Increasingly, the phrase "pretend Christianity" has been in my mind. Google the phrase and you'll find it’s in a lot of peoples' minds. I'm frankly beginning to wonder if about 95% of what passes for belief is really just pretend Christianity. I'm honestly beginning to wonder if there is any reality to all this at all.
All the hoopla that surrounds lots of peoples' Christianity – church activities, Bible studies, happy talk of God and Jesus, yada yada – I'm beginning to wonder if it disguises the fact most folks have no real belief at all and know they're just pretending. It brings to mind the Emperor's New Clothes: We won't admit, even to ourselves, that we're mostly just pretending and everything will be fine. As long as we all pretend together, everything will be fine.
The downfall of Ravi Zacharias a few years ago was a turning point for me. As you may or may not know, Ravi was one of the greatest Christian apologists of modern times. He was called things like "the most godly man in the world" and "a worthy successor to Billy Graham." He had a worldwide ministry. He wrote books and endorsed others – a Ravi endorsement was worth its weight in gold. He was a frequent guest on other apologists' radio programs and podcasts and was introduced in reverential tones and treated as an especially honored guest.
But Ravi was also a complete fraud. His academic credentials were greatly exaggerated. He had an extensive secret life involving sexual misconduct and abuse, replete with threats, payoffs and all the rest. It surfaced just before he died and was fully documented after his death. I corresponded with the attorney who first exposed the tip of the iceberg and watched agog as it all unfolded. Ravi had fooled his family, his closest associates in his ministry, all those who treated him as "the most godly man in the world" and, of course, his legions of devoted followers. Nonbelievers now had one more reason to laugh and say, "There ya go. Just another fraud. It’s all phony."
Ravi's ministry changed its name and pretty much collapsed. His books were pulled, his ministry credentials revoked. Christian authors removed his endorsements from their books. Those who had treated him with reverence now pretended they'd never heard of him. His devoted followers were crushed. It was about as huge and startling a fall as any Christian leader has ever suffered.
The typical Christian response was and is that Ravi's fall is just another reminder that we're all fallible and imperfect humans, subject to temptation and sin, yada yada. Well, yes, it is certainly that. After an appropriate period of hand-wringing, the Ravi scandal was tucked away in the little box wihere such scandals are kept while "Christianity, Inc." got on with its business.
When I tried to raise larger concerns, on forums and elsewhere, the response was always, "No, this just shows we're all subject to temptation and sin, yada yada. Nothing else to see here, move along please."
The larger concern I attempted to raise was, "Where was the Holy Spirit in all this?" Ravi was surrounded by believers, seemingly none of whom was blessed with even an ounce of discernment. His wife and daughter were clueless. His ministry staff was clueless. All the Christian leaders who associated with him, sought his endorsements and treated him with reverence were clueless.
The Holy Spirit was seemingly so weak and ineffectual that Ravi's family was devastated, his ministry was destroyed, all the good he had done was undone, his devoted followers were crushed, and nonbelievers were handed yet more ammunition on a golden platter. We prattle about how God did this and that and the Holy Spirit did this and that in our lives, but the Holy Spirit seems to have been completely missing in action when it came to Ravi. Someone couldn't have been blessed with enough discernment to step in before this caused all the damage it did???
I raised this directly with a couple of prominent apologists who had been among Ravi's most worshipful supporters. Does it trouble you that you were completely duped, that you were allowed to mislead others, that you lacked even a modicum of discernment? Forget Ravi and his foibles - what does this say about the Holy Spirit in your own life? What does it say about the Holy Spirit in general? Where's the beef?
I received no response.
It was and is enough to make me wonder, "Is there any reality to this?" Are we perhaps pretending to believe things that simply Aren't True? Is it possible that if there is any reality to Christianity, this reality is far from what we pretend it is? Is all the hoopla perhaps why "Christianity" seems so far from anything Jesus could have been talking about or possibly had in mind?
I don't have the answers, but I do find myself increasingly moving in the direction of a less dogmatic theism in which I more genuinely believe and away from what this brand of Christianity requires me to pretend to believe. Your mileage may vary.
There was something about Ravi that I never liked. I'd listen to his speeches on You Tube and it was hollow. There was no substance,just air.
I don't think yet another fraud in a pulpit is a qualification to throw our faith into question.
Amounting to how God let a wolf into the sheepfold, so is there really a shepherd present?
That being said, we will never know what Yeshua actually said during his ministry.
If anyone knew this it is Omniscient God.
You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
Maybe that is the wisdom
Yeshua shared with us because his holy Spirit is always within us. From the time we are conceived unto the last breath we take, we are never apart from that spirit of creator that created us.
We are born into a world that today is so twisted as to make it appear as if Hell has vomited back to life all the evil civilizations God judged and wiped from the earth in the past.
And it is totally acceptable to wonder if,for over 2000 years Yeshua's guidance has blanketed the majority of people's here,why that is.
One of the reasons Jews don't believe Yeshua is Messiah is because when Messiah arrives,there shall be world peace.
Instead, the world is even more deeply fallen.
Maybe that is because we've been led to believe in the controls, the limitations,the ultimatums, other earlier men have instituted,in the name of God, so to issue and insure their dominion as monitors and purveyors of the doctrine they controlled and spread through campaigns of mass slaughter, for centuries.
Which then would explain why new converts to a convert or die agenda would be told "God said"...as a slave,obey your masters. As a victim of violence,take it ,turn the other cheek,and love your offender.
And if they want your money,give them the clothes off your back too.
Obey those put in power over you. Be that interpretation to apply to pastors,or secular governors. Because they are seated there by our God.
Interesting,in Rome,where our scriptures originated in New testament form, Caesar was considered to be a god.
In subsequent secular governments elsewhere, the King of Britain is considered to be God's anointed Sovereign.
In America,Presidents and all members of the three branches typically swear their oath of office with the help of God.
Even though God's OT word,that Rome could not alter, says we are never to swear by God or his name.
Rather we are to let our yes be yes,and our no be no.
So, maybe what we are following is pretend christianity.
Just look at how it divides the world to this day. And scripture tells us Jesus promised that believing in him would do just that. Among our family and others. Which is not a characteristic of the Messiah of prophecy.
Another flag,if there are any, is, those in the faith who seek to teach we are separate from all things pertaining to the Jews.
Paul, a Pharisee, is said to have written that we are all one in Christ.
But that ecumenism is not the identity of the Jewish Messiah either.
But many of us don't know,wouldn't know,that. Because the Jews were thought to be mongerils compared to Rome. And we've been led to think ours is a new way. And is now removed from all things Jewish.
Which would then make that exodus idea the possible cause for why this world where we are said to be in majority as believers, is such a failure representing a new covenant of peace through Christ.
Because for all these millennia we're just another bunch of Romans thinking to rule the world our way.
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