OK, I am on my laptop now so a bit easier to respond when you haven't posted outside the quote box.
Deeje said:
A Feel-Good Religious Culture
Commenting on the situation in the United States,
Newsweek magazine candidly stated: “Many clergy, who are competing in a buyer’s market, feel they cannot afford to alienate.” They fear that if they make great moral demands on their hearers, they will lose them as parishioners. People do not want to hear that they should cultivate humility, self-discipline, and virtue or that they should heed their nagging conscience and repent of their sins. Hence, many churches are adopting what the
Chicago Sun-Times called “a therapeutic, utilitarian, even narcissistic ‘all about me’ Christian message [and] leaving the gospel behind.”
The outgrowth of this type of thinking is a religious culture that defines God in its own terms, churches whose focus is, not on God and what he requires of us, but on man and what will increase his self-esteem. The sole aim is to cater to the needs of the congregation. The fruit is religion emptied of doctrine. “What fills the hole at the center, where the Christian moral code used to be?” asks
The Wall Street Journal. “An ethic of conspicuous compassion, where ‘being a nice person’ excuses everything.”
Logically, the harvest from all of this is the attitude that any religion with a feel-good effect is just fine. Anyone adopting such a view, observes
The Wall Street Journal, “can embrace any faith, so long as it makes no real moral demands—consoles but does not judge.” And the churches, in turn, are willing to accept people “exactly for who they are,” without making any moral demands on them.
The foregoing may remind Bible readers of a prophecy penned by the apostle Paul in the first century C.E. He said: “There will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; and they will turn their ears away from the truth.”—
2 Timothy 4:3, 4.
When religious leaders excuse sin, deny its existence, and ‘tickle’ the ears of their congregants by telling them what they want to hear instead of what the Bible says, they are doing people a grave disservice. Such a message is false and dangerous. It represents a travesty of one of the fundamental teachings of Christianity. Sin and forgiveness occupy a central position in the good news taught by Jesus and his apostles.
Excerpt from
Sin—What Has Changed? — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY
So has the definition of sin morphed into a definition of permissiveness? Will the churches answer for their failure to uphold the teachings of the one they claim to worship?
Jesus said:
Matthew 22:36-40
36 “Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus answered:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. 38 This is the first and most important commandment.
39 The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself.”
40 All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets are based on these two commandments.
In 22:40 Jesus is referring to all Jewish Scriptures in the Old Testament.
Yep, love is what the whole of God's law was based on.....even the law on capital punishment. Love for the victim and for justice is served when the guilty are punished.
Love doesn't mean that you have to break any of God's laws to be happy. If you get happy by making God angry then you have defeated your whole purpose in worshipping him.
Jesus also stated that many of the old ritual laws were no longer in affect. For instance, he stated that he was the sacrifice so that sacrifices no longer should be made on the alter.
Jesus also said that there should be no more circumcision and that it is permissible to wear two types of fabrics together along with other changes.
The sacrificial laws no longer applied because Jesus said he came to fulfill the law....and he did. His sacrifice removed the need for any more animal blood to be shed. There was never any change to God's moral laws however. Jesus even returned the Jews to God's original standard for marriage.
Changes were even made in the Old Testament. In the Covenant with Noah,
Genesis 9:9-16, God told Noah that it was permissible to eat anything on earth.
Yet, in Leviticus, there were many laws stating that many things could not be eaten.
Interesting with Noah was that the animals that God brought to be included on the ark, God had stipulated that "clean" animals should be 7 in number....and "unclean" animals only 2. Since there was no consumption of animal flesh before the flood, in what sense were these animals considered "clean" or "unclean"? The first thing Noah did on coming out onto dry land was offer God a sacrifice of thanks.....the 7 "clean" animals were obviously the ones that were suitable for sacrifice. 3 breeding pairs, and one to offer to God in gratitude for their salvation.
So, one must carefully read scripture to ensure that the intent of Jesus is kept when reading the Old Testament. Everything must be measured in love.
Of course. There was no other scripture, and Jesus quoted from it all the time. Love motivated everything that Jesus did, yet his public castigation of the Pharisees and his cleansing of the temple of those who made it a "den of thieves", was not loving to those concerned, but motivated by love of God.
What I object to the most are those without love in their hearts who call themselves Christians.
Love is the identifying mark of true Christians. (John 13:34-35) This is a love that has to embrace even an enemy. It is expressed in many ways, both spiritually and materially, seeing a need and filling it according to one's circumstances.
It does not allow a Christian to raise their hand to harm a soul. As Paul said, we are fighting a war but not with carnal weapons...its a spiritual war, fought with spiritual weapons. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
What I object to second is that many churches preach the prosperity gospel to obtain money from parishoners when there is no such thing. The Bible, not only does not speak of the prospericy gospel,
but it states not to build up treasures on earth, to let God take care of our needs, to give to the poor, etc. These wolves in sheeps' clothings are defrauding people which does go against God.
They are lying when they say that they are Christians. They are not. If they were, they would have love toward others and would help others instead of building compounds and buying jet planes for themselves.
I agree....so does Jesus. Prosperity is measured in treasures in heaven, not on earth. Its our spiritual bank account that matters. Contributions are a necessary part of worship as Jesus said of those offering their money at the temple. But it was not to be pocketed for the benefit of the pastors, it was for the benefit of the sheep.
The one thing that impressed me about JW's is the fact that no one gets paid. All our elders are self supporting. If we make contributions at our Kingdom Halls, it goes where it is needed for disaster relief and for the support of missionaries and volunteers.
Those without love for their fellow man are not Christians because they are not following Jesus.
So, which behaviors are happening in churches which you object to?
I would echo similar sentiments to your own, but speaking personally, the thing that put me off my own church growing up, was the hypocrisy.
I heard in the 10 Commandments "Thou shalt not kill" and yet here were the churches supporting wars.
One of the local ministers in my area was offered a post as chaplain to the military, which rated him the salary...of a Captain. He left his local church with no minister to take up an offer of more money.
In another area where I lived the local Pastor was an avid golfer. Whilst others were mowing his lawns and offering to clean the church, he was on the golf course. Well, he was offered a post serving the professional golfing circuit and did the same as the other one. Left his church with no minister so that he could go off and pursue his real passion.
I saw pastors living the good life off the money put in the contribution plate passed around each Sunday. It was almost a competition as to who would put in the most money each week. My folks didn't always go to church but they sent money with us kids each week we went to Sunday School. We couldn't afford much but if we missed a week they would come to the house to collect it. When my father died very suddenly, no one came to comfort or help my mother....yet they still turned up to collect their money. I never did see much good in any of them. Some good people, but not much good in the leadership.
It wasn't until I really studied the Bible that I realized how far the churches have strayed from the Christianity taught by Jesus.
Once your eyes are opened, you will never see them the same way again.