I'm starting to move away from "pretend Christianity"

[TheOneHeLoves]

Increasingly, the phrase "pretend Christianity" has been in my mind. Google the phrase and you'll find it’s in a lot of peoples' minds. I'm frankly beginning to wonder if about 95% of what passes for belief is really just pretend Christianity. I'm honestly beginning to wonder if there is any reality to all this at all.

All the hoopla that surrounds lots of peoples' Christianity – church activities, Bible studies, happy talk of God and Jesus, yada yada – I'm beginning to wonder if it disguises the fact most folks have no real belief at all and know they're just pretending. It brings to mind the Emperor's New Clothes: We won't admit, even to ourselves, that we're mostly just pretending and everything will be fine. As long as we all pretend together, everything will be fine.

The downfall of Ravi Zacharias a few years ago was a turning point for me. As you may or may not know, Ravi was one of the greatest Christian apologists of modern times. He was called things like "the most godly man in the world" and "a worthy successor to Billy Graham." He had a worldwide ministry. He wrote books and endorsed others – a Ravi endorsement was worth its weight in gold. He was a frequent guest on other apologists' radio programs and podcasts and was introduced in reverential tones and treated as an especially honored guest.

But Ravi was also a complete fraud. His academic credentials were greatly exaggerated. He had an extensive secret life involving sexual misconduct and abuse, replete with threats, payoffs and all the rest. It surfaced just before he died and was fully documented after his death. I corresponded with the attorney who first exposed the tip of the iceberg and watched agog as it all unfolded. Ravi had fooled his family, his closest associates in his ministry, all those who treated him as "the most godly man in the world" and, of course, his legions of devoted followers. Nonbelievers now had one more reason to laugh and say, "There ya go. Just another fraud. It’s all phony."

Ravi's ministry changed its name and pretty much collapsed. His books were pulled, his ministry credentials revoked. Christian authors removed his endorsements from their books. Those who had treated him with reverence now pretended they'd never heard of him. His devoted followers were crushed. It was about as huge and startling a fall as any Christian leader has ever suffered.

The typical Christian response was and is that Ravi's fall is just another reminder that we're all fallible and imperfect humans, subject to temptation and sin, yada yada. Well, yes, it is certainly that. After an appropriate period of hand-wringing, the Ravi scandal was tucked away in the little box wihere such scandals are kept while "Christianity, Inc." got on with its business.

When I tried to raise larger concerns, on forums and elsewhere, the response was always, "No, this just shows we're all subject to temptation and sin, yada yada. Nothing else to see here, move along please."

The larger concern I attempted to raise was, "Where was the Holy Spirit in all this?" Ravi was surrounded by believers, seemingly none of whom was blessed with even an ounce of discernment. His wife and daughter were clueless. His ministry staff was clueless. All the Christian leaders who associated with him, sought his endorsements and treated him with reverence were clueless.

The Holy Spirit was seemingly so weak and ineffectual that Ravi's family was devastated, his ministry was destroyed, all the good he had done was undone, his devoted followers were crushed, and nonbelievers were handed yet more ammunition on a golden platter. We prattle about how God did this and that and the Holy Spirit did this and that in our lives, but the Holy Spirit seems to have been completely missing in action when it came to Ravi. Someone couldn't have been blessed with enough discernment to step in before this caused all the damage it did???

I raised this directly with a couple of prominent apologists who had been among Ravi's most worshipful supporters. Does it trouble you that you were completely duped, that you were allowed to mislead others, that you lacked even a modicum of discernment? Forget Ravi and his foibles - what does this say about the Holy Spirit in your own life? What does it say about the Holy Spirit in general? Where's the beef?

I received no response.

It was and is enough to make me wonder, "Is there any reality to this?" Are we perhaps pretending to believe things that simply Aren't True? Is it possible that if there is any reality to Christianity, this reality is far from what we pretend it is? Is all the hoopla perhaps why "Christianity" seems so far from anything Jesus could have been talking about or possibly had in mind?

I don't have the answers, but I do find myself increasingly moving in the direction of a less dogmatic theism in which I more genuinely believe and away from what this brand of Christianity requires me to pretend to believe. Your mileage may vary.

This is exactly why God judges and not us. We can judge outward actions but we don't see what is in secret. Honor God, live for God and not by man nor for man. Those that love and serve God are usually not in the front news, won't have tons of followers, will live a modest or even hard life.


all of us fall short so instead of worrying about who is and who isn't a Christian. Focus on being a follower of Christ Jesus.

Love the Lord our God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

God bless.

 

[Jethro2]

Where's the beef?

Hidden.

I don't have the answers, but I do find myself increasingly moving in the direction of a less dogmatic theism in which I more genuinely believe and away from what this brand of Christianity requires me to pretend to believe. Your mileage may vary.

Is the direction towards Jesus ? or even simpler at least: seeking Truth; do not settle for less!!!

 

[Adrift]

Sure, we are FORCED to say "Well, of course, God could easily have stopped all this in its tracks - but since He didn't, then surely all this was His plan and great good will come of it." We are ALWAYS forced to say this, over and over and over. Do we ever get tired of making excuses for God? Is that the test of real faith? At some point, I think a more honest question is, "Is any of this real?"

I agree and believe that it's a question that many try hard to suppress. I see alot of Christian shape-shifting. The bumper sticker Christians who pronounce that God heard their prayers when their flu symptoms subside can't explain why 2,977 people in the Trade Centers were not saved even though there were millions of people praying for God to save them. Scripture juggling is a complex art. I try to make it more understandable by minimizing the complexity. When I was a kid I remember our family driving down the road and seeing the billboards with God represented as an old man with long white hair and an expression of angry consternation, blowing at the clouds and the words "The Beginning of Wisdom is to Fear God". That made me think that God was this mean guy that will mess you up if you don't do what he says. It sure didn't make me want to go to Church. Later, I began, through my own mental editing, to envision God as being like Ward Cleaver (Beaver's father). Mr. Cleaver was nice, always thoughtful, and balanced in his judgements. He would never hit the Beaver. Later, my visualization of God became more as an invisible, ethereal mist that hangs in the air everywhere and orchestrates the universe, sending emmissaries where communications are needed (to bring the steak down to hamburger). My point is that we all see and interpret things uniquely and our perceptions evolve as we gather and interpret information. I'm not convinced that our brains have evolved to the point of effectively separating truth from desire. Maybe we don't need to. If I am drowning and you throw me an orange life jacket, I'm not going to yell out that I wanted a blue one or speculate as to whether it's real or not. I'm going to grab it and hope it works because it's the only hope that I have.

 

[Spyder]

The battle against the church that Yeshua started - the people of "The Way" - began in the first century. It has never stopped. It is so easy to just blend in with the congregations of those churches and accept what we are told as truth, yet carry a bible with us so we look devout - but never actually read it. We think we know truth, but we can't prove it without using the proof-texts we are given in Sunday School.

A radical idea would be to hold small groups where people use the entirety of scripture to let "scripture interpret scripture" regardless of whether or not it causes us to disbelieve the doctrines we have been taught.

That requires a hunger for truth that most never have. And even fewer will ever devote the time and effort to do so.

I think - IMHO - we see a false Christianity because we have people claiming to be followers of Yeshua to lead them to Yahweh while not even seeking God with all their hearts. They spend years being spoon-fed doctrines and feeling sanctified by giving tithes and leading charity drives, but never knowing what Yahweh intended for us to know.

Truth be told, I was one of those people which I described. For years. It is a painful things when God gives us what we ask for with all our hearts - to know His truth instead of what man has contrived. I think this is why so few will enter into the narrow gate. We cannot be good enough to earn that right by our actions and how many bibles we carry around.

Want to know what it is like when your "brothers and sisters in Christ" find out you have discovered that some doctrines have been false all along? It can hurt. Yet, our love for our Father and for His Son will carry us through if we keep our eyes on them.

 

[NayborBear]

To me?
It all comes down to (just) WHO is in control?

That being said?
Wouldn't He who created the universe have the ability to also orchestrate people, events, governments in ensuring that that which has been recorded in the scriptures come to pass exactly the way it was recorded?

Just a thought........

 

[Adrift]

To me?
It all comes down to (just) WHO is in control?

That being said?
Wouldn't He who created the universe have the ability to also orchestrate people, events, governments in ensuring that that which has been recorded in the scriptures come to pass exactly the way it was recorded?

Just a thought........

Yes, to some point? Today, nothing stops me from printing a bible revision that says left-handed people are evil and cannot be saved. I am very suspect of many of the hundreds of modern bible revisions. Anyone can print whatever they desire.

 

[Adrift]

I don't disagree, but by "pretend Christianity" I was referring mostly to all the trappings of "Christianity" that people seem to feel define the religion but that seem to me to blur and even take them farther away from whatever Truth the religion actually offers and whatever Jesus actually had in mind. As to whether the religion itself is fake in the way you're suggesting, this seems to me a slightly different focus. The people are pretending, but is the object of that pretense actually fake?

What I said about Ravi is close to what you seem to be getting at. WHERE WAS THE HOLY SPIRIT in all this - in Ravi's life, the lives of his family members who seemingly lacked all discernment, his close associates in his ministry who seemingly lacked all discernment, the multitudes of other Christian leaders who worshipped at his feet and seemingly lacked all dicernment, his legions of followers who seemingly lacked all discernment? Where was the Holy Spirit beef? We thank God for helping us find lost car keys, but we aren't troubled when the Holy Spirit seems completely missing in action in circumstances such as these? It seemingly should make us confront and question the reality of the whole thing (or at least our understanding of the whole thing), but it never does.

Agnostic Theism transcends the issue for some.