Retro Religion

Retro Religion

"As I watched, Thrones were set up and the Ancient One took his throne. His clothing was snow bright, and the hair on his head as white as wool; His throne was flames of fire, with wheels of burning fire. A surging stream of fire flowed out from where he sat; Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and myriads upon myriads attended him." Dan 7:9-10

"At once I was caught up in the spirit. A throne was there in heaven, and on the throne sat one whose appearance sparkled like jasper and carnelian. Around the throne was a halo as brilliant as an emerald. Surrounding the throne I saw twenty-four other thrones on which twenty-four elders sat, dressed in white garments and with gold crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder." Rev 4:2-5

"Then I saw the heavens opened, and there was a white horse; its rider was (called) "Faithful and True." He judges and wages war in righteousness. His eyes were (like) a fiery flame, and on his head were many diadems. He had a name inscribed that no one knows except himself. He wore a cloak that had been dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God. The armies of heaven followed him, mounted on white horses and wearing clean white linen. Out of his mouth came a sharp sword to strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, and he himself will tread out in the wine press the wine of the fury and wrath of God the almighty. He has a name written on his cloak and on his thigh, "King of kings and Lord of lords." Rev 19:11-16

"Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it hasn’t so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love him," 1 Cor 2:9

We have in our day and age accomplished an incredible, mind-blowing event! Forget about going to the moon, forget about all our incredible scientific advances in medicine and technology, forget about our lightning fast computers. All those advances put together can’t equal the most amazing accomplishment of our day. This accomplishment required all our collective wisdom, effort and ingenuity.

We Have Made Jesus Christ Irrelevant and Unattractive to Millions of People!

We have hidden the real Jesus. We have repaired the temple veil that was torn in two from top to bottom when Jesus cried out from the cross, "It is finished" . We have hidden Jesus behind the veil again, in the holy of holies. We have made Him inaccessible, forbidding, separate from us and completely unapproachable again. Retro cars are the "in" thing today. Volkswagen’s new Beetle and Chrysler’s P T Cruiser are two examples. However Retro Religion is also "in" and selling well today.

We have painted Jesus in the dullest colors imaginable. We have taken the most awesome, the most strikingly beautiful and supremely attractive person in all of history and turned Him into an old, ugly, angry Judge. We have made Jesus into a very predictable, irrelevant god among gods. Like ho-hum who needs him. This dynamic Jesus who leapt into our lives from outside time and space, we made boring. This Jesus, the master of spontaneity, who spit in the dirt and made a mud paste to heal the blind, we made predictable. We have made Jesus bland, dull, vague and wholly unnecessary. We have reduced the gospel to dull, packaged deal, to a legal document, to a get out of jail free card, which guarantees pardon from sin.

We have hidden from the world a lifelong, intimate, exciting friendship with Jesus. We have hidden a personal relationship with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We have hidden the experience of the intoxicating love of Jesus that is more pleasurable than anything else in the world. We have hidden the incredible power of the Holy Spirit to set us free, to fly with eagles wings into inexpressible joy and to bring new life to one and all that we meet. We have made unnecessary the power of the Holy Spirit to equip us "to do the works that Jesus did," "to be more than conquerors," "to be the head and not the tail." and to have power and authority over the devil himself. This power and more, we have hidden.

We have reduced an invitation to a never-ending banquet to a deal struck with the Judge. We have presented a dull, boring, legalistic religion in place of the most exciting, invigorating, dynamic, pleasurable person in history, JESUS CHRIST!

Jesus forgive us. We have done it, we have turned the brilliance of your beauty into dirt. We have put a bland, boring facade on your beautiful, magnificent face. We have placed a black drop cloth on you The Bright Morning Star. We have turned you, The Lion of the Tribe of Judah into a pussycat. We have made you, The Master and Ruler of the Universe into yesterdays news. We have made you, Holy Spirit into the forgotten, unwanted and definitely not needed, third person of the Trinity. We have fed the masses stale, moldy, imitation bread, instead of THE "Bread of Life." Forgive us and have mercy on us O Lord.