GOODING & LENNOX: The Definition of Christianity

Too many barnacles? Or too few Barnabases?

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The subtitle of this book is “Distinguishing the Essence of the Christian Message from the Confusion of Christendom.” The thesis is that Christianity needs to return to its beginnings: The good news of Jesus Christ: what he did, taught, claimed, and accomplished; that his resurrection demonstrated that his claims were true; and that Luke’s record of the first Christian apostles and missionaries lays out for us in masterful fashion the essentials of how Christianity is—and should be—distinguished from all other religions and philosophies.

Gooding and Lennox warn that centuries of additions to Christianity have collected like barnacles on the hull of a ship and need to be removed or else they may sink the ship. And just as bad, an outsider (and I would add, insider) can barely distinguish original Christianity from the diverse developments in doctrine and practice that have taken place over the centuries.

No argument there, as far as it goes. There is no denying it is difficult to detect the Christian church within the Christian church. But will scraping the barnacles correct the problems of the modern-day church? I don’t think so.

First we need to look at Gooding and Lennox’s thesis. Is the problem with the modern-day church that the ship is encrusted with barnacles? Not at all. The problem is that it’s a ship! Whether Gooding and Lennox intended the metaphor to be taken in a negative sense, the fact is that the church is a ship and shouldn’t be. A ship is massive and lumbering: slow starting, wide turning, a prisoner of its own inertia. It is staffed by a relatively small crew and the rest of the people—the vast majority—are just along for the ride. It demands constant care, siphoning off huge resources that are spent on mechanisms instead of people.

Jesus calls the Church a body. A body has many parts, all with specific tasks that are designed to keep the body healthy and functioning. The efforts of the body are efficient, with minimal loss to maintenance and overhead.

A ship is not a body: it’s a container. The people don’t work together as functional parts: they are passengers, spectators. More than that, the ship protects them from the sea and the storms. Why did Christ tell Peter to get out of the boat?

The solution is not to scrape off the barnacles but to destroy the ship and start over with the design God intended.

Another metaphor used in Scripture is of a spiritual building, with Christ as the cornerstone:

You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. (Eph 2.19-22)

Even in this metaphor that might resemble that of a ship God is careful to not assign his people a place inside the temple but a place in the structure of the temple itself. Each stone counts. Each stone helps build a temple in which God—not the people—resides.

Early on God’s design was corrupted. Not content with being the foundation, the apostles appointed themselves as pillars. Paul was content being the foundation and was loudly critical of this grab for position and prestige by the others. He called the culprits people he wanted nothing to do with. He said they contributed nothing. Worse, these self-important pillars not only contributed nothing, they caused huge problems for Paul throughout his ministry.

The foundation is walked on. Invisible. It provides the boundaries for the building and is necessary for keeping it standing square and true.

The pillars are out front. Finely milled with decorations to make them even more impressive. The first thing you see.

James was the chief pillar—and the chief problem. We have settled for a James-style church instead of a Paul-style church. Paul was more than just the apostle to the Gentiles. He was the apostle who kept as far away from the Jerusalem pillars as possible. He never asked any of them to accompany him on a trip. When he was in Jerusalem he spent very little time with them. He went out of his way to point out they taught him nothing. He said publicly that he cared nothing for who they were. Why? Because they were pillars—imposing, impressive, set in concrete—when they should have been the foundation: unimpressive, supportive, aligned with Christ.

The church in Jerusalem never survived. Part of the reason was that they never left Temple worship; part of it was that they never left Jerusalem. Jesus told them to go. They should have obeyed. They should have copied Paul’s strategy. But Paul’s strategy involved leaving behind everything and stepping out into a dirty world of fear and hardship. Most of all it meant giving up their positions as pillars. They would lose the spotlight. They would leave the known world for some distant place where no one knew they were pillars.

They refused to be nobodies. They placed themselves at the front, made themselves important, stayed. And so God gave his spotlight to someone who denied everything, including his place as a bright star in Jewish intellectual circles.

And that is still the problem with the church: it’s run by people who expect that their education and credentials should give them a place of prominence. Paul considered it all garbage—and that included the prestige of his scholarly attainments. He allowed himself to be the fool. He allowed James to be the boss. He allowed James to tell him what to do.

He didn’t want what James wanted. He wanted the ignominy, the shame. He wanted the cross. He wanted nothing but to know Christ, and in Paul’s estimation, the only way to know Christ was to copy him. James liked being the brother of Christ but disliked the shame of Christ.

And so the problem is that we have far too many who follow James’ example and far too few who follow Paul’s. These pillars, positioning themselves where they can enjoy the notoriety their credentials and position deserve, draw people to themselves instead of to Christ.

We are a church of pillars. Imposing. Impressive. People of whom Paul said, “what they are makes no difference to me; these men seeming to be something contribute nothing.” People of whom Jesus said, “Beware of them. They love to be greeted with respect in the public places, and to have the best seats in the churches and places of honor at banquets.”

What is the difference between 2000-year-old Christianity and 2000-year-old Judaism? When Jesus pointed out what was wrong with the Jewish religious system what did he focus on: the barnacles? No, the ship. The truth of God was so distorted there was no hope of recovery. What was God’s solution to the Jewish problem? Scrape the hull? No, sink it. John calling the people into the wilderness was not to remove the barnacles but to get them off the ship. God was going to destroy it, not clean it up. To stay on board was to perish.

Jesus told the people to disregard their teachers. “You have heard... but I tell you...” Not one of his disciples was a scholar; not one was a religious or national leader. The choosing of the Twelve was done with utter scorn for the leaders and scholars Israel. It was a total abandonment of the old and a restarting with nothing from the old to contaminate the new. Anyone who wanted to join the new had to discard the old in its entirety.

There was no reason anyone Jesus chose should have promoted themselves as something special. But early on—even while Jesus was still with them—the disciples became fascinated with power and position. Their idea of the coming Kingdom was that they would be its rulers. In spite of the fact that Jesus told them it would not be this way in his Kingdom, as soon as they gained the place of honor they established themselves as church pillars. Luke records that only Peter distanced himself from this, and even then not completely. And so it was up to Paul, the apostle abnormally born, the least of the apostles and the greatest of sinners, to build the church Christ intended.

Where would the church be if it were up to the Twelve? How was their church-building strategy successful in even the most generous sense of the word? Why are we copying the Jerusalem church model instead of the Pauline church model? Why are we setting ourselves up for destruction?

Excursus: Some of the most serious offenders are the elders. Most are chosen because of their success in the world. The education and experience they bring to the elder board is exactly the thing that most harms the church and offends Christ. How does good business sense help run the family of God? How does being a CPA equip you to count the cost of following Christ? How does being an expert in the law make you an expert in the word?

What utter nonsense! If you need business advice, hire an MBA. If you need an accountant, hire a CPA. If you need legal advice, hire an attorney. Pay them wages to do work that needs to be done, but don’t give them power over you! Don’t let them set the pace, make the decisions, represent you... lead you!

An elder is to be someone who is hospitable, able to teach, a good father, a good example... Could an elder also be an attorney? Why not? But only coincidentally. Certainly not because he’s an attorney! Staffing the elder board with businessmen turns the church into a business, completely contrary to Christ’s design of the church and Paul’s instructions for running it. A church run by businessmen can equip people in the work of the world but not in the work of God.

The solution to fixing the modern-day Christian ship is Philippians 2:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

What if the church was filled with leaders who avoided self-ambition? What if the church was led by people who cared nothing for their own interests and everything for the interests of others? What if church leaders refused the spotlight, followed Christ in his humility and sufferings and called others to follow their example? (How many church leaders do you know who have even the slightest experience of sharing in Christ’s humility and suffering? Is it because they don’t know about it, or because they have no intention of doing it?)

The truth is, we do not have a church led by people who follow the example of Christ. We cannot close our eyes to the true issue and hunt for problems that are easy to identify and painless to cure but do nothing to get us where we should be. Scraping barnacles is pointless.

So when we go to Acts to see what Luke says are the important points of Christianity we have to first look at the Gospel of Luke. Because the starting point for our examination of the Book of Acts must be Luke 9:

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

And Luke 12:

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!

And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And Luke 14:

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

And Luke 18:

A certain ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.’ ” He replied, “I have kept all these since my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

Did you just skip past these verses because you already know them? Don’t. Go back. Read them. Ask yourself: Have I ever given serious weight to them? Either for myself or for my leaders? Do I really have these demands of Christ as an expectation in my life and church?

Christ was talking to the very people who would be left with the responsibility of continuing his work. He spoke for a purpose: that they would do it. And that those who followed them would live the same way, and teach others who would live in the same way...

While Christ was physically with them he gave the Twelve the rules for how they were to live after he was gone. Immediately after Pentecost they got on course, but soon began slowing down, then strayed off course, and then stopped. If it weren’t for Christ’s heavy-handed treatment of Peter he never would have accepted the Gentiles, and even then Paul had to denounce him in public in order to get him back on track. And what could be more chilling than the warnings of Christ in Revelation 3, 4, and 5? Where is the evidence that the church has ever been what it should. Even many of those started by Paul deserted the path, some before his death, some after.

The fact that the Twelve abandoned their mission so easily and so completely cannot be used as evidence that the teachings of Christ are not intended for those who come after. Paul did it right. He’s the example. He held back nothing, gave up everything, never gave up, went without, suffered, died. There was nothing in anything Christ ever said or did that frightened or stopped Paul.

Where is the evidence that any of Christ’s expectations are being met in his church? Doesn’t he have the right to tell his church how it will be run? Shouldn’t the church of Christ be built upon the words of Christ? If Christ said that no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God why do we tolerate church leaders who fill their lives with things that have nothing to do with the Gospel? If Christ said we are to sell our possessions why do we tolerate church leaders who collect things instead? What defense do we have for poring over the lists of qualifications for elders set down by Paul and then completely disregard everything he says? To say nothing of Christ’s requirements. We have not the slightest regard for his instructions. They are far too extreme for a church that has to contend with a modern world! Christ couldn’t have been serious. No one could ask that much. Except of Paul of course. But he was an exception, wasn’t he? And some missionaries (who, like Paul, get as far away from the church as possible).

And because the people of God refuse the demands of Christ we will be judged, just as the people of God were judged when Christ came to call them back to the way. Luke 3:

Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

And Luke 13:

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know you or where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out.

Christ’s warning, consistently, time and again, is that it doesn’t matter who you are, that unless you do it you will be cut off. The people of God are only the people of God if they do the work of God. That is the only reason we exist! Jesus wants are people who so love him that they will attend to his every wish and treat his every word as their greatest command. What he doesn’t want are people who sniff at the things that are most important to him and fill their lives with the very things he has told them are most offensive. If it’s prized by God, why is it nothing to you? If it’s garbage to God, why is it prized by you?

If you want to be part of Christ’s work, and not your own version of what you want religion to be, you must give up everything: Your religion, your world, yourself. Unless you bear good fruit you will be cut off and thrown into the fire. Paul warns Christians in Rom 10.21 that if God rejected Israel he will reject the church too. You’re safety is not in Christ any more than their safety was in Abraham. Their safety was in being like Abraham, not in being an Israelite. And your safety is in being like Christ, not in being a Christian.

This is where Gooding and Lennox should have started in their Definition of Christianity. The solution is not scraping barnacles. It’s getting off the ship.

And now, on to specifics:

Distinguishing Christianity

The subtitle of the book is “Distinguishing the Essence of the Christian Message from the Confusion of Christendom.” As I read I wondered why Christianity wasn’t being distinguished from the world. There is no discussion in the book of the possibility that the problem in distinguishing Christianity from Christendom is not that Christendom has confused the world by its many forms and superstitious additions but that it looks too much like the world.

On page 39, in discussing the early Christian community’s attitude toward material possessions, Gooding says the reason no one claimed any of his possessions were his own was that they considered them belonging to Christ. Fine so far, but then he goes on:

If they kept their possessions and did not sell or give them away, they would still have regarded them not as their own but as Christ’s, and themselves simply as stewards responsible to administer them for the good of the community.

And later on that same page, in talking out the true Christian’s attitude to material possessions:

All that he is and has belongs to Christ, and is to be used in responsible stewardship in the interests of Christ.

Absolutely wrong. This is the guilt-clearing speculation of someone who has never sold his possessions. Go back to Luke 12: Christ said to sell your possessions, not use them responsibly. There is no such thing as responsible stewardship of something Christ has told you to get rid of!

Gooding sees no danger in possessions so long as they are used “in responsible stewardship in the interests of Christ.” But Christ said he doesn’t want you to do that. He says he wants you to have no possessions. Nowhere does Christ say to use them “responsibly.” So how do you justify such a statement? You claim to be doing it in the “interests of Christ” and Christ says he has no interest in you doing such a thing!

The answer, clearly, with no confusion, is that a statement like this is self-protective and has nothing to do with Christianity. You want to keep your possessions so you put words in Jesus’ mouth to concoct proof that you can live as you want. You don’t really want to give up your possessions, so you claim Scripture says something it doesn’t. (And you want to scrape other people’s barnacles!?)

Watch Gooding’s “logical” progression on page 39:

1. The early Christians did not see their possessions as their own. True.

2. The true Christian’s attitude springs from the realization that Jesus Christ is the Lord

and Owner of Creation. True.

3. Since Christ gave his life’s blood to redeem you, you are no longer your own property.

Starting to get off track. Paul doesn’t use the word “property.”

4. All that you are and have belongs to Christ... True.

5. and is to be used in responsible stewardship in the interests of Christ. Wrong!

Gooding borrows the technique used by insurance salesmen: Start a person saying “yes” and he’ll never stop: You love your family, right? Sure. You want to look out for their welfare, right. Sure. You don’t want them to be destitute if something unfortunate happens to you, right? Sure. You want to buy this insurance, right? Sure!

There is no logical connection between points 4 and 5 of Gooding’s argument. There is no reason to say that you can keep your possessions after you have already declared they belong to Christ. This is the error of the Pharisees: Declaring your goods corban so you can give them to God but continue to use them until you’re dead. You deprive the poor and call it “responsible stewardship” because you determine how to distribute your goods. But they’re not yours. They’re God’s, and he told you to give them away. How can you belong to Christ but call everything that belongs to you yours?

You reverse the word of Christ by appointing yourself a steward instead of taking the role you have been assigned: slave. You don’t see how giving to a poor person is being a good steward because a) they need to learn the discipline of working for a living, b) they obviously don’t know how to manage their money, and c) you do, so you’ll hold on to it until you find a more responsible person to give it to. Pure delusion. You’ll never find a “responsible” person qualified to receive your money because if they were responsible (like you!) they wouldn’t need your money. Completely unscriptural. Completely contrary to the command of Christ. Completely unlike how God has treated you.

(The word “steward” is used of the people of God only twice in the New Testament, once in Luke 12.42 and once in Titus 1.7. But neither of those times is in reference to money, but instead talks about caring for people. In comparison, slave/servant is used more than 100 times. With a 50-to-1 ratio, why all this emphasis on stewardship? And why relate it to money when the NT never does? Because it puts us in charge. A slave is nothing. A slave has no say over how he lives. But a steward is a manager. A steward is in charge. We like that a lot better than having no control, no power.)

Christ told you to sell your possessions because he knows you. He knows you’ll never use your possessions responsibly if you hold onto them. It’s 100% guaranteed to fail.

Christ told you to sell your possessions because it’s incompatible with faith. In Luke 12 Jesus said that the pagans run after these things. Why do they? Because they don’t trust God to take care of them. Jesus said to not worry, that you can trust God to take care of you. But you, refusing to place your welfare in the hands of a God who clearly has no interest in your welfare, decide to look after yourself. You have no confidence that God will feed you if you sell your possessions, do you? You have no faith, do you? Christ addressed his words very precisely to “you of little faith.” How can you claim to have faith in God when you do the very thing that Christ says is evidence that you don’t?!

God never commended anyone for faith who only had dreams of heroism. There is no instance of God ever commending someone for living in the world. The world is not worthy of the person of faith. So how can you live in it? How can you surround yourself with the things of the world and call yourself a person of faith? Doesn’t it bother you that there is no chance God will ever commend you as someone of whom the world was not worthy? How can he if you are of the world?

You want to think you’re obeying Christ, but you have no faith. So instead you imagine you’re obeying Christ! How convenient! Christ told you to sell your possessions. You can’t do that. You don’t trust God enough to do that. But you know you have faith (you’re a Christian!), and you know you love God, so you convince yourself that the feeling of love and the confession of faith is all that God really wants. And in your cowardice and delusion you tell yourself that the best way to handle this is to take 10% of your possessions (maybe even 12% if you’re really spiritual) and use them to further God’s purposes on earth by using your possessions “responsibly.”

Christ told you to get rid of your possessions so you could do his work. David couldn’t move wearing Saul’s armor so he stripped it off and went out to meet Goliath with a handful of stones. You can’t move and you like it! You like being protected, safe, out of harm’s way. And so you’ll never be a David.

Are you content with that?

Paul shed all these things so he could run. How can you claim to be in the race when you’re so weighted down you can’t even walk?

Keeping it all demonstrates a lack of understanding of the Christian life. In 2 Tim 2.4 Paul said that “no one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs.” Things change when you see the Christian life as military duty rather than living in the civilian world. A soldier goes where he is ordered and does what he is told. He lives in plain housing, wears plain clothes, and eats plain food. If he has a family he does his duty and also takes care of his family. The civilian life is completely different. It is also completely different from how Jesus lived. And Paul. And Abraham. And Moses. And Joshua. And David. And Jeremiah. And Daniel. And Hezekiah. And anyone else in Hebrews 11 that God calls people “of whom the world was not worthy.” What a gripping portrayal of how God regards those who live in the assurance that the things not seen are better than the things that are seen, and who give up the things that are seen for the hope of something much better.

Suffering is not something Christ expects his people to avoid. Paul sought it. He said in Phil 3.10, “I want to know Christ and the sharing of his sufferings.” He knew there is no way to know Christ without following Christ. But we don’t see the necessity. “Why suffer hardship needlessly? The church is much larger now, so if a thousand people give 10% that’s the same as 100 people giving 100%, isn’t it?

A thoroughly worldly-minded perspective. Again, such concern with money! Does God need your money? It’s not that we don’t see the point; it’s that we don’t want to see the point. Isn’t there enough wealth buried in the earth already for God to accomplish whatever needs to be done? And could he not just create a million tons of gold if his main objective was to finance missions?

Paul’s point is that he wants to know Christ. 100% of Christ, not 10% of him. He wanted to be close, not follow from a distance. If you want to bring along your possessions you can’t be a disciple. Jesus said you can’t. He didn’t do it. He didn’t allow his disciples to do it. He told you in plain language that you can’t do it either. It’s not a matter of being a good steward. It’s that Jesus says he wants nothing to do with anyone who has possessions. So that’s your choice: Shed the things that offend Christ or hold on to them and use them “wisely” from a distance.

Keeping it all hides the truly hideous nature of the world. We think there is nothing wrong with it so long as we are good stewards of its wealth. But God never tells us to be good stewards of the world’s wealth. He tells us to be responsible with the things he has entrusted to us. That is a very different thing. If he gives us a trust we are obliged to be faithful to it. But we, in our delusion, actually think that the world’s wealth is the thing he has entrusted to us! How completely upside down! If the basic requirement is to rid ourselves of possessions how can holding on to them satisfy God’s demands?

What we call treasure God calls filth. After Paul got far enough away to see it for what it was he called it what it was: rubbish. It is impossible that God would actually call us to be good stewards of garbage. There is no such thing. We can’t claim to have God’s perspective when we desire the things he detests.

Wealth is an addiction, a drug that dulls the mind and leaves us unconscious in a darkened room while the work of God goes on outside. God doesn’t accept drug addicts into his work! He has told you that you have a huge problem. You deny it. And you deny you even have to get off it for a while to see if you are addicted. And so you live in denial, reading the words, nodding your head that “yes, some people have that problem”, pointing to the other addicts as proof that you’re right and Scripture is wrong.

Gooding knows nothing of the freedom of obedience. He invents a confusing solution because he refuses to take Scripture in its simple clarity. If he would try it, if he would sell his possessions he would never again write a statement like he did. If he quit, experienced the pain and panic, walked into the fear, he would know. God would release him from his addiction.

When Gooding replaces “sell your possessions” with “use them in responsible stewardship in the interests of Christ” he is inventing an unscriptural solution to the problem of Christianity’s refusal to take Christ’s command seriously. He has never done it, he doesn’t want to do it, he sees no one else doing it, and so he looks at Scripture from his world and makes it fit. Instead of admitting that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he twists it until it conforms with his understanding. Instead of taking the words of Christ to move us from where we are to where we should be, he changes them into something that can be done from where we are, without pain, without needing to have faith in God, without having to follow Christ, and certainly without having to suffer with Christ.

The problem is not barnacles. The problem is that the Christian ship is a container, taking people on a luxury cruise. The problem is that it is staffed by self-appointed and selfishly-ambitious people who steer a course far from Christ. The problem is that it is heavily laden with the world’s goods. The problem is that Christ isn’t in it.

Certainly it’s easy to listen to the numbing words of church leaders. Certainly it’s difficult to follow the words of Christ? Why do you listen to the befuddling teachings of experts on why it is safe to disregard the clarion teachings of Christ? Do you need a Greek scholar to explain why it isn’t really necessary to give up everything? Do you need an expert on Pauline theology to assure you that confessing faith in Christ is your assurance that obeying him isn’t necessary? Have you ever asked these scholars and experts why they don’t consider it necessary to listen to the demands of Christ? Doesn’t it bother you that not one of these people who write so authoritatively have ever actually done what Christ said is required of his disciples?