Candy Coated Christianity

Mega churches, Christian themed movies running nationwide in secular theaters, and wildly popular books about the end times depicted in the Bible seem to indicate (at first glance) that the church founded by Jesus Christ is healthy and growing.

Many Christians, myself included, are proud that born-again believers have become a major marketplace influence, and that even Hollywood has recognized that fact and provided a multitude of entertainment vehicles based on Christian values.

But is the trend the result of the true gospel of Jesus Christ being delivered to all peoples? If you walk through the average "Christian" bookstore, you'll find books by orthodox authors who remain true to the Bible, like Billy Graham, John MacArthur, and many others. Yet on the same shelves you will find books written by some of the most outrageous and heretical false prophets of our time. Binny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, and Jesse Duplantis come to mind as some of these misleading teachers who obtain their living by conning gullible followers out of their money. It becomes very apparent that the folks in charge of what these stores sell care nothing about the message or it's accuracy, but are only interested in what they can populate the shelves with to make profit.

There is a record in the new testament describing Jesus' reaction to merchants leveraging the sacred for greed and avarice.

Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem one day. He observed livestock sellers and money changers who had set up operations on the temple grounds offering currency exchange and sacrificial animals to the temple patrons. Jesus took a little time to braid together a whip and then literally chased the merchants out of the temple grounds with it, overturning their tables and scattering their coins and merchandise. The gospels record him saying that those people had turned his Father's house into a den of thieves.

In modern America, as we attend our Christian concerts, or go to a worship service that is more entertainment for us than worship for our God, are we contributing to converting the church into a den of thieves? As we build massive auditorium and theater complexes that we claim are churches and design our messages to be "seeker friendly", are we not simply diluting the good news brought to us by Jesus Christ? We concentrate so much upon God's grace that I think many new church goers fail to grasp the fact that there is another side to God, one of judgment and wrath, and a total condemnation of sin. Even the tiniest, most harmless of sins cannot be tolerated by God. That is why we would all be doomed were it not for the gift of God's Son, Jesus Christ.

That day in the temple, with the Son of God wielding a whip and flogging the merchants, pursuing them as they fled the temple, will be nothing compared to the wrath to come. The next return of Christ will be one of judgment and punishment for those who have exploited His church and the Gospel for greed.

I wonder how many will stand before that final judgment to find themselves condemned because they were never true converts, despite the enormous wealth they acquired from entertaining and catering to believers. I wonder how many of them will be television evangelists or leaders of mega churches? How many will be church members who attended weekly and never believed?

If you go to church regularly, but it hasn't taught you the following facts, perhaps you should find a church that will:

Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty of death (eternal separation from our Creator) that each of us owes for our sins; past, present, and future.

Jesus' offer of his substitution for that death sentence is freely given to all who ask Him for it, and denied to those who fail to accept it.

The acceptance of that gift creates a new relationship between God and the recipient, and that relationship grows and becomes stronger as the believer studies God's Word (the Bible) and follows the instructions of Jesus and the apostles contained therein.