We Are the Anti-Christ

Was Jesus wasting his time by coming to planet Earth?  Is the condition of the human race any better now than it was in his day?  Was God's plan to redeem mankind an exercise in futility?  Did he really change anything?

Nothing Has Changed

The nature of mankind has always been one of selfishness.

First, we compare, then we compete, then we hate, then we are in conflict, then we are at war.

Always and forever.  It was that way from the beginning when jealous Cain killed his brother Abel, and it is that way now.

Jesus was called the friend of sinners and was critical of self-righteous religious leaders whose prevailing theme was legalistic judgment and condemnation.

He spent his life and ministry teaching a better way:

• "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:39)

• "Treat others the way would like to be treated." -  The Golden Rule. (Luke 6:31)

• "Do not judge, or you will be judged." (Matthew 7:1)

• "I don't condemn you," he said to a woman caught in an act of sexual immorality. (The sentence according to the old Mosaic Law was death by stoning, the same as with homosexual offenses.)  He chose mercy. (John 8)

• "Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone." (John 8:7)

• "Be merciful just like your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36)

• "Forgive others... If you do not forgive others, your heavenly Father will not forgive you." (Matthew 6:15)

• "He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked." (Luke 6:35)

Today's religious followers of Christ are not kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

2000 years later, most everything is still backwards from Jesus' teachings.  His followers still condemn their "wicked" neighbors rather than loving them.

His houses of worship still put burdens of legalistic rules upon their constituents.  They encourage bigotry and prejudice against those who are less holy than themselves.  Verbal stonings issue from their pulpits every Sunday.

It seems that what goes around comes around.  After all this time, the Pharisees still exist and are making new prejudicial laws against "sinners" in the state of Indiana.

You would think that political leaders in one of the most "Christian" locations in the world, would have a better understanding of the way of Christ.

The way of Jesus is all about humble service.  It is about redemption.  It is about love (respect).  It is about considering others better than ourselves.  It is about not judging.

It is not about refusing to serve those who don't conform to our standards of morality.

Business owners who refuse service to gays have joined the ranks of the Pharisees and hypocrites.  They are as anti-Christ as their ancient predecessors who crucified him.

Have not all believers been the recipients of undeserved mercy and grace?  Yet they will not extend it to others.  They extend judgment instead, exactly as Jesus said not to.

Just as in Jesus' day, the religious world is run by condescending hypocrites.

But Jesus still says, "Do not judge, or you will be judged."

The Coming Persecution

A dozen or so years ago a friend of mine predicted that when Christians finally lose their freedoms in America, they will have done it to themselves by their unholy treatment of gays.

I can now begin to see the wisdom of that claim.  The backlash that has resulted from the adoption of the Religious Freedom Restoration law in Indiana (and 19 other states) may be a foreshadowing of things to come.

Christianity in America is viewed as hateful, judgmental, bigoted, anti-gay, and too political.  

At some point the masses will likely become fed up with the hypocrisy and lack of goodwill from Christians and will start to limit the legal rights of the religious.

Christians will have become the architects of their own demise.

All along, they will think they are representing Christ.

They are not.

It may be time for another purging of the religious temple.

There Is Still a Better Way

If Christian leaders in America will humble themselves and return to the way of Christ, this downward slide can be reversed:

• Christians should re-read the gospels taking special note of the red letters, the words of Christ.  Let love be our prevailing guide.  (The rest of the Bible should be filtered through the cross and the redemption of Christ.  This is essential if you want to maintain a redemptive view of the Bible).

• Christians should consider quitting political activism unless they can do it in a Christ-like, respectful manner that champions the rights of all Americans, not just the righteous.

• Christians should consider tuning out political talk-shows that promote prejudice and hatred.  They do not represent the way of Jesus, they represent a biased political platform.

• Christians should give up the idea that America should be a Christian nation.  Jesus never had that in mind.  He already has a kingdom, for he dwells in the hearts of  men (Ephesians 3:17)  He does not need or want an earthly political state to rule over.  Again, God does not want America to be a Christian nation.  Throughout history, in every country that has ever declared Christianity the state religion, there has followed a collusion and then corruption of the faith.  It's the same here.  Government and religion should never be in bed together.  Their love child will be a deformed monster.  (I can see its ugly head emerging already in America.)

• There is no political party that exists in America at the current time that honestly and truly represents the way of Christ.  Christians should not imagine that there is.

If you want to represent Christ, you may have to do it entirely on your own and without the help of a political action committee.

You may even have to remove yourself from the sounds of the voices of those who claim to be doing something for Christ.  His way, from the start, is the way of the minority, the un-powerful, the non-political, the non-influential, and the underdog. 

His way is more of an undercurrent rather than the mainstream.

It is more of an invisible life-giving stream, an underground movement flowing along on the bedrock of love.

If every American Christian would simply love (respect) his neighbor - whether saint or sinner - as Jesus suggested, we would calm the unrest in this country in a short time. 

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So, back to the beginning:  Did God waste his time trying to redeem a fallen human race?

The answer comes down to you and me.

What god are we representing in the world?  The god of an imagined Christian nation?  Or the God of love for all human beings, whether or not they have faith or creed or morality?

They are not the same.

Choose wisely.