Tribulation Network

Why Christians Are Hypocrites

Chapter 10 – In Search of the Last Days Church

by Dene McGriff

Yes, we Christians are hypocrites. Dene, how dare you make such a statement??? Who do you think you are? Well, as the old saying goes, “It takes one to know one.” I’ve been around the block a few times and know from first hand experience the game we Christians play.

Let’s explore the world of hypocrites. It is defined as “the pretense of virtue.” Non-Christians look at the Church and all it sees is a house of hypocrisy – people who say they are Christians but act no better than the average Joe on the streets. If Jesus is going to have a testimony – a people who express His life and love in the last days, we need to understand this problem and what can be done about it! We pretend to be virtuous but the only real virtue is the work of Christ in our lives. The question is, who’s work is it – His or ours?

Here in America, we Christians excel as hypocrites for three basic reasons: 1) Many are just “cultural” Christians – raised going to church but have never been “born again.” 2) Others begin with a new life but then lose the fresh relationship with God they began with and 3) We are a part of a system that stifles growth. So what do you have left? Christians who believe they are expressing Christ but are not – self deluded, self absorbed imitators!

Cultural Christianity

I remember visiting a friend in North Carolina. It seemed like everyone was a “born again” Christian. They had the lingo down. They attended church regularly. In fact, some were so dry they never even took a sip. That was until you got to know them and then you realized you were in the middle of Peyton Place (name of a racy book and movie back in the ‘50s and ‘60s). They were divorcing and remarrying and hopping around bedrooms like a game of musical chairs! Pretty soon you got the idea that being a Christian in the South was just about as real as being a Catholic in Mexico. People go through the motions and smile at one another on Sunday mornings but live like hell the rest of the week. Now that’s an extreme example from the Bible belt.

But things here in California are not that different. People leave churches if they don’t like the preaching, programs, or Sunday School. They leave if they don’t like the pastor or get offended by a message. They are there as long as the church meets their needs and as soon as they don’t like it, they hop over to the next one. Church is something you attend for the quality of the music, the preaching and the programs. It’s a sort of shopping mall mentality—check out the shoe stores, there’s plenty of them…better look for the sales, right? At least that seems to be the attitude of the majority. It’s all about what you get out of it. After all, you are paying the pastor’s salary! So, getting your money’s worth – and I know this sounds crass – is precisely what’s going on out there in churchianity.

Anatomy of a Christian

Most people think that a Christian is a person who believes in Jesus’ teachings, follows them and attends a church. There are all types of definitions and hundreds of types of churches and denominations. But being a Christian has little to do with what we believe in or where we go. It is sad that even real Christians don’t understand how they became one and what makes them different. It has everything to do with something that happens in our being. The process that a person goes through in “becoming a Christian” is almost universal for those who experience being “born again.” First they experience conviction. They understand their depravity, inadequacies and emptiness. They are told that God has a plan through Jesus to make them whole so they cry out for help – however you want to describe it—this is the way it is. Something happens to them and they feel a joy, love, lightness (the burden is gone) and a change. Their spirit was made alive because the Holy Spirit came into it. This may occur alone, in a church or at a crusade. The experience is pretty much the same. The truly sad thing is that this is often one of the last times they have a real touch from God.

The next thing you know, the baby Christian is whisked off to a church where they are brought up (so to speak). They attend “church” services and Sunday school and begin to learn. Week after week they sit and listen dutifully to message after message. They go to classes and learn about the Bible. They observe people and begin to internalize how they ought to act (you know – drop the partying, drinking, smoking, bad language and all) and they put on the smiley face everyone else has… and do you know what you have? Another fully grown hypocrite! I know what I’m talking about because I have been around the system for over 50 years. I have experienced it and seen it happen again and again.

The new Christian is “born again.” They experience something wonderful when they first get “saved” – the love of God, forgiveness, His presence. They feel different, new, clean, refreshed. They are excited and want to share what happened with them to others. But soon they get caught up in the motions of acting like a Christian by attending church and learning how to act. The initial joy of salvation slowly evaporates as they hunker into the Christian culture of their local church. Over the next few years, there may be a special speaker, a conference or camp experience where something happens to them and they feel that God is really near and speaking to them but that soon fades as well until the next special occasion (which may be months or years away).

I have a Jewish friend who was really looking for Messiah. I asked him what he thought of most Christians and the first word to come out was “hypocrites.” I replied:

“That’s right and do you know why? When we first come to know the Lord we have humbled ourselves, realizing what a failure and how empty we are and we ask Jesus to come into our lives and change us and He does! But the next thing you know, we go to church and start to learn about how Christians are supposed to act; and we start to learn this and that and we lose that fresh touch we had the moment we were ‘born again.’ We start to act like Christians and the next thing you know we have no relationship with Him but are just actors – or hypocrites. We are trying to be good Christians but have lost that touch. It is not about church, doctrines, teachings and outward change but it is all about relationship and maintaining that relationship at all cost.”

So I said again:

“You know, Christians who have lost that touch, who have lost that first love, are miserable, unhappy people. Do you want to be like that?”

“No,” he said.

“It’s all about maintaining your relationship with God. You come to Him humbly every day and say ‘Lord I really need you. I want nothing between us. Be in me what I can’t be.’ If you aren’t willing to do that every day, you will be a miserable hypocrite because you will be trying to establish your own goodness rather than let Him change you. Don’t be surprised when you fail, but come back to the Lord and tell Him about it. So don’t start down the road unless you are willing to go all the way.”

Fortunately, he said:

“I’m willing to pay the price and give everything to Him and renew that commitment every day.”

In the first chapter of the first book the Bible says "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” So we are made in the “image of God”. Anatomically speaking we have a body, a soul (mind, will and emotions) and a spirit – that “God shaped” vacuum. Think of something such as a glove. The glove is made in the “image” of a hand, but it doesn’t fulfill its purpose until it is filled by a hand. In the same way, a human is made in the image of God and hasn’t realized their purpose and meaning until filled by God. The Bible is full of references such as Ezekiel 36:26:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

John 3 tells us we have to be born again, born of the Spirit—“That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (i.e., our “human spirit”). Or in many places it talks of us as his temple. (I Cor. 3:17). It is interesting that most religions have temples of worship, and even Christians have this concept but the real temple. The unique thing about Christianity is that there are no (or at least should be) temples. The dwelling place of God is the human spirit of man. That relationship can only be restored by the work Jesus did on the cross for us that allows Him to take up residence in our spirit.

When our human spirit is inhabited by the Spirit of God, we are “born again.” Something happens inside and it is an experience all true Christians have in common. The problem is that a “born again” Christian is just a baby. If that divine life isn’t nurtured, fed and taken care of, Christians lose that intimate, fresh touch they had when they were first saved. They are then enlisted into a religious system, an “institutional” church where they are taught and taught and taught some more. It is as if you took a baby away from its home and enrolled them in a boarding school and they never experienced a normal family. Unless they go into a ministry (become clergy), they languish in the pews of passivity, doing their religious duty once or twice a week for the rest of their miserable, hypocritical lives.

Organic Church Life

We are born into the body of Christ (an organism, not an organization) into the family of God – not into a seeker friendly purpose-driven program filled emergent church! The early church was just a group of people who met from house to house and built one another up in love, sharing what they experienced. I would refer you once again to the excellent book “Pagan Christianity” by George Barna and Frank Viola which fully documents the fact that the institutional church we have inherited has nothing whatsoever to do with the “organic” early church which was produced by the spontaneous working of the Holy Spirit in all the saints. Then see the follow-up book, “Reimaging the Church” for practical suggestions on how to proceed as an “organic expression” of the Body of Christ, the family of God.

The church was meant to be an organism, not an organization. Every member is a living, contributing part. Have you ever raised children? A one or two-year old at the dinner table is a wondrous, messy sight. They get food all over the place and every now and then in their mouths! Meetings should give freedom to all the saints to share, select a song, teach or prophesy. At times the kids act up, but that is no reason to give up and allow only the father to speak at the dinner table. What kind of family would that be?

But above all an organic church meeting is the sum of its parts. Each individual should have a fresh, living, daily, obedient relationship with the Lord. If the majority has this experience with the Lord, then their time together will be rich and uplifting because everyone will have something to contribute. Jesus will be glorified and people will be amazed by the love, and the fresh experience the whole body has with the Lord. It will be such an encouragement to one another that people who had a down time will renew their relationship with the Lord and be ready to share the next time.

This kind of church life is based on the fact that every individual has the same access to the Lord. It is called the “priesthood of all believers” – something we say we believe in but really don’t practice. The clergy laity system has resulted in a two-tiered system of talkers and listeners, of full-time and part-time Christians, of workers and spectators. When people look at churches they see one guy talking and everyone else listening and are basically bored to tears by the jargon filled sermons. Meanwhile, the pulpits are filled with people who act one way on Sunday and another the rest of the week like….hypocrites, right?

Organic church life means that each believer is involved. Each is responsible to maintain a fresh relationship with the Lord. If they do, they will have lots to share. If they don’t they will be embarrassed and a little quiet and motivated to deal with the Lord more seriously the next week. I remember the feeling well. There is a big difference between words coming off the top of your head instead of deep within your heart out of real experience with the living Lord that week. There is a difference between something that happened to you ten years ago and what the Lord did in your life today. As Christians we can’t rest on our past successes but we need a fresh, current relationship with Jesus. If we don’t, what are we? Actors, pretenders – hypocrites!

Concluding Comments

Meanwhile back to hypocrisy. Why is it so rampant in Christians? There are several factors. First, a “born again” Christian (let’s call him Joe) is just an ordinary human being with a little seed of divine life in his human spirit. Other than that Joe has all the same faults and foibles he had the day before he was “saved.” The trick is to nurture that divine life inside and let it transform his mind, will and emotions. It is a process that takes years given the best of conditions. Joe needs to learn to take nourishment from the Bible (not just read it). He needs to learn to hear the “still small voice of the Lord” and to follow it. He needs to experience being in a community of Christians who encourage and spiritually feed him. And he, in turn, needs to let Christ’s life and love flow out of him to others. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that Joe starts to go to church and gets taught to death, never learning how to get into the presence of the Lord himself and let the Bible feed and nourish him. He has little opportunity for ministry other than being a greeter, usher or class teacher. He learns to act like a Christian (from what he is taught and reads) but has little real experience with the Lord. His life becomes compartmentalized – he has his smiley face on for church and he is what he is the rest of the week.

Second (in contrast to historical Christianity or to the experience of Christians in many parts of the world), there is no stigma for the Western Christian, no persecution or suffering for being a Christian. In fact, it is kind of the “in thing” in much of our culture. Yet we live in a mesmerizing world. Families struggle to keep their heads above water so they are on a treadmill working harder and longer than ever. The advertising-entertainment industries bombard our senses with messages whether to buy something we don’t need or to accept a lower moral standard in society. So as modern Western Christians, we need to learn to resist the things of the world, not in a monastic way, but in a way which allows the Lord to set the priorities in our lives. We need to value our relationship with the Lord and one another above all else.

Finally, we are all hypocrites in the sense that none of us live in the presence and fullness of the Lord 24/7. The only righteousness we have is the life of Christ that is working in us every day and expressing itself to the world. Day by day we are being transformed in our inward man. When we come together with other Christians we have the living proof to share with one another. The Bible spells it out pretty well – where we have come from and where we are going.

“Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11-22)

We were once without hope, separate from Christ but have now been brought near by the blood of Christ. We are no longer foreigners and aliens. Through Him we have access by one Spirit – we all share, not just a few professionals. And to top it off, we aren’t part of a temple made of stones, but of people being built together into a corporate dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Our protection and completion is found in Him and one another. It is impossible to be a normal Christian without being connected in His body. I dare say few have seen the reality of Ephesians 4.

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:14-16)

It is clear the infants are those pew sitters who sit there week after week being blown around by every wind of teaching. If we want to grow up we have to hold onto one another in love, and be connected to one another, each part working and then the body builds itself up in love and grows into him who is the Head. If we don’t have the reality of this in our lives, we will be a bunch of lone ranger Christians, hypocrites who pass by one another as we quietly take our seat in the pew.

I urge you again to read Pagan Christianity. If you read it, you will never be the same. You will let the old wineskin rot and go in search of your brothers and sisters in Christ who want to get real. This is a break from my usual gloom and doom economic writings because the world system is disintegrating before our eyes (before being rebuilt into a satanic one world economic system where you can’t buy nor sell without the “Mark of the Beast”). We’re going to be called on to testify to the reality of Jesus in our lives. And we can’t do that unless we experience Christ in a real way. And we can’t do that unless we are built up with one another as His living One Body. We can’t fake it. Jesus is real in our lives or He isn’t. We will either be a part of the testimony or caught up in the deception.

Dene McGriff, Sacramento

October, 2008




	Why Christians Are Hypocrites Chapter 10 – In Search of the Last Days Church by Dene McGriff Yes, we Christians are hypocrites. Dene, how dare you make such a statement??? Who do you think you are? Well, as the old saying goes, “It takes one to know one.” I’ve been around the block a few times and know from first hand experience the game we Christians play. Let’s explore the world of hypocrites. It is defined as “the pretense of virtue.” Non-Christians look at the Church and all it sees is a house of hypocrisy – people who say they are Christians but act no better than the average Joe on the streets. If Jesus is going to have a testimony – a people who express His life and love in the last days, we need to understand this problem and what can be done about it! We pretend to be virtuous but the only real virtue is the work of Christ in our lives. The question is, who’s work is it – His or ours? Here in America, we Christians excel as hypocrites for three basic reasons: 1) Many are just “cultural” Christians – raised going to church but have never been “born again.” 2) Others begin with a new life but then lose the fresh relationship with God they began with and 3) We are a part of a system that stifles growth. So what do you have left? Christians who believe they are expressing Christ but are not – self deluded, self absorbed imitators! Cultural Christianity I remember visiting a friend in North Carolina. It seemed like everyone was a “born again” Christian. They had the lingo down. They attended church regularly. In fact, some were so dry they never even took a sip. That was until you got to know them and then you realized you were in the middle of Peyton Place (name of a racy book and movie back in the ‘50s and ‘60s). They were divorcing and remarrying and hopping around bedrooms like a game of musical chairs! Pretty soon you got the idea that being a Christian in the South was just about as real as being a Catholic in Mexico. People go through the motions and smile at one another on Sunday mornings but live like hell the rest of the week. Now that’s an extreme example from the Bible belt. But things here in California are not that different. People leave churches if they don’t like the preaching, programs, or Sunday School. They leave if they don’t like the pastor or get offended by a message. They are there as long as the church meets their needs and as soon as they don’t like it, they hop over to the next one. Church is something you attend for the quality of the music, the preaching and the programs. It’s a sort of shopping mall mentality—check out the shoe stores, there’s plenty of them…better look for the sales, right? At least that seems to be the attitude of the majority. It’s all about what you get out of it. After all, you are paying the pastor’s salary! So, getting your money’s worth – and I know this sounds crass – is precisely what’s going on out there in churchianity. Anatomy of a Christian Most people think that a Christian is a person who believes in Jesus’ teachings, follows them and attends a church. There are all types of definitions and hundreds of types of churches and denominations. But being a Christian has little to do with what we believe in or where we go. It is sad that even real Christians don’t understand how they became one and what makes them different. It has everything to do with something that happens in our being. The process that a person goes through in “becoming a Christian” is almost universal for those who experience being “born again.” First they experience conviction. They understand their depravity, inadequacies and emptiness. They are told that God has a plan through Jesus to make them whole so they cry out for help – however you want to describe it—this is the way it is. Something happens to them and they feel a joy, love, lightness (the burden is gone) and a change. Their spirit was made alive because the Holy Spirit came into it. This may occur alone, in a church or at a crusade. The experience is pretty much the same. The truly sad thing is that this is often one of the last times they have a real touch from God. The next thing you know, the baby Christian is whisked off to a church where they are brought up (so to speak). They attend “church” services and Sunday school and begin to learn. Week after week they sit and listen dutifully to message after message. They go to classes and learn about the Bible. They observe people and begin to internalize how they ought to act (you know – drop the partying, drinking, smoking, bad language and all) and they put on the smiley face everyone else has… and do you know what you have? Another fully grown hypocrite! I know what I’m talking about because I have been around the system for over 50 years. I have experienced it and seen it happen again and again. The new Christian is “born again.” They experience something wonderful when they first get “saved” – the love of God, forgiveness, His presence. They feel different, new, clean, refreshed. They are excited and want to share what happened with them to others. But soon they get caught up in the motions of acting like a Christian by attending church and learning how to act. The initial joy of salvation slowly evaporates as they hunker into the Christian culture of their local church. Over the next few years, there may be a special speaker, a conference or camp experience where something happens to them and they feel that God is really near and speaking to them but that soon fades as well until the next special occasion (which may be months or years away). I have a Jewish friend who was really looking for Messiah. I asked him what he thought of most Christians and the first word to come out was “hypocrites.” I replied: “That’s right and do you know why? When we first come to know the Lord we have humbled ourselves, realizing what a failure and how empty we are and we ask Jesus to come into our lives and change us and He does! But the next thing you know, we go to church and start to learn about how Christians are supposed to act; and we start to learn this and that and we lose that fresh touch we had the moment we were ‘born again.’ We start to act like Christians and the next thing you know we have no relationship with Him but are just actors – or hypocrites. We are trying to be good Christians but have lost that touch. It is not about church, doctrines, teachings and outward change but it is all about relationship and maintaining that relationship at all cost.” So I said again: “You know, Christians who have lost that touch, who have lost that first love, are miserable, unhappy people. Do you want to be like that?” “No,” he said. “It’s all about maintaining your relationship with God. You come to Him humbly every day and say ‘Lord I really need you. I want nothing between us. Be in me what I can’t be.’ If you aren’t willing to do that every day, you will be a miserable hypocrite because you will be trying to establish your own goodness rather than let Him change you. Don’t be surprised when you fail, but come back to the Lord and tell Him about it. So don’t start down the road unless you are willing to go all the way.” Fortunately, he said: “I’m willing to pay the price and give everything to Him and renew that commitment every day.” In the first chapter of the first book the Bible says "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” So we are made in the “image of God”. Anatomically speaking we have a body, a soul (mind, will and emotions) and a spirit – that “God shaped” vacuum. Think of something such as a glove. The glove is made in the “image” of a hand, but it doesn’t fulfill its purpose until it is filled by a hand. In the same way, a human is made in the image of God and hasn’t realized their purpose and meaning until filled by God. The Bible is full of references such as Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit* within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” John 3 tells us we have to be born again, born of the Spirit—“That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (i.e., our “human spirit”). Or in many places it talks of us as his temple. (I Cor. 3:17). It is interesting that most religions have temples of worship, and even Christians have this concept but the real temple. The unique thing about Christianity is that there are no (or at least should be) temples. The dwelling place of God is the human spirit of man. That relationship can only be restored by the work Jesus did on the cross for us that allows Him to take up residence in our spirit. When our human spirit is inhabited by the Spirit of God, we are “born again.” Something happens inside and it is an experience all true Christians have in common. The problem is that a “born again” Christian is just a baby. If that divine life isn’t nurtured, fed and taken care of, Christians lose that intimate, fresh touch they had when they were first saved. They are then enlisted into a religious system, an “institutional” church where they are taught and taught and taught some more. It is as if you took a baby away from its home and enrolled them in a boarding school and they never experienced a normal family. Unless they go into a ministry (become clergy), they languish in the pews of passivity, doing their religious duty once or twice a week for the rest of their miserable, hypocritical lives. Organic Church Life We are born into the body of Christ (an organism, not an organization) into the family of God – not into a seeker friendly purpose-driven program filled emergent church! The early church was just a group of people who met from house to house and built one another up in love, sharing what they experienced. I would refer you once again to the excellent book “Pagan Christianity” by George Barna and Frank Viola which fully documents the fact that the institutional church we have inherited has nothing whatsoever to do with the “organic” early church which was produced by the spontaneous working of the Holy Spirit in all the saints. Then see the follow-up book, “Reimaging the Church” for practical suggestions on how to proceed as an “organic expression” of the Body of Christ, the family of God. The church was meant to be an organism, not an organization. Every member is a living, contributing part. Have you ever raised children? A one or two-year old at the dinner table is a wondrous, messy sight. They get food all over the place and every now and then in their mouths! Meetings should give freedom to all the saints to share, select a song, teach or prophesy. At times the kids act up, but that is no reason to give up and allow only the father to speak at the dinner table. What kind of family would that be? But above all an organic church meeting is the sum of its parts. Each individual should have a fresh, living, daily, obedient relationship with the Lord. If the majority has this experience with the Lord, then their time together will be rich and uplifting because everyone will have something to contribute. Jesus will be glorified and people will be amazed by the love, and the fresh experience the whole body has with the Lord. It will be such an encouragement to one another that people who had a down time will renew their relationship with the Lord and be ready to share the next time. This kind of church life is based on the fact that every individual has the same access to the Lord. It is called the “priesthood of all believers” – something we say we believe in but really don’t practice. The clergy laity system has resulted in a two-tiered system of talkers and listeners, of full-time and part-time Christians, of workers and spectators. When people look at churches they see one guy talking and everyone else listening and are basically bored to tears by the jargon filled sermons. Meanwhile, the pulpits are filled with people who act one way on Sunday and another the rest of the week like….hypocrites, right? Organic church life means that each believer is involved. Each is responsible to maintain a fresh relationship with the Lord. If they do, they will have lots to share. If they don’t they will be embarrassed and a little quiet and motivated to deal with the Lord more seriously the next week. I remember the feeling well. There is a big difference between words coming off the top of your head instead of deep within your heart out of real experience with the living Lord that week. There is a difference between something that happened to you ten years ago and what the Lord did in your life today. As Christians we can’t rest on our past successes but we need a fresh, current relationship with Jesus. If we don’t, what are we? Actors, pretenders – hypocrites! Concluding Comments Meanwhile back to hypocrisy. Why is it so rampant in Christians? There are several factors. First, a “born again” Christian (let’s call him Joe) is just an ordinary human being with a little seed of divine life in his human spirit. Other than that Joe has all the same faults and foibles he had the day before he was “saved.” The trick is to nurture that divine life inside and let it transform his mind, will and emotions. It is a process that takes years given the best of conditions. Joe needs to learn to take nourishment from the Bible (not just read it). He needs to learn to hear the “still small voice of the Lord” and to follow it. He needs to experience being in a community of Christians who encourage and spiritually feed him. And he, in turn, needs to let Christ’s life and love flow out of him to others. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that Joe starts to go to church and gets taught to death, never learning how to get into the presence of the Lord himself and let the Bible feed and nourish him. He has little opportunity for ministry other than being a greeter, usher or class teacher. He learns to act like a Christian (from what he is taught and reads) but has little real experience with the Lord. His life becomes compartmentalized – he has his smiley face on for church and he is what he is the rest of the week. Second (in contrast to historical Christianity or to the experience of Christians in many parts of the world), there is no stigma for the Western Christian, no persecution or suffering for being a Christian. In fact, it is kind of the “in thing” in much of our culture. Yet we live in a mesmerizing world. Families struggle to keep their heads above water so they are on a treadmill working harder and longer than ever. The advertising-entertainment industries bombard our senses with messages whether to buy something we don’t need or to accept a lower moral standard in society. So as modern Western Christians, we need to learn to resist the things of the world, not in a monastic way, but in a way which allows the Lord to set the priorities in our lives. We need to value our relationship with the Lord and one another above all else. Finally, we are all hypocrites in the sense that none of us live in the presence and fullness of the Lord 24/7. The only righteousness we have is the life of Christ that is working in us every day and expressing itself to the world. Day by day we are being transformed in our inward man. When we come together with other Christians we have the living proof to share with one another. The Bible spells it out pretty well – where we have come from and where we are going. “Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11-22) We were once without hope, separate from Christ but have now been brought near by the blood of Christ. We are no longer foreigners and aliens. Through Him we have access by one Spirit – we all share, not just a few professionals. And to top it off, we aren’t part of a temple made of stones, but of people being built together into a corporate dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Our protection and completion is found in Him and one another. It is impossible to be a normal Christian without being connected in His body. I dare say few have seen the reality of Ephesians 4. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:14-16) It is clear the infants are those pew sitters who sit there week after week being blown around by every wind of teaching. If we want to grow up we have to hold onto one another in love, and be connected to one another, each part working and then the body builds itself up in love and grows into him who is the Head. If we don’t have the reality of this in our lives, we will be a bunch of lone ranger Christians, hypocrites who pass by one another as we quietly take our seat in the pew. I urge you again to read Pagan Christianity*. If you read it, you will never be the same. You will let the old wineskin rot and go in search of your brothers and sisters in Christ who want to get real. This is a break from my usual gloom and doom economic writings because the world system is disintegrating before our eyes (before being rebuilt into a satanic one world economic system where you can’t buy nor sell without the “Mark of the Beast”). We’re going to be called on to testify to the reality of Jesus in our lives. And we can’t do that unless we experience Christ in a real way. And we can’t do that unless we are built up with one another as His living One Body. We can’t fake it. Jesus is real in our lives or He isn’t. We will either be a part of the testimony or caught up in the deception. Dene McGriff, Sacramento October, 2008