religion. However, we live in a world created by strong Christians and I admire the faith that makes someone build a cathedral or fight for their beliefs. I also think we people of the West are the result of the teachings and morality of the people of the past and we are fools to allow it to be thrown away because it seems old fashioned and not very exciting. Islam will fill the God-shaped hole eventually, after all the Wokeness has been destroyed and those of us left will be sorry then.
Thanks very much. It sounds like we have very similar positions. I’m an atheist but realise that the moral and societal collapse of the West came from the rejection of Christianity. I’d like to believe, I’m just personally not capable of it, but see its social value.
The wolves in sheep's clothing that the Bible warns about. Here as in politics, God has used Donald Trump to cause more of them to expose themselves. You know, among my spiritual gifts is a refined BS monitor. I saw right through today's fake explanation of the desecration of The Ladt Supper as a Greek banquet and some such crap. I saw Christians I know falling for it, like they were embarrassed to be seen as offended. Well be offended, be royally pissed, and say so. Stand for something.
Many flavors of Baptists out there. The Baptist News Global from which you quoted those rantings and ravings is a publication of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which split in 1990 from the still-conservative Southern Baptist Association. Woke activists have tried to make inroads into SBA, but mostly they have not found much traction there. Hope that continues, since I have found a safe, sound, and growing church home in a SBA church.
This resource might help shed some light on the subject:
“The Death of Christian Britain examines how the nation’s dominant religious culture has been destroyed. Callum Brown challenges the generally held view that secularization was a long and gradual process dating from the industrial revolution. Instead, he argues that it has been a catastrophic and abrupt cultural revolution starting in the 1960s. Using the latest techniques of gender analysis, and by listening to people's voices rather than purely counting heads, the book offers new formulations of religion and secularization.”
"Belief systems" like Islam, Christianity, Marxism, Ecology, promise an imaginary future in which all problems have been solved if only they are in control - a cover for a grab of power and resources now. A plague on all their house. I'll figure out what works best for me.
I think there is a difference between a belief system that offers consolation in the face of death, and one that delivers death today with the excuse that they are building a better tomorrow. Christianity has had its barbarian advocates and its atrocities, but has been much more than that. It’s chief religious competitor, and its secular rivals, have not.
Genuine Christian belief is not about a religion but rather a relationship. A relationship with Jesus as Savior & Lord. Many want a Savior but not a Lord (Who is the Way, the Truth, & the Life)
Belief that permeates one’s life. One’s mindset changes; everything through the lens of Jesus & the Gospel. A life lived for Him. His will not mine.
Yep, I slip up. But the Holy Spirit immediately convicts me of my wrong so I can bring it to Jesus in confession & correction.
TMI.
Really appreciate this Substack! Keep up the good messages.
Just excellent
Thanks John 😀
Wise and brilliant words again on the state of Christianity today Daniel. I appreciate you so much.
At this point I’ll quote Jesus’s words proudly and boldly…..
Matthew 23:27-28 English Standard Version 2016 (ESV)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.
Thanks Syl, and very apt choice of quote. 😀
I live near a large High Anglican Church in Victoria BC. Last Christmas we went to Mass. The female priest who combed her hair exactly as lesbians in Victoria seem to gave us the story of Jesus’ birth. I learned a lot. He was born in Occupied Territories! He and his refugee family were forced to leave their home and travel through Gaza to Egypt, due to the settlers invading their homelands! I did not know any of this. Her Assistant, same hairstyle, gave us a lecture on materialism and said ‘where you find money, you can’t find God’. Right at that moment I had been staring at the construction of Christ Church Cathedral. I am a real estate developer. I build things. I had been thinking ‘Man! I don’t even know if I could build this today. If I could…what…$5000-$10000 a square foot?’ So, no God there? Is that what she is saying? As we left I read a pamphlet on the organ there. Apparently, it is world famous. It was built in 2005 at a cost of $3M. For a large pipe organ. Cost to build today? $10M? And the alternative is a $10,000 audio system. Which would have zero grandeur but play the hymns just as well. All in all I enjoyed the choir. But was there any spirituality in that place? Not as far as I could tell. Politics squeezed it out.
That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. Nothing but corruption and some sermons instead of Christian ones. The Jesus Was a Refugee one is a favourite for these corrupters. All the circumstantial elements (travel, having nowhere to stay, being turned away from lodging) allow a fake comparison, so long as you ignore the actual context and the actual lesson and merely substitute your attitudes on things today that are not the same.
Two years before the covid hoax, I had "come back to the church" as a refuge from wokism (found a home in a Baptist church as opposed to the liberal one I'd grown up in). Then the yellow tape went up, mandates enforced, and I was outta there. Now, six months ago I gave another Protestant church a chance, which was quickly blown by the pastor who ranted at us about "white supremacy" and "LGBTEtc intolerance." I pointedly left halfway through his sermon, emailed my complaints and was figuratively shown the door. Have entertained becoming a Catholic, but it's just not in my blood. I'm done for good with religion, even though I mourn its loss.
That’s very sad. It’s exactly the kind of betrayal I mean though. So much for inclusion eh? You get excluded if you have any real morals.
So true.
Heartbreaking… please keep trying. In the meantime stay in God’s Word.
Perhaps move to the South tho we have plenty of woke pastors or pastors who aren’t woke but stay silent up against evil.
Thanks, Susan. I take inspiration from many sources, online and otherwise. I found these gorgeous sounds, just this evening: https://youtu.be/QmDENB0kpkQ?si=aCH4FjOWQPhWoR0R
I have a very strong faith. It sustains me. I would love to go to a church and once in awhile I try. I always think ‘does these people actually believe anything?’
Totally understandable reaction, but putting your trust/faith in human beings always brings disappointment. Put your faith in Jesus and you will never be disappointed. I wish you well.
Thanks, Debbie. I can and do put my faith in God, but not a "Jesus" I can't actually account for. Despite my baby boomer Christian upbringing, he exists for me only as myth. God and Holy Spirit are real to me.
You seem like a very sincere person. If you believe in God, why not believe in His word, the Bible, when it says “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. ? Jesus is not a myth.
One day, we will all meet God. Those who do not believe in Jesus will have to rely on their own righteousness and good works to get into heaven. Those of us who believe in Jesus will be able to rely on Jesus’s righteousness. Since we all fall short, we need Jesus to cover our shortcomings. Nothing else will work. Please take time to study the Bible and pray for God to show you the truth. Nothing is more important than your eternal destination.
The only way to know for sure where you will end up is to have a relationship with Jesus.
All the best.
Debbie, how then will you explain the testimonies of thousands of men and women, from all stripes and beliefs, whose lives have been forever changed by the love, grace, forgiveness and beauty they experienced when they died for several or more minutes?
Not sure I follow you. Do you mean the near death experiences where people say they have spent a short time in Heaven?
The Bible is clear that many will have visions and dreams that will lead them to belief in Jesus. A missionary I know has seen this happen many times. Jesus evidently chooses to reveal himself in many different ways. This is not inconsistent with scripture.
Another possibility is that Satan loves to masquerade as an angel of light. It’s much easier to lead people astray with loveliness and beauty than with fire and damnation. Perhaps some are deceived?
I certainly do not profess to know all the answers, but I know that my relationship with God through Jesus is real and that the Holy Spirit dwells within me because of it.
Truth 😔
Thank you.
You may not be “on the right side of history,” Daniel, but you are certainly on the side of Beauty, TRUTH, and Goodness. God bless you (even if you ARE an atheist, which somehow I suspect you’re not).
Thanks very much. I take all of that as a very nice compliment. 😀😀
I agree. A few weeks back I was walking down my lane with my dog and a man approached me - a Jehovah's witness wanted to talk to me about Christianity. I said before you start can I say that someone like Jordan Peterson has done more to wake people up to the teachings of the bible than the church seem to be doing and furthermore the church have kowtowed before the god of woke instead of upholding Christian values on which this country is founded. Are you surprised he asked. Yes I said and he said well you shouldn't be they have done that throughout history.
If Christianity survives and thrives it will be based on people like you and him having such conversations, and not by the deeds of the Church.
Thank you Daniel.
A younger woman i know had Christmas dinner with us a few years back. She was raised JW but had left the church after enduring a 15 year long abusive, (Still has a scar on her face from it), marriage. She has been ‘dis-fellowed’. Her family wouldn’t eat Christmas dinner with her. At that time I don’t think her father had spoken to her in years. She is a strong Christian, just not a JW. These people do more to hurt Christianity than Sam Harris ever has.
Well, that’s an abusive family that happens to be alleged Christians. If they were living according to traditional Christian morality they wouldn’t be behaving like that. I also think you’ll find more families like that in Islam. Sam Harris is just a different kind of morally dead creep.
It is the JW belief. If you are an apostate, that is someone who was baptized and then walked away you are disfellowed. Cut out from the community. Her little sister, also now not a JW has not been disfellowed because at 13 or so she was not baptized. Still part of the family. But my friend, now 48, saw her family for the first time in about fifteen years this year. Organized Christianity has hurt Christianity. I am a christian. It sustains me. But I nearly completely believe the Church was set up to stifle Jesus’ teachings. Which are unique and radical.
Yes, though…far more Islamic families living that way. And I do agree this sort of rule is not really Christian.
What an excellent article. I agree wholeheartedly with you and I'm not even a believer in any religion. However, we live in a world created by strong Christians and I admire the faith that makes someone build a cathedral or fight for their beliefs. I also think we people of the West are the result of the teachings and morality of the people of the past and we are fools to allow it to be thrown away because it seems old fashioned and not very exciting. Islam will fill the God-shaped hole eventually, after all the Wokeness has been destroyed and those of us left will be sorry then.
Thanks very much. It sounds like we have very similar positions. I’m an atheist but realise that the moral and societal collapse of the West came from the rejection of Christianity. I’d like to believe, I’m just personally not capable of it, but see its social value.
I’m glad I’m not in their shoes……
The wolves in sheep's clothing that the Bible warns about. Here as in politics, God has used Donald Trump to cause more of them to expose themselves. You know, among my spiritual gifts is a refined BS monitor. I saw right through today's fake explanation of the desecration of The Ladt Supper as a Greek banquet and some such crap. I saw Christians I know falling for it, like they were embarrassed to be seen as offended. Well be offended, be royally pissed, and say so. Stand for something.
Many flavors of Baptists out there. The Baptist News Global from which you quoted those rantings and ravings is a publication of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which split in 1990 from the still-conservative Southern Baptist Association. Woke activists have tried to make inroads into SBA, but mostly they have not found much traction there. Hope that continues, since I have found a safe, sound, and growing church home in a SBA church.
This resource might help shed some light on the subject:
“The Death of Christian Britain examines how the nation’s dominant religious culture has been destroyed. Callum Brown challenges the generally held view that secularization was a long and gradual process dating from the industrial revolution. Instead, he argues that it has been a catastrophic and abrupt cultural revolution starting in the 1960s. Using the latest techniques of gender analysis, and by listening to people's voices rather than purely counting heads, the book offers new formulations of religion and secularization.”
https://www.routledge.com/The-Death-of-Christian-Britain-Understanding-Secularisation-1800-2000/Brown/p/book/9780415471343
"Belief systems" like Islam, Christianity, Marxism, Ecology, promise an imaginary future in which all problems have been solved if only they are in control - a cover for a grab of power and resources now. A plague on all their house. I'll figure out what works best for me.
I think there is a difference between a belief system that offers consolation in the face of death, and one that delivers death today with the excuse that they are building a better tomorrow. Christianity has had its barbarian advocates and its atrocities, but has been much more than that. It’s chief religious competitor, and its secular rivals, have not.
Genuine Christian belief is not about a religion but rather a relationship. A relationship with Jesus as Savior & Lord. Many want a Savior but not a Lord (Who is the Way, the Truth, & the Life)
Belief that permeates one’s life. One’s mindset changes; everything through the lens of Jesus & the Gospel. A life lived for Him. His will not mine.
Yep, I slip up. But the Holy Spirit immediately convicts me of my wrong so I can bring it to Jesus in confession & correction.
TMI.
Really appreciate this Substack! Keep up the good messages.
Thanks for your comments and glad you like the Substack. 😀
You missed what keeps people in. It isn’t the promise of a heavenly future, 75 virgins, or fluffy clouds with angels.