In 1958 on the 7th of October I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
I can honestly refer to those times as related to Christianity, totally different to today.
The Bible remains the same throughout the ages and will never change, yet today we are preaching a different Cross, almost a different gospel.
Evangelists today use the same language as they did then, but the content and emphasis is not the same as before.
Whatever the world is after or demands, this new Cross will provide it. New Christians today, do not have their motivations changed to a God fearing life. We still live for our own pleasure, only now we take delight in singing choruses and watching religious movies. No longer do we sing questionable songs and drink hard liquor, yet we believe that we have arrived and are the only ones with the truth.
Each day and night we instruct God in our prayers as to what we expect of Him in his dealings with us. The new Cross of today does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It offers him a cleaner and jollier way of living. It offers prestige amongst fellow worshipers, but loses entrance into the lost. We no longer consider ourselves Prophets, but rather Diplomats. Neither do we lose or dare to bury the “Old life”, but simply raise it up to a higher plane. We are accustomed to compromising the truth, rather than issuing an ultimatum.
Without hard work and careful planning towards a financially secure future, we are encouraged by multi millionaire TV Evangelist exploiters, to plant our money as seed. This seed we are told, when planted into their Bank Account, will multiply our own finances and increase in volumes beyond our wildest dreams. Instead of questioning the validity of this, we who have fallen into the trap, will rather defend it in order not to appear guilty of making an unwise financial deposit, on the strength of a ridiculous promise.
In church we can be subjected to Brain washing, Mesmerizing and hypnosis. Witness the Lakeland Florida debacle or the Toronto Blessing.
The vocabulary of Preachers is somewhat reduced. Words like Hell, Punishment, Drunkenness, Sodomy, Adultery, and Abortion no longer exists. Preachers gladly accept the efforts of Liberals and the Politically Correct, who have assisted them in removing these terms, that they themselves also consider to be derogatory.
Where does the problem lie and what are the answers?
I leave this question open for discussion, in that they may be posted here for the group’s consideration.
Ron Payne