Divinity

This morning I was wondering why exactly I have such a, for lack of a better word, fascination with Christianity. I was wondering if it’s because it was what my parents tried to raise me to believe, or if it is because of something else.

After pondering it a bit, I have to say that of all the religions out there with “higher powers,” Christianity seems to be a bit more credible than the rest. Maybe it’s because of the amount of historical facts that are accurately portrayed in the Bible. Or maybe the prophecies that came true sometimes hundreds of years after they were given (which yes, I know you can argue to a standstill about if certain events accurately fulfill prophecies since prophecies are usually rather cryptic in the way they are written). Or maybe it’s something else. But to me, it seems that if there is a “God” out there, Christianity seems more believable to me than other religions.

As I was walking out of the kitchen thinking about this, I noticed a book on my mom’s piano called The Prayer Of Jabez. I’m not going to get into why I think that whole thing is a crock, but I noticed something about the author. Before his name was the prefix “Dr.”

This is something I find rather strange now that I think about it. Almost all of American Christianity is run by people who went to school and learned how to be what they are.

Here in America, you can get a Master’s in Divinity, or a degree in youth ministry, or a plethora of other collegiate documents in order to authenticate that you work for God. You can go to school for a certain number of years and get stuffed chock full of theology and church doctrine so that you can have a plaque to hang on your wall and a fancy prefix to add to your name in order to let the world know your “spiritual status.”

Isn’t it funny how in the Bible there were none of these things? Even after following the Son of God himself for years, the disciples never earned the title of “doctor” or “pastor” or even “teacher.” They were just disciples. The apostles were never even given the titles of apostles and saints and all that until after their jobs were done or they were dead.

The vast majority of churches here in America are being run by people who sat in classes and learned how to fulfill the job of being a “spiritual leader” in the same way that economists learn to do what they do, and lawyers learn to do what they do, and astronomers learn to do what they do.

The American church has reduced God to nothing more than a course of study to be taken at a college. You can earn credits in certain areas and thus demonstrate your ability to be assimilated into the collective consciousness which has become the American church.

The thing that I really wonder about though is if it’s truly possible to “study” God in colleges and classes like they try to do. Sure, you can find out all sorts of facts about things, learn how to “minister” to people (which is really just a spiritual sounding way to say council them), you can learn ways to get emotional responses from people, and many other things.

Christians like to talk about how God is a “personal God.” They talk about how you need to have a relationship with him. Jesus himself said “And this is life eternal, that they might KNOW thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (emphasis mine), John 17:3.”

Personally, I think all these people who hang their spiritual status on the wall, or wear it on a nametag are missing it.

If God is truly a personal God who interacts with his people, why should anyone need to be taught by any person at all? If God really listens to and talks to his people, why can’t HE be the teacher? Why does America feel the need to have a person go to school in order to get a piece of paper that they can point to and say, “See, I’m called by God to do what I do?”

Now church people argue that people need to be trained, and point to the fact that Jesus and the disciples often taught in the synagogues during their time. Yet, all they were doing was teaching, not conducting four-year college courses. I think the difference might be likened to that between giving someone directions to a gas station, or helping them draw a whole Hudson map book of the whole area, just to cover all the bases.

Then again, the apostle Paul was schooled in all of the wisdom of the church people of the time, and this is what led him to kill Christians. Then after being converted, he went away and was supposedly taught by God (that’s why he said he was taught by no man, Galatians 1:12). So if Paul was able to be taught by God himself, and thus go on to write much of the New Testament and be one of the cornerstones of the church, why can’t other people?

I wonder, if God is really there, how many of those in church leadership are really “called” by him to be there.

In fact, most churches and denominations today are nothing more than corporations. They have a board of directors, although they change the name to “board of deacons” or “board of elders” in an attempt to make it sound more “spiritual.” They have a CEO called a head pastor. They have a CFO called a treasurer. They own property, collect revenue, distribute products (tapes, CD’s, literature, etc), and many even have shareholders (those would be the registered church members who in many churches have voting rights when it comes to congregational decisions).

That’s how it is because that’s how people like it. They like to have at least a little control over how things go in their church. They like to go there and feel comfortable and fulfilled and go home thinking they’re cool with God. They like to have their mental picture of God reinforced weekly so that they can feel good.

If God is real and someone actually did take the time to get to know him and be taught by him, like Paul supposedly did, I would bet you that the American church would crucify them just like the Jewish church people crucified Jesus and his people. A person like that would show the complacent, stagnant church in America for what it is. The people wouldn’t be able to be happy singing their upbeat songs and watching overheads during sermons because they would know that someone out there had the truth, and the truth makes people uncomfortable.

Well, contrary to what it may seem, I haven’t gone and gotten “saved.” I’m just as damned as always. But I do think it would be cool to be able to know the God of the universe. Only problem is that, although I have tried, it doesn’t seem like there is one out there to know.

So maybe it doesn’t matter if the church people keep doing things the way they are because they’re just using it as a coping mechanism.

I dunno.

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Follow me now and you will not regret

Leaving the life you led before we met

You are the first to have this love of mine

Forever with me till the end of time

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Your love for me has just got to be real

Before you know the way I’m going to feel

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Now I have you with me, under my power

Our love grows stronger now with every hour

Look here tonight as you see who I am

My name is Lucifer, please take my hand.”

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Black Sabbath