I Am Giving Up Christianity
Part One
Authors Note: This is my personal blog. Because I am a prophet, I will sometimes release a prophetic word via this venue. However, for the most part, A Cup of Coffee and a Slice of Heaven is meant to be one’s peek into my personal discourses with the Lord. With that having been said, the following discourse is not necessarily a prophetic word per se. It’s just a discourse and my struggle with the season. If anything confirms in your spirit; amen. If not, I prayerfully suggest you tuck it away for a later time. We test all things by the Spirit of God and keep the good (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
I have been struggling with some things for some time now. By now most of my sphere of influence knows this. I have been disappointed and angry. I am frustrated and a little confused. Today, I finally admitted what I have only alluded to in cryptic (and sometimes not so cryptic) posts and prayer. I finally admitted for the first time out loud, that I am embarrassed to be called a Christian. I said as much to the Lord. To my surprise, He sighed and said, “I can’t say that I blame you.”
I still love Jesus. I will always preach that He is the only way to eternal life. I grew up in church, but I didn’t actually receive Him as my Savior until I was twenty-one. I couldn’t really figure out how to make Him Lord, so I backslid. I tell people that although I knew that I had eternal life, I did not have a conversion experience until I was in my early thirties. That’s why I love Luke 7: 36-50. The woman in that story reminds me of me. I was so desperate for love and healing. When the Lord converted my heart, I was forever grateful. Jesus has forgiven me much, so I love Him much. To this day, I still weep grateful tears at His feet, and I worship Him with tearful abandon.
I consider myself to be pretty conservative. If the bible calls it sin; I call it sin. As a minister, I don’t have the luxury of making exceptions based on my opinions. However, as one who was like the woman in Luke 7, I struggle with disregarding or rejecting anyone; whether I agree with their lifestyle choices or not. It has taken YEARS for the Lord to bring me to the place where I am, and He continues to work on me daily. I can’t afford to be judgmental, or to try to control another’s journey with Him because I know the process: It’s easy to make Him Savior. That’s a gift. It takes a lifetime to make Him Lord. That’s a choice. Jesus gives us all choices, and spiritually we all have a level playing field. Either we want the life He offers, or we don’t. I believe that as followers of Christ our job is to be living epistles. To be men and women of God who sometimes get it right, but who often get it wrong. We have one thing in common. We have been forgiven much, so we love much.
I have been confident and proud to call myself a Christian until recently. I have watched as a movement that began as followers of Christ, who wanted a voice in government, become twisted into something else. I love the idea of Christians living in the world wanting the impact the world through Christ; however, the moniker “Conservative Christianity” has taken on a meaning that does not reflect love, acceptance, and liberty. What started as a movement to change the world is…well, I don’t know what this is, but it is not Christ-centered, nor is it is changing the world. When did Christianity become a political machine that makes deals with the devil in order to gain control and political influence?
One of the reasons that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did not believe he was the Messiah, was because Isaiah prophesied that the “government would be upon His shoulders (Isaiah 9:6). Because Jesus did not come to overturn the oppressive Roman government, He could not possibly be the Messiah. They didn’t understand that Jesus did not come to upset the natural government. What need did he have to forcibly take a government that was created by human hands? He said it in Isaiah 66:
This is what the Lord says,
“Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.
Where, then, is a house that you could build for Me?
And where will My resting place be?
2
“For all these things My hand has made,
So all these things came into being [by and for Me],” declares the Lord.
Where, then, is a house that you could build for Me?
And where will My resting place be?
2
“For all these things My hand has made,
So all these things came into being [by and for Me],” declares the Lord.
He came to establish a new government; one in which anyone who would believe could be a citizen. That’s why Paul writes that Christ in and among us is the hope of God’s eternal glory. As believers, our job is to build a spiritual Kingdom, not overthrow a natural one. Our bricks are the people who come into relationship with Christ. Our mortar is the Holy Spirit. Our cornerstone is Jesus Christ. Our current plan to dominate this natural kingdom called the United States through legislation and scheming is rooted in religion and idolatry. It is a testament to the futility of humanity, not the glory of a risen Christ.
I believe that God knew that the hearts of men were inherently wicked. He knew that they would create doctrines and denominations that were rooted in the spirit of offense, fear, religion, and control. He knew that as the Body of Christ, we would not even be able to agree on what day to worship. He knew that we would build churches that were split by doctrine, race, and class. So He gave businessmen the wisdom to establish a country where one could worship when and how they chose without fear of control by the government.
He gave fallible men an infallible plan, and it worked. We have this wonderful country that relies on a system of government that limits power, but gives voice and opportunity to its citizens. He provided a country that assures equality despite not offering equity and promises liberty and justice for all. Despite God’s infallible plan, the founding fathers had the same issue that men have struggled with from the beginning of time. The struggle of man is arrogance, willfulness, and self-deception and idolatry. When we open these doors, we cannot control what comes in as a result. Americans ascribed to a doctrine called Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny is the belief that our nation is God-given, therefore it is justified and inevitable that expansion in the U.S. would occur. We killed in the name of God. We enslaved in the name of God. We destroyed an indigenous people and their resources in the name of God. We stole the civil rights of others in the name of God. We went to war in the name of God. And now we want to legislate morality in the name of God. We repeatedly repent on behalf of the sins of our nation, but we fail to turn away from our idolatry. Each time we justify an over-policing, we bow down to an idol god. Each time we voice disapproval at a mass killing but refuse to regulate gun laws, we sacrifice to an idol god. When we let a child die in poverty and refuse to help the homeless because “they ought to get a job”, we sacrifice to an idol. When we justify the evil actions of an elected official because he’s willing to accomplish the agenda we set, we sacrifice to an idol. When we tolerate or even- God forbid celebrate racism and sexism, we bow down to an idol. Every time we build another edifice or host another conference but leave a trail of broken, unhealthy, unloved and unrenewed souls in the wake, we sacrifice to an idol.
Democracy has not failed. The day that Christianity became an organization instead of an organism, we failed. The day the national anthem became more important than Amazing Grace, we failed. We fail because seventy percent of the women who have chosen abortion identify as Christian. We fail because fifty-four percent of Christian men look at porn at least once a month. We fail because half of all Christian marriages end in divorce. We fail because there are pastors bragging about their racist theology on social media. We fail when we justify a rape culture, and ignore the abuse of women. When prophets create video messages instructing Americans who to vote for, but will not leave the lucrativeness of the church to witness to a dying world, we fail. We fail because we curse the LGBTQ community and drive them from the ONLY one that can help them. Yet the church’s perversion rivals the hedonism of Babylon. Epic Fail. We fail because we hate everyone else’s sin, but we justify our own. We fail because we build expansive campuses on the backs of people who are living in poverty. We fail when we travel to the ends of the earth to build a well, provide schools, or rebuild a city, or to worship in Israel, but we ignore the cries of the broken hearted and the impoverished in our own country. When we reject those whose religion we hate, but refuse to evangelize, we fail. When we call the social justice that Jesus taught us “secularism,” and “cause oriented,” we utterly fail. Jesus said we should have done one without neglecting the other. We get an F.
The legislated sin we see in our democracy is the result of a broken and hardened heart of a people who have traded prophecy for politics, reputation for repentance, events for evangelism, a ministry for money, and judgment for justice. We have seen only fruitlessness in our ranks because our best efforts are missing one thing: The Christ, and the government that is upon His shoulders. A conservative platform cannot fix that. Deals with ungodly men cannot fix that. Religion cannot fix that. Another legislative action cannot fix that. As a nation, we are in trouble, and the Christians have to own their part. The church isn’t a reflection of the world. The world is a reflection of the church. We did this, and we will reap the full harvest of what we have sown. That’s not the Christianity that I signed up for, and I quit.
To Be Continued in Part II