Candy Christianity

When was the last time you sat through a Sunday service in a church building? It’s been a couple of months for me. I used to do it twice every Sunday. I went for the early service and stayed through the regular service. I remember during one of the early service’s the preacher made the statement that he believed there were more ‘real Christians’ in that service than during the regular service. I have no idea why he made that statement, what made him think that. He didn’t elaborate and during the many service’s I attended I never saw any difference in those in the early service than those that came to the regular service…with the exception that there were less people in the early service, they didn’t seem to mind getting up early, and they were quieter. But for some reason the preacher thought the early service had more ‘real Christians’ than the regualar service did. If that was true I never saw any indication of it.

I don’t know what that preacher meant when he referred to ‘real Christians’. Since he didn’t seem to be reformed I doubt that was what he thought a ‘real Christian’ was. But to him, whatever a ‘real Christian’ was, there were more of them in the early service than there were in the regular service.

During the time I was going to that ‘church’ so much I met my husband, not at the ‘church’ but elsewhere. As he and I talked, getting to know each other, he used to tell me I should get up on the stage before a service and ask if there were any monergists there. It was something of a joke between us for a while. As much as I would have liked to know if there were any other people in those services that believed the way I did I knew there was no way I could ever get on stage and ask that. I couldn’t even ask it to individuals as we talked together. For one thing I didn’t fully understand my own belief back then, for another I understood that claiming to be a monergist or a Calvinist was a good way to get yourself thrown out of a ‘church’.

Even then I wondered why admitting to believing that way could get you thrown out of a ‘church.’ What was it about the kind of belief that I had, that my husband has, that could have gotten us kicked out of many ‘church’ buildings? I understand better now. We are a threat to the professing ‘Christian’. Just the way I have been a threat to the ‘Christians’ in my family in the past, just the way Christ was a threat to the unbelievers in His time. We, quite simply, speak against the lies that the professing ‘Christian’ bases their entire faith on and that is a threat to their security in eternity. Therefore the ‘church’ that may accept and atheist, that may accept a devil worshiper, won’t accept a true child of Christ.

Rather than listening to a monergist, the professing ‘Christian’ would prefer to throw them out of their ‘church’. It would seem that if what they believe is right then it wouldn’t be any harder to hear what the monergist has to say and to refute what they believe with the beliefs of the professing ‘Christian.’ It would seem that way but it doesn’t appear to be that way. It’s much easier to get angry, defensive and kick them out of their midst.

Why?

Is it because most of what is considered the ‘church’ today doesn’t understand what they believe well enough to give a convincing argument for why they believe it? Is it because they don’t know enough of the Bible to be able to use it to defend their faith? Is it because they cling to their easy believism and don’t want anyone trying to shake it?

There’s a man with a program where he goes around challenging people from crowds on the street to explain their beliefs…then he tells them why they’re wrong. My husband introduced me to that show and I must admit that of the different Christian programs we have watched I believe he is my favorite. There’s just something about seeing these people, no matter what they believe, stumble through a defense of those beliefs. How can a person place their entire existance in a belief they can’t defend? How can they believe in something they can’t fully explain? Now, some of these people can and do defend their beliefs very well but most of them don’t. Most of them stumble through their defense and more or less go around in circles with what they’re saying. They believe what they believe and that makes it right for them and so long as it’s right for them than it’s right.

To me that sounds like nothing more than confusion.

The other day my husband and I were listening to a different Christain program and the man speaking said something to the effect of when you take God out of right and wrong you no longer have right and wrong. Up is no longer up, down is no longer down, left is no longer left, right is no longer right.

And wrong is not wrong.

Without God there is no line by which to determine what is right and what is wrong, there’s no line by which to measure all of life.

God can, at least to some extent, be found in most ‘church’ buildings. God is the basis of the sermons, He is the reason the congregation gets together. On the surface. But the question must be asked ‘which God do they gather for?’ Is it the God of the Bible? Or is it the God they have made using bits and pieces of the Bible? Is it the God they find acceptable because they have created Him in their minds using the parts of the Bible that don’t offend them?

I have been in many ‘church’ buildings. Some only once, some weekly for years. And through all of those experiences I formed an idea of who and what God was based on the general belief of the ‘church.’ My family held the same beliefs as I was growing up and so I was raised being ‘fed’ a steady diet of a God that doesn’t exist. As a child that ‘God’ was more like something we did, we played at belonging to Him when it suited us, but He was never the God of our lives. When I was grown He kept the same place for a while and then steadily gained more and more ground in my life until He was the God of my life, He was the measuring stick I used to determine everything else in life. Only by then…He was the God of the Bible and not the one I had been raised on.

Sadly most ‘church’ going ‘Christians’ don’t have the same God. They don’t measure life by the same God. Many of those ‘Christians’ can’t even defend the faith they believe in.

Recently, I was something one of the main women that attends the ‘church’ I sometimes go to wrote. And I found it disturbing. Now this ‘church’ claims no denomination. They simply believe from the Bible. At least on the surface.

When I first discovered that ‘church’ I found that to be a good thing. And to some degree I still do. But I’ve also discovered that no denomination often means a melting pot of denominations. I didn’t know when I started going to that ‘church’ that being nondenominational meant the beliefs of all those other denominations come into the ‘church’, that they are allowed and encouraged. I didn’t know it just meant that they don’t stick to a certain denominational belief. More or less it meant…they adopt them all.

The writing of the woman that I recently saw was 100% prosperity gospel. I found that disturbing because this woman holds a place of importance in this ‘church’. But I know of others in the same ‘church’ that lean the same way. Even the preacher sometimes seems to lean that way.

Not all that long ago I read online where ‘most’ ‘Christians’ believe to one degree or another in the name it and claim it ‘gospel’.

Is it surprising then that they despise the true gospel? Is it surprising that they can’t stand to be in the presence of those that represent it?

"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.… John 15:18-19

No…it isn’t surprising. What’s surprising is how many can’t defend even the basics of what they believe in. I’ve long admired the Amish people. I think anyone that believes so strongly in something that they can stand against the world deserve our respect for what they’re doing. I know much of what they believe isn’t in keeping with what Scripture teaches. I know that a good part of their religion is works righteousness. But they believe strongly enough in it to stand for it.

Against all opposition.

That, to me, is way more than most ‘Christians’ do. I’ve known many ‘Christians’ that are like chameleons. They change their actions, words, and behavior based on the company they’re with. When they’re at ‘church’ or among ‘church’ friends they wear their ‘church’ face. When they are at work they talk and act as those at work talk and act, when they’re with friends they talk and act as their friends do. They don’t stand for Christ no matter the company they keep.

What kind of ‘Christian’ does that make them?

So many of the ‘Christians’ in our society blow where the wind blows them. Even if they hold fast to what they believe in they don’t stand strongly for it. And many of them are easily swayed by the teaching of this preacher or that preacher. They are influenced by this book or that one. They accept and adopt this new teaching or that one. Not because they change what they believe in but because they have no measuring stick by which to determine if this teaching is Biblical or not. Because the ‘God’ they believe in is made up of what they want Him to be then any teaching can easily fall into the teaching of their ‘God’.

Why is it so hard for them to take Scripture as Scripture? To accept what it says…the way it says it, without adding to it or taking away from it.

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this Book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this Book" Revelation 22:18-19.

When a person believes in ‘God’ based off what they want the Bible to say about Him, when they make ‘God’ out to be what they want Him to be…are they not changing the Bible to suit themselves? When a person says God is love, when they believe He holds no wrath or anger…have they not taken away much of what the Bible teaches in order to believe in the ‘God’ they have built up in their minds? When they say ‘God’ just wants to bless us…have they not changed God into a god of nothing but benevolence?

Whether or not they’re changing Scripture as it’s written…they’re changing it in their minds, in the words they use as they speak to others and as they teach them. They may hold the exact same Bible in their hands as I hold in mine but their Bible doesn’t say the same thing mine does because they pick and choose what they want to believe from its pages.

They ignore the black and white of the text to read a hazy gray that only they, and others like them, can see. And if you can’t see that hazy gray writing they will gladly enlighten you with their beliefs until you can see it.

If you try and show them the black and white in your Bible, or in the identical one they hold, they can’t or won’t see it. So much of the modern ‘church’ despises the Truth. They hate true doctrine. They abhor Scripture as it is written. Assuming they get so far as to see it which most of them don’t because they are blinded to the Truth. And because they are blinded, because they believe in their false ‘God’ they hate any teaching that might tell them they’re wrong.

They cling to their easy believeism. They hold fast to the faith they have in the ‘God’ that believes the way they do, the God that wants them to have everything they want, the God that stands for everything they stand for.

I saw an article online not all that long ago about a preacher that said abortion was Biblical. This was a preacher that used the Bible. Apparently it was the same Bible most Christians and professing ‘Christians’ use. But somewhere in his Bible it condoned abortion.

Not in my Bible!

My Bible says murder is wrong. It’s evil. Yet, this preacher found within the pages of his Bible that abortion is okay. Did his ‘God’ also say it was okay? He must have.

What kind of Christianity is that?

It’s not the Christianity of the Bible and yet this preacher not only believes that abortion is okay but he’s teaching it to others, not just in his ‘church’ but through mass media. His poisonous brand of ‘Christianity’ is being spread far and wide. How many so-called ‘Christians’ have latched onto his belief that abortion is okay because it fits what they want to believe in? How many of them compared what that man said against their Bibles, against the black and white version of what the Bible is, and realized that that man is nothing short of a false teacher?

‘Christians’ often grab onto any teaching that fits what they believe because it lets them continue to believe that way, it doesn’t challenge their belief, it doesn’t make them question if they may be wrong. So many ‘Christians’ want a watered down, easily changed, happy go lucky brand of ‘Christianity’ so that they don’t have to give up the things they love.

They go to ‘church’ on Sunday so that they can be encouraged to continue believing those things. They don’t want to hear a sermon on sin. They don’t want to be told that they quite possibly are going to hell even though they think they’re saved. They don’t want to be told that the movie they’re planning to watch that afternoon is sinful. They just want to be given a sermon that supports what they already believe, that might push them to ‘grow’ in that belief just a tiny bit. They don’t want a day long sermon that breaks for lunch then comes back. They want music that plays on their emotions, that lifts their spirits, that puts them in a good mood so that they can handle the twenty to thirty minute sermon that follows. And a good number of them are ready to leave for lunch long before that’s over.

They want an instant meal of ‘Biblical’ teaching that they can throw in the microwave and eat while sitting before their favorite program. They want to be encouraged to believe what they believe but they need it cut into bite sized pieces for them so that they can chew it up and swallow it in the midst of their play.

It isn’t necessarily that they don’t want to learn, they may very well want to learn much about what the Bible teaches. Not so long ago I wrote a post about Noah. In it I spoke of how I was raised to see only the feel good, fuzzy side of the story where Noah saved all the animals on the earth. Those are the types of stories the ‘christian’ is used to and they’re the types of stories they want to hear. If a preacher uses deeper truths in a sermon he’d better be ready to cut it into bite sized pieces so his audience can handle what he’s feeding them.

So many of the services I’ve attended have been filled with stories and anticdotes that fit what was being said. The truth, if it’s given at all, is so cut up, so watered down, that it’s hard to find amidst the stories being told. How much more would a preacher get his audience’s attention if he left the fancy clothes at home, walked onto stage looking like every other common man and said…

You’re going to Hell!

How many more people might he reach with the truth if he followed that by saying….

If you aren’t going to hell it’s only by the grace of God because out of His mercy He saved you.

And how much truth could he teach if he continued with…

If you think that prayer you said when you were 10 saved you and yet you live life as if God doesn’t exist except for the once a week that you come to ‘church’ than you aren’t saved. You’re going to hell if God is nothing more to you than something you do every week. All the crosses hanging on your wall aren’t going to save you. That’s idolatry. All the Bibles in your house, be it one or one thousand, won’t save you if you only use them as coasters. People you’re dying in sin and you don’t even know it. Go home, examine yourselves. See if you truly believe in God or if you believe in a god that lets you continue to live in sin and the lusts of this world. Repent and believe in the God of the Bible, in the God of the Old Testament. Then come back next week for another sermon on the real God.

What would the congregation in that ‘church’ look like next week?  How many would return? Chances are the pews would be empty. There might be one or two people that came back out of the hundreds or thousands that had been there. Even if a hundred came back…it would be a small percentage of those that had packed the room. But oh, how blessed those few would be to have a preacher that taught nothing but Truth.

The offering plate may not get filled, the bills may go unpaid, they might lose their building and have to hold services in each others houses or under a tree but the Truth would be taught.

I have an uncle that used to speak against ‘church’. He was never a believer beyond maybe the basic I believe in God kind of belief but he spoke against ‘church’ buildings. He always said ‘if I want to worship God I don’t need a building with a bunch of hypocrites in it. I can take a Bible out in my yard, sit under a tree, and worship Him there.’ How right he was.

And yet there are numerous ‘church’ buildings in every town, even tiny towns have their share, some towns seems to have one on every corner. There are thousands of ‘churches’ in each state. They draw crowds in by the hundreds of thousands and they teach them about a ‘God’ that doesn’t threaten their belief in the American dream they’re chasing. A ‘God’ that doesn’t tell them they must give up their movies, their video games, their curse words, their…anything.

The pews are packed the instant meals are served. The masses leave the buildings full and happy recharged for another week. They have plugged themselves in for a quick, emotional recharge much the way we plug our cell phones into a power outlet to recharge the battery. They have been refueled for another week and they’re happy to go about their business until their battery starts to run low again.

But what are their batteries running on? Are they charged on the Word of God? On Truth? Have them been fed meat that will sustain them or have they been fed pureed bits of candy and ice cream that will give them a sugar high just long enough to see them through the day and leave a slight lingering feeling of euphoria through the week? Have they been fed on Truth that leaves them wanting more, more, more. Or have they been fed from a sugar coated café that gives them what they want but doesn’t touch what they need?

And they are fed on the same meal week after week after week. One week they may be served gummy candies and taffy, the next week it’s jelly beans, and another week it’s chocolate. Once in a while they’ll be given chocolate covered fruit or yogurt covered raisins. During those meals they’re given  a little of what their bodies, their souls, really need but it isn’t enough to truly nurture them.

And because they don’t have to swallow too much of the good for them stuff they return again and again to eat from the sweet stuff so that they can feel as if they’re feeding themselves what they need when in reality what they’re getting is sugar coated poison.

What would happen if one week they walked into their ‘church’ building and were fed on nuts and meat, fruit and vegetables? What would happen if they were given the Truth and nothing else? And then told they would be presented with the same kind of sermon week after week from that day on?

How long would that preacher last? How long before the ’church’ kicked him out and replaced him with another candy maker? When I was a kid I used to like to watch a movie about a man that owned a candy factory. It wasn’t just any candy factory…he had candy the likes of which no one had ever seen. To my childish mind it was a dream come true. And I watched it time and again. But how many times would I have watched it if, after having seen it the first time and dreaming about all that candy, I turned it on the next time to see a man that owned a green vegetable factory?

Such is the condition of the modern day ‘church’ building.

The congregations not only want candy, they demand it. Feed them Brussel sprouts and they will go to a different candy factory.

If we stop to imagine hundreds, thousands, of people feeding on nothing but sweets, if we imagine them chanting ‘candy’ over and over when vegetables are carried in, if we imagine them leaving a building like angry ants from a disturbed anthill when they’re told there will be no more candy to feast on…it becomes almost humorous but how funny is it when as they clear the doors of the building they fall into the flames of hell?

This is the sad reality of so many ‘Christians’ in our day. They want nothing to do with Truth. Instead they feast on candy coated bits of good for them food that does little for their soul and they’re told by the cooks and servers that what they’re being fed will give them ever lasting life. And they go to hell believing they were saved.

What may seem funny if we imagine it as nothing more than a story becomes gravely disturbing when we think of it in terms of souls that are lost. And it becomes disheartening when we think of what would happen if we were to walk into the midst of those demanding candy for meals and try to feed them green vegetables. They would begin to throw those vegetables at us. They would turn on us and tell us the food we’re trying to feed them is poisoned and they don’t need it and they sure don’t want it. They would kick us out of their restaurants because we were trying to take over for the cooks they love.

And that is exactly what happens when true Christianity is taught to the candy ‘Christian’ crowd. And the crowd is so blinded by the taste of sugar that they can’t begin to see that vegetables just might be good for them.