Stumbling Over Our Christian Mistakes

INTRODUCTION The fact is: Christians who do not admit mistakes think that they are infallible. “Do it now and ask for forgiveness later” is not what Christ taught. Now God does not expect us to be perfect. God is the only perfect and good Being. This is the One Almighty God who loves us, forgives us, and expects us to have trust in God’s works and wisdom. And expects us to be aware of our mistakes, rectify them, ask for help overcoming them—to be better for the one and only God. Is a mistake a sin? That is a hard question. A mistake is something we do or decide that is wrong or misguided. Our mistakes can gradually begin in early childhood as taught by our parents, teachers, influencers of our growing up. When we see bullies and bullied victims, we decide which we would rather be. When we grow up, we may not realize those decisions have affected the rest of our lives and the people around us. Or that there is another choice—just to be right with God. But how do we go outside ourselves and learn what God wants? Or do we need to? When we are one with God, abide by Jesus Christ and open to the Holy Spirit, we will know what God wants. If we do not examine our lives and our faith by the yard stick of God’s primary laws and intent taught to us by Jesus, that is the biggest mistake we can ever make. We may say we have faith, but if our deeds do not represent that faith, well, just look to the Bible for examples of that hypocrisy. And if we do not have a personal spiritual connection with God, then how can we truly have faith? The root of spirituality is planted in God, with God, and of God. Since the church is an entity of Christians, let me clearly state that I am not against Organized Religion if it keeps to the message of the Gospel, obeys Christ’s commandments, abides the Holy Spirit and is simply and truthfully living those commandments. But there are many mistakes the Christian religion has made, and we accept them as normal and unsullied by the truth. Some parts of the Body of Christ have fist fights with each other, regard non-Christians as enemies, and worship the false idols of greed and power. The Christian churches have made many mistakes in its religious practices and still make serious sins regarding programs, relationships, and behaviors. Just as the Israelites failed God repeatedly to represent the chosen people and to obey God, Christianity often fails to live up to its name when it is divisive, abusive, hateful, prejudiced, unjust—and, worse, self-righteous. My conclusion is that the church has become an extension of humankind, not an extension of Christ. The simple instruction of Jesus’ last words to the disciples were: Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:19-20) This book is about mistakes and corrupted intents by Christians, including the church, which have been many. I do not criticize a truly Christ-centered church that is a vehicle to spread the Gospel to all peoples and strives to glorify God in its works. But humankind over the centuries has contaminated that purpose with hypocrisy, greed, wars, murders, and other atrocities that caused or falsely justified differences in religious practices and dogmas. That is the perverted usage of Christianity—faking Christianity for self-interests. The industrialized perversion of religion is not a “faith”-based religion. One of those perverted purposes is to be in control of the masses by demanding submissiveness to the will of God and the teachings of Christ as interpreted by people. These human weaknesses are the reasons that so many reject “Organized Religion.” What I mean is that the rules of the church have twisted or gone beyond the commandments of God so profoundly that it has been transformed and diverted from its chartered mission. Because even from the first fall to temptation, humanity and the church has sought to elevate itself above God. And been chastised repeatedly. Just as the Jews did. I will also compare passages between the Old and the New Testaments that still confuse us. For example, the harsh commandment “Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” (Deut.19:21, Exod. 21:23-24) This was followed with “turn the other cheek,” and “show mercy.” (Matt 5:39, Luke 6:29, Zech. 7:9, Jas. 2:13) In early humanity, there was no court of justice to determine punishment, so God established rules for what is morally right or wrong and for righting the wrongs. Most were very severe and dealt with retribution by death. God instructed Moses to add three more books of rules beyond the Ten Commandments about treatments regarding servants and slaves, injuries, protection of property, social responsibility, laws of justice and mercy, Sabbath laws and festivals—all based on the culture of that era. Moses set up the structure for the society of about two million people traveling across a desert, everything from worship to protection to punishing disobedience. No wonder it took 40 years! Those extra years were punishment for the Israelites’ lack of faith in God despite all the miracles they had experienced and for the need to adjust from slavery to laws. And humanity (for the most part) mirrors that dynamic. Jesus explained the intent of the Mosaic laws by saying, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. (Matt. 23:23)