Flexible Christianity
Everything is flexible these days. Whatever you can think of, it can be done, paid, obtained, given and created in more than one way. And that’s a good thing, for the most part. It allows for unprecedented opportunity. Of course, there’s the down side: Which path do you choose? What do you do? Which way do you turn? How do you go about it? These are questions that can be applied to pretty much anything today, even religion. Yes, even religion isn’t safe from supposedly probing questions that seek to find its “essence”, its “meaning”, its “secrets” in order to make it into a “flexible”, “modern” version of itself, one that’s “in touch” with the times.
It has been documented through scientific studies that man needs to identify with something stable in order to remain normal. And even if there were no studies done on this subject, it makes common sense to realize that one needs a personality, an identity, an occupation, a certain stable element in one’s life, or else everything goes awry and the person becomes mentally ill, or at least susceptible to every outside influence — easily swayed, it becomes an animal tied to chain of ideas, led around by a stranger’s hands, without a say, without control.
Religion, or some form of reliance upon a higher power, has been part and parcel of humanity ever since its beginning. No atheist culture has ever managed to exist for a long time. Atheism has always been a sub-culture, a sub-current, for the simple reason that the intellectual powers of man are diminished when not in a relationship with the higher powers of God. As such, a culture without God is doomed to failure. It can never administer itself correctly, it can never offer a viable reason for survival, for continuity, for the mere reason that the lives of its constituents are themselves limited, doomed to be cut off at some point. Their imminent personal doom infuses their actions and decisions, and in the end infuses the core of such a society, committing it to swift decay and destruction.
It can then be reasonably deduced that religion has been a way for people to obtain, or come into a reliable, permanent identity, which can stabilize the other aspects of their lives. Although I believe Christianity is the only truly viable religion to offer such benefits, because it is a complete solution to one’s God need, you may believe differently, and I won’t counter your beliefs in this article. Here I want to talk about the obvious need to keep one’s Christianity intact from certain attacks which seek only to undermine the very foundation of our Christian identity. The current trend for flexibility is just one of these attacks, and I will address it in detail here.
The first aspect I want to talk about is Christian dogma. Remember the Ten Commandments? If not, please read Exodus 20:3-17. These are the very foundation of Christianity, although your pastors and religious officials might have you believe otherwise. They might say that the law was nailed to the cross, or they might say that not all of the commandments are important. If that is so, let us establish which one of the Godhead wrote the commandments in stone. I hope you are all acquainted with the idea of the Godhead, and that there are three: God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Matthew 28:19. God the Father is the Head of the universe, and he is greater than Jesus: “I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.” John 14:28, also 1 Corinthians 11:3. Jesus Christ is the eternal, only begotten Son of God; see John 3:16 and Micah 5:2. The Holy Ghost is the third person of the Godhead. He works in harmony with the Father and the Son; see Genesis 1:2, John 14:16, 17.
Here is what the Bible says about the Ten Commandments. “And God spake all these words, saying” Exodus 20:1. “And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.” Deuteronomy 4:12, 13. Read Nehemiah 9:13; Exodus 31:18. Please notice the use of the verb “spake” in the verses above. Now let’s go to John, in the New Testament. “In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”John 1:1-4, 14. The Word of God is Jesus Christ, that’s made plain as day here.
As such, the voice of God, mentioned in Exodus and Deuteronomy above, is also Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of the Word of God. He is His Voice. Dwell upon these passages for a few moments if you have a hard time tying them together. You will see that it is the only logical conclusion. You will then also conclude that as a Christian, you must acknowledge that Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God, wrote the commandments in stone with his own hand. What right then do you have as a Christian to say that you must not obey them, that they were done away with, when Christ himself came on the earth and died for you because you hadn’t obeyed the Ten Commandments in the first place?
You might still doubt this statement for some reason, and say that Christ didn’t just die because people didn’t respect the Ten Commandments. But do you really know what you’re talking about? “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14. The commandments that Solomon talks about are the Ten Commandments. If you don’t believe this either, pick up a Bible Concordance and look up either “commandment” or “law”, and you will see that these terms refer to the Ten Commandments at least ninety-nine percent of the time. All that we need do is to obey the Ten Commandments. Here is what David says about the law of God: “The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Psalm 111:7, 8. What did Jesus say about the commandments? “I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” John 15:10. You had better not have anything else to say to this, or you would be committing blasphemy.
Let’s get back to the main discussion. Having established that all commandments still stand as strong as ever, which ones are being trampled upon under the guise of flexibility?
How about “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Exodus 20:7. That’s one. What do I mean here? Have you watched TV lately? It seems that every TV personality, especially singers, never fail to invoke the name of God for everything they are about to do or they did. Then of course they go on stage and they sing about having casual sex, failed relationships, drugs, etc. I hardly think one can thank God for success based on Bible-forbidden practices and questionable lifestyles and work habits. What’s worse, most everybody these days uses the expressions “Oh my God!”, or “Jesus!” without ever stopping to think that they are using the name of the Lord in vain. It’s used practically everywhere, as a counter to pretty much anything. It’s become a cliché — people have made a cliché out of the name of the Lord. But when I tell someone about it, they tell me to relax, that it’s just an expression, that it doesn’t mean anything. Doesn’t it? “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.” Luke 19:22.
Let’s look at another commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11. The sheer weight of four long verses spoken and written by the Lord Himself ought to be enough to stop us from questioning his position on this day, yet the overwhelming majority of Christians do it anyway. How come?
How dare you question the Lord and yet still call yourselves Christians? Let me ask you this. What day did Jesus Himself respect? Read Matthew 12:10-12; Mark 2:23-28; 3:1-5; Luke 13:10-17; 14:1-6; John 5; John 9. Let’s remember the conclusion presented just a few paragraphs above: Jesus Christ made the Sabbath, because the world itself was created through Him — He was the Word of God. To those people who say that the Sabbath is for Jews, I have this to say: Were there any Jews at the time of Creation? Were Adam and Eve Jews? No. Did they respect the Sabbath? Yes. You had better believe they did. How long is the Sabbath intended to be kept? Throughout eternity. Read Isaiah 66:22, 23. What are you doing worshipping on Sunday? Oh, you’re going to tell me that your pastor or priest told you that in Romans, Paul said another day was established? Or is that you didn’t even know about that one badly interpreted verse in Romans? Is it that you don’t even know why you worship on Sunday? Then you’d better take a long hard look at your beliefs, because your foundation, your Christian identity, which should be based on the Ten Commandments, is missing the cornerstone.
Even when people hear these facts, they still insist on flexibility. My own brother tells me that I should be more flexible on this issue, that my Christian beliefs ought to be more nuanced — that’s the term he uses. Well, I’ll let him be more nuanced, if he can bear it. I for one would rather have a rock solid foundation for my beliefs. I would rather rely on a day that has been established since the creation of the earth, that God himself has blessed and sanctified, and one that will stand in Heaven and the new earth throughout eternity.
Worshipping on Sunday means worshipping on Sun day, a pagan day of worship dedicated to the cult of the Sun. It means worshipping on a day established by the early Christian church in a badly misguided and blasphemous attempt to convert pagans. It means worshipping on a day established by a church that later persecuted, tortured and killed millions of Christians because they dared to go against secular practices and stuck to the Bible.
I for one don’t want to worship on a day with this kind of legacy, a day that has absolutely nothing in common with the day established by God Himself. It would mean going against God Himself and practically telling him that you care not a bit for His laws. It would mean open disobedience of His commandments. It’s the stuff that sins are made of, and it’s the stuff that got Adam and Eve kicked out of Paradise.
So let me ask you this. Would you rather be nuanced and get your name taken out of the Book of Life, or would you rather stand with the few that worship the Sabbath and the commandments of God, but know that you are doing the right thing? Because God is not nuanced. No, He is plain as day, plain as the words of his Ten Commandments. He is the same forever, and his Word is like a sharp sword. It’s meant to cut through all of the nuance and bring out the simple but everlasting truth.
Here is another commandment that people trample upon in the name of flexibility: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Exodus 20:14. Seems rather short, doesn’t it? What does it really mean? We don’t really know. Ask someone on the street, and they won’t know the right definition. Ask someone in your church, and I doubt that they’ll know it either. It’s all because we’ve become too flexible, too lax to stick to what the Bible has to say.
Let’s find out what it says! “And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” Leviticus 20:10. “But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.” Proverbs 6:32. “But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!” Ezekiel 16:32. “Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.” Hosea 4:13, 14.
The Bible is brutally clear on this issue, so much so that I have nothing to add here. The New Testament goes even further: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Matthew 5:27, 28.
This is a paramount clarification, given by Jesus Christ Himself. In other words, it does not matter if you’re married, it does not matter if you physically commit adultery. It all boils down to what you think. If you dedicate your thoughts to lusting after a woman, you have already committed adultery. This woman may or may not be the wife of another, and you may or may not be married. It is also important to note the language used — “looketh on a woman to lust after her”. It implies a complete thought process: (1) a look which notices the woman, continued looking at her body, etc., (2) a thought which begins the lusting, perhaps by noticing the physical characteristics, and (3) continued thought through imagination, which creates the image of sexual intercourse with her in your mind. In other words, (1) you think about having sex with her, (2) you can see yourself having sex with her, and (3) you look at her with lustful eyes, which means you feed your mind with images of her body so you can use those images in your imagined sexual intercourse with her.
I think this detailed clarification needs to be made, especially nowadays, when clothes are more revealing than they used to be. I think none of us can look at a beautiful woman without noticing her beauty and glancing up and down her body, and this also goes for the woman to man relationship. And that’s not a sin. It becomes a sin when we use our mental image of that person to imagine intercourse with them, or to at least think about the pleasure we would obtain from intercourse with, “making out” with or “copping a feel” from them. That is why it is so important to actively control our conscious thoughts, a topic which I will discuss in more detail in another article. And this is why Christianity is such an accomplished and complete religion! One is truly in control of one’s destiny. There is no pre-destination. We have a truly free will, and we are free to choose to do God’s will. It’s completely up to us, we have the critical power of choice, and it all begins with our thoughts!
Fact is, this world is not meant to be flexible. Our beliefs aren’t meant to be flexible. If you think the world is flexible, just try missing a loan payment, or jumping out of a building and hoping that the laws of physics won’t work that time. If the machinery of life in general is so inflexible, what could possibly make us think that the ideas which run that machinery could be flexible? There are certain immutable rules in this Universe. They define the way life takes place, and they were laid down by God. Even though the world is now under the influence of Satan and we are made to believe that these laws do not apply anymore, God is still in control. He always has been, and He always will be. In the end, it can be summed up with a simple question: Do you want to go to Heaven? If the answer is Yes, you had better respect God’s laws.
This idea of the world being grey, of the law of God being flexible, truly comes from the devil. It began in the garden of Eden, when the serpent re-interpreted the law of God: “And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:2-5. We have a popular expression that we use to define people that cannot stick to a set of morals: they “don’t have a backbone,” we say. How true! What we don’t realize is that we are all losing our backbones, slowly but surely, because we allow the world to degrade our morality bit by bit. This world, us, God — it is all black and white! It’s as plain as black letters on white paper, as plain as the writing in your Bible, and it’s about time we decided to stick to the basics.
Go ahead and believe that the world is gray if you want to. Go ahead and think that it’s okay to go to church on Sunday, because, after all, what difference does a day make? Go ahead and believe that it’s okay to look at girls whether you are in a relationship or not, and fix your eyes upon certain of their body parts, thinking lusty thoughts. Go ahead and think that it’s okay to do those sorts of things because you’re not actually committing adultery, that it’s okay to “look but not touch.” Go ahead and think that it’s okay to think about movie stars, other celebrities, your ex-girlfriend or another girl when you are physically with your wife or girlfriend. Go ahead and have extra-marital or pre-marital sex, because, after all, it’s just sex, and it’s good practice. You’ll be better at it when you get married, right? You’ll be able to please your wife better, isn’t that what they say? Go ahead and move in with your girlfriend, because, hey, you want to get to know her before you marry her, you want to know what you’re getting, you want to know if you’re compatible. But don’t be surprised when at the final judgment, those exact sins will be pointed out to you by God Himself. You will then realize that the Ten Commandments are the law of God, have been the law of God, and will always be the law of God. You will also see they were easier to keep than you thought, but it will be too late.
Another aspect of the commandment regarding adultery that I wanted to mention here was that of homosexuality. I only want to address this issue as it concerns the subject of this article, that of flexibility. The trend these days is to consider homosexuality a given, that is to say that a person is born homosexual, and there is nothing they can do about it. I think that’s wrong. That is like saying that one is born an alcoholic or a woman-chaser, and there is nothing they can do about it. Does that sound right to you? Of course you can do something about it! You can resist the urge. Yes, people who are homosexuals probably have strong urges, but that doesn’t mean they should give into those urges. I would compare it to a married man who feels a strong desire to sleep with other women. Should he do it? No! His lot in life is the wife he chose. It should be the same way with a homosexual. He knows it’s wrong, yet instead of fighting the urge and praying for help, he chooses to embrace that unnatural desire completely and call it a natural thing. And we, Christians, are told to be flexible about this and tolerate it. What’s more, we’re supposed to be supportive of the sexual behavior of these people in spite of what the Bible says about them.
We all know that out of struggle and suffering the really great things are accomplished. We also know that sometimes we need to suffer and struggle, because that is the only way we remember God and we get closer to Him. Who knows what truly wonderful people these folks might have become if they had chosen to fight their urges instead of adopting them as a lifestyle!
The latest thing I heard about this was that listing homosexuality as a sin means that I am interpreting the Bible too narrowly, and that I ought to be more flexible. I just can’t do that, as I’ll explain in a bit. This does NOT mean I advocate any discrimination or violence toward such people. Far be it from me! It is not my place to judge; I leave that to the Lord. But at least I ought to be allowed to speak my mind about it.
How can I possibly be flexible toward a group of people whose members have openly tried to flirt with me when I would exercise at my gym — and openly and without disguise have looked at my private parts while I showered, with lustful, perverted looks that spoke volumes about what they were thinking! How can I be friendly toward people who would purposely brush up against me as they walked by when I would change my clothes in the locker room? I have been so traumatized by those experiences that even now - several years later - I still shudder as I walk into a gym, and I can’t help wondering whether any homosexuals might once again harass me. How can I possibly feel “flexible” toward such people? Could you, if you were in my place? If homosexuals had harassed you for years, how would you feel about them?
On a final note, let’s talk about the last commandment: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” Exodus 20:17. Covetousness and jealousy have always been big problems with people, but it seems that they have never been as big as nowadays. Everything seems to be done for show, for the open display of one’s wealth, social status or financial status. Music videos espouse the rich lifestyle as the only lifestyle. On TV, in newspapers, magazines, movies, on the streets, we are bombarded with messages about prosperity, wealth, possessions. Shopping has become a lifestyle. If you are not rich, then you will probably be induced to feel guilty about it and/or envy the possessions that others have amassed through who knows what means.
People run into serious debt just to buy a more expensive car with more options, or to buy a bigger house in a richer neighborhood. They lend their bodies and minds to practices which are openly condemned by the Bible just to advance in their career or in the hope of making a rich person marry them, all simply because they covet the things talked about in this commandment. But people certainly have a way of covering up their sins through flexibility, don’t they? What’s wrong with wealth, they say? What’s wrong with accumulating tons of money? What’s wrong with getting a promotion, it’s just sex, right? It’s just oral sex, it’s not real sex, isn’t that what they say? Even worse, famous people are now guilty of acting as spokespersons for this kind of behavior, by participating in TV programs where their wealth and possessions are put on display, sometimes with the expressly stated purpose of provoking jealousy and envy — programs such as MTV’s “Cribs” or VH1’s “Fabulous Life of–”.
There is nothing wrong with wealth, as long as it is accumulated in an honest manner and for the right reasons, and it isn’t used for illegal or sinful occupations. But striving to be rich just so you could say you are richer than someone else, or just so you could pass through your old neighborhood and flaunt your newly found possessions is just wrong. You’re not only guilty of trespassing the 10th commandment yourself, but I guarantee you that you will be held guilty of provoking others to trespass it at your judgment hour. What will you say then? “Oh my God, just relax and be flexible, God, it’s not all that you’re making it out to be?” What will you say when faced with the ultimate truth, the be-all, end-all reality?
Christ didn’t die on the cross because God is flexible. God is the same always, and His law is also the same, never changing. It cannot be bent, it cannot be reinterpreted, and it cannot be made flexible. It was written in stone for a reason. It’s meant to be permanent. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Romans 7:7, 12.
