Christianity’s root problem
Many Christians today lament the increase of lukewarmness, apostasy, false teaching, and general disinterest in what is called “the church.”
Many raise the alarm in differing degrees of severity, but most really do not know the half of the real problem. It has been said that a person is either “part of the problem or part of the solution,” and it is an amazing fact that even among those Christians with awakened consciences who think they are part of the solution because they speak against a problem, they too may be part of the problem.
This is entirely possible because the “problem” is broader, and deeper than many imagine. It is as all encompasing as the air we breath or the soil we are planted in. That is, we are all products of our spiritual environment. We know what we we know, but are finite. Christianity today is like a world divided into camps of mutually separate factions. Some are cordial, others lob cannonballs over the stronghold walls of one another; other still just keep to themselves and ignore the others and try to stay positive.
Whatever the case, we are living now in a legacy of a faith which is marked by people who bear witness against one another. The environment we live in is one of understandings and practices handed down to us – what those before us up to this day interpreted from the Bible, and what is established as the Way.
This root issues awry in Christianity are multifaceted, and could be the subject of a book, but this will attempt to lay out key issues. The answers to all problems in this practice of the faith are found clearly written in pages of scripture, but may be hidden to those not truly dedicated to the Lord. As we know, the Bible has also been used to support all sorts of errant ideas, but what follows is not error. Pray and ask the Lord to tell you whether what follows is true. Its aim is to identify the error behind all error, and be to the glory of God, and His will done.
Christianity’s Root Problem
Numerous non-negotiable things Jesus asked for of those who would take His name have never really been given by the majority of those who did take His name. Since the death of the last apostle, John, circa 100 AD, those who took the name of Christ and set the tone for the faith gave Him something less; a substitute, and here is the root level problem. Religious flesh.
Religious flesh is defined in the Bible as the mind of the “natural man” or “old man,” or “carnal” man independent of the Spirit of God. It is distinct from the regenerated spirit which is supposed to bring under control a person’s entire being, enable him or her to know God, hear His guiding and correcting voice, and enable people to love and serve and worship God in spirt and truth.
A Christian has within both the fleshly mind along with the mind of the spirit. These two are in dire competition one with the other. A faithful Christian is to become spiritual by letting the spirit control his or her thoughts and feelings. A carnal or fleshly believer is one dominated by the flesh. The flesh is the side of self we have had since birth. It is the base self, and not subject to God.
Romans 8 – 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Religious flesh is insidious, as deadly as an odorless, colorless yet toxic gas that can kill. More specifically, it is the natural mind, will, and emotions of a person (faculties of the soul and self) who presume to learn about God, teach about God, and serve God. It does this untethered from the voice of Jesus, but may think it is obeying Him. It may know all about God, but not really know God. It may understand rules of biblical interpretation, but interpret the Bible incorrectly or miss major points. It may still be even zealous, passionate about what it believes, and even seek to call out error in others.
The religious fleshly mind according to scripture is the opposite of a spiritual person as God defines it.
Colossians 2 – 18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
Note the person of fleshly mind intrudes into what they have not really been revealed in their spirits. They are not holding fast to the Head, which is another way to speak of being connected to Jesus. They are independent agents who suppose they are interested in the things of Christ, and even serving Christ, but are in great error because they are doing it all apart from Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul decried the Corinthians who were carnal (of the flesh) even though they were addressed as genuine born again Christians, and even practicing the spiritual gifts.
God called for His people to be all as one (John 17:20-23). This means a deeper level unity than what people today accept, but this non-negotiable injunction of the Lord has long been broken and now God is having to work within the context of what He never asked for. He also asked for anyone who dared take His name to love one another even as He loved them (John 17:34,35). This too has been run roughshod over.
These were non-negotiable aspects of God’s will. We may interpret Jesus’ will as His commands. They and other ways the church has violated His will were vital base-level requirements Jesus tied to the effectiveness of those who would take His name to ever accomplish His will.
John 13 – 34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
John 17 – 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Notice Jesus said these commands had conditional promises attached – major life and death promises with vast ramifications. Namely, He said keeping these would create a witness and testimony. In John 13 Jesus said if those who took His name loved one another as He loved them, “all men know that ye are my disciples.”
This speaks of a witness far more powerful than a well-researched proof from Christian apologetics.
The Lord likewise said in John 17 a powerful witness would be had if unity were maintained by a people who are one “that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. … that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
Other non-negotiable conditions Jesus called for were:
• Separation from the world as defined by Him and the apostles, in the spirit of this truth, and revealed by the Holy Spirit
• Not loving the world, not sharing in its sins or tastes or ways and mindsets as defined by Jesus and the apostles, in the spirit of this truth, and revealed by the Holy Spirit
• Standing apart from the world to demonstrate what a “special people,” “royal priesthood,” and “holy nation” could be (1 Peter 2). The “light” they were supposed to shine would glorify the Father in heaven as a witness and testimony to fallen sinful man to repent, and against the kingdom of Satan.
• NOTE: Peter uses many terms the Old Testament used of the Jews who once were called to be His special people and holy nation above all others. Peter is saying this has been delegated to those in the New Covenant. God’s people were to be the greatest proof of God – living epistles, as embassies of the kingdom of God on earth populated by citizens of another realm – spiritual ones filled with Jesus.
Galatians 2:20 – I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
More non-negotiable aspects of God’s will for the Christians:
• Knowing God (John 17:3, Hebrews 8:11), not just knowing about God
• Embracing the mission that incorporates the Great Commission as a sub-item of the overarching mission of the apostles:
Ephesians 4 – 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
More non-negotiable aspects of God’s will for the Christians:
• To know Jesus’ voice, and not follow a stranger (John 10)
• To know Jesus as your direct teacher (by His Spirit).
John 6 – 45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God.
God did not say He left only a book and man alone with his brain to do his level best to figure it out. He said He was giving us “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). He is “Immanuel” – God within us. Jesus said He was our teacher! It takes an awakened spirit to know the depth of this, and one meeting the conditions of surrendered discipleship to find this narrow way and be kept from error.
1 Corinthians 2 – 2 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 8 – 2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.
More non-negotiable aspects of God’s will for the Christians:
• To seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
• To not make flesh (mind or intellect) your strength, but to know Christ in you, the hope of glory
These and other non-negotiable aspects of God’s will were necessary, God says, to create a congruent and powerful witness. Nowhere is it written God asked for anything less. To do less is to disobey. We may then conclude church history has been marked by flesh and disobedience even in the name of the Lord!
To presume to take the name of the Lord and then do only what “seems right” to religious leaders and individual Christians influenced by them is the real meaning of “taking the name of the lord in vain.” It is to take His name in vain, for nothing, illegitimately and of none effect. No one today is unaffected by these truths.
Ultimately the Christian life is a test of a person’s heart and measure of the actual caliber of a person’s love – if we love Him, we will keep His commandments.
To break God’s will is to not be free of consequences. What Christian history has become is an example of the “law of unintended consequences.” What has happened from the beginning is God has had to grapple with and work within the context of a people largely operating from their religious flesh. They made themselves a problem for God to work through, and He must deal with these unintended consequences as His people deviate from the straight path of the Lord.
The religious flesh, if persisted in, brings on a spiritual blindness, and may provoke God to turn them over to strong delusion. A religious person who is reliant on their intellect may even agree to this much, but be much more able to see where this applies to others, but not one’s self. The blind often do not know they are blind.
That’s because religious flesh is the same as making flesh your strength, which invokes a curse:
5 Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his [b]strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.
Amazingly, the religious flesh is the occupational hazard of the born again, and it has dominated the Christian faith since the second century.
Religious flesh is the same problem that was the undoing of the Pharisees and Saducees of Jesus’ day. These were the acknowledged experts in the scriptures. They knew and taught the way of God as it was then known (the law of Moses), and all the rest of the teachings of the scriptures. But Jesus rebuked them sorely in Matthew 23. Read that passage and try to see how many parallels are there in the Lord’s rebuke of people who set themselves up as the authorities, and ones to listen to concerning the things of God.
Since the foundation of the Christian faith, every mistake by Christians like in kind to those made by errant Jews can be tied to the religious flesh. It is what gave rise to every error of the Roman Catholics and in too many ways the Protestants who never restored the church to the apostles’ mission as given by Jesus Christ. The lie – the false narrative – of the Protestant Reformation is that it largely fixed problems. No it did not, it too was marked by religious flesh 1) maintaining too close relations and alliance with the world and its ways and means, likes and dislikes; 2) relying on the earthly mind and Bible scholarship with a mind who cannot hear Jesus’ correcting voice to keep theologians and Christians from error, 3) A clergy-laity model which between the lines sends a message of two classes of Christian – an upper class expected to keep a higher standard of disipcleship, and a lower class, with lower expectations.
Proof religious flesh is the root problem.
Galatians 5:20 identifies heresies – false teachings – as a work of the flesh.
And Jesus said to test by fruit. Fruit equals results.
The results of the faith as it has been practiced in Jesus’ name have been a Christian world doing everything Jesus said not to do but in a majority of cases numbed out, undiscerning, unconcerned, even celebrating purported Christian experiences in this context.
The fruit of church history has been tens of thousands of divisions within a people commanded to be united as one. It has been a people known as much for sin, scandal, corruption, and contradictions and irreconcilable differences between so-called followers of the one true God.
It is categorically impossible everyone be right (in their interpretational views) therefore so many must be wrong. That there is even this problem of so much division is itself a problem, the evidence that religious flesh is on the loose.
God never contradicts Himself – not in scripture, nor in His voice spoken to those who claim they hear Him. Further God has a vested interest in His children’s success – 1) for the salvation of billions, both those who are outside the faith, and those who name the name of Christ but are in grave error, and will hear “depart from Me worker of iniquity.”
His will was to make a short work on the earth before His second coming, but instead His people forced Him to do damage control, and work where He can, how He can, with whom He can – trying to get the attention of the indoctrinated to actually tune into Him.
Of course religious flesh is the kissing cousin to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4). Disobeying God does give place to the devil, who may appear as an angel of light. Much could be said about how this works, but we can save that for another day.
The scriptures warn in abundance that humans of the flesh can be so wrong and never know it. They can be sure they are following the faith yet hold to gross errors and a wrong understanding of the whole purpose of God and never be corrected because their data input is via their gray matter, and they are not attuned to the correcting Master’s voice.
And birds of a feather flock together, goes the saying, so there are others who will see things along a similar lines. This is how denominations are formed – the Methodists, Mennonites, Southern Baptists, the church of Christ, the NAR Charismatics, all of them. These mutually support and validate the viewpoint of the group, and help reinforce views derived by minds not holding fast to the Head.
Second Corinthians 10 describes ideologies and thoughts and ideas that are held as true by people who are in bondage to a mass delusion, a “stronghold.”
2 Corinthians 10 – 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Solution
The solution is to stop, pray, ask the Lord if what you have read is so. Tell Him you want only His will, and to lead you into all truth. Tell Him you want to know Him and be enabled to keep His will. Tell Himn every day and learn what the will of the Lord is.
And this is the meaning of what Jesus said when He said “Come to Me.” The religious Jews He contended with neither heard God’s voice, nor were so willing, and the same problem is true even from Christians who know these principles (in their mind).
John 5 – 37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Jesus Christ gives us Himself. A Christian is one who is supposed to have Christ dwelling in them, and who knows Him deeply, intimately, and not a mere mental construct, or worse, a substitute spirit of false religion.
The true Christian life is not a cheap easy thing. God gave His life, and says He wants us to give our life in return – really – without redefining terms, or grading ourselves on a curve or stretching the bounds of grace. The full meaning of “grace” is the power to live a life we can never in the flesh. The full meaning of grace is to be given the space to seek and find the true Creator, our Lord, and know Him in a way the religious flesh may document, but never really know in truth.
Those who will not do this may include those whose hearts do not want all of God. Those who do not this may include those taken captive by spirits of false religion. Those who do not do this may include those who have no taste for true spirituality. Those who do not do this may be more comfortable using their earthly reasoning and cognitive faculties instead what looks like an unsure way of learning to hear Jesus’ voice. Those who do not do this may include those who are unwilling to die to self.
Those who do not do this are those who really do not love God, as shown by their actions, not what they say, think or feel.
May the Lord bless you.
