Imitation Christianity
I had an interesting interaction with
a fellow in our weekly guys' discussion group.
During our discussion I mentioned that I had on my mind a passage from
one of the apostle Paul's letters which mentioned 'following
Christ'. It was 1Corinthians11:1
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
I had been meditating on
this passage in conjunction with another realization I had received the
previous week that carnal people want to follow a human leader and
follow written instructions and meet in houses built with hands, while
Jesus is looking for people who will be learners of an invisible
Rabbi/Teacher, learn from the invisible Holy Spirit of God, and meet
for fellowship with our Father God, our Lord Jesus and each other.
During my meditations it had dawned on me that the Jews of Jesus day
were placing their faith in Moses in spite of the fact that Moses had
failed to enter the 'promised land' because of his imperfect leadership
of the people of God. And for the past two thousand years
'Christian' people have followed the apostle Paul in spite of the fact
that he described himself toward the end of his life as 'the foremost
of sinners'!
The interaction happened when I mentioned that Paul was obviously not
always right. Boom, one of the guys objected strongly to the
insinuation that Paul's writings were not infallible Scripture. I
decided to keep my mouth shut, but another member of the discussion
group calmly responded to friend who had objected.
Our weekly meeting ended cordially, and as I chatted with the 'calm
responder' in the parking lot we both recognized that we had 'touched a
nerve'.
This led me to continue to meditate and seek God for
understanding. It was clear that the 'strong objector's' reliance
on the writings of Paul were the key to this situation.
I have been aware for about forty-five years that the problem with the
Scriptures in two-fold: 1. al lot is either lost or added by
translating from original languages to modern languages, and 2. because
spiritual reality is seasonal, it is difficult for anyone to
confidently ascertain when and how any particular statement of
Scripture applies.
Getting back to Paul's instruction to the Corinthians that they should
be followers of Paul as Paul was following Jesus, I compared the actual
words of Jesus to His disciples when He told them to 'abide in
Me'. If one follows Paul's advice, one can do or say whatever one
believes is the right thing to do or say.
My experience with such a mode of 'Christianity' is that I was raised
in a 'Protestant' mainline denominational church, but never was brought
to the knowledge of Jesus by that denomination. Then I
'converted' to the Roman Catholic church, which had a lot more
instruction in Scripture and tradition, but it also did not bring me to
the knowledge of Jesus. It was only when my life began to unravel
that I met some Campus Crusaders for Christ, who
were the first ones to get the message of Jesus coming into my heart to
be my Savior and Lord of my life. I was shocked to hear that
message for the first time. Then they realized that they were not
bringing me to a 'conversion experience', so they introduced me to a
'charismatic' friend of theirs. She told me three things that I
had also never heard before. She told me that my whole life was
'one big sin' because I was living for myself, and I was created to
live for God. Next she told me that I needed to tell Jesus
whatever was on my heart. So I prayed 'Okay, Jesus. If You
are really there somewhere, here is the mess that I have made of my
life. If you can do something with it, take a shot! Just
don't give me any more dead religion." Nothing happened.
Then my new friend told me the third thing: Since I was talking
to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, I should be down on my
knees before Him. That sounded reasonable, and I was too
desperate and lethargic to object, so I knelt down. As soon as my
knees touched the floor twenty-six years worth of accumulated tears of
disappointment and frustration and sorrow were released, and when I was
again able to stand to my feet I realized that the worst day of my life
had turned into the best day of my life!
That was when my adventure with Jesus began.
More later, Lord willing....
Rob 8/28/24