{"id":28884,"date":"2015-03-18T06:57:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T10:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=28884"},"modified":"2015-03-18T06:57:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T10:57:39","slug":"making-christianity-easier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/making-christianity-easier.html","title":{"rendered":"Making Christianity Easier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Benjamin Corey<\/a> wrote a post that offers an explanation of the popularity of end-times Christianity:<\/p>\n

\n

The end times version of Christianity that many of us grew up with has been immensely popular, not because it\u2019s true, but because it\u2019s easy.<\/strong>\u00a0Prior to the invention of end times fanaticism, Christians were busy trying to change the world on a massive scale- changing broken social systems, uplifting the poor and oppressed, and addressing all sorts of other problems they referred to as \u201csocial ills.\u201d They labored to help those around them experience God\u2019s will on earth as it is in heaven, the presence of the Kingdom of God here-and-now, and the transformative nature of God\u2019s reconciliation\u2013 all things that were truly Good News in every respect.<\/p>\n

But Christianity within an end times paradigm? Things went radically down hill after Darby\u2019s teachings caught on because the alternate version of Christianity is so much easier. I used to live that kind of Christianity, and it was cake.<\/p>\n

In fact, I remember traveling on a missions trip to the former Soviet Union just within a year or two after the fall of communism. The economy was in shambles, people were hungry, unemployed, and desperate. What did we bring them? We brought them a message of \u201cgood news\u201d conveyed through street skits\/silent drama and singing \u201cPeople Need The Lord\u201d\u00a0to a boombox (remember those?). After our presentation we\u2019d grab a translator and quickly try to get as many people as possible to ask Jesus into their hearts before moving on to the next place.<\/p>\n

Supposedly, that was all good news. However, what I\u2019ve learned as an adult is that the Good News isn\u2019t about escaping the world, it\u2019s about transforming it. The Good News is an invitation to empty oneself the way Christ did, and to be agents of reconciliation who act as a soothing balm on hurting lives.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Fred Clark<\/a> shared thoughts along similar lines, talking about how some Evangelical Christians try to liven up their mundane lives by imagining that they are key warriors in a spiritual battle with demonic adversaries:<\/p>\n

\n

Deceiving the elect is actually Wall\u2019s entire agenda there \u2014 with Deception No. 1 being the idea that they are, exclusively, \u201cthe elect.\u201d As such, she urges them to accept that they are immune to deception \u2014 that they have unique access to the meaning of scripture and \u201cthe testimony of Jesus Christ.\u201d Others have fallen away, bowing to \u201cnone other than Satan himself.\u201d But we \u2014 Wall and anyone who accepts her invitation to participate in this deception \u2014 we are \u201cthe remnant that keeps the commandments of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

The self-aggrandizing fantasy here would be hilarious except for the fact that so many people aren\u2019t in on the joke. Not only do many white evangelical Christians see this fantasy as deadly serious, they\u2019ve accepted the bargain being offered by Wall and countless others \u2014 the agreement to help one another fantasize that their otherwise unremarkable lives set them apart as ultra-special saints who are better than everyone else.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see how such fantasizing can be briefly intoxicating. I fully understand the\u00a0allure of imagining ourselves to be exceptional. Most of us understand this \u2014 just look at our most popular stories, from\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Buffy<\/em>\u00a0to Cinderella in\u00a0all its endless iterations.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s one think to relate to the longing that Luke or Harry or Cinderella feels and to indulge in those escapist fantasies. It\u2019s something else entirely to decide that you\u00a0actually\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0a Jedi knight or a wizard or a princess, and then to try to sustain that fantasy throughout your daily life. Your daily life usually won\u2019t cooperate with such a pretense.<\/p>\n

Sustaining the kind of fantasy Linda Wall invites her readers to indulge in takes an enormous amount of imagination. It requires the collaborative effort of a community of fantasists who agree to cooperate by reinforcing one another\u2019s fantasies. And it requires a willingness to reinterpret every mundane detail of the world around you into something fraught with all the drama of the pageant you\u2019re creating in your head.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Both posts are really about the same thing. Many Christians, instead of transforming the world, choose the easier route of\u00a0believing the world cannot be transformed except through preaching which one can do briefly and then leave, hoping for the best. Many Christians, instead of examining themselves and seeking to root out the evil within ourselves, prefer to proudly embrace the role of heroic warrior against enemies who in turn are demonized.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Corey wrote a post that offers an explanation of the popularity of end-times Christianity: The end times version of Christianity that many of us grew up with has been immensely popular, not because it\u2019s true, but because it\u2019s easy.\u00a0Prior to the invention of end times fanaticism, Christians were busy trying to change the world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":26570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,163],"tags":[1109,2437,3060,3143,3592,4089,9430,9454,9854,9859,12825],"class_list":["post-28884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eschatology-theology","category-progressive-christianity-religion","tag-benjamin-l-corey","tag-darby","tag-end-times","tag-eschatology-theology","tag-fred-clark","tag-gospel","tag-preaching","tag-premillenial-dispensationalism","tag-quote","tag-quotes","tag-transformation"],"yoast_head":"\nMaking Christianity Easier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Benjamin Corey wrote a post that offers an explanation of the popularity of end-times Christianity: The end times version of Christianity that many of us\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/making-christianity-easier.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Christianity Easier\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Benjamin Corey wrote a post that offers an explanation of the popularity of end-times Christianity: The end times version of Christianity that many of us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/making-christianity-easier.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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