“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

-1 Cor. 1:18-

There were even several instances when Jesus began to teach deep things and it said that many followers left him because the teaching was too hard…

That being said I think I agree that it would be hard for someone to get a real “read” on a church body by simply visiting once and grading it and may simply be subjective to a persons style or personality(aka rating a church on things like food and multi-media useage). But at the end of the day it is the Spirit that leads men to repentance and faith so IF I had a church rating system it would probably be the same rating system that Jesus talked about. I heard it said that we are not called to judge but we ARE called to be fruit inspectors.

“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
-Matthew 7:16-20-

1.) Today the Church is a lot more forgiving of “heretics” than in the past. While a good old-fashioned “Heretic Stake Burning and BBQ” isn’t as appropriate to modern sensibilities, I don’t think we should allow people to openly warp the truth (particularly for their own gain) and not call them out as charlatans. I love the way that the early church father’s talked heretics. The quote below is from Irenaeus of Lyon, a church father from about 170-190 CE.:

“There are also those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.” And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who met him on one occasion, and said, “Dost thou know me?” “I do know thee, the first-born of Satan.” Such was the horror which the apostles and their disciples had against holding even verbal communication with any corrupters of the truth” – Irenaeus of Lyon c. 180 CE

Did you catch the references to “enemy of truth” and, my personal favourite, “first-born of Satan”? They didn’t pull any punches when it came to people distorting God’s Word. I like that.

2.) To play devil’s advocate (Does that make me the first-born of Satan? Or just his lawyer?), I think we should be careful that we don’t slip into being crass just because it may appeal to some people. I could probably get a lot of visits to a website called “Christian****Fest.com”, but that doesn’t mean I should. Whether we like it or not, certain types of vulgarities are associated with different types of behaviours, and we should be careful. Again, I don’t think that’s what going on here, but if we don’t watch out, it could be. Not to mention the fact that if you draw people to Christ just because they can be “cool” Christians, how’s that any different from drawing people to Christ so that they can be “rich” Christians? Just a thought.

3.) To me, the bullshit happens when the Church tries to leverage its position as gateway to Jesus. This can be leveraged by taking people’s money fraudulently, forcing them to accept teachings and doctrines without giving them access to God directly or for themselves, creating a false image of what it means to be a Christian, selling indulgences (both the reformation-era type, and the current “Rich Jesus” type) and anything else that the Church does to make sure that you rely on it for your salvation instead of Christ. Sometimes I think we forget that we are the bearers of the New Covenant and not the mediators.

Anyway, that’s my two cents :) (I’ve got more cents if you want them)

When people build their beliefs on the English translation of scripture and man-made traditions. If a person is going to claim that something is scriptural, they need to look into it and make sure the verses they’re referring to actually mean what they’re saying they mean. It’s helpful to look into the original language and the genre of the book.

Jenny, great question. One that I wanted to address in this post but I’m to impatient of a writer so it didn’t make the cut. I think this does come down to not taking ourselves to seriously. My advice to people who may disagree on what is bullshit and what isn’t would be, Don’t take it personally. So what if you like Benny Hinn and someone else thinks he’s a wacko. Unless your Benny Hinn of course. This happens when we find our identity in a certain person or dogma instead of Christ. We get offended because if someone doesn’t like them we assume that means they don’t like us. We don’t know where their beliefs end and our own truly begins.

There is no perfect answer where imperfect people are involved. Sometimes we’re just going to fight. ;-)