Some have discussed with me the points of contrast between modern Christianity and Biblical Christianity. Because the points are so numerous, I have constructed this paper to list many of them and discuss their significances.
Modern Christianity is not merely a right faith with some erroneous theological points; it is a set of faiths that contrast with the Biblical faith, being a set of religions that are as pagan as sun-worship. Conservative Christianity is as included in this as its much more ‘liberal’ cousins. The so-called ‘orthodox’ forms of Christianity are no more Biblically accurate. Each of these starts with a premise that sounds good to many, and then leaves off what makes for Biblical faith.
1. The Fear of Yehovah
Among Christianity’s various forms, the fear of Yehovah, the Gods of Avraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel), isn’t part of the teachings. Instead, if fear is at all taught, it is a fear of the disapproval of the pastors and overseers, and a fear of the anger of God if certain conditions aren’t met (like what supposedly will happen if one doesn’t tithe or faithfully participate in church attendance). If reading the Bible is at all stressed in one of these forms of modern Christianity, reading a good translation (with the more specific pronouns) with understanding and independence isn’t stressed. One who does so will often be viewed as moving into dangerous territory, since pastors (supposedly) are placed by God to give the needed proper instruction ‘in the Word.’ The fear of God is replaced by a fear of not showing oneself dedicated enough to the church and to its goals, and by a fear of becoming a loner when it comes to reading and understanding the Bible.
It is impossible for one to have the Salvation of God without the fear of God.
Those who don’t Biblically fear God have not been born of God. That includes every pastor who supposedly has been called of God to be a pastor. Very few pastors alive on Planet Earth today are born of God.
2. The Fear of the Correct God
Some do fear God. The question then becomes, “Which God does one fear?” Modern Christianity’s forms have disconnected from Yehovah, the defined Gods of Israel, Whose Name has a meaning: He will be; He is; He was. In the place of this deity is a relatively new one with a new name: Yahweh. This deity has attributes and characteristics that are foreign to the Bible. This name has no Hebrew meaning, and describes the sounds of breath and air, according to one of the main proponents of this name: the well-deceased theologian, Wellhausen. This man, a hater of the Jews and a hater of the Bible, earned his bread from the Bible. While he didn’t coin this name, he certainly forwarded it into Christianity’s various forms. Now, some hymns are sung to ‘Yahweh.’ They are as valid as hymns sung to Baal, Molech, Ashtorah, and Dagon.
So many deities are called ‘Jesus.’ They each differ, according to the denomination using the name, and the personal understanding of the individuals using the name. While the name ‘Jesus’ can describe the Biblically described character, and therefore can be a legitimate name used, this is very rare. The given Biblical name was and is ‘Yeshua,’ describing the One Who is Salvation. Yet, again, a significant number of Yeshuas exist, where all but one doesn’t describe the Biblical personage. It is vital to ascertain which deity is being mentioned in prayers, in discussions, in preaching, etc., in order to avoid participating with a non-Biblical idol of the same name.
Fearing the wrong deity is as wrong as not fearing the right deity.
3. Requirements for Everlasting Salvation
Modern Christianity’s requirements for Salvation are nearly always different from what the Bible requires. Some forms require conformity to a religion’s norms. Some forms require a certain kind of verbal confession put into a formula, and often combined with joining a church and even participating in ‘believer’s baptism.’
What the above requirements do not include are what will be so significant.
Modern Christianity requires no evidence of the fear of the Biblical Gods of Israel, Yehovah.
Modern Christianity requires no one to first read (or hear) the Bible, to properly understand it within its contexts, to believe it (that is, to know with all certainty that it is Truth), to independently and in one’s own way confess the Salvation of God (that is, to make a statement that properly shows who this Salvation is), and to understand that Salvation is of the Jews: that Israel is the entire core of the Salvation of God promised in the Bible.
Thus, many of Modern Christianity’ forms don’t require the continued existence of Israel. They would do just fine if all the Jews (the Israelis: the people of Israel) were annihilated. Those forms that are called ‘Messianic,’ and therefore have strong views toward Israel nearly always also annihilate Israel by means of Supersessionism (the belief that Israel has been replaced by some other group). So, a Messianic group that claims to be ‘the apple of God’s eye,’ a term reserved for the Israelis as a people, place themselves in our present time in the place of the entirety of Israel, as if this small group could replace all of Israel! While some of these Messianic groups circle-dance with the joy of their own salvation, so much of the people of Israel is without Biblical Hope, living and dying that way! This shows such Messianism for the self-centered selfism (egoism) that it is!
Modern Christianity’s forms don’t concern themselves with an individual’s faith as long as it appears that the individual is conforming to the form that the group expects. Conformity is what is required and desired.
Modern Christianity’s forms rarely explain what is and what isn’t sin, and why certain things are sin, with the exceptions of ‘pet projects’ that are viewed as terrible sins (like abortion, gambling, not tithing, etc.). Thus, advocates of the various forms of Christianity don’t know why certain things are called ‘sin’ (like participating in sexual play and intercourse outside of marriage). The result has been a significant ‘relaxing’ regarding couples claiming one of Christianity’s forms sexually sleeping with each other.
Thus, there is practically NO requirement for one who makes a public confession of faith or a public determination to join a supposedly Christian group in membership, and there is practically no accountability after joining has occurred. In the groups where there is accountability, that accountability is in regard to things that those groups have defined, and often don’t even parallel the Bible.
I will repeat again one point that is so important. Modern Christianity’s forms nearly always have no investment in Israel (the literal, physical, secular people that Yehovah took out of Egypt) being the center of the plans of Yehovah, the Gods of Israel. Those forms of Christianity don’t tend to see ‘Jesus’ as coming only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. If those forms are Messianic, by the time they get through describing Yeshua, he isn’t what is described in the Bible. Any form of faith that claims roots in the Bible, and yet doesn’t properly see Israel in the Bible (like claiming that if one obtains Salvation, that person becomes a ‘spiritual Jew,’ which replaces the Jews) isn’t a Biblical faith. Yet, these groups are so glad so often to make a trip to Israel, to walk where Jesus walked.
4. Views on the End Times
A Biblical faith will always include so much devotion of its contents to the End Times (the times just before, during, and just after the physical coming of the Messiah of Israel to reign over the planet for ten centuries as King of all kings and Lord of all lords). This is because so much of the Bible has everything to do with the End Times. Those forms of Christianity that either seem to avoid discussing the End Times, or that do avoid the End Times, show leaders who haven’t truly understood or believed the Bible.
Then, there are those forms of Christianity that are so often presenting teachings on the End Times with the drawings and slants, always with the erroneous teachings that the End Times are here upon us now! These forms devote much time to the End Times, and yet they exclude literal, physical, secular Israel from centrality in the plans of God! They replace Israel with their own groups!
A Biblical faith will focus on the End Times, and will speak the Truth: that the End Times are yet very far off, since the Bible describes events that must first occur before the End Times will arrive, and those events have everything to do with Israel, and with Israel’s becoming prepared for the return of the Kingdom of God to Israel!
5. Taking Texts Literally
Any form of Christianity that claims that certain texts are not literal, without being able to show from the Bible that they are not literal, is a form of Christianity that teaches unbelief. Certain texts are not literal. If a man is described as a tree, that isn’t literal. Yet, the beginning of the Bible indicates that humans and trees are not from the same seed, and therefore that they are different. A text that describes a man as a tree is a parable (a proverb), and the Bible does use parables! So many texts, however, could be taken literally, and readers opt to view them as non-literal because they don’t believe the texts! Instead of being candid and honest with the texts, however, such persons claim to fully believe the Bible and its inspiration while openly declaring and teaching that certain texts aren’t literal; they have no evidence to give to explain their unbelief!
Modern Christianity’s forms seem to delight in spiritualizing texts (that is, claiming that those texts have some spiritual significance to which they have the key). A poem sums up this practice:
Those who spiritualize
Tell spiritual lies
Because they lack spiritual eyes.
If one cannot give Biblical evidence for a text being non-literal, taking it as non-literal is demonstrating unbelief.
All forms of modern Christianity that teach spiritualization have nothing to do with the Truth of the Bible.
Summary
Each person will be held responsible both for what the person knows and what the person avoided to know. Avoidance doesn’t make for innocence. One who claims a faith in the Bible and the God of the Bible, and yet who doesn’t read the Bible (if it is possible to do so) demonstrates that kind of avoidance that shows that the person has no willingness to receive the Truth (let alone to receive the love of the Truth), that being a prerequisite for everlasting Salvation. One can easily come to Biblical faith just from reading Genesis (assuming that the translation isn’t designed for entertainment, and has some accuracy).
If churches truly cared about its members getting to know the Bible, churches would make sure to budget for Bibles, tools for learning the Bibles, and means for instructing its members in independently reading and understanding the Bible. Churches that focus on members following the leader are not Biblical.