People who identify as Christian are arguably the biggest misrepresentation of Christianity. The reason is that while people who identify as Christian will acknowledge God’s existence and acknowledge Jesus as the son of God, they do not necessarily live by the teachings of the Bible. They are what we could say are “false disciples.”
In Matthew chapter 7, verses 21-23, Jesus states Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Also in the gospel of John, chapter 4, verse 15, Jesus states If you love me, you will keep my commandments. In other words, a true disciple lives his/her life in obedience to the teachings of Jesus.
It is easy to judge a belief system by observing the people who identify themselves as members of that belief system; but this is not how we should learn about a belief system. We should learn about a belief system by observing the behaviors and deeds of the founder of that belief system, and by reading the scriptures of that belief system. For example, if we want to learn about Christianity, we should study the New Testament, and read about the behaviors and deeds of Jesus, who is the founder of Christianity. If we want to learn about the Muslim faith, then we should study the Quran. If we want to learn about the Jewish faith, then we should study the Old Testament.
When we study the New Testament, we will find that there are many teachings of Jesus that are pretty different from the mainstream lifestyle in western culture. Living by the teachings of Jesus means that we are not to have any sexual relations outside of marriage. We are not to utter curse words. We are never to lie; even “white lies” are forbidden. We are not supposed to get drunk; many followers of Jesus avoid alcohol altogether. If someone is mean to us, we are not supposed to “return evil for evil”. We are not supposed to be materialistic, so getting rich is not a priority for any follower of Jesus. Furthermore, we are commanded to observe communion on the first day of the week, and we are supposed to read and study the Bible on a regular basis.
The overwhelming majority of people who identify as Christian do not live out the teachings described above. They are, therefore, a false representation of Christianity.
Christian Churches
The overwhelming majority of Christian churches also are misrepresentations of Christianity. They often tell people what they want to hear, which is that they can live whatever way they want, and as long as they are not “really bad” they will be saved.
Let us say that you commit a crime, and the sentence for your crime is life in prison; but someone who committed no crime himself decides to undergo your punishment in your place. Now you do not have to go to prison after all. Does that mean you go out and re-commit the crime? Hopefully not. Such an act would be a slap in the face to the person who went to prison in your place. Hopefully you will feel grateful that someone has undergone the punishment in your place, and you will try to make the most of your time outside of prison from now on.
This scenario is analogous to what Jesus did for us according to the Christian faith. We all did something wrong at some point in our lifetimes, and the sentence for our wrondoings is to be tormented and destroyed in hell. Jesus, however, who committed no sin in his lifetime, suffered for our sins in our place and experienced death. If we come to believe that Jesus died for our sins, and we decide to live a life of obedience to Jesus from now on, then all of our previous wrongdoings are forgiven, and we no longer have to go to hell.
According to the New Testament scriptures, Jesus is the founder and head of the Christian church, as it states in the book of Ephesians, chapter 5 verse 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, he himself being the Savior of the body. Yet many Christian churches were founded by men. Examples include the Episcopal church, the Catholic church, the Mormon church, the Methodist church, etc.
Each of these churches has its own set of teachings that do not come from the Bible. The Catholic church has the catechism. The Episcopal church has the Book of Episcopal. The Mormon church has the Book of Mormon. Some of these man-made teachings contradict teachings of the New Testament. For example, some priests are addressed as “Father”, but the Bible states in gospel of Matthew, chapter 23 verse 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
The New Testament warns about false teachings and false prophets. It states that you can tell a true prophet from a false prophet by whether or not his/her predictions of the future come to pass. We can detect false teaching based on whether or not they match the teachings of the Bible.
Neither the Christian churches nor the people who identify as Christian are going to give you an accurate view of Christianity. You will have to read the Bible yourself. Fortunately, there is a minority of Christian churches that do operate based on the Bible teachings, and their members believe that no teachings are to be added to the Bible or taken away.
Christian Cults and Mind Control
Some people outside of the Christian faith see Christianity as a bunch of man-made mind control. This concern is understandable given that a number of Christian cults through history have manipulated otherwise good people into doing bad things, and have often used fear of hell to scare people into obedience. These cults, once again, are another false representation of Christianity. We know that a cult, or any church, is a misrepresentation of Christianity when its teachings are not in the New Testament. Another red flag that a church is corrupt is when it forbids or discourages its members from reading the Bible themselves. Indeed, if their members read the Bible themselves, they are likely to see discrepancies between the teachings of the Bible and the teachings of the church.
I was once in a church that was known for being a cult, though I did not know this at the time. This cult was certainly not one of the more dangerous cults, but like any cult, members believed that this church was the only true Christian church, and that members in all other churches were doomed to go to hell. They did study the Bible, but not all of it, and some of their beliefs and the way they did things went against Bible teachings, as I found out later. First, they believed that good works save you and not faith. Their reasoning was that demons will acknowledge God’s existence, and they are not saved.
While this is true, the Bible does distinguish between a saving faith and a dead faith in the book of James, chapter 2. Chapter 2 of the book of James explains that a simple acknowledgement of God’s existence does not save you, but a faith in God that drives you to action does save. When the Bible states that faith is what saves, what it is really referring to is faithfulness or loyalty to God. The saving faith is more than just acknowledging God’s existence. It is about loving God and living the lifestyle that God commands us to live. The good works that you do are simply evidence that you are saved.
Other verses such as Ephesians 2:8-9 explain that faith saves and not good works, “so that no one may boast”. In other words, getting into the kingdom of heaven is not something we can boast about because we did not earn our place in God’s kingdom ourselves. Jesus earned it for us. Even if we do the mighty works described in the gospel of Matthew, such as driving out demons in the name of Jesus, if we are not obedient to God’s commandments, then we will not have a place in the kingdom of heaven.
The problem with believing that good works is what saves us—aside from that it goes against the Bible’s teachings—is that no matter how many good works we do, we will always wonder if we are doing enough. Christian cults that teach their members to rely on good works for salvation can cause their members to pour exorbitant amounts of time and money into the church while always feeling like they could be doing more.
While I was in this church that turned out to be a cult, I had a “discipler” assigned to me. This discipler kept an eye on me and made sure I was going to every Sunday morning service and every Bible study. If I missed any, then my discipler shamed me. It felt wrong because I was an adult in my 30s, not a 9-year-old skipping school. Yet another big red flag was that when they saw that I was interested in reading more of the Bible, they told me not to. They told me to “…do what we say, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” I eventually left this church after I found out that it was known for being a cult. Although they were taking the time to teach me the Bible, I figured that they were teaching me the Bible from their perspective, and only the parts of it that they wanted me to know.
Since I had left this cult, I have only joined churches that operate based on the Bible’s teachings, and not man-made teachings. No disciplier was assigned to me in any other church I had joined, and I was encouraged to study the whole Bible.
Christianity in its true form is not mind control, but man-made institutions that associate themselves with Christianity can be mind-controlling. In reality, God gives us all free will. He wants us to follow Him because we love Him, not because of fear, or because we are robots programmed to follow Him. For example, when you have friends, you want your friends to choose to be your friends out of free will, not because they are robots that are programmed to be your friends, or because they are afraid that some terrible punishment will fall on them if they choose not to be your friends. You want them to choose to be your friends because they love you and find your company to be rewarding. God wants the same thing from us.
Faith and Evidence
Already discussed is the myth that a simple acknowledgement of God’s existence is enough to save you. Another myth about faith is that faith means believing in something despite the lack of evidence.
Biblical faith is believing in things unseen, but is still based on evidence. In other words, our God may be invisible, but we still believe that He exists because of the evidence for his existence. We were not alive in ancient times to observe the life and miracles of Jesus, but we still believe that they happened.
Atheists have faith that historical events happened even though they were not there to see them. Atheists generally believe that Socrates, Aristotle, Plato and Alexander the Great existed even though they were not alive to see them. The reason is evidence in the form of archaeological findings and historical documents. The same goes with the existance and life of Jesus. The gospels are eye-witness accounts of the life of Jesus. While some of the events of the gospels may not match everybody’s idea of realistic, eye witnesses were still there to see these miraculous events, and four of these eye-witnesses wrote the gospels.
Lee Strobel used to be an atheist who worked as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. He thought of God as one big fairy tale that he would never believe in, and he decided to investigate where the Bible came from in order to prove that the Bible had no truth and was just a bunch of made up stories. He interviewed biblical scholars at universities, discussing with them corroborating evidence between the Bible and other historical documents; archaeological findings; the fulfillment of divine prophecy and how long the gospels were written after the events happened. Lee Strobel not only failed to prove that the Bible was wrong, he converted to Christianity himself. He saw so much evidence behind the Bible as the word of truth that he came to believe it takes faith to not believe in God. He tell his story in his book A Case for Christ.
What does it mean to convert to Christianity?
Conversion to Christianity comes by hearing the word of God in the Bible, believing it, choosing to repent from a life of sin and getting a baptism.
Baptism is a ritual that a convert goes through when the convert has decided to live the rest of his/her life for Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit. In the baptism, the convert is briefly immersed in water. The ritual represents the death of the old sinful self and the birth of the new self that now lives for God. This is what they mean “born-again Christian”.
VERY GOOD ARTICLE!