Rescuing Jesus From Christendom
If one doesn’t understand why Jesus needs to be rescued from Christendom, then one hasn’t had much exposure to Christendom. Such is especially true about the American version of Christendom. Seriously, what some alleged “Christians” say in public forums is enough to make a person vomit. I am constantly reaching for a barf bag whenever I wade into the cesspool called Twitter. That place is full of theobros who do more to drive people away from Jesus than anything said or done by atheists.
For example, consider the following Twitter post:
Compare Ben Zeisloft’s Twitter post to one by Christian pastor Zach W. Lambert:
No, the New Testament doesn’t say that believers in Jesus are to take care of themselves before taking care of unbelievers.
I wish that Ben Zeisloft’s Twitter post represented a fringe of American Christendom, but it doesn’t. As Christian pastor Kevin M. Young, ThD explains, American Christendom feigns godliness while doing works of the devil.
Dr. Young is alluding to a parable of Jesus recorded in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.
The lesson of this parable isn’t being practiced by the American Christendom. Whereas its members and leaders are the servants in the parable, they feign being the reapers, thus contradicting the teaching of Jesus.
An additional problem with American Christendom is that it has become so polluted with right-wing politics that it has become difficult to tell the two apart. The result is that the label “evangelical” has lost its original meaning.
This loss of religious and moral credibility is reflected in a trend reported by Christianity Today.
It is no secret that churches in general are falling out of favor with the American public, as the Roys Report mentions in a 13 September 2022 article.
The dechurching movement in the USA has gained so much momentum that two Christian pastors wrote a book to try to explain it.
Here is Religion News Service national reporter Bob Smietana describing something in the aforementioned book.
I know of one source for the conflict that Smietana mentions: Education.
People can use modern technology to gain information that used to be exclusively in the domain of religious institutions.
Preachers and churches are no longer gatekeepers of data that pertains to the Bible and to what is in the Bible.
Thus, whenever people leave a particular church or denomination, they aren’t necessarily rejecting Jesus or the Bible. Instead, they may be rejecting what they consider to be flaws in how particular pastors, churches or denominations interpret the Bible.
Domineering pastors and other religious people don’t like for their interpretation of the Bible to be challenged because it is their interpretation.
Thus, they will express condemnation of anyone who dares to disagree with them. I have witnessed plenty of such domineering people proclaiming others to be apostates, heretics, non-Christians, etc. because the latter expressed an interpretation of the Bible that contradicts that of the former.
Such domineering people assume that their theology is flawless and therefore act as if they are the final authority on how to correctly interpret the Bible.
Even if they are correct about a particular point, they express themselves in a way that is arrogant. They display zeal, but zeal isn’t on the Apostle Paul’s list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
In response to this domineering, some believers in Messiah Jesus are participating in something called Deconstruction. Britannica.com describes Deconstruction this way: “In popular usage the term has come to mean a critical dismantling of tradition and traditional modes of thought.”
People engaged in deconstruction aren’t rejecting Jesus or the Gospel that is recorded in the New Testament.
Dr. Kevin M. Young elaborates.
Here is how two believers in Messiah Jesus responded to Dr. Young.
I agree with Katie, Dr. Young and John Reed on this point. Rescuing Jesus from American Christendom results in power and control (and prehaps even money) being taken from religious leaders who are drunk on power and control (and perhaps incomes higher than they should be).
When when religious leaders act as guides and coaches, which is what religious shepherding is all about, they express disagreement in a godly way. If they disagree with you, then they will express themselves this way:
“I disagree because ________________. I hope that one day you will conclude that I am correct.”
When when religious leaders act as dictators, they express disagreement in a toxic way. They tear down instead of building up.
Sure, one should practice etiquette when one disagrees with a religious leader. If one’s disagreement interferes with the functioning of a particular church, then one should keep the disagreement outside of that church’s functions. If the disagreement prevents one from worshiping with that church, then one should leave and find a more suitable church.
As Jesus is rescued from American Christendom, I keep in mind that the latter is comprised of flawed fallible mortal sinners, and I am one, too. It would be a mistake for me to assume that my own theology is flawless. It isn’t. I am constantly revising my theology whenever I encounter data that I wasn’t aware of. While I am on this side of eternity, I know only in part, just as the Apostle Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 13.
As long as flawed fallible mortal sinners are trying to express faith in Messiah Jesus, mistakes will creep into the latter, which is why said faith is always undergoing reformation. Jesus doesn’t just need to be rescued from American Christendom. He also needs to be rescued fallible human thinking in general.
The preceding commentary features screenshots that have been edited to remove irrelevent details.
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