How Christianity Lost the Savor
Written by: Dave Daubenmire
(This is a reprint of a commentary that I posted on November 29, 2012. Some things never change.)
Sometimes I think that maybe no one is listening…but I know that isn’t true. More likely, they are hearing, but they are not moving. Goliath is big, and most Christians have no stones to sling. Truth is the stone they can sling…they just don’t know it. Not political Truth…not the kind that “the truth detector” espouses three-hours a day on AM radio…but real Truth…life altering Truth…simplistic Truth that can change the world.
But real Truth doesn’t sell. In fact, it usually hurts. But nothing sets one free as much as knowing the Truth. Jesus is THE TRUTH. He is more than a Savior…more than a name on a coin…more than someone in whom “we trust.” Jesus is the incarnation of The Truth. Apart from Him, everything else is an opinion…a mere shadow of Truth. Truth is not an opinion. Truth is a person. But most Americans, as Jack Nicholson famously said, “…can’t handle the Truth.”
I’m OK, You’re Ok, was a best-selling book published in the 60’s. It was the first of a genre’ of “self-help” books that sold millions of copies. Those psycho-babble books paved the way for humanism’s stealth-emergence as the religion of the 21st century. Like most counterfeits, it looked authentic, and probably did help folks make it through their daily lives. But it was and is a lie. I’m not OK…and neither are you. Until we deal with that Truth, America and Americans will continue to spiral down to a modern-day version of The Planet of the Apes.
This feel-good theology was popularized by Norman Vincent Peale (The Power of Positive Thinking), and handed off to Pseudo-Christians Zig Ziglar (See You at the Top) and Robert Schuller (Move Ahead With Possibility Thinking). This deadly witches’-brew of Humanistic – Christianity created the wave for Author/Mega-Pastors like Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life), and Joel Osteen (Your Best Life Now) to present a sugar-coated, watered-down, sin-free version of the Gospel.
Ask yourself this. Why is it that CNN loves to give Osteen so much face time? Could it be that the media is doing their best to present to most Biblically – challenged Americans the lie that the “gospel of Rodney King” (Why can’t we all just get along) is the true version of Christianity? Could it be that CNN wants to erode and pacify “Christians” by presenting Pastor Glitter Teeth as the establishment approved who-am-I-to-judge spokesman for the religiously-weak?
Give me an hour in front of Piers Morgan. I’ll rattle their cages. Have you ever seen a “combative” Christian appear on any national TV show? Where is the Christian version of James Carville? Where are the Christian truth, bomb throwers willing to fight for our side?
Please understand the deception. Jesus is not a tolerant, go-along to get-along, I’m Ok you’re Ok, if it feels good do it, come-sit-on-my-lap, passive Savior. A rude awakening awaits many that subscribe to this thinking.
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Categories: Contributors, Free Speech Zone