The Cult of Christianity
Christianity was founded roughly 2,000 years ago on the shores of a big lake in the Near East that still exists today – the Sea of Galilee. It has its roots in a small town that still exists today in present-day Israel – Bethlehem. Its foundation was made permanent a city of much strife for thousands of years both before and after – Jerusalem.
It started out as a small sect of Judaism that most in its day found humorous at best, blasphemous at worst. A small group of fishermen, tax collectors, whores, and other assorted scum of the earth claimed to have met the Messiah, and that he taught that to live, you must die. He claimed he was God, a claim that makes him (paraphrasing CS Lewis here) either a liar, a lunatic, or LORD.
The Messiah had already drawn large crowds during during his life, but that was nothing new for the era. “Messiah”s of various forms had been rising up for hundreds of years before this one, gaining large crowds during their lives, only to die (usually by execution) and have their names be forgotten in the annals of history.
No, two things made this Messiah different: 1) After his extremely brutal -so brutal that he was no longer recognizable as human- and extremely public -so public that people from thousands of miles away saw it first hand- execution, he was seen by thousands living and breathing, with barely a scar on his body. 2) Because of this resurrection, this Messiah continued to draw large crowds after his death.
But 2,000 years later, his followers have devolved to where many of them – perhaps even most of them – have lost sight of the true Jesus Christ of Nazareth and what he did.
Christianity has become a cult.
You see, Christianity today worships itself over the reason it exists – Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Today, Christianity represents a multi-BILLION dollar per year sub culture. You’ve got “Christian” dang near anything you can imagine, from soap to candy to billboards to dating agencies, and that’s not even counting the wildly popular Christian media, including Albany’s own Sherwood Productions. Many Christians today get so lost in this subculture, they make themselves unable and unwilling to reach outside of it – in violation of what they call their “Great Commission”:
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Bringing this into the political sphere (finally, more than 400 words into this post!), can someone please point out to me where Christ says in the above passage that Christians should use government to spread their message or force people to do what they think should be done?
You want to talk about an “individual mandate”?
The Great Commission is one that many Christians – on both sides of the political aisle – forget about completely.
Christ never said to use government to force people to not buy alcohol on Sundays. He never said government should dictate who can marry each other. He never said that government should provide for the poor, the sick, and the needy.
No, on those last three in particular, He said that WE (the individuals) should help them. WE should reach out to them and show them Christ in us. Not government stealing our money to do our job, but us doing our job out of the kindness of our hearts, in service to Him.
Christ did not come to establish a new set of laws – He came to fulfill the ones He was born into, thereby abolishing them once and for all.
No more laws about how far you could walk on the Sabbath. No more laws about what you could and could not eat. No more laws about who you could marry. No more laws about what was “clean” and “unclean”. (Modern equivalents: No more laws about mowing your lawn on Sunday. No more laws restricting alcohol sales on Sunday. No more state-sanctioned marriage – of ANYONE. No more safety laws, of ANY form.)
Christ came to “set the captive free”.
The Cult of Christianity wants to twist that, pervert it into something it is not.
The “evangelical Christians” (typically Republicans) want to pervert Christ’s message into the very same religious dogma that the Pharisees of Christ’s day represented. The very same law that bound the people of Christ’s day and reminded them daily of how depraved they were, with no hope of genuine redemption – ever. The “social justice Christians” (typically Democrats) want to pervert Christ’s message into a mandate that government must make everyone absolutely equal, so that there are no sick, needy, or poor among us.
God’s greatest gift to humanity, the one that necessitated Christ coming, was Free Will. The Cult of Christianity doesn’t like Free Will though, because people can do things it doesn’t like – including marrying “other” people or being “greedy”.
God wants Free Individuals. The Cult of Christianity wants a Nanny State.
Free Will is messy. It really is. But it is how God created us, in His Image. Only two beings in existence have this ability – the Creator, and His Image Bearers.
It is a complete travesty that the very people who should be proclaiming this the loudest have instead devolved into a cult.
The Cult of Christianity.
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April 4th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Amen Jeff!
I agree with almost everything you said on there except for the marriage issue, where I believe the government should get out of it altogether rather than legalizing it for homosexuals.
Jesus founded the Christian movement to be a grassroots movement, not the establishment. Religion and government are NEVER a good thing. The government becomes corrupt when it mandates religion. Just look at King Henry VIII; he seized control of the church of England so he could divorce his wives.
All in all, I am a supporter of the original form of church: house church. I wrote a research paper about it in 9th grade and it is the most effective form of outreach and limits interference with government. It can help people who are in need and promote morals and values in the lives of people across the country (something that Christians are trying to get the government to do for them).
People have grown so accustomed to being allowed to practice religion freely. What will people do once America collapses (and it will, because that’s just way that politics happen, no political state lasts forever in the same form) and religion is banned? All of the customs of this “cult” will no longer be applicable and Christians across America will be in disarray. In the house church (simple church, micro church, cell church, etc.) structure, people will be able to continue meeting and evangelizing regardless of the form of government.
But back to the topic at hand, I totally agree with you Jeff. Christianity began as a true, personal relationship with Christ and has dissolved into a plethora of traditions and “cult practices.” The Christians across America have fallen into the lie that is, “the government will provide for you and do the duties of the church.” The government is not the church, should not be the church, and as long I’m still around and fighting, WILL NOT be the church. The duties of the church should be fulfilled by the church, not the government.
April 4th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Kyle:
Re: homosexual marriage: We actually agree on that one. I simply allow legalizing it for ALL as a compromise I’m willing to accept on the road to getting the State out of it completely.
April 5th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Jeff,
This is an excellent article. I wish I could have said it as well myself.
April 5th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Jeff sez: “Christianity has become a cult.
You see, Christianity today worships itself over the reason it exists – Jesus Christ of Nazareth.”
All Christians? You paint with a broad brush, my friend.
April 5th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Like I said in the post – the argument can certainly be made for “many” Christians, and I would go so far as to say that I think it could be made for “most” who claim Christianity as their religion.
Indeed, of the four pastors at the Lee County Sunrise Service yesterday morning, I would almost certainly think it applies to at LEAST one of them (not the one who presented the message).
April 5th, 2010 at 11:29 am
I thought it was a nice touch at the service, when they cued the singing birds.
April 15th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
[...] completely concur with Judge Crabb, particularly in that last sentence. Whether the Cult of Christianity wants to recognize it or not, we DO have people in this nation that do not believe in any form of [...]