“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23:13 NIV).
“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52 NIV)
While basking in the sweet embrace of the Gospel message over the last thirty years, there remains yet one recurring experience which continues to bring a deep sense of remorse and a lingering frustration. It is that of attending a Christian church service no matter what the denomination. Practically without exception, the minister will deliver a message which sets forth ample Biblical evidence for a belief in the steadfast love of the Father for all His children. Right on cue however, lest the congregation be left in a Gospel induced state of rest, he feels duty bound to drop one or more of the counterweight verses which serve to completely pull the rug right out from under any eternal security one may have inadvertently absorbed from the previous exhortation. And if by some oversight he does not provide these balancing scriptures in the last half of that sermon, he will certainly make up for it with a vengeance in the following Sunday’s message.
One way or another the message gets conveyed: “Make no mistake about it folks, God does love you but his patience is wearing thin and is liable to give way at any second, sending the likes of failures such as yourself tumbling down to the place of eternal torment of which you so richly deserve.”
Now to hear God’s eternally longsuffering nature profaned at a Hell’s Angels convention would be relatively easy to take. It’s expected. Even in a religious service outside of Christianity I would understand in advance that the Gospel could not be proclaimed in its fullness since the Author of that fullnessis unknown there. But when it comes to a Christian Church service it is always so difficult for me to accept that the Gospel will once again be denied a hearing. The preachers come so close to it, even at times reading the very words which clearly proclaim it and yet through their lack of understanding, end up missing it by a million miles. You know, just when it gets to the “happily ever after” part of the story they quickly punctuate it with an outburst of… “psyche!”… “just kidding folks”… “it really doesn’t mean what it says there, that would obviously be just too good to be true… and here’s why…”
These very same preachers however, seem to have no problem pointing out the tragic narrow mindedness of the Pharisees in failing to allow for God’s grace to extend beyond the bounds of their own elite group. Yes, the Pharisees are regularly blasted from Christian pulpits, and rightly so, for following the letter of the Law only, while neglecting the “weightier matters”, thus laying an impossible burden on the people of Israel that even they themselves could only pretend to carry.
They relished their position as guardians of the door to the Kingdom which was meant to be opened to all. Being the semi self appointed gatekeepers that they were, they had determined that only those of the Jewish nation were deemed eligible even of consideration for entry through that door, and then only upon evidence of a solid track record of strict adherence to the Law. They had lost sight, whether purposefully or not, of the ultimate inclusive nature of the promise handed down through their father Abraham. Blissfully unaware that they had not been chosen for any exceptional performance or inherent good on their part but rather only to be a channel of blessing to all nations, they proceeded to promote and to proclaim an exclusive Israel-centric club mentality to the world at large, all the while believing their blood line to be by its very essence, superior.
After a thousand years or so of living under this illusion, along came a Jewish Rabbi who, unlike the Pharisees, was recognized by the people to have spoken with intrinsic authority. And from that place of authority, he often made reference to the “expansion” of God’s favor to the Gentile peoples of the world. On more than one occasion he even pointed to examples of where the faith or virtue of those outside of Israel had risen above that of the Jewish people. Of course, nothing incensed the Jewish leadership more than the hearing of these generous concessions made to the undeserving Gentile dogs. Consequently, it was primarily towards these same self righteous leaders that Jesus would direct the focus of his own wrath throughout the course of his entire ministry on earth.
Unable to stop him by any other means, they eventually had him hung on a cross, thinking finally to put an end to the steadily growing throngs of followers attracted both to his person and to the “blasphemous” message he proclaimed. But as history has amply borne out, just the opposite effect on the Christian movement was achieved by this heinous crime. Upon news of his resurrection, the new Church multiplied at an “alarming” rate as his followers risked life and limb to obey his imperative to “… go unto all the world and preach the Gospel… to the Jew first and then to the Gentile”.
Now fast forward 2000 years and what do we find the current state of the Christian church to be in regards to their calling to lift up Christ so that He may “draw all men unto Himself”? Well, the faces have changed along with the robes, but human nature has not. What we witness is an organization which once again lifts up the faithful, that elite group of — in this case, Christian — soldiers who supposedly have stood steady to the end in adherence to the new Law of obedience to Christ. What in essence gets lifted up is not Christ at all, but rather man’s volition and will power as the ultimate saving power in the universe, second only we are told, to the destructive power of Darkness itself to which most of us will ultimately succumb.
Where the Bible plainly states that all sheep will be brought in to the fold, the Christian leadership says it really means some or worse yet, few. Where it states clearly that nothing can separate us from His love, they say that our choice to the contrary will nullify such a promise. Where it proclaims that it is His will to save everyone, they lament that it is our will, not His, which will ultimately triumph. (see blog posting: Our Freedom of Choice is Sacred and Absolute—ly Limited) At every turn, like their counterparts of old, they not only refuse to accept God’s gracious message themselves, but effectively deny even the possibility of its very existence despite all Biblical evidence to the contrary, thus blocking the way for any who would gladly accept it if only they would be allowed that opportunity.
It is this ‘sacred’ free will, they claim, that stands immune to the draw of Christ’s living demonstration of unconditional Holy Love. God’s will thus not withstanding in this man-centric model of reality, it is the overpowering attractiveness of Satan’s lure, not Christ’s, which will eventually bring the surrender of most of humanity to their own subhuman lusts.
Do understand that this misrepresentation of Good vs. evil as being some sort of cosmic contest whose outcome is uncertain, was not always in vogue. Some of the writings of the early Church fathers from the first few centuries clearly demonstrate their grasp of the reality that God is the only sovereign in the universe and would one day win the hearts and souls of all mankind. Even over the succeeding millennia at least a small remnant has managed to maintain that testimony, although not being well organized under any particular group affiliation. What has been widely promoted from the Christian pulpit in its stead, however is a teaching which only a Pharisee would perceive as “good” news. And so it has become that the new Pharisees have once again hidden the Gospel behind the veil, and truly… “few there be that find it”.
Each branch or denomination of Christianity has developed its own prescribed set of hoops that must be traversed in order to enter the Kingdom. By definition, these unnecessarily tack on a second participant to the unilateral promise of God. Salvation in this vein usually consists of some combination of verbal proclamation of faith in Jesus Christ along with some form of subsequent expectation of reasonably consistent acts of allegiance to said profession. A few examples here will suffice: the confession of faith must be public, or it must include baptism; perhaps it requires belief in Christ but with no subsequent denial, or it must be followed by some semblance of regular church attendance perhaps further confined to those services which occur on the authorized day of the week or within the correct building, with the right name over the entrance where the “one and only true” doctrine is taught and the correct form of the Lord’s Supper is practiced… and don’t ever forget the admonition in the Book of James that “faith without works is dead”. Others claim you must tithe at least 10% and nearly all would agree that there cannot exist any “repetitive” indulgence in partying, pornography, extramarital sex, lying, or envy and by all means no striving with the Holy Spirit (that elusive “unforgivable” sin), etc, etc., ad nauseam!
Don’t get me wrong. Most of these admonitions are good and honorable and even necessary perhaps (see the “No Cheap Grace, Reaping What You Sow” blog posting) but only within the over arching context of the truly unconditional nature of salvation. Otherwise these conditions simply boil down to an updated version of the Old Testament Law, nullifying the unilateral promise to Abraham. The guaranteed fulfillment of that promise is as misunderstood today by the current Christian leadership as it was by the Pharisees in the first century. In fact, there exists a close parity in the attempts by those leaders of old to stone Jesus for his speaking favorably of the “un-elect” of his day to what is figuratively practiced by members of the Church today. Just try mentioning to a modern Christian even the possibility of the salvation of Judas Iscariot for example (or some other ‘Judas’ they may know of such as Hitler or Manson or their ex-wife) and then duck if you would avoid having your head verbally severed by the sharply hurled slew of Bible verses to the contrary.
Unfortunately it is to the new self appointed ‘keepers’ of the book, the Christian Church – the new gate keepers – that the revelation of God’s intention to save all of humanity has by default been entrusted. But instead of gratefully embracing it and then spreading this world-transforming Good News to the ends of the earth, thereby actively facilitating the fulfillment of its predestined purpose to reconcile all things in Christ, they not only have flatly rejected it themselves but have taken all measures necessary to scare the Hell into anyone who might somehow otherwise manage to just accept it at face value… you know… as a child would!
And may God be merciful to those that would lead such a child astray!
Jesus had this to say about those who would hinder such simple faith:
…“If anyone causes one of these little ones — those who believe in me — to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:6 NIV)