AMERICAN CHRISTIANTY VS THE RAW NEW TESTAMENT
There is nothing glamorous about TRUE Christianity?
The gospel in America is happiness, no fear, not judgmental, good health, joy, smiles, pure emotion, being positive, acceptance and prosperity all without the word repentance…..please allow me to burst that bubble.
Before Jesus was born, the king murdered babies, not a good foundation.
A man named John the Baptist started the New Testament, he appeared like a cave man in the water and rebuked the religious of his day with his unorthodox baptizing people into the water. This was new and he rebuked those same religious of his day, calling them vipers and warned them to flee from the wrath to come. He was jailed for calling out the sin of the king and later beheaded in prison. Not a good start.
Jesus our Christ never sinned yet was sentenced to death, placed on a cross next to two criminals atop a dump site, after being beaten and mocked by the government and the religious of His day. During which His disciples fled, the leader of the group denied Him three times and Judas hung himself because he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
So far not very upbeat.
Stephen worked in the kitchen and was stoned to death for preaching in public as the early Church met in houses for fear and the Apostles were jailed, beaten and told not to preach in that Name.
10 of the Apostles were killed for their faith in various ways, Peter and Paul were both martyred in Rome about 66 AD, during the persecution under Emperor Nero. Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified, upside down at his request, since he did not feel he was worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.
Andrew went to the ‘land of the man-eaters’ in what is now the Soviet Union. Christians there claim him as the first to bring the gospel to their land. He also preached in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and in Greece, where he is said to have been crucified.
Thomas was most active in the area east of Syria. He preached as far east as India, where the ancient Marthoma Christians revere him as their founder. They claim that he died there when pierced through with the spears of four soldiers.
Philip possibly had a powerful ministry in Carthage in North Africa and then in Asia Minor, where he converted the wife of a Roman proconsul. In retaliation the proconsul had Philip arrested and cruelly put to death.
Matthew the tax collector and writer of a Gospel, ministered in Persia and Ethiopia, he was stabbed to death in Ethiopia.
Bartholomew had widespread missionary travels and he dies a martyr for the gospel.
James, the son of Alpheus, is one of at least three James referred to in the New Testament, he was stoned and then clubbed to death.
Simon the Zealotm, he ministered in Persia and was killed after refusing to sacrifice to the sun god.
Matthais was the apostle chosen to replace Judas, he went to Syria with Andrew and to death by burning.
John was the only one of the company generally thought to have died a natural death from old age. He was the leader of the church in the Ephesus area and is said to have taken care of Mary the mother of Jesus in his home. During Domitian’s persecution in the middle 90’s, he was exiled to the island of Patmos where he was cast into boiling oil at Rome. There in Patmos he is credited with writing the last book of the New Testament (Revelation).
Where was this ‘abundant life’ and ‘prosperity’ lifestyle we hear about today in America?
Most of the Epistles were written from a prison cell not an 85 million dollar jet and those Churches we in homes not megachurches or cathedrals.
Paul wrote often of his chains for preaching. And for the early Church they scurried underground, or they too would be arrested, beaten and fed to lions as a sport.
What do ministers today know about sitting in a jail cell for their faith? Most clergy who are arrested today robbed from the Church they served or have sex with someone inside their Church but rarely is one jailed for preaching the Word of God. Where the scriptures exhort us to remember those in prison, it is not just to minister to the criminal, but not to forget those saints behind those bars for the sake of the Gospel.
You want more history of the early Church invest sometime and read ‘Foxe’s Book of Martyrs’ and or ‘Martyrs Mirror’ and match that to the abundant life we hear today.
Compare that with today’s TV evangelist, who wishes to bless you with happiness and a positive message or have a worship service that promotes a loud beat than righteous words.
Is there any wonder we have so many ‘lukewarm’ believers today.
Also within these churches Paul started we find false teaches and leaven being taught in an early stage, how much more today? In Revelation chapters 2 and 3 we find Jesus speaking to seven actual Churches in Asia and FIVE of those Churches were told to ‘repent’ as He threaten to remove their light for their works and heresy.
How much more wicked are those works and heresy some 2,000 years later?
So the million-dollar question for you today is, what Church do you fellowship with, one liken to the early Church or one that will tickle your ears. Think Paul walked into a Church wearing an Yves Saint Laurent suit and a pair of Testoni shoes. Think Paul strolled up to a pulpit looking cool with gold around his neck, earrings and a smile, then after the service taking the younger girls out for dinner at a fancy restaurant in his brand new BMW?
Face it IF the Apostle Paul was scheduled to speak at your Church you might need a backup speaker because he might be sitting in jail on Sunday for preaching the day before in public. And I’m sure he walked in with a limp, cuts bruises and dried blood stains on his clothes and those feet were filthy. Also, if you feed and invited him into your house, YOU may get you home burnt to the ground or your family beaten, so count the cost to associate with such.
When reading this New Testament one can read more on suffering and persecution than prosperity, in fact Christianity today is nothing more than a piece of jewelry as they wish to be liked by a dying world. Unlike what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4 what Christianity is “…we are made a spectacle unto the world….We are fools….we are weak….we are despised…..we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked…..are buffeted….have no certain dwelling place….working with our own hands…..being reviled…..being persecuted……Being defamed…..we are made as the filth of the world, and are the off scouring of all things unto this day.
that “defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the off scouring of all things unto this day…..dishonor….by evil report as deceivers”
I’m sure Joel Osteen and Rick Warren will cover all this in his next best seller.
This saints is the raw and unrefined life of Christianity in it’s purest form.
