Emma Kenney

The modern Church and Christianity in both America and the world are skewed.  Corruption and misunderstanding are prominent, bleeding not only into Christian values but into fundamental Christian practices as well.  Christianity has strayed from what is was originally intended to be, and if Christians of years past looked upon the Christians of today, they would have trouble associating themselves with each other.  In the words of Ludwig Feuerbach: “The Christians — we mean of course the Christians of former days, who would with difficulty recognize the worldly, frivolous, pagan Christians of the modern world as their brethren in Christ….”  That proposes an important question: Is the form of Christianity originally intended by Jesus alive in today’s world, or is modern Christianity simply a pretty lie?

Whether modern Christians admit it or not, Christianity is and always has been, a religion of suffering.  According to Feuerbach: “While Socrates empties the cup of poison with unshakeable soul, Christ exclaims, ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.’ Christ is in this respect the self-confession of human sensibility.”

As previously stated, Christianity has always been a religion of suffering.  The suffering began with a form of the Christian deity begin ridiculed, beaten, and crucified.  This same deity then took on the punishment of the entire history of mankind in Hell and conquered it in three days.  In Luke 22:42, Jesus proclaims, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.  Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”  His suffering was so great He asked it to not fall upon Him, but yet He committed to obeying God’s plan even if it meant experiencing that great suffering.

However, modern day Christians flock to Christianity in order to find a way to escape all suffering.  While there has always been knowledge in Heaven there will be no suffering, today’s Christians expect to experience that same benefit on earth instead of experiencing the pain promised to Christians.  2 Timothy 3:12 states, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” and Matthew 10:22 says, “And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.  But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”  Modern Christians ignore these verses when assuming Christianity will give them no worldly pain.

Not only do modern day Christians flock to Christianity for a life of earthly perfection, they misuse prayer as well.  Matthew 6:9-13 says as follows: “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’”

There are three main components to this prayer: 1) Glorification of the Lord, 2) A request for help and forgiveness, and 3) Thanksgiving.  However, most modern Christians focus only on the second component and omit any glorification of God or expression of gratitude toward Him.  They attempt to use prayer in order to achieve their desired perfect life upon the earth.  Feuerbach says the following: “Pain must give itself utterance; involuntarily the artist seizes the lite that he may breathe out his sufferings in its tones.  He soothes his sorrow by making it audible to himself, by making it objective.  He lightens the burden which weighs upon his heart by communicating it to the air, by making his sorrow a general existence.”

This is, of course, how the Christians of today use prayer.  They utter the sorrow and suffering they are experiencing and beg the two be taken away from them, but unlike in the prayer prayed by Jesus, they don’t commit to following the will of God even if it still involved said sorrow and suffering.  Instead, their prayer is on the verge of being conditional.  Essentially they are saying, “If You take away my suffering, then I will continue to follow You, but if You do not abolish my pain, I will leave.”

Most modern Christians are quick to ask, but not so quick to give.  In the words of Feuerbach, “Prayer is the absolute relation of the human heart to itself, to its own nature; in prayer, man forgets that there exists a limit to his wishes, and is happy in this forgetfulness.”  Christians ignore the fact God is not their personal genie in a bottle, formed to grant their every wish and see to their every command.  They then become angry when God does not fit into the box of their idea and assume this means He does not care for them at all.

This has caused modern Christians to become selfish.  Each prayer answered in the way they desired makes them want another and another, even though their sole purpose of prayer is to make their lives as comfortable as possible instead of praying for the needs of the world and the people around them.  Ludwig Feuerbach declares:

“In Christianity, man was concentrated only on himself, he unlinked himself from the chain of sequences in the system of the universe, he made himself a self-sufficing whole, an absolute, extra- and supra-mundane being.  Because he no longer regarded himself as a being immanent in the world, because he severed himself from his connection with it, he felt himself an unlimited being — (for the sole limit of subjectivity it the world, is objectivity), — he had no longer any reason to doubt the truth and validity of his subjective wishes and feelings.”

Since Christians have become focused on themselves instead of the world and the people around them, it is easy for them to take on a subjective view.  Modern Christians get so caught up in their own desires they severe the bonds that connect them to this world and begin to assume they are on an entirely different level to the one on which pagans find themselves.  Essentially, this attitude of Christians has become known as the “holier-than-thou” attitude.  It compels select Christians to believe no matter how messed up they are, they are still far better than both other Christians and pagans.  They ignore the problems of anyone except for themselves and see absolutely no problem in doing so.  Hence, the subjective nature is created.

However, this is discussed in Mark 10:45.  The verse states, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  If Jesus came to serve others, then how can Christians possibly justify their unwillingness to serve or even simply pray for others?  The answer is, of course, they can’t.  Philippians 2:5-7 refutes the idea it is okay to be a “holier-than-thou” Christian.  The verse says as follows: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

This makes it clear Christians are equals and have been called to serve.  Why then is it modern Christians of today are so hesitant to serve?  Their subjective view hides the illogical nature of their choices from them.  Christians so often follow the ideology because they have prayed a prayer and received forgiveness for their sins, they are somehow better and more valuable than the rest of the world.  However, this is simply not the case.  Even the most outstanding Christian is, contrary to the belief of some, not any more valuable than the rest of the world.  He has simply been forgive for the sins he has committed.  Galatians 3:28 declares, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  This shows all are equal before God.

This truth of equality is essential.  If it was to be universally accepted, the world, let alone Christianity, would be entirely different.  Praying selfless prayers wouldn’t be something people hesitated about, and servitude would run rampant, overpowering the sense of selfishness that has gained control over the world.  If this idea of equality on the Biblical level was truly and honestly accepted, Christianity would become a force strong enough to conquer and change the entire world.

How then, can we answer the question, “Is the form of Christianity originally intended by Jesus alive in today’s world, or is modern Christianity simply a pretty lie?”  Modern Christianity is painfully different from the Christianity originally intended within the New Testament.  Christians now try to escape the will of God instead of accepting it.  Servitude has been replaced by an extreme and extensive form of selfishness, and prayer has been corrupted to the point it is nearly unrecognizable.  Until these issues have been resolved, Christianity is nothing and cannot be anything more than a beautiful lie.