Where to Now Saint Paul?
Why We’re Quitting Church
by
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On a December episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” Sheldon, a brainiac geek, was asked by his room-mates if he thought they should celebrate Christmas that year? He asked, “Why? It’s just a hold-over from paganism...” Many Americans are now savvy enough to know something about Christmas just being rubber stamped on the Roman sun god’s birthday.
When churches tout that “Jesus is the reason for the season,” sadly, it’s just not true. Dec. 25th, the birthday of the sun god, had been the primary religious festival for thousands of years before Christ. Ringing in the Yuletide, decorating a tree and exchanging gifts had been longtime pagan traditions before Christmas. Unfortunately, for the church, educated people are also learning that Easter, judgment, Satan, Hades, the crucifix and the cross are also just “hold-over(s) from paganism.”
Still, there are many Christians who don’t know the truth and/or don’t want to know the truth. You’d think mature, responsible people would want to deal with the truth head-on. We shouldn’t be afraid of this information, because these facts don’t discredit Jesus or His original Christianity at all!
Episcopal Bishop John Spong criticizes many churches for wanting people to be “born again.” He says, “When you’re ‘born again,’ you’re still a child. The people don’t need to be ‘born again,’ they need to grow up to accept responsibility for themselves in the world.”
Church is dying because many boomers don’t want to be child-like Christians numbly succumbing to Roman fear based theology. They prefer to be informed adults discerning what Christ really intended.
So church attendance is down. Spong addressed the crisis in his best seller, “Why Christianity Must Change or Die.”
“How Spiritual Are We? According to the (Parade Magazine) poll, 69% of Americans believe in God, but 50% say they rarely or never attend worship services. What Americans are doing today is separating spirituality from religion, with many people disavowing organized practice altogether... In fact, 24% of respondents put themselves into a whole new category, ‘spiritual, but not religious…’ “ Parade Magazine 10/4/09
“The Fuller Institute started a project…in 1998, seeking why…the church has become ‘culturally irrelevant’ and was in decline. Most of the statistics tell us that nearly 50% of Americans have no church home. What has happened?” F.A.Schaeffer Inst. of Church Leadership Development
Two thousand years ago, people were oppressed by the brutal military control of the Roman Empire which was not unlike the Nazi occupation of Europe. They were also consumed with the fear of their wrathful, vengeful pagan gods.
Christ countered that fear on the Mount when He proclaimed that God was a loving god who simply asked that we love one another. For 300 years this was the sole theology for original Jewish Christianity. It was a revelation that fulfilled aching souls. And so He founded His faith of love and brotherhood. His theology might seem trite and simple, but not when you consider Western civilization had only known wrathful religions before Christ. The Romans hated Christianity and executed anyone caught professing the faith.
His original religion was perfect, but the Roman Emperor Constantine commandeered it 300 years later and merged his dark pagan traditions. Now, those “holdovers from paganism” that never had anything to do with Jesus Christ are taking their toll on the church. Sadly, the church can’t escape its pagan skeletons because Rome consummated them as the core theology in AD 325 as the new Roman state “Christian” religion.
This book examines many of the delusions of “Romanized” church Christianity. This investigation will shock many, but really shouldn’t. None of these issues are radical new claims. They’re all old news...very old news. These facts have always been assessable in libraries or on the Internet. Any seminary trained clergyman should be acutely aware of Roman Christianity’s pagan roots.
Baby-boomers are associated with a rejection or redefinition of traditional values…”
Wikipedia “Baby Boomers”
This generation is educated, free thinking, and questions authority. This character could not bode well for the patronizing tradition of the church. After 1700 years, they’re shucking the concept of judgment and believing that all souls are drawn into a “blissful, loving Light.”
Steve Jobs was not a Christian, but as he died, his final words were, “Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!"
The Guardian
Steve Jobs didn’t go to church, but he clearly had a blissful “Near Death Experience.” (NDE) Everyone now knows someone or of someone who has had this amazing “Life After Life” experience…the notion that at death, we’re all drawn into a blissful Light. This contemporary phenomenon is brand new, and represents a radical departure from Roman church Heaven/Hell theology. Mainstream America has accepted that a wonderful afterlife is not just for some church going Christians.
For some 400 years after the Crusades, the Roman Catholic Church became the dominant political power in Europe. It waged taxes, tortured and executed any “heretic” who didn’t believe as they were told. The Inquisition was like an endless witch-hunt for non-Catholics. In the 11th Crusade, they tortured and burned the Cathar Christians of southern France because they were pacifist Christians who refused to join the corrupt Catholic Church. The Church admits “making mistakes,” but 1000 years of torture and genocide are not “mistakes.” These acts define the legacy of the Roman Catholic Church. The Cathars were real Christians, but the dominating Roman Catholic Church never practiced the teaching of Jesus Christ. The Church lost its menacing power after the Renaissance. It’s losing more now with the rise of secularism.
When America won its independence, Washington, Jefferson, and most of the signers were Deists who went to great lengths to keep our government free from the control of Roman Christianity. To spare our new country the endless Church oppression Europe endured, the founders legislated religious freedom in the first amendment.
Bishop Spong said, “people don’t understand that the church has always been in the guilt producing, control business.”
“Seemingly there are two forms of Christianity. One that the historical Christ is said to have taught (love and forgiveness) and one that the Church teaches (guilt, shame and blame)...
Traditional (Roman) Christianity has taught that hope and solace… (are only possible through) the redemption from sin by the vicarious sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, for all those who acknowledge His teaching. But it is precisely this form of the doctrine of salvation…that rests almost exclusively on the work of Paul, and was never taught by Jesus…”
The White Robed Monks of Saint Benedict
A quarter of America has left the church for many of these issues. Boomers have been backing away from the dark threats of the Roman bible and the churches. (Revelation, Daniel & John) Many still cling to Christ’s “God is Love” message and build a personal Christian Spiritualism that‘s more in keeping with Christ’s teaching on the Mount…either that or they’ll join other religions.
The exodus has been bolstered by the broad acceptance of the forty-year-old “Life After Life” phenomenon… the notion that at death, we’re all drawn into a “blissful Light.” The consistent NDE feedback of bliss and serenity seems more in keeping the “God of Love” message of original Christianity as opposed to that of Roman Church Christianity for many.
An aging America has steadfastly propped up church attendance to 50%. When these elderly parishioners die, without younger members coming in, the bottom’s going to drop out in ten years.
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About the Book
The Church is Dying. Is Christianity Dying?
Absolutely Not!
The Baptists expect to lose half their churches in the next 20 years. They revamp their message, but nothing works because they can’t face the real problem that plagues all churches.
According to the Christian website, www.gotquestions.org, few young adults have a “biblical worldview,” because they don’t believe in Satan, hell or that Christianity is the only true religion. The problem is that Christianity has an identity crisis that gives young adults good reason to doubt the church.
Joseph Ratzinger (pope) quit his first seminary because it conceded that two separate and opposing Christianities existed in the second century. One was the Jewish Christianity of Jesus and the other was the Roman gentile Christianity of Paul. They noted that Paul was “indifferent to the teaching of Jesus… and the opponent of the religion of love, Christ came to announce to the world.”
Jesus’ Christianity had no judgment, Satan, hell, Easter or Christmas for 300 years! These were not the teaching of Christ, but pagan traditions added by the Romans when they commandeered the religion later. These facts don’t discredit Jesus Christ at all!
Bishop John Spong of Newark says “the church has always dangled us between their imaginary heaven and hell as a control tactic.” This savvy, secular world gets it, and is unmoved by the church’s brimstone threats. They know it has nothing to do with the religion of Jesus Christ.
The church is dying, but as they say, “When God closes a door, He always opens a window.” So now, Christian Spirituality, more like original Christianity, is a star on the rise.
About the Author
Brad O’Donnell is a graduate of the University of Richmond. After more than two decades in print sales, he drives a semi around the mid-Atlantic states. He, his wife, Lynn, and father have all had similar life-after-life experiences, which played important roles in the concept of this book.