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Acceptable Christianity

There is an acceptable Christianity and there is an unacceptable Christianity in the earth today.

Acceptable Christianity is that which is tolerated and even supported by human government. It fits right into the narrative of the world system, Satan’s kingdom of darkness, which we know primarily as a financial one.

The early church described in the New Testament is an example of unacceptable Christianity. Even though it provided more support to its surrounding society in caring for the poor and the diseased than the world had ever seen. It was still unacceptable because it was invisible and it was uncontrollable by the governments of its day.

How authorities react to unacceptable Christianity may vary from country to country and century to century. But murder and persecution is a common response.

Jesus Christ is invisible to human government, they cannot get a grasp on him so his affect seems scary to them. He terrifies Satan, the temporary head of the world system. The one thing he and they feel compelled to do, control the people. Is the one thing they cannot do with his followers.

So they invented acceptable Christianity, most famously and effectively done by emperor Constantine in Rome. He essentially invented a Christianity that fit into his kingdom, thereby disfiguring and mutilating it and dethroning Jesus Christ. Acceptable Christianity is a human religion where Jesus is a mascot, not a king and not a Lord.

Acceptable Christianity has a leash around its neck being held by the state. That leash is both financial and hierarchical. Acceptable Christianity operates by business and entertainment principles. It’s mission always evolves into works that are primarily natural (mostly financial) and humanitarian rather than spiritual in nature. The lifeblood of acceptable Christianity is money, lots of money.

The lifeblood of unacceptable Christianity is Jesus himself and therefore money is of far less consequence. Acceptable Christianity can be big and popular and political. Unacceptable Christianity is small and financially irrelevant, politically disregarded by both sides.

But God has chosen the weak and poor things of this world in order to shame the rich and powerful. Don’t be mistaken there is a very good reason that he has chosen the poor and the weak.

Genuine Jesus followers who can not tolerate the counterfeit Christianity may be able to hide within the walls of acceptable Christianity. But sooner or later when the leashes come out to tie her down she just has to let her light shine. This gets her into trouble, the biggest trouble Christians get into is often with other Christians who are bogged down in legalism or toxic tradition.

Jesus’ call to his followers is to “come out from among them and be separate.” Be loyal to him financially, be loyal to his hierarchy, make him the dominant central king in your life, no longer just a respected mascot. Be unacceptable to the world system, make the right enemies. Consider yourself honored when they come after you with insults and maybe worse but make sure it’s because your Christianity is unacceptable.

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Depths of Jesus Christ – Book Review

I’ve found an amazing little book about Jesus Christ written in the 1680s by a woman in France. The book is called Experiencing The Depths of Jesus Christ by Jeanne Guyon. I just had to plug it, because it is a great read for those who want more of Jesus Christ.

“There is only one way to conquer your five senses, and that is by inward recollection. …Your soul must turn all of its attention and energies within, not without! Within to Christ, not without to the senses. When your soul is turned within, it actually becomes separated from your external senses; and once your five senses are separated from your soul, they receive no more attention. Their supply of life is cut off! They become powerless. … Your main concern, therefore, is with the presence of Jesus Christ. Your main concern lies in dwelling continually upon the God who is within you. Then without particularly thinking of self denial or “putting away the deeds of the flesh,” God will cause you to experience a natural subduing of the flesh!” pp..50-51 Jeanne Guyon

Here Guyon is teaching a great deal about turning to the Lord. I believe what she teaches here is synonymous with seeking first the kingdom of God for the Christian.

She refers to the subduing of the sins of the flesh as a natural result of this inward centering on Jesus Christ. It happens naturally and rather easily. It’s not a matter of trying hard to overcome the flesh. Which really is a fruitless meaningless exercise in failure.

Turning to the Lord within is a great way to describe what she is teaching.

Guyon did not originally intend to write this to publish but to help friends. It was so helpful that she decided to publish.

I wonder if she imagined that her book would be helping people 340 years later on the other side of the world. Goes to show how important it is for Christians, men and women, to let their light shine, to share, to write, to speak, and to publish.

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About Christ vs. By Christ

Every year around December we hear Christians reminding everyone either verbally, but mostly on social media, that Christmas is really about Christ. And that it should remain that way. I did my share of that through the years.

I do think there is a pressure that is hostile to Jesus to remove his influence and can be seen in the pressure to rename Christmas as Xmas. It’s petty and childish, but it’s real.

I won’t go into a rant about people hostile to Christ or the pagan roots of the holiday that the Roman Catholics acquired to create Christmas. That is for other posts.

With this post I want to emphasize that a day or an event can be about a person OR by a person. To be about, the person can be dead, but to be by a person they must be a living participant.

If Christmas were really by Christ he would have started it. And we’d be continuing it with him. We’d have seen its origin in scripture. Jesus did begin traditions, but he did not begin one around his own birth. There is not even evidence they celebrated his birthday during his 33 years on earth.

If something is about someone we have reduced them personally to a subject, a topic, an idea about them. They don’t have to be a participant, they don’t have to be alive. For example, when we celebrate Martin Luther King day he is not a participant. He is just a memory for the nation. It’s a holiday about King not by King. When we celebrate birthdays for kids they are present. They are the center, they get what they want.

When something is done by a person we can join them. For example, when Jesus commanded us to gather, he promised his very own presence. He is a participant. So it can be said we are gathering with him, we gather around him. We use adjectives reserved for living people. Church meetings, according to scripture, should not be considered gatherings about Jesus. Although that is what most of the highly organized gatherings I’ve experienced, seem to have been reduced to.

And if we gather with and around him, and we are calling him Lord. Can or should he not have a say in what is done or said? Of course he should. Then it just becomes a matter of hearing him and yielding to him as a body of Christians.

So anything done about Jesus is different than a thing done by Jesus.

The emphasis of a Christian who knows and loves a living Lord is to cooperate and actively work WITH Him. With the living Jesus Christ, who wants certain things. And who is also silent, (and presumably indifferent) about other things.

We know he wants certain things like his Lordship in the earth, or like his will being ‘done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Not spending 1/12 of our year, and a huge amount of our incomes on birthday celebrations based on sentiment about him. Does he want our year to revolve around his massive birthday celebration? A better question is ‘do we even care what he wants?’ Or is Christmas really for us, and our own kids, and our good memories about our childhood?

And if it really is about us, lets be consistent in its name, let’s call it MeMas or UsMas. No wait, never mind… that would be self-centered.😑

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