{"id":193,"date":"2018-05-30T20:08:27","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T20:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=193"},"modified":"2023-10-15T18:24:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T18:24:20","slug":"problems-with-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=193","title":{"rendered":"Problems with Christianity?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As I was watching the news this morning I saw a TV evangelist justifying to his supporters the purchase of his 3rd<\/sup> private jet. He said something like, if Jesus were here today he wouldn\u2019t be riding a donkey. He was buying the plane because \u201cJesus told him to\u201d. All in the name of Jesus.<\/p>\n

A lot of people both within the church and outside the church, seem to be having problems with America\u2019s brand of Christianity. I am one.<\/p>\n

I hear the political pronouncements of religious leaders. I hear the seemingly hate-filled rhetoric as christians try to impose their moral standards on others condemning those who have different views. I attend churches\u00a0that seemingly have a greater emphasis on themselves\u2014numbers, buildings, institutions, rules, conformity and money\u2014 than on people, especially people different from them. I do not hear churches take stands on righteousness, equality, concern for the least, the powerless, the downtrodden, the lost. I do not hear Christians demand that our nation be the moral leader of the world. (I know there are a lot of churches and Christian leaders who do not follow the popular lead but they are seemingly in the minority. How many of you check out Red Letter Christians or Sojourner\u2019s websites.)<\/p>\n

Many people whether they are familiar with the New Testament or not, seem to sense a disconnect between what it seems to emphasize and what they perceive Christianity is about today.<\/p>\n

Maybe there is a disconnect. Maybe our New Testament churches are not as New Testament as they claim. I must confess that when I was a pastor I talked a lot about those very things, rules, numbers, buildings conformity, rather than the basic message of the Gospels. Jesus talked very little about rules, money, numbers and such things.<\/p>\n

The Gospel\u2019s emphasis is on two things:<\/p>\n

1. Jesus.<\/p>\n

2. The Kingdom of God(The place where Jesus rules).<\/p>\n

Maybe we need to repent \u2014 change our way of thinking \u2014and put our emphasis on Jesus and his Kingdom. I know I need to repent.<\/p>\n

I read someplace that real worship was when we <\/b>exchanged<\/b> our agenda for Jesus\u2019 agenda.<\/b> Jesus stated the agenda for his Kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. How many churches and church members have that as an agenda?
\nWhat would a church look like that lived out the Sermon On The Mount? What would a Christian look like that lived out the Sermon on the Mount? Was that \u201cPie-in-the-sky\u201d that Jesus said or was that Kingdom Principles for his followers. I believe that if we lived that out our society would have a different view of Christianity and the Church.\u00a0 Are we \u201cliving in the Kingdom\u201d if we do not?<\/p>\n

As followers of Jesus, we would be different, our Churches would be different and our nation would be different.<\/p>\n

That kind of Christianity is not easy. It is dangerous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I was watching the news this morning I saw a TV evangelist justifying to his supporters the purchase of his 3rd private jet. He said something like, if Jesus were here today he wouldn\u2019t be riding a donkey. He was buying the plane because \u201cJesus told him to\u201d. All in the name of Jesus. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}