I was catching up on the “Integrity, Accountability and the Grassley Investigation” forum posts over at Charismamag.com/forums and I caught this very interesting post on page 32 by forum member “kbeach”:

Note:Nnames of people and organization deleted (by the use of “#######”)not to protect the people and organization, but to show a point I am about to make after the quote

“#######”,

Before knowledge of, “#######” and “#######”, our lives were simple, and complete. Before “#######”, faith had no mathematical values, you was never told you had to little, or to much. Before “#######”, sickness was not blamed on lack of faith, nor finances. Before “#######”, rewording, or falsifying bible verses, well, before our knowledge of prosperity gospel (materialistic Christian belief: the doctrine taught in some Christian groups that God will grant wishes to the faithful, especially those wishes involving material wealth .Encarta ® World English Dictionary), this act was unheard of, tithes received during collection were used for the upkeep of our church, parsonage, cemetery, and exedra, the exedra (admin’s note, probably should be “etcetera’) was legit. Before “#######”, I had a mother, faith, finances, piece, and a belief in God I never questioned for there was no reason to. My personal thanks goes out to both “#######” and “#######”, prosperity gospel truly is a life changing experience! (admin note, author said this in a not so positive manner)….

There was a whole lot more of this post beyond what I had posted but I stopped there because when I read this post, I thought about one thing.

We made Christianity more complex than it actually should be.

We added ’stuff’ to it that caused us to experience more legalism, frustration, feelings of inferiority, etc.

We did this because we felt that something was ‘missing’ that kept us from ‘a Christianity’ our forefathers had that we felt was more powerful, more anointed, and more authentic that what we were experiencing at the time. We were looking for ‘the one thing’ we thought would get us over the ‘mountain’ or the ‘hump’ to where either ‘authentic Christianity could return, either we could see ‘the last days end-time harvest’, either we could see the ‘last days end-time wealth transfer’, either we could see the ‘promised mega-revival’, either we could see the ‘church growth program’ (scrapped next year for another plan and the cycle repeated) work, or we could see ourselves ‘blessed’ in order to view ourselves as being accepted, favored, and loved by God.

Our forefathers did not turn Christianity into a ‘complex complex’ to where more anointed, more blessed, and more ‘revealed’ was judged by how much we embraced these ‘new teachings’ as the ‘fresh revelation’ from God and how much more complex we could make God appear.

When conflict arose, they addressed it and solved it. When needs came into the congregation, they addressed them and no one went lacking. When tragedy struck the family, they came side by side to comfort and even cry with the mourner. When blessing came to a member, they came side by side and thanked and praised God for the blessings.

Now what do we do? When conflict arises, we are ready to ‘ra-ta-ta in the Spirit’, label people spiritual forms of wicked people of the Bible, post ’spiritual property stakes on our borders, and blame ’secret sin’ or something their ancestors did to cause the problem. When needs arise, we blame their lack for either not putting enough money in the plate, disagreeing with the pastor, or not purchasing the latest tape series. When tragedy strikes, we blame the gays, the Democrats, the ACLU, the sin of their children, etc. When blessings come, we become ‘pentecostal parasites’ and want some of the blessing and when they don’t get ‘their piece’, claim that it was the devil and not God who provided the blessing or the answer to a need.

The reason why I left the names of people and ministry blank is because no matter what ’special interest spirituality’ of pet doctrines you love to be associated with, that entire paragraph can be re-written with the pet doctrine that made Christianity complex and legalistic substituted in place of the doctrine addressed in the originally quoted post. For example look at the re-written paragraph below:

“Dear Spiritual Warfare Ministers and Teachers”,

Before knowledge of, “Spiritual Warfare” and “Territorial Spirits”, our lives (even though it took years to fully realize it) were simple, more powerful, confident, and complete. Before “staking property boundaries”, spiritual warfare was addressed as soon as it happened and we did not have to have ’spiritual warfare experts’ to train us before we could fight. Before “stragetic-level spiritual warfare”, sickness was not blamed on secret sins nor open doors. People did not die at young ages of bizarre diseases because they disagreed with you. Before “spiritual warfare seminars”, rewording, or falsifying bible verses, well, before over having to know what demon hovered over out city before fighting, this act was unheard of, we prayed into the deep night until the gates of heaven broke through, we prayed for sick people until they were healed, we prayed for our lost and tormented loved ones to be saved, we prayed for restored relationships, and all our prayers were legit and they were answered. Before “Spiritual Warfare Revelations”, I had a group of brothers and sisters, church, faith, sanity, peace, and a belief in God I never questioned for there was no reason to. There was no need to get ‘paranoid’ on whether to take a left turn or a right turn, whether to make a life-altering decision, whether to accept a gift that would meet a need (aka ‘trick of the enemy’ teachings) or whether a decision was the difference between victory and defeat, wealth or poverty, anointing or Ichabod, love of God or hated by God, or eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. My personal thanks goes out to both “Spiritual Warfare Teachers” and “Spiritual Warfare Seminars”, Spiritual Warfare obsessions truly is a life altering experience!

The more complex we made complexianity, the more we called it ‘knowledge increasing’, the more we called it ‘the new thing’, the more we called it “revelation of the secrets of heaven’, the more we called it ‘the next level anointing’ implying both a ’spiritual eliteness and arrogance’ compared to the Christians worshipping down the street at another church. We became more and more gnostic instead of using the Bible as diagnostics against a sin stained world.

But the worse we did was to call ourselves ‘more free’ We bragged about how the ‘new thing made us free’ but in reality placed us in a deep bondage because we forced our Christianity to turn from Jesus and only Jesus to Jesus plus our new revelations in order to be considered as preaching a full gospel. Instead of calling ourselves the (fill in the blank) Christian Fellowship, we should have named ourselves the New Galatia (fill in your pet doctrine that was added to Christianity) Church.

It’s time for the simplicity to be restored in Christianity. Simplicity in obedience, simplicity in doctrine, simplicity in fulfilling out calling. Remove the mask, wash away the mascara, strip away the war paints. Throw out the flotsam. Lose the unneeded weight.

Ending, I will leave you with this:

Jesus + (nothing else) = Jesus
Jesus + (added teachings) = legalism
Jesus + (selfish desires) = disaster