Well. A second piece in a row in this series where I am ‘saying something nice’ about Evangelicalism! Read on to find out what I mean 😁

The Problem

I need to be honest here.

I’ve become aware of a creeping unhealthy attitude in my own mind, probably related to my immersion of working on this series about The Problems of Evangelicalism, to which I have been giving much of my attention in my recent writing and thought.

And that unhealthy attitude essentially consists of the idea that I feel that all churches should increasingly be coming round to the point of view of what I see as what God is doing in this time.

It reads almost like a wish-list! And it goes like this:

I would love to see the concept of Grace being fully understood in churches.

I would love to see the end of judgmentalism and ‘sin-policing’ in all its forms.

Related to the above two points, I would love to see an end to Religious legalism and its consequent behaviour-based concepts of righteousness and holiness, as opposed to a lifestyle of walking free in the Spirit.

I would love to see the churches freely welcome people of Lesbian, Gay and other sexualities (LGBTQ+) into their communities with no restrictions; no ‘second-class citizenship’.

I would love to see the disappearance of the mechanisms of puissant, testosterone-driven male authority and submission (of both women and other ‘lesser’ members of a congregation), and its consequential emphasis on heteronormative leadership couples with the wife in ‘full submission’ 🤣

I would love to see the emphasis on ‘giving’ (of [especially] money, time and resources) to the church to shift from a position of obligation to a position of giving cheerfully and without compulsion.

Most of all, I would love to see the end of the concept of ‘Eternal Conscious Torment’ (ECT), also known as ‘Hell’ in mainstream Christianity^[1].

And in some places, the people in various churches and denominations are indeed coming around to adopting attitudes more in line with the character of Jesus as revealed in the Scriptures, and as revealed to those who walk with Him. I know that my ‘wish list’ is entirely personal – although I do believe that it is from Jesus – but I know that not everyone will share my views. At least, not yet, and maybe even never. Plus of course I could well be wrong in some of my wish list items! Although those wishes are admirable, they cannot be used as a basis for cancelling churches in general where those churches fail to meet up with those ideals.

What all this meant for me was that I found it hard to accept that people, and especially new converts, were being given dodgy doctrines right from ‘square one‘ about Jesus and what it means to follow Him. Rules and regulations, expected behaviour patterns, that sort of thing. I am always, well almost fearful that new converts should be subjected to the sort of Religious steering that Jesus was talking about when He spoke to the Pharisees in these terms:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell [Gehenna] as you are!” (Matthew 23:15).

Let’s face it, that’s not a good starting point for anyone who is just beginning their walk with Jesus. Hence my ‘fear’ for them^[2] and, given that my background and experience was replete with almost exactly that kind of behaviour from dodgy leadership, my ‘fears’ are indeed justified, at least from a personal point of view.

So, my problem was that I almost didn’t want people to come into such an imperfect church and be ‘contaminated’ by bad attitudes. I’ve been in the faith long enough to know that this is indeed what happens; that the purity and awe of a person’s initial encounter with Jesus is soon overlaid with layers of Religious baggage. At its extreme, the baggage can choke the new life out of a person as Jesus describes of the thorns and weeds in the Parable of the Sower, in Matthew 13:7.

And that’s not something I’d wish on any new convert.

Realisation

My realisation that this was a problem in my own attitudes was highlighted when I met up with the leader of a local church the other day and had a really good discussion on things related to these ideas. Part of the story is related in my recent article here.

To recap, I had gone down to meet that leader – let’s get the anonymity stuff out of the way, shall we, and make up some fake names? Makes it a lot less awkward than just saying ‘the leader’! Let’s say for the purposes of the story that it was a CofE church, and that the leader was a lady Vicar called Annie 🤣 – and we talked about their practices and history in that church, amongst other things.

One of the things we talked about was that they run an Alpha Course, which is a programme of Christian evangelism. Past Courses had proved so popular that, even over the summer break, congregants wanted to run another Course once the previous one had finished. Annie was dubious about whether it would fly what with it being the holiday season and all, but she made the very reasonable proviso that yes the Course would run as long as they could get ten people to come along. Kind of to make it worthwhile, of course.

They got over fifty!

And so the Course is going ahead, and is running as I write this.

Annie said that it is obvious that people are hungry to learn about Jesus. People are thrilled with meeting Him – as you would expect, of course!^[3] – and, as an aside, many of them are also raving about the brilliant series ‘The Chosen‘ because it depicts the Bible stories about Jesus so well. (And Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus, plays Him brilliantly too). They just have a real hunger to learn more about Jesus – and that’s always going to be a good thing!

I need to add in a little personal context here. The Alpha Course was invented at Holy Trinity, Brompton (HTB), an Evangelical-oriented Church of England congregation. I myself attended an Alpha Course at the end of 1995 and into early 1996, just after I’d moved down here to Devon from Leeds. The Course I went to contained mainstream Evangelical doctrine and so of course nowadays (having moved further down my path) I would not identify with some of what was presented there. Naturally, the Course may well have changed somewhat by now; I have no data on its current content; its ‘syllabus’ if you like. But still, I must admit to feeling more than a little antipathy towards the Course while Annie and I were discussing it.

So over the last few days since that conversation with Annie, the Spirit has been speaking to me about my attitudes here. Look, She’s saying, people are being introduced to Jesus. People are realising how much He loves them and what He did for them. Annie specialises in teaching people how to be disciples of Christ. How to follow Him. How to hear Him, How to read the Bible.

So how can I argue with that? And what would give me the right to do so, anyway?

Granted, I may not agree entirely with the doctrines being taught in Alpha, but who’s to say I’m right? The thing is that, whatever the motivation, whatever the background, the principle is this:

As long as Christ is being preached, then it’s all good.

St. Paul said, “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached” (Phil 1:18)

If it’s good enough for St. Paul, then it’s good enough for me. Indeed, if it’s good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me! I really can’t argue with that; nor would I want to. If Jesus is being preached, and people are being introduced to Him, then I’m thrilled with it. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for leading me into that truth!

Further points

Despite my recent and well-documented disgust at the behaviour of certain local Evangelicals, I have to say that no church is ever perfect. It would seem that Annie’s church is a safer place, because people with ‘differences’ are made welcome there and are fully integrated. But still, there will be flaws; when you’re dealing with humans, there’s no other way it can be!

And granted, St. Paul’s comment in Philippians 1:18 relates more to the motivation behind the people in his time who were preaching Christ, not so much the ‘aftersales’ care idea. But the principle is still the same: so long as Christ is preached, then he’s happy with it.

And so, despite my earlier ‘wish list’ of ways in which I’d like the Church to (as I see it) represent Jesus better, still Christ is being preached, and more people are discovering the joy of knowing Him and being in His presence. And that’s the way it should be. Remember that it’s Jesus’s Church, and He will build it in His own way and in His own time. (Mt 16:18).

I know that there are some churches who preach what I would consider ‘a different gospel'^[4]. There are also those who, misusing the same Scripture verses (2Cor11:1ff esp. v.4) would claim that preaching a ‘different Christ’ is also a thing. This doesn’t worry me as this is one of the standard lines that certain nasty Christians use in order to deny others’ faith.

And of course it was clearly a factor that Paul was considering, indeed taking seriously, else he wouldn’t have written about it.

But in reply to that ‘worry’, I would say that, as always, you’ll know them by their fruits. If the fruits are Love, Joy, Peace and all that, then that’s the fruits of the Spirit right there (Gal 5:22-23). if there is righteousness, peace and joy, then that’s the Kingdom of God (Rom 14:17). Where there are miserable Christians trying to deny a true work of God, that’s not only the fruit of the flesh but it’s also a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit; ascribing to the enemy what is actually being done by God (e.g. Mt 12:31-32). So, a different Jesus? No. If anything, a ‘different Jesus’ is the one preached by those trying to make Him out to be a bloodthirsty warrior Messiah, which is exactly what the Jews wanted in His times on earth, but which He flat-out refused to fulfil. No, Paul’s Jesus went as far as dying on the Cross for His enemies. That’s the Real Jesus, not the different Jesus. Paul preached Christ Crucified (1Cor1:23); no ‘different Jesus’ would do that. Does the Jesus being preached ‘look like’ the Jesus in the Gospels? Does that preaching bear good fruit? Those are the sorts of questions that a person should ask in order to ascertain the veracity of any Jesus being preached.

Remember also that any ‘fake Jesus’ doesn’t actually and literally exist as any kind of ontological being; it is a figment of someone’s storytelling ability. Like any idol, it’s made of wood or stone or, in this case, words, ideas and concepts, and it lacks any power whatsoever. A fake Jesus would be unable to help a believer stand up to life’s pressures, in terms of them holding fast to anything but the Real Jesus through the storms of life. That’s how you can tell if it’s the real Jesus; think of it as a kind of ‘fruit’ of following Him, if you like. Certainly it’s a tangible effect on a person’s life, when it’s the real Jesus who is in that person’s life, and if that’s missing then the house will fall, as in the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builder in Matthew 7:24. This is hinted at in my classic piece ‘Graven Image‘, too, and is also brilliantly described by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 44:18-20 (NLT):

“Such stupidity and ignorance! Their eyes are closed, and they cannot see. Their minds are shut, and they cannot think. The person who made the idol never stops to reflect, “Why, it’s just a block of wood! I burned half of it for heat and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can the rest of it be a god? Should I bow down to worship a piece of wood?” The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes. He trusts something that can’t help him at all. Yet he cannot bring himself to ask, “Is this idol that I’m holding in my hand a lie?”

This is what happens with a ‘different Jesus’; it’s just a figment, nothing more. Yes it might ‘lead people astray’, but not for long.

This is because, despite all that detail and discussion and logic, it’s really quite simple. In terms of people being given the ‘wrong Jesus’ on any lasting basis, I don’t actually think that’s really possible. God is so much bigger and more powerful than the puny works of humans in their efforts to discredit Him, and despite the efforts of controlling leadership to monopolise Him and control access to Him. Jesus is above and beyond these people; this should really go without saying! Jesus speaks to people and makes Himself known to people, unhindered by the best efforts of Religious people to misrepresent Him.

Jesus still has good ‘cred’ – is in good standing, has good reputation, call it what you will – with ordinary people in general, at least in my country anyway. If that were not the case, then why would dodgy evangelists do the ‘bait and switch’ of luring people in, using Jesus as the bait and then giving them the Bible instead? If Jesus didn’t have an already-existing good reputation with people, then that bait wouldn’t work and they’d have to use different bait! It only works because Jesus is attractive to people.

For those who have their hearts even slightly turned towards Jesus, He has a way of bringing them to Himself that no fake Jesus can match. Bottom line is that this is a real Person we’re talking about here, not some man-made figment or concept. And, like I said earlier, He still has complete credibility.

I mean, look how those people are flocking to Annie’s Alpha Course. Those people have such a hunger for God that they have decided to overlook the ‘bad press’ that God gets so often, and to give Him a go all the same. And He loves that, and He honours it. And He guards it jealously.

None of us has a perfect picture of just Who and What Jesus is. He is perfectly capable of explaining Himself to His people^[5]; to those who seek after Him, and also fully capable of making Himself known to His people in whatever measure they can cope with. This is part of growing into Christ; learning to recognise His voice and learning more about who He is, as well as becoming more like Him in whatever way we need to.

No matter what incorrect concepts those new believers might pick up (in any church setting, not specifically in Annie’s), He will sort things out once people are walking with Him. He did that for me, and He will do it for everyone who really wants to follow Him.

For those churches containing the hard-hearted Pharisee types, even there He can make Himself known. Closed and hardened hearts? He has a way of opening them and softening them. He did it for St. Paul, in that famous ‘Road to Damascus’ story in Acts 9:1-9. He did it for other Religious types too, for example the other Pharisees-turned-Christ-followers who were present at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:5), even though they had still not been weaned off legalism!

How about those Christian doctrines and practices that seem to specialise in putting people off Jesus? Again, especially those listed in my introductory paragraphs above?

This is a tricky one. Because Christianity has so many different denominations and with so many belief structures, doctrines and whatnot, there will always be some things – such as I have also listed in this series on The Problems of Evangelicalism! – that will put outsiders off^[6]. And yet, even then, people are still hungry for God! People came to Annie’s Alpha course despite the well-publicised faults of organised Religion, and similar things happen elsewhere too.

And so, having been shown all this, I simply had to change my attitude. To change my mind; to ‘μετανοια’; to ‘metanoia’, a Greek word meaning, as I said, to ‘change the mind’, and usually translated as ‘repent’. You know what? I would not want my own hard-heartedness and blindness to cause me to miss anything that Jesus is doing in this day. That would be a tragedy! So I’m good with changing my mind!

As long as Christ is preached, that’s sufficient. Jesus is more than capable of leading all of His followers into all Truth. Despite many Christians’ insistence that the human heart cannot be trusted (based on just one famous and misused verse (Jeremiah 17:9)), Jesus said in John 16:3 that the Holy Spirit would lead believers into all Truth.

Quite how so many Christians cannot trust what Jesus says there is quite beyond me. God entrusts believers with listening to the Spirit for themselves, in their own hearts, minds and ears. He knows the ‘risks’, and indeed the consequences, should we mishear the Spirit, or ignore Her^[7]. Maybe they’re listening to the Prophets (in this case, Jeremiah) when God said at the Transfiguration that the disciples should, instead of listening to Moses and the Prophets, listen to “…My Son, with Whom I am well pleased”. (Luke 9:35). And that would be Jesus. So, listen to Him!

So, to Annie, people who run Alpha Courses, and indeed any Christian who does it:

As long as Christ is being preached, then it’s all good.

Grace and Peace to you 😊