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