Study – Grow – Know

Why All the Feeling-Centered Feelings in Christendom? Part 1

January 22, 2015 at 10:53 AM 2 comments

It’s not about “happiness.” It’s about JOY regardless of circumstances.

Previously, I discussed “We Will Stand,” a musical event put together by Christian music promoter, Stan Moser that featured New Ager Roma Downey (The History Channel’s The Bible). Why does Christendom in general seem to becoming more unified with the New Age in general? By the way, I’m not referring to the invisible Church here, but the visible Church. To me, that’s an important distinction, but one that some don’t grasp.

I also reblogged Dave James’ article on The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, in which Alex Malarkey recanted the story he told in his book by the same name. There, he stated that he actually died and went to heaven and came back. Alex was in a terrible car accident and coma following that for two months.

I’m of the opinion that anyone who claims to have died, gone to heaven, then come back, should be given a lie-detector test before any book is published or movie produced based on their so-called “tour of heaven.” But an important question related to this is why are book publishers (and movie-makers) so willing to simply accept what young children tell them about their death, trip to heaven, and return to earth even when at least part of the narrative is recognizably without biblical support?

In fact, if we consider that question as it relates to The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven as well as the “We Will Stand” musical event, we might do well to ask why more and more within Christendom today revolves around feeling? Why do people seem to need to understand their Christianity through the venue of feeling? This is certainly not to say that the Christian’s life should be devoid of feeling or emotion, but they should never be elevated to the level of actually becoming the discerner of truth. That should never be because it will always lead us down the wrong path. Always.

If we look at Paul’s first and second letters to the Corinthian believers, we see this situation unfolding and we also see how the apostle Paul dealt with it. Like a surgeon, he deftly cut right to the heart of the problem and encouraged the church at Corinth to do the right thing, whether they felt like it or not! Relying on their emotions is what got them in hot water with Paul. The only way to get out of it was to set emotions aside and be guided by truth. This is how it is supposed to work within Christians and certainly within the churches they attend.

But let’s be clear here that there are two churches (if you will) and only one of them is the true church, the Bride of Christ. As stated, there is the visible and the invisible Church. The visible church encompasses every part of what has been called Christianity down through the ages to the present, regardless of whether it was actually Christianity or not. That is what we see. That is what the world sees.

The invisible Church however, is made up entirely of authentic Christians since the birth of the Church as recorded in Acts 2. To be “inducted” into the invisible Church, there is only one prerequisite. That is to have eternal salvation through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

There are many who attend church today but there is absolutely no guarantee that they are authentic Christians. In fact, Jesus clearly taught that the “farmer’s enemy” (Satan) went out and planted tares among the wheat (Matthew 13). The unambiguous analogy is that when Jesus “planted” His Church, Satan wasted no time infiltrating the newly created church (from the visible perspective since tares are never wheat and will never be wheat) and attempting to destroy it from within. This has been taking place since Acts 2 and continues to this day.

Because of the tares that exist in the visible church, what Christians and the world sees is often something that does not resemble what glorifies God. Even true Christians can get caught up in it and begin to emulate the world.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul was literally aghast at what was transpiring there. More so with the Galatian believers, but that’s another story. In Corinth, believers were relaxing their standards. They stopped calling sin, sin. They seemed to lose sight of the responsibility of being accountable to one another and ultimately, to God.

It was because of this that Paul actually used language that was designed to shame them into repentance. We know it worked because of his second letter to this same group of people.

Here are just a few of the problems in the Corinthian church:

• divisions (1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 3:3)
• looking to the world for wisdom instead of God (1 Cor 2:4-5)
• proud that a fornicator (with his stepmother) was attending church (1 Cor 5:1)
• Christians suing other Christians (1 Cor 6:1-6)

Things like the above should not be part of the Christian community. I wonder if it’s due to relying so much on grace that we’ve forgotten all about God’s holiness? Christians today need to move away from using their feelings to determine truth. While we should learn to be content or filled with joy in every circumstance, God never promises happiness to us, yet too many Christians seem to think unless they are bubbling over with happiness all the time, they’re not true Christians. If they take time of retrospection, that might be depressing, so let’s avoid it at all costs.

Happiness, relying on our feelings, pursuing God based on how He might make us feel – all of it – is simply a form of humanism or political correctness that has entered into the church. Our feelings don’t promote humility, true reverence for God and a hatred of sin (not ourselves, but sin). Feelings put our eyes squarely on ourselves. We need to move away from our reliance on them as arbiter of true because they have no capacity to reflect truth at all. Reliance on feelings simply makes us susceptible to error.

We’ll continue this next time…

Entry filed under: Politically Correct, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation.