God is Dead:

The New Church and Its Deceptive Jesus:

Regarding the Hypocritical Hype

Moses Mikheyev, Senior Editor

Recently I have been exposed to a group of so-called Christians who have openly expressed their desire to worship “Jesus.” Their form of “worship” revolved around singing praise songs to Jesus and sitting in the pew during Sunday for two boring hours of service. Though I said nothing regarding this form of worship and service to Christ, they sure, on the other hand, had a lot to say about my form of worship. As always, these fundamentalist Christians had very strong opinions (as always, heavily based upon tradition rather than examined fact).  They continued stressing that I was not saved and they absolutely had a lot to say regarding my own salvation (they were, obviously, “saved”). I tried my best to refrain from arguing, but they continued stressing how right they were and they had a way of making me feel overly hated. One of the young ladies actually gave me that vibe that she really was disgusted with me; my only trouble with such Christianity, if you can call it such, is that Christ would have rather prayed for the salvation of the sinner rather than sat around and fumed with seething-white anger. Nevertheless, I was a sinner in their eyes, for not believing in their form of worship, and they made sure I knew that.

                As I sat their being harassed I realized my trouble: these so-called Christians were willing to be deceived; they were willing to stick their heads in the sand and die under the burden of man-made traditions. My other trouble was the difficulty of “preaching” a higher truth; there was no way that I could teach something “new.” Everything was figured out already; they knew it all. Though they probably couldn’t name the four gospels or Paul’s thirteen epistles, they were willing to make themselves appear like armchair theologians and Christ-centered Christians. I was disgusted. To be honest, I did not feel any sense of hate towards them; I felt only bitter shame and regret. I would have cried if the need arose. I could not believe how naïve people were; how willing they were to convince themselves that they were “right” and I (and others like me) were “wrong.” This was my greatest concern:  belief in God, the wrong God. Belief in a God is really a more dangerous idea than atheism. Believe you me, when people are convinced that God made them do something you are bound to run into trouble. (Look at the Muslims, sometimes “god” tells them to blow up others in an effort to spread world peace.) If someone is thoroughly convinced that God made them kill someone there is just no way you could convince the person otherwise. You see, with God, people become very dogmatic; come on, after all, it is God who told me to do this. People become very opinionated. They think that they are right and if they are right (God told them that they are right!) then everyone else is wrong. Belief in the wrong god is very dangerous; belief in an evil god, more so. I do not, for a second, argue that God does not exist. I am, on the contrary, arguing that God is all powerful and that a belief in a Greater Power allows people to be more confident; believing that God Himself is behind their so-called actions. Atheism, on the other hand, allows people to believe that only human power is all there is, and human power, as we all know, is very limited. On the contrary, God and His Powers are extremely endless. Thus, a person who believes that he is doing the “work of the Lord” can be expected to do things more confidently, dogmatically, and diligently. This was my greatest fear: I feared that if I, by any chance, believed in the “right” God, then these people were all deceived and their hate towards me would only decrease their chances of salvation. I needed to pray. So I did.

                I realized quickly that speaking to people things contrary to their faith is very disturbing to them; they get very defensive and would snap your neck, if God allowed, in a split second. I was like Paul, fighting the “beasts in Ephesus.” I was fighting though in my mind. I was not, in any sense, arguing loudly. Rather, I was humbly listening to others’ opinions and quietly stating my own. Through it all everything dawned on me: There was no hope; I could tell myself that there was, but I would only be fooling myself. Truth was to be hidden and man-made traditions were to be peddled continuously. I do not have the guts to do that. I listened to these so-called Christians speak about how great God is and how amazing Jesus is. I watched them laugh at me and heard how they later spread lies about me and twisted my words. I heard it all, I seen it all. This was modern-day Christianity for you with a pinch of salt and lots of hypocrisy. Jesus? Do you think I really believe that Christ was being “formed” (Gal. 4:19) in them?? I guess I can humbly shut up and tell myself that Christ was also a hypocrite, a gossiper, and a liar who deceived the masses. Such is their god. But not so. This is not who Christ is and if Christ is being formed in you I want to see the fruit of the Spirit. I do not claim to bear it, but I claim to believe in it. I guess for some of us Christ is just that t-shirt that you wear beneath your hooded jacket; I guess He’s just some moron that you lock up like a genie in a bottle and hide from the rest of the world; something to be seen only by those close to you and those “in the know.” Maybe our form of worship has become idolatry? I think that we need to recognize the effect that the forming of Christ in us should have. I do not, for a second, believe that Christ should be handed over to people who only shame Him and His Name. It is such a strange state that we are in! I want to yell out that Christ and Grace are absolutely free, but I also want to say that the change is going to be radical! Meeting God is going to be like getting run over by a sixty ton semi-truck! You will never stay the same. Never. You cannot claim to have met God and have remained the same. You cannot. You cannot claim to bear Christ and have His Spirit in you and continue to shame His Name. You cannot. Christ has come to help even that shaking reed. He did not come to destroy the weak and humble. But Christ did not come to have His Name be blasphemed and shamed and disgraced. It would only pain Him to see how easily we have all been led astray. It hurts to hand out Christ for free knowing that those unworthy will only disgrace His Holy Name; knowing that someone will stumble because of that so-called Christian. I guess that I wish that we could all just bear the fruit of the Spirit and live out the life of Christ. Not just internally, but also externally; not just spiritually and emotionally, but also physically. I really wish we could all just bear the fruit. Not sit around a table and argue out minute details about the latest theological theory. Rather, we should argue that Christ has come to set the sinner free and to produce others like Him. Not theologians, for Christ was not a theologian, but missionaries who serve their neighbors and their relatives and their friends and those abroad.

                After my meeting with these “Christians,” I observed them in worship. They looked fairly sincere and I almost bought into their hype. I almost stepped into that form of worship that is rather emotional but so deprived of the fruit. These were the same people that would praise His Name today and lie tomorrow. Not just lie, but lie that others lie. These were the same people who would pray for two hours straight and later go and sin against Him. It disturbed me. It disturbed me so much that I could not bear the pain. I could not sit back and watch people deceive one another. I wanted to yell, I wanted to shout. I could not hold still. Was Grace here? Was the Spirit of God present? Where is the fruit? What happened to Christ and His image?

                Maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe we should all continue in sin; maybe we should all worship Satan by night and God by day? Maybe we should just ignore everything I’ve seen, attribute it to delusion and illusion, and just continue singing Blessed Be the Name of the Lord? Maybe I should keep both eyes closed during worship and pretend that the person next to me is really experiencing God? But I am so sick of pretending. I am so tired of those who come before God and act as if everything is okay; those who praise God yet hold so much poison inside. Could we not all agree that we are all sinners? Is it not better for us to admit that we have sinned and just stand there and repent? Aren’t the same worship songs annoying you? Aren’t the same songs just annoying the living spirits out of God Himself? Does not God want the fruit? Does He really need our noisy worship service without the fruit of the Spirit? I do not think so.

                And so we come to our dilemma. We have come to the fork in the road and one side leads to emotional hype and loud music and the other side leads to complete and absolute silence; one side is just man-made traditional hype, while the other side leads to a silence where that “still, small voice” of Elijah is audible. Which will we choose? Will we choose to continue to jump at every drum beat or will we just admit that we have failed and try to find God in the silence? I do not need an answer. I have found my answer. It is you who are seeking an answer. You. You can look for it and you might find it. Do not think for a second that the answer is easy. There is so much at stake and so much involved. It is not that anything in worship is wrong. Nothing is wrong. It’s not that the sermons aren’t great; it’s just the fact that we have allowed too much room for hype; too much room for emotional crap that has gotten us nowhere. We have hung our harps. At least I have. “By the rivers of Babylon- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our harps” (Psalm 137:1 NRSV). I sat down by the rivers of Babylon and cried; not for the city, but for the people. It was only a few centuries ago that Isaiah spoke to the people the following:

“Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile…I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity…appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (1:12-17 NRSV).

Has anyone felt like reading this during worship service? I have felt like standing up and saying, “I hate your festivals. I hate your worship. I hate everything. All I want from you is just justice. Goodness. Do good.” I have felt like that, but that feeling usually is taken over by cowardice. Maybe we are all just scared to say that? Scared to admit that fact that God has turned His back on us and abandoned us. What if He has?

                So we have asked ourselves a timely question: Should we continue seeking God as if He did not exist or should we abandon the search and seek elsewhere? This is the question. Maybe we should stop acting as if God doesn’t exist. Exist? How? All too often we limit God and His Power; we make our services so perfect that no room is allowed for Him or His Spirit. We allow no room for “intruders.” We have just the right drumming, just the right worship songs, and just the right lighting. But we have forgotten God. He is there alright, He’s just not in the mood for music; He is there alright, He’s just sitting in the last row crying. He is so disoriented: He does not know what place He’s in. He can’t figure out whether He’s at a party, a show, a theater, a rock concert, a philosophic lecture, a debate, or a social club. He’s lost, genuinely lost. In fact, He is so lost that He is probably not even in “church.” He’s probably out there on a street corner seeking to help those who genuinely pray to Him and say, from the bottom of their hearts, “Lord, all I have is You. I do not have medical insurance, I do not have shelter, and I do not have peace and love. But I have You. Help me, please.” While we, with our arrogant smile and well-fed faces, sing out our hearts: “Lord, all I have is You.” Oh please! All you have is Me?! Are you kidding Me? Who are you trying to fool?! You do not need Me! You have everything! In your pride have you abandoned Me. There is nothing that you need. You only need yourself. You. It has always been about you. It has never been about me. But the worship songs…? Oh, that. That’s also for you and your enjoyment. Someone needs to show off their guitar skills! Someone needs to display their talent! It’s a theater! All you need is Shakespeare! You do not need Me.

                God has been abandoned. We have traded Him for our worship songs. We have traded Him for our pride. We have traded Him so that we could be exalted. It has always been about us, hasn’t it? And we have become so dogmatic! No one and nothing can stop us. We are all “saved.” We are all going to some heaven. Oh, God! What have we done with thee? Have we truly lost our way? Have we truly traded You in? I cannot believe it! I thought that the whole time I was getting points in Heaven (You are keeping score, right?). Humanity. This is what we have become. We like to think of ourselves as good people, serving God. We are all in the same boat. All of us. No one is moving anywhere. We only move if all of us move. Or so they say…

                I find it disturbing that we still consider ourselves serving God. I have abandoned that belief a long time ago. No one is serving God, he is only serving himself. To a lesser or greater extent, we are all trying to “get equal” with God; we are fighting to prove to Him that we are worthy of His Grace. That’s precisely what church has been all about. Who are you? Oh, me? I’m a pastor. What about you? Oh, I’m the usher. And you? I’m the guy getting five points every Sunday for being here. Nice. At least we have finally found someone honest; someone willing to admit why he came here.

                I hope that we realize the evil we are creating. I hope that Christians could realize that our being dogmatic is getting us nowhere; we are allowing no room for change and revolution. We need to change and we need to be revolutionized. But we cannot be if we continue to be stubborn and hard-headed. We cannot change if we continue to believe that what we do is of God and for God. We must decide what is of God and what isn’t. It is time for us to “judge righteously” (John 7:24). There is so much more to say; so much more to think about. But I think that God has heard enough. He is probably sore by now. We have allowed a water-down gospel to invade our church. We have allowed a “god” in that doesn’t really exist. And that “god” is us. The way it has always been.