Category Archives: Issue 17

Prayer

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Sydney Harris

We’ve been reading The Essence of Christianity in class, and the author Feuerbach has stated some intriguing facts.  He believes as he states, “As in Jehovah the Israelite personified his national existence, so in God the Christian personified his subjective human nature, freed from the limits of nationality.”  He seems to be insinuating we as Christians have made God to be a simply pure and perfect version of us as humans.  He also says “But nature listens not to the plaints of man, it is callous to his sorrows.  Hence man turns away from Nature,” explaining we defy nature and the way the world is supposed to work by creating God.  He appears to say we only imagine Him in our minds to satisfy our own needs and insecurities.

He goes on to talk about prayer and how when we pray we are praying to a nature-like being.  He goes back to how nature doesn’t shift to accommodate the needs of us as mere humans.  Therefore, he concludes God doesn’t listen to us so our prayers are simply a way to make ourselves feel better, which is wrong to me.  As Christians we pray to God because He is alive and working in our lives.  He loves us and is a relational God who answers our prayers.  He doesn’t always answer in our time, but He is always on time.

Feuerbach states our religion is a selfish one and we think we are bigger and better than everyone else.  He says “what is prayer but the wish of the heart expressed with confidence in its fulfillment.  What else is the being that fulfills these wishes but human affection, the human soul, giving ear to itself, approving itself, unhesitatingly affirming itself?”  This point really bugs me because our religion in whole is shown through love, service, and sacrificing our time and ourselves for the betterment of the kingdom.  When we pray it’s a demonstration of us being humble and thanking and asking God to help us through situations we know we can’t accomplish by ourselves.

To say we live our lives separate and thinking we only care about ourselves and our salvation is incompatible with all we stand on.  We as Christians are as the Bible says “in the world but not of the world.”  We don’t (or shouldn’t) exclude others apart from the religion because our mission is to win those souls to Christ.  We simply don’t get intertwined with the sinful ways of this world because of our morals and because we always want to continue to grow in Christ.

“God is the affirmation of human feeling,” he states later.  He goes on to say prayer alters the course of nature due to the fact we are praying for God to change the course of how things are going.  This is false because we know whatever God does in our life is for the good.  He says all good things go to the ones that love Him. We ask God simply have his will in whatever situation that happens.  Whether it be the continuation of whatever is going on at the moment or if God would intervene and, yes, defy nature, in that He performs miracles to show His power.

Feuerbach also says, “But audible prayer is only prayer revealing its nature; prayer is virtually, if not actually, speech.”  This personally made me really upset because our religion is not a practice; it’s a relationship with our creator.  To say us talking to our Lord and very real Savior is only speech to ourselves is very rude.  Nothing we say at any time in our life is simply meaningless.  The Bible says out of the heart the mouth speaks.  Whether our words have power or not they display what we are thinking, and when we pray we’re displaying our issues and our gratitude to God.  It is really ignorant to say just because you don’t believe in something it’s completely wrong and the people who practice it are just selfish people trying to make it all up for themselves.

As Christians we are not to condemn anyone like most other religions do.  We are to love and spread God’s Word.  You can’t be mad at people because of how they were raised.  Some people are born into Muslim, Hindu, or Atheist families; it’s not their fault.  They obviously are going to believe the religion they are taught from birth.  But, the other religions don’t have relationship with their God.  They are left in question of how this all came to be and if their religion is true because they have zero contact with the deity; it is all mere faith.

The Christian religion is based a whole lot on faith, but we have the amazing opportunity to talk and be spoken to, to experience His presence.  This is how we know He is alive and in us because He is with us at all times, the one thing no other religion can say.

The few things Feuerbach stated I do agree with are prayer is a concentration and dismisses all other distractions and ideas floating in our mind.  When we pray we are focused on one thing and one thing only, connecting with our Heavenly Father and spending quality time with Him.  I also agreed partially with the statement, “He who feels himself only dependent, does not open his mouth in prayer; the sense of dependence robs him of the desire, the courage for it….  But the child does not feel itself dependent on the father as a father; rather, he has in the father the feeling of his own strength.”  To me this said those who typically need the help are always or more often too scared to pray and ask for help because of the fear prayer might not get answered or for other reasons.  But, the one who is confident in their situation is more likely the one praying because there is nothing to be afraid of.  I know, at least for myself, I tend to do this a lot.  When everything is going okay I simply pray thanking God and I sometimes don’t have the right heart while I’m praying; I’m not sincere.  But when things get tough, I sometimes pray for help but it can be hard when you hear time and time again if you simply ask it will be given to you and it doesn’t happen.  So it’s not that I take God off the shelf when I need Him but more of the opposite sometimes.  The last part of his quotation goes along with what I just said in that when we are solid we pray sometimes just to look good and thank God for what we think we have done, and we’re simply giving Him credit because that’s what we think we’re supposed to do.  This is wrong and his generalization is actually a real problem in the church.  We often have too many Christians and not enough believers.

He ends saying this sweeping generalization based on his tiny bit of knowledge on prayer: “Omnipotence does nothing more than accomplish the will of the feelings.  In prayer man turns to the Omnipotence of Goodness; which says simply, that in prayer man adores his own heart, regards his own feelings as absolute.”  This statement isn’t true, because the whole point of us putting aside our pride and praying to God isn’t because we love ourselves.  It’s because we are trying to get closer to the God we know and serve.

Ludwig Feuerbach tries to discredit our religion in so many ways, but none of them are valid when you think about our doctrine and what our practice actually entails.  It makes sense he wouldn’t understand because he doesn’t know the relationship we have.  We know and are sure in our religion so we don’t have to spend all of our time trying to defend ourselves and disproving other religions with no real support.  So far I have accepted his arguments because, sadly, that was his view, but I will never understand how he could have thought that and believed it his whole life.

Feuerbach’s Misconceptions

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Matthew Nalls

In 1841, Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach published the work The Essence of Christianity.  This treatise aggressively and seemingly mercilessly critiqued and assaulted the essence of what Christianity stood for.  Although not the only religion targeted, Christianity fell under significant doubt and pressure as Feuerbach struck critically and systematically with experience as a philosopher.  Admittedly, Ludwig Feuerbach forges some strong arguments and states valid points.  Despite this, Feuerbach makes significant misconceptions and upholds incorrect contentions during his attack as well.  One of these incorrect contentions made specifically deals with faith and miracles.  Feuerbach states:

The miraculous act — and miracle is only a transient act — is therefore not an object of thought, for it nullifies the very principle of thought; but it is just as little an object of sense, an object of real or even possible experience.  Miracle is a thing of the imagination; and on that very account is it so agreeable for the imagination is the faculty which alone corresponds to personal feeling, because it sets aside all limits, all laws which are painful to the feelings, and thus makes objective to man the immediate, absolutely unlimited satisfaction of his subjective wishes (131, emphasis added).

Essentially, Feuerbach argues miracles are something of a “sugar pill effect on steroids.”  Also known as the “Placebo Effect,” the sugar pill effect occurs when an individual believes in an item or occurrence enough to the point he begins to experience or regard the item or occurrence as real or true.  This is the first misconception made by Feuerbach.

In stout opposition to Christian belief, Feuerbach holds miracles occur basically because man wishes them to occur (or believes they will occur like the Placebo Effect) so much to the point, in their minds or “imagination,” the miracle occurs. He states, “Miracle is an essential object of Christianity, an essential article of faith. But what is miracle?  A supra-naturalistic wish realised — nothing more….  Accordance with subjective inclination is the essential characteristic of miracle.  It is true that miracle produces also an awful, agitating impression, so far as it expresses a power which nothing can resist, — the power of the imagination” (128).

Unfortunately for Feuerbach, there is an essential flaw in his reasoning.  Miracles are performed through the grace and unquestionable power of the Holy Spirit, and only through the Holy Spirit.

According to Feuerbach’s reasoning, it is plausible to conceive the notion if one believes in an unreal thing enough, the thing is then real.  A “miracle,” defined by Feuerbach as “a thing of the imagination,” is the transportation from the “unreal” thing into a “real” thing.  Hence, Feuerbach argues since man felt and longed for Lazarus to rise from the dead, and Lazarus rose from the dead, man’s feelings are enough to serve as the catalyst for the occurrence of a miracle in their minds.  In contradiction to this notion, man simply does not hold the same almighty power as God does.  It is common knowledge a miracle is a supernatural act, an act that works around the laws of nature.  Man undoubtedly cannot work around the laws of nature, as all humankind is bound by them.  God, however, can work around the laws of nature and has worked around these laws before.  The laws of nature do not bind the Holy Spirit.  Hence, He is the one who performs miracles.  If man truly could work around the laws of nature and perform miracles if man literally felt like it enough, then innumerable miracles would occur.  The world would be a strikingly different place.

For example, if one living in a financially depressed or poor state whole-heartily wished for currency, and he wished enough, he would gain currency by which to improve his financial state. Every person in this state would easily uplift themselves into a better state. Likewise, the same would occur for a selfish person who, although living in a rich financial state, still desired more wealth, as long as he wished and felt for this hard enough.  Every person in this respective state would also easily uplift themselves into a better state. This applies to all wants of man.  Husbands, wives, and children would never die, like how Lazarus did not die.  The blind and deaf would always be healed through their own wishes.  The world would be a perfect place, for man could wish for nearly anything if he yearned for it enough.

Unfortunately, because man is in a broken, sinful state in which man experiences selfishness, hostility, and other qualities and furthermore is bound by the laws of nature, miracles cannot be carried out by mankind.  Mankind does not share the same supernatural power as the Holy Spirit.  This is why miracles are not a common occurrence, and in accordance why Feuerbach is mistaken when he declares miracles occur through man’s desires.  Patently, humankind cannot perform miracles unless miracles are performed through them only by the Holy Spirit, as seen in Acts 3:1-10 when Peter and John heal a lame man at the Beautiful Gate outside the temple.

With this, Feuerbach concludes two other interrelated points.  First, Feuerbach declares both faith and miracles to be inseparable.  Second, because both faith and miracles are inseparable, both are subjective as well.  This is where Feuerbach goes wrong.  For this example, it is essential to focus on the faith aspect of Feuerbach’s argument.  “Subjective” has come to mean emotional, non-reliable, or arbitrary knowledge or opinion.  While there is a subjective aspect to faith and desire, this “subjective” is not the kind of “subjective” Feuerbach attempts to portray it as.  He refers to subjective as meaning “imaginative” or “limitless.”  Here is also an objective part of faith Feuerbach avoids mentioning.

To differentiate the two, it is important to define both objective and subjective.  “Objective” refers to a statement or fact completely unbiased and unchangeable.  For example, the statement, “The wall is blue” is an objective statement, as the wall is genuinely blue.  “Subjective” refers to a statement dependent upon the personality or character of the speaker, as a subjective statement generally reflects his perspective or worldview.  A subjective statement cannot be verified through evidence.  An example of this is the statement, “The color blue is the best color.”  There is no way to prove with evidence why the color blue is the best color, as others may not even like the color blue.

In the New Testament, specifically in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, the word “faith” is used in two different ways.  These two different ways are objectively and subjectively.  This is where the difference exists, which Feuerbach avoids.  Objective faith requires an object.  Hence, objective faith is the faith in what one believes.  For Christianity, objective faith is the faith that is the content of God’s Word, His teachings, and His work.  Christianity is an objective faith as the value of belief is not how much one believes in something, but in what one puts that belief: the object of that belief.

Likewise, Christianity is also a subjective faith.  Subjective faith is the personal act of believing and is the faith that arises in one’s self when enjoyed in spirit.  Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  In this case, subjective faith is accurately illustrated as the writer of Hebrews describes faith precisely as the assurance and conviction (belief) in what one’s objective belief is, or in what one believes.  Thus, when Feuerbach states, “Faith is nothing else than belief in the absolute reality of subjectivity,” (126) he completely forgoes the objective part of faith.

Finally, Feuerbach makes one other essential misconception regarding faith and miracles.  Feuerbach states, “The essence of faith, as may be confirmed by an examination of its objects down to the minutest speciality, is the idea that that which man wishes actually is … he wishes for a world which corresponds to the desires of the heart, a world of unlimited subjectivity, i.e., of unperturbed feeling of uninterrupted bliss” (127).

Faith is not the notion that which man desires will actually come to pass.  The error made is a fundamental one.  Man is sinful.  Man tends to be greedy, prideful, or immoral.  Hence, man can desire worldly pleasures (i.e., money, drugs, power, sexual pleasure, alcohol, etc.) in the darker corners of his heart.  Despite this, many of these worldly pleasures will no longer be seen upon the second coming of Christ, yet many still believe.  If faith is the idea man’s desires will be made real, the question arises, “Why do many who still hold worldly desires have faith?”  The answer is, simply, faith is not the notion all of man’s desires will come to pass.  Therefore, Feuerbach’s idea of faith is flawed.

Along with strong arguments, Feuerbach makes strong misconceptions, as seen.  Unfortunately, unless searched through deeper, many of these misconceptions prove to be vital support to some of Feuerbach’s critical contentions and contentions made by others pitted against Christianity, as these misconceptions are not studied deeper but merely mistaken for truth.  Hence, it reminds one to be wary against such arguments made against Christianity and to search with focus into the reasoning behind such arguments.  A greater amount of validity combined with even an insignificant amount of invalidity will never forge a valid argument.

And With Religion Comes a God

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Matthew Coats

In The Essence of Christianity, Ludwig Feuerbach’s objective is to find weaknesses in the religion of Christianity and to disprove it.  In the first few chapters of the book, he presents a few arguments attacking the very foundation of Christianity.  To begin, Feuerbach defines what religion really is.

There is some wisdom in what Feuerbach says about religion.  He says everyone has a religion and everyone has a god.  Whether you are Christian, Muslim, or atheist, you have a religion and a god.  What most people are thinking when they hear the word “religion,” are acts of worship and a commitment to a belief that guides your life.  And with religion comes a god.  This “god” is the idol of your life.  You praise and worship it, obey it, and it is the center of your life.  But what Feuerbach says about everyone having a religion and god is not the type of religion or god most people would think of.  He says religion is within us.  Religion is the morals and basis with which we guide our lives.  Even if you are an atheist, you don’t need a Bible to understand basic morals and principles of humanity.  Everyone has this within them, the ability to decipher between good and bad.  Similarly, everyone has a god.  This doesn’t mean all people have a divine being they pray to, however; it does mean they have something in their lives they worship and spend most of their time thinking about.  For example, money can be people’s god.  It consumes their thoughts daily and is something they cannot live without.  Even Christians can have a god besides the one true God.  Christians can struggle with putting distractions like entertainment, money, and worldly things in front of the true God.  Whatever is distracting them becomes their own god.

In addition to what Feuerbach says about religion, he narrows his terms and starts to define the Christian religion.  He says, “Religion, at least the Christian, is the relation of man to himself, or more correctly to his own nature (i.e., his subjective nature); but a relation to it, viewed as a nature apart from his own.”  Feuerbach is saying there is no real divine being Christians worship.  Rather, the “divine being” Christians worship is just the human nature purified.  Man frees himself from the limits of being human.  All the attributes of the Divine being are attributes of the human nature.  Feuerbach is claiming the Christian religion and its “god” are nothing more than man making a divine being the perfect version of man.  The divine being, or God, is all the perfect attributes of man put together into a perfect divine being.  He goes on to say man can only believe in an object if it has qualities like his own.  Therefore, man created God in a perfect image of himself with attributes that make God an object to man.  Feuerbach says, “An existence in general, an existence without qualities, is an insipidity, and absurdity.  But there can be no more in God than is supplied by religion.  Only where man loses his taste for religion, and thus religion itself becomes insipid, does the existence of God become an insipid existence — an existence without qualities.”

Feuerbach’s claims about religion and the Christian God are completely inaccurate with the teachings of the Bible.  Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Genesis 1:27 says, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  God created man in His image; man did not create God in his image.  God is not some figment of our imagination; He is not the perfect version of our attributes.  Man is the fallen nature of God’s attributes.  We are God’s creation.

Feuerbach builds off his previous argument by saying, “It is necessary to man to have a definite conception of God and since he is man, he can form no other than a human conception of him.”  Feuerbach is somewhat making fun of the Christian God.  He is saying it is such a coincidence God is a man as well.  One example he uses for this is how birds would view their god.  If the birds had a God, wouldn’t that God also be a bird?  This argument Feuerbach makes is a very weak one.  Ancient Egyptians worshiped gods that were not man.  They worshipped cats, dogs, and all types of creatures.  Feuerbach cannot make such a weak claim to say God being man is such a coincidence.  Going back to the verses previously mentioned, God created man in His image. Man is an image of God, not God an image of man.

Feuerbach takes different approaches to the argument claiming God is just the perfect qualities of man.  Man made a perfect manifestation of himself.  However, Feuerbach contradicts himself on this point.  He claims the qualities of God are nothing else than the essential qualities of man and a particular man has his existence, his reality, only in his particular conditions.  God is the highest standard of existence to man.  Man can only comprehend the qualities that are in him.  Therefore, God is not a divine being but a particular, finite being.  His previous arguments were saying the Christian God is a perfect manifestation of human qualities, but now he is saying God is finite because man can’t comprehend what is not known to him.  Man can’t be perfect, and, therefore, cannot comprehend a being that is perfect.  Feuerbach fails to understand his whole argument is based around the fact God is created by the perfect attributes of man, what the perfect man would be.  But God wasn’t created; He is the creator.  He created those attributes and man is an image of Him.

The last part of Feuerbach’s argument about God being made by the attributes of man is the nature of man demanding goodness as an essential tendency of man.  Feuerbach says religion is an attack on goodness.  Religion and the idea of God attack man; man is wicked, corrupt, and incapable of good.  Feuerbach almost seems offended by the fact man needs a God because man is wicked.  Feuerbach is missing one monumental piece to the picture.  Man is wicked and man is corrupt. Man does need a God.  Man’s nature demands goodness because that is the nature of God, and we are made in God’s image.  Feuerbach asks, “If man is wicked, how can he perceive or create anything good?”  He can’t make anything good — only God can.  Good only comes from God.  Man is wicked and will always be.  Man is a fallen creature who needs something to follow and use as guidelines.  Man needs something to give him hope.

God is not just perfect attributes of man that man can follow.  God created man in His own image, and, because man is wicked, the only hope is through God himself.  God is not here as a book to follow or guidelines to read.  God is here to save us from our own wicked nature.

Modern Christianity: Alive or a Lie?

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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.