“But there are some of you who do not believe.”

“Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?”

Gospel of John 6:64a, 70b LSB [in context]

Jesus chose Judas as a Disciple of his master’s teaching [doctrine], yet Judas betrayed his lord Jesus with a greeting of love.

How can you call yourself a church?

(YOU who do not believe)?

Are YOU a two-faced Judas?

Like Judas, many christians in the 21st c. ‘church‘ also claim to follow Jesus as THEIR lord and teacher. These zealous lovers of the world want to GROW THEIR church. After all, WE the church could do good for all the world IF ONLY we would embrace all of these humans into OUR community of faith.

There’s ONE problem though for which WE must find a solution:

NOT everyone believes in ONE God.

AND most will not want to follow JESUS even if they accept SOME of Christ’s teaching.

Judas did NOT believe that God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ sent Christ into the world to save sinners, but rather that God might make HIS lord a king to rule HIS land and the world.

But what would OUR church look like IF JESUS would have built it on the shifting sand of the faith of Judas?

Many Teachers facing NOT One

In fact, the church of the world would prefer to follow multiple teachers, rather than trust and rely on the doctrine of ANY ONE Master, Lord, King or God.

OR perhaps a great teacher can lead ME to create MY own morality like THEIRS from the best religions of all humanity. (I don’t have to follow THEM, just pick and choose from the best THEY have to offer. After all, THEY seem to be building something NEW that attracts more attention than the worn out worship of christian churches INTOLERANT of NEW teaching. (No one wants to hear preaching from the Bible anymore).

Many of you ‘who do not believe.’

It’s NOT just one in twelve who claim Jesus, yet do NOT believe. And in the 21st c. church it’s more than a few among those who claim His name a ‘christian.’

In fact these are two-faced followers glorify one face for the world under the guise of religion, while masking a shadowed countenance betraying Christ’s sacrifice of glory for the redemption of our souls.

YES, many mask as christians in the flock of your church, while a select few even claim the gospel of some Jesus from the pulpit – a tolerant savior who will help YOU to bring peace to a world which will never accept the Gospel of His exclusive holiness.

Christ Jesus says to such leaders of OUR churches:

“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Gospel of John 8:44

“But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.

John 8:45 LSB – the rebuke of Jesus Christ

Why not preach the Gospel?

IF you are a Christian — IF you are truly a disciple (follower) of Jesus Christ — IF you are a 21st century christian (as you claim), THEN why do you preach some other gospel in place of the words our Lord Jesus Christ said?

Is our gospel Biblical OR cultural?

Today I will develop the premise of Harrison's first point from my last Saturday Post as we take a look at an all-inclusive church of everythingology through the eyes of another respected theologian.

Previously, I shared a caution from Harrison's FIVE-POINT PROGRESSION of Evangelical Deconstructionism. WE will start there.

EMBRACE and posit [plant or assume] the idea [philosophy] that the CHURCH is a SOCIALLY constructed system, 
NOT a divinely ordained idea [institution] that originated in the mind of God.

For IF Scripture, the WRITTEN Word of God in the BIBLE, is NOT divinely ordained; THEN the church, even ‘christian‘ ‘evangelicals‘ who claim some ‘jesus‘ or some of some Jesus can RE-WORD god’s word to include whatever WE would like it to say to the world.

Two-faced Tolerance

Contemporary tolerance is intrinsically intolerant.

D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance

Church leaders must examine the theology of christians teaching the Bible with liberal exclusion of refining of Scripture in their local church.

We mustn’t dismiss or include a cultural phenomenon of evangelicalism of the past several decades without examining both traditional and evolved definitions of trends leavening the church.

READ more of Carson's introductory quote:

The notion of tolerance is changing, and with the new definitions the shape of tolerance itself has changed…

It is blind to it’s own shortcomings because it erroneously thinks it holds the moral high ground; it cannot be questioned because it has become part of the West’s plausibility structure.

D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance, p.2

Carson illumines and points to a subtle (and two-faced) evolution of English definitions of what it means to be tolerant.

Tolerance as a verb

Continuing to quote Carson:

Oxford English Dictionary [abridged def.]:

1. To endure, sustain (pain or hardship) [‘That usage is becoming obsolete’ – DAC]
2. To allow to exist.. without authoritative interference.., to allow, permit
3. .. To allow intellectually, .. or principle, to put up with.

Tolerance as a noun

Quoting the evolved digital definition of the Gates' cultural philosophy and approach in Microsoft Encarta, Carson notes:

“When we turn from Encarta’s treatment of the corresponding noun “tolerance,” however, a subtle change appears:

• “1. ACCEPTANCE OF DIFFERENT VIEWS the accepting of different views of other people, e.g., in religious or political matters, and fairness toward the people who hold these different views.”
  • Encarta verb for tolerance: ACCEPT EXISTANCE OF DIFFERENT VIEWS.. of other people’s right to have different beliefs and practices.

The shift from ‘accepting the existence of different views’ to ‘acceptance of different views’ .. is subtle in form, but massive in substance. To accept that a different or opposing position exists is one thing; to accept the position itself means that one is no longer opposing it.

D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance p.3

OUR social gathering – a jesus WE love 🙂

“For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves…

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

Gospel of Matthew 7:14-15, 21 LSB

WE will have to avoid these socially discriminating teachings of OUR jesus (or else WE will never attract anyone NEW to OUR church. 

Indiscriminately Tolerant

As you can see once again, Christology and Theology may be at odds with prevailing social philosophy which USES a loose interpretation of the Bible to fill the house with non-committal christians.

Want to see IF your tolerant friends YOU invited to OUR church have ears to hear what OUR jesus has to say about peace and love and OUR world?

TRY putting one of the above sayings of JESUS from ANY good English translation ON THE BIG SCREEN ABOVE THE STAGE OF YOUR WORSHIP gathering on Sunday. See if YOUR increasing audience of worldly friends smiling 🙂 YOUR way can still smile (: when the BIBLE shows THEM an INTOLERANT jesus?

See how they react to the exclusive truth of Scripture!

We will continue with this challenge of betrayal of Christ by a Judas or two of OUR 21st century dividing denominations of CHRIST's Church in my next Saturday Post on the Church, God-willing.