In 2014, most Christians are Pharisees. A little more lenient than the old guys back in the day, but still clinging to strict interpretations of the Bible.
One of the churches I grew up in was like this. The church administration was certain that God liked specific things and anything else was ungodly and unwelcome. Of course, there is some truth to that: I'm not entirely fanatical, I know there are certain things that are purely irreverent that God wants no part in, but I'm talking about things that God couldn't give two shits about. (Like the fact that I just said the word shit. Please stop gasping.)
For instance: if a woman arrived at church in pants, there was a time when she would be turned away. Escorted out, doors locked.
There was a constant debate over what type of music God approved of. The general consensus was: acoustic guitars, pianos, organs, flutes and clarinets were holy. Everything else was up for interpretation. Apparently, God hates drums, bassoons, violins, fiddles, harpsichords, tambourines ...
One of the churches I grew up in was like this. The church administration was certain that God liked specific things and anything else was ungodly and unwelcome. Of course, there is some truth to that: I'm not entirely fanatical, I know there are certain things that are purely irreverent that God wants no part in, but I'm talking about things that God couldn't give two shits about. (Like the fact that I just said the word shit. Please stop gasping.)
For instance: if a woman arrived at church in pants, there was a time when she would be turned away. Escorted out, doors locked.
There was a constant debate over what type of music God approved of. The general consensus was: acoustic guitars, pianos, organs, flutes and clarinets were holy. Everything else was up for interpretation. Apparently, God hates drums, bassoons, violins, fiddles, harpsichords, tambourines ...
It was widely believed that Christians shouldn't go to the cinema because this was ungodly. And then The Passion of the Christ came out and suddenly the administrators found themselves caught up in something of an embarrassing quandary: half believed it was okay to go view the film because finally God was being allowed in such a den of iniquity as a movie theater. The other half, so obsessed with the outward interpretation of their very actions by people who couldn't care less about them argued their usual banal point: "But what if someone sees me leaving the cinema? They might think I went to see some awful R-rated film!" When in actuality, anyone who saw them leaving the cinema who knew them probably wouldn't have cared anyway. And if they had, shouldn't they have been more concerned with the fact that their reputation didn't proceed them? If I know someone is upstanding and moral, I'm not going to assume immediately that they've been up to questionable, amoral activity. And really, what's so amoral about a movie theater?
See, that's the type of Christianity I grew up with. An oppressive, bleak, the only way to heaven is through the cross and the only way through the cross is by adhering to our divine revelations. The issue? Ninety-nine percent of the time, those divine revelations were either:
A) Fabricated and inflated to become canon
B) Misinterpretations of the Scriptures
C) Personal opinions painted with the "the Lord laid it on my heart" brush and
D) Unrealistic, illogical, self-seeking checks and balances meant to keep one person in check so that they didn't succumb to their own struggles and temptations.
That's not the kind of faith I have. Religion becomes flawed and dangerous when men are left to interpret the Scriptures and for that interpretation to become law and regarded on the same playing field as the Scriptures. Let me say it this way: what's wrong with Christianity today is that too many preachers and Sunday school teachers and administrators are getting an idea in their head and convincing everyone around them "thus saith the Lord".
It all goes back to the personal relationship with Christ, thing. It all goes back to "where two or three are gathered in my name". See, I think Christ said it as a form of self-protection. He knew the awesome way men can screw up. He knew men in positions of authority would be able to manipulate His Word and pass it off as being absolute truth. After all, isn't that why Paul made a point of stating that the Bereans "searched the Scriptures"? They weren't content with what was being shouted from the pulpit or what was being typed in the church constitution or on the church website. They wanted to know why the decisions were made and whether they were Biblical.
If members of the church I attended that turned women away for wearing pants and that dared say that certain musical instruments were displeasing to God and made such a big fuss about the movie theater, if those members had searched the Scriptures they would have found that God isn't concerned with any of that. "Come as you are," the Bible says. That means the jeans-wearing, single mother of two who works in the cinema and plays the drums should be welcome at any church in the world.
Should being the operative word. Will the Pharisees with their Scripture memorized verbatim and their noses stuck in the air come down to earth and realize that she is as worthy as they? Will Christians in 2014 learn to not be governed by one man's interpretation of the Scriptures but to instead search them for themselves and have the difficult conversations with God that are needed to forge an authentic and personal relationship with Christ? Or will they continue on in their khakis and polo shirts, half living a life untouched by the awesomeness a true, personal relationship with Christ has?
A true personal relationship, for the record, looks different for everyone Christian. That's the awesomeness of our God. What He teaches me and what He and I speak about and the type of relationship we have more than likely differs drastically from yours. We need to get to the point where, unlike the Pharisees, we can begin to understand that relationships with God are malleable. That one person can have one conviction that God never gives another. Just as we are accepting of the fact that if you say po-tay-to and I say po-tah-to, we are both speaking of the same things, so should we be accepting of the fact that just because God says x to you and y to me doesn't mean one of us is in the wrong. It just means it's personal.
See, that's the type of Christianity I grew up with. An oppressive, bleak, the only way to heaven is through the cross and the only way through the cross is by adhering to our divine revelations. The issue? Ninety-nine percent of the time, those divine revelations were either:
A) Fabricated and inflated to become canon
B) Misinterpretations of the Scriptures
C) Personal opinions painted with the "the Lord laid it on my heart" brush and
D) Unrealistic, illogical, self-seeking checks and balances meant to keep one person in check so that they didn't succumb to their own struggles and temptations.
That's not the kind of faith I have. Religion becomes flawed and dangerous when men are left to interpret the Scriptures and for that interpretation to become law and regarded on the same playing field as the Scriptures. Let me say it this way: what's wrong with Christianity today is that too many preachers and Sunday school teachers and administrators are getting an idea in their head and convincing everyone around them "thus saith the Lord".
It all goes back to the personal relationship with Christ, thing. It all goes back to "where two or three are gathered in my name". See, I think Christ said it as a form of self-protection. He knew the awesome way men can screw up. He knew men in positions of authority would be able to manipulate His Word and pass it off as being absolute truth. After all, isn't that why Paul made a point of stating that the Bereans "searched the Scriptures"? They weren't content with what was being shouted from the pulpit or what was being typed in the church constitution or on the church website. They wanted to know why the decisions were made and whether they were Biblical.
If members of the church I attended that turned women away for wearing pants and that dared say that certain musical instruments were displeasing to God and made such a big fuss about the movie theater, if those members had searched the Scriptures they would have found that God isn't concerned with any of that. "Come as you are," the Bible says. That means the jeans-wearing, single mother of two who works in the cinema and plays the drums should be welcome at any church in the world.
Should being the operative word. Will the Pharisees with their Scripture memorized verbatim and their noses stuck in the air come down to earth and realize that she is as worthy as they? Will Christians in 2014 learn to not be governed by one man's interpretation of the Scriptures but to instead search them for themselves and have the difficult conversations with God that are needed to forge an authentic and personal relationship with Christ? Or will they continue on in their khakis and polo shirts, half living a life untouched by the awesomeness a true, personal relationship with Christ has?
A true personal relationship, for the record, looks different for everyone Christian. That's the awesomeness of our God. What He teaches me and what He and I speak about and the type of relationship we have more than likely differs drastically from yours. We need to get to the point where, unlike the Pharisees, we can begin to understand that relationships with God are malleable. That one person can have one conviction that God never gives another. Just as we are accepting of the fact that if you say po-tay-to and I say po-tah-to, we are both speaking of the same things, so should we be accepting of the fact that just because God says x to you and y to me doesn't mean one of us is in the wrong. It just means it's personal.