Thursday, October 29, 2015

JESUS IN A BOX

   If people are not moved by the death of Christ, neither will they be moved by the Lord's resurrection.  For if people do not believe that Jesus died, how can they believe that He ever lived?
   But to believe in the Lord's resurrection from death, then people will believe that Jesus has the power of God:  for only God can renew life in a dead body.
   Moreover, if people do not believe in the Bible, how can they believe in Jesus in the Bible?
   The answer is simple:  Jesus has been cast as an image in the minds of people, so that Christ is neither dead nor living, but is the same as an idol within the imaginations of people:  or even an idol among many idols.  But this image of Jesus is not about Jesus in the Bible, for it is an image that has been built in their minds by other people, or an image they created with their own imaginations, so that they have a Jesus of their own making.
   How, then, can people say they are Christians if they do not believe in Jesus in the Bible?  Or if they do not believe in the Lord's death and resurrection?
   How, then, can people speak of Jesus if they do not believe that He is living now?  Is their Good News or Gospel of Christ the story of a dead man instead of a risen Savior?
   God forbid!
   For the first three hundred years after the ascension of Jesus, Christians did not have church buildings.  But when this simple belief in Christ was converted in Rome to a religion called Christianity, Jesus was placed in a box---and the lid was closed and sealed.
   Even as the world looks at Christianity today, what do people see when they see Christians inside their buildings with the doors closed?  What do people of the world see when they look at Christian music concerts?  Or what do people of the world see when they see you and me?
   As stated previously and many times, religion is the greatest method of mind control that man has invented on the face of the earth.  Even within Christianity, many people are under mind control:  for it is not Christ that people on the outside see as they look at the people on the inside of buildings because the people on the inside have become a reflection of their religion and not Christ. 
   For what do people see when they see me leave the building?  Do people see me as a reflection of Christ, or do they see me as a reflection of my own methods of living?
   For it is not really all that important how people see me on the inside of a building:  it's how they see in me outside of the building that matters most.
   Christianity has methods, and when people are taught to adhere to the methods, the people can believe they are Christians because of their obedience to the methods.  Therefore, their minds have been converted to a Christian religion and not to Christ, for the garment they wear is a reflection of their methodology instead of Christ the Lord.
   With Jesus in a box, the Lord can be no more than image in my mind---mixed and blended, stirred and shaken---and my church has become my religion in which Christ is no more than an ingredient of a recipe because my methodology is the same as a teaspoon of this, a dash of that, and a jigger of something else:  so that my churchy religion is not about Christ, but about ME!
      How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent?  as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things? (Romans 10: 14-15)
   If we consider the evidence of religious Christianity, which has Jesus in a box, does the evidence become evidently clear that churches are in need of preachers instead of speakers for religion?

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