Our country doesn't worship Jesus or even God; we revere the god of SELF. We are people who are far more concerned with material gain, comfort, entertainment and temporal happiness. We don't want the boat of our affluent (when compared to the rest of the world) way of life rocked. We want to dabble in a hodgepodge of religion; we want to paste on the badge of Christianity, meanwhile living in selfish abandonment to the pursuit of pleasure and fulfillment. We worship our TV programs, our weekend adventures, our food, our right to do whatever we want, our entitlement to spend our money any way we want. We, as a nation, are pseudo Christians, God-followers in name only, whenever it's convenient and doesn't disrupt our plans, step on any toes, or render us unpopular with contemporary culture.
Pseudo Christians exude sophisticated tolerance and support Godless evil: abortion (disguised as "choice," the proliferation of sanctioned gay pride, socialism, divorce (and subsequent broken families), and whatever else currently constitutes a modern world view. Pseudo Christians don't regard the Word of God as their plumbline-it is too archiac, ancient and legalistic; surely humanism is much more sane and intelligent.
Then are those of us who claim we believe the Word of God, but we can't be bothered to know what it even says. And even worse, a segment of us actually do know what it says, but that somehow doesn't translate into obedience; somehow giving scripture lip service is enough. If we ignore the holy, sovereign God long enough, our hearts become callused and numb to the Truth.
This floppy "faith" boils down to direct rebellion against the Almighty. Jesus said in John 14:15, "If you love Me, OBEY My Commands." Denial is easier and much less demanding. He also said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me," Matthew 16:24. Denial of self is against our religion ("have it YOUR way," spouts Burger King).
Let's just create a man-made, palatable god, one who smiles indulgently down at us as we make choices that, after all, are our own business! Our god-recipe produces a politically correct, kinder and gentler god, one created in our own image, much better than the real, Holy, non-conformist God. Our new deity is tolerant, lenient, sympathetic and liable to wink at our little foibles (sins).
The trouble with this man-made God is that He is tame, under our control, and less powerful than we are, and herein lies the danger. How can we worship a god of our own shaping? We are weak and fallible, created of flesh and bone, and we think we can come up with something better than the God of universe? How arrogant of us! We are the made, not the Maker.
I always chuckle at the ancient Israelites and how they actually thought the idols they fashioned with their own hands out of (REAL GOD-created) materials like rock and wood, would spring to some sort of powerful life and respond to their worship and prayers. But we're no better. We surround ourselves with prestige, power, material stuff and the life WE choose, and wonder why we feel so empty and dissatisfied. Jesus shunned the culturally "fulfilled" life, even to the extent of remaining single and chaste, wholeheartedly devoted to the Kingdom of God, laying down His life in death to buy our eternity. "He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin," Hebrews 11:25.
Our religion, in contrast, is modeled after the satanic snake, who said to Eve in the Garden, "Did God really say?" After all, he couldn't possibly mean the hard words contained in scripture. No god could be so narrow minded. Yet Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it," Matthew 7:13-14. Really? Jesus was that intolerant? Who does He think He is, putting limits on my life? I'm an American; I do what I want." Ok, that's fine, but don't think you can label that Christianity.
"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people," (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
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