Julie Roys is the Classic Example of a Confused Churchian
Julie Roys, like many others, is out to save the church from the evils of TGC and T4G etc. However, TGC and T4G are the church. A recent article by Roys reflects the overall confusion and cognitive dissonance of those trying to save the church. They should try to save American Christianity instead.
Roys is the classic example of a confused Churchian. Church orthodoxy shares the exact same presuppositions about mankind as Socialism. Both are predicated on the total inability of man and man’s need to be ruled over by those with superior knowledge. Roys will write an article like this, and then go to church this Sunday and listen to a sermon about her total depravity. Of course, the verbiage will probably be tempered with words like “sinner” etc. Orthodoxy makes the issue about the great unwashed and their lack of knowledge concerning the spiritual while socialists make the issue about the material; so what? In both cases, it’s about the total inability of the individual. Roys represents the hybrid between Americanism and orthodoxy that took place after the American Revolution but is presently on life support. All of the outcry about TGC, T4G, etc. flows from a lack of understanding that the church is returning to its original authentic orthodoxy at breakneck speed.
Something great could emerge from the ashes if Churchians would simply admit that they bought into the traditions of men rather than a grammatical understanding of the Bible. Clearly, the Churchian understanding of the Bible comes from what parishioners are told at church, not what they have read and understood for themselves. Obviously, few want to humble themselves and admit they bought into what they were told all of their lives. For me, it wasn’t hard because 6 months after becoming a Christian and joining a church I knew something was fundamentally wrong with church but I could never figure it out. I stayed committed to church, even as a pastor, because it was the only Christian venue that seemed viable, but I always prayed that God would show me the truth someday, and that prayer was answered.
Per the usual on church stuff, the answer is too simple to grasp and is hiding in plain sight. Church is a lie and a false gospel. The ekklesia was never an institution and was never meant to be an institution. Where Christians should go from here is fairly simple: it’s the difference between family and institution. While Roys points out the laziness, hypocrisy, theft, and overall decadence of socialist leaders, her blindness to the same mentality among America’s spiritual leaders is stunning. In her mind, like many others, this mentality among church leaders is all about a few bad apples. Really? I was a pastor once in the institutional church and I will tell you that pastors are among the laziest people I have ever met in my life. Leaders of the TGC and T4G live lives of splendor and their reported incomes should give people pause in regard to commonsense. While the laity, and nothing but the laity makes everything they do possible, parishioners are given little or no say about anything and are brought up on church discipline if they dare question the “authority” of church leaders.
Furthermore, leaders demand a higher and higher temple tax (“tithes and offerings” wink, wink) and berate parishioners if they don’t pony up. Ironically, failure to cough up what the church leaders say they need is blamed on “materialism” and “worshipping the American dream rather than Christ.” Like so many Churchians, Roys is confused; church is not Christianity. Because of the tradition that Churchians have been indoctrinated with, they actually find such a statement shocking and absurd. That’s why the church will eventually look like the description we see in the book of Revelation: Socialism and tyranny on steroids.
paul
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