Late Night Rant #5

Christians

It may surprise some that I would roast my own religion, but sometimes I do believe a good roasting is in order. Especially when there are so many things being taught that are not scriptural. They seem to stem from both tradition and man’s own opinion on certain subjects.

I am so sick of dogmatism within God’s Church. I feel as though, especially this week, too many of us push our own agenda and our own opinions as if they are fact. Too many of us claim a scriptural foundation for those opinions when, in reality, we work to twist its words so that we do not have to change. When certain members in our family teach, they allow just enough truth into the equation that whatever else they teach seems believable. We experience the same problem now that the Jews did when Jesus walked the earth: religious dogmatism. i have recently been listening to a preacher, though I will not state his name, who is very opinionated and for the last day or so has slightly misrepresented scripture. In fact, he does not seem to use much scripture at all! He first claimed that the Christian life was not about some worship experience that started with emotion, and then turned around and pushed for people to ask Jesus into their hearts. Do we not realize that the heart is the seat of human emotions. By stating that a person must ask Jesus into his or her heart, we are in fact implying that Christianity is a foundationally emotional religion AND IT IS NOT! We must realize that Christianity begins with a choice. This means that the relationship (not religion) we can have with Christ begins in our minds, not our hearts! Read through the Gospels, Jesus is constantly pushing for the renewing of the mind, and this teaching is affirmed in Paul’s letters! You are right, the Christian life is not about emotion and thank God for that!

You stand in front of the congregation saying after every other sentence, “The Bible says…” Then you use a phrase that has never been in the Bible. You keep talking about how God’s children will live in Heaven forever. Do you not know that, according to Revelation, God’s eternal kingdom will be on the earth? If God’s eternal kingdom will be on the earth (the new earth that is), then that is where I want to be!

You do, though, have some good ideas. I just wish that you would base those in scripture as you present them. Instead you tell a story of some popular athlete or of some other celebrity. It breaks my heart. If we are going to teach our faith, then we need to teach our faith!

But perhaps I am over analyzing. I tend to do that simply because I am skeptical of everything that I hear. If you are a Christian and you are reading this, I ask one thing of you. Please know what you believe and why. Make sure that it doesn’t contradict because if two ideas or concepts contradict each other, one of them must be false. Please do your absolute best to teach accurately and try not to advocate religious dogmatism. It is important that we all keep open minds and hearts, otherwise we fail to grow. If we are not growing, can we really be following a God who challenges us to be perfect when we know we are not?