From One Ditch to Another

But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
(Matthew 15:13-14 KJV)

He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
(Psalms 7:15 KJV)

Recently an article was brought to my attention that shows how cunning and crafty Satan and/or our wicked hearts can be. The articles title is catchy, and the articles content is full of fully expressed feelings. It is well written and makes some points I could potentially agree with. However there is great deception within this article, and shows how when there is something wrong with system it is easy to be lead into another deceptions. Every bowling lane has two gutters.

The article being warned about is “My Emancipation From American Christianity” by John Pavlovitz. I have no idea who this person is but should be avoided completely because of the content of this article. This will be going over portions of the post and showing how this man is in error and how he is leading others into the same error.

All those times when I felt like an outsider in this American Jesus thing…”

A valid complaint, the current man-made traditions are a far cry from actually following the scriptures as they lay out the Christian walk. He continues to make weird remarks like: his “throat constricted” or “heart raced” or “stomach turned.” These feelings that honestly look like the symptoms of a panic attack, lead to:

…something rose up from the deepest places within me and shouted, “I can’t do this anymore! I can’t be part of this!”

This is a major warning, he had this anxiety lead something deep within him shouting for him to stop doing what he was doing in the so-called western modern church. This is not good. This man was panicking and from his panic he changed his course. Not through prayer, reading of the word or conviction of the Holy Spirit, but through sheer panic. This should not be how a follower of Christ behaves and acts. We should be lead by the Spirit not by the flesh.

Pavlovitz continues, as if trying to convince himself, that he is: “not losing his mind”, “faith”, is “not failing or falling or backsliding.” He just says he has outgrown “American Christianity.”

The then goes on to list a bunch of things he has “outgrown.” The first two on the list show an intriguing insight into his mind and the last one really sums up his main problem. Lets start with the first item on his list:

I’ve outgrown the furrowed-browed warning of a sky that is perpetually falling.”

This is a vague quote as there are many things meant by ‘the sky is falling”, however in Christian context by someone that despises the word of God, it likely is a reference to the end-times. To disregard this aspect of the Christian walk is at best ignorance. Scriptures demand that we watch and are aware and even blessed in those actions.

Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
(Matthew 24:42 KJV)

Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
(Matthew 25:13 KJV)

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
(Mark 13:32-33 KJV)

For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
(Mark 13:34-37 KJV)

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
(Revelation 1:3 KJV)

Moving on to the second item he has “outgrown”:

I’ve outgrown the snarling brimstone preaching that brokers in damnation.”

This would seem to mean that he is against the teaching of Jude.

And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
(Jude 1:23 KJV)

The last thing he has outgrown sums up everything:

I’ve outgrown the cramped, creaky, rusting box that God never belonged in anyway.”

And here it is. This man does have a problem with “American Christianity” and I do to, but that is where my similarity with him ends. Pavlovitz has a problem with the Bible. The rest of his items are where the Holy Scriptures conflict with either his lifestyle, his sin, or his idea of what God should be. One ditch to another. Instead of this blind man coming to Christ to receive his sight, he decided to pretend to be able to see with the God of his own imagination.

The rest of the article is about “diversity” and “love” and how that is what Jesus taught us. Please show me the verse where Jesus said sin was OK, there is not one. If you want to know about love, real love, see my post on it. “God is Love”

These final quotes shows how deceived this man is and is truly the blind leading the blind.

Jesus said that the Spirit moves where it pleases, and with it go those in its glorious grip.”

This is the first mention of scripture and is so grossly misapplied I have no idea how he even got there.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
(John 3:8 KJV)

This is talking about being born again. About how the Holy Spirit guides those who follow after Christ. Follow Christ’s teaching, found in His book, that was written through His Spirit. “The Word made Flesh.” John 1:14

This has nothing to do with wayward men with their false doctrines.

He finishes with a statement that defies belief for anyone that knows even a little bit of the scriptures.

In my heart and in the hearts of so many like me, that Spirit is boldly declaring its emancipation from the small, heavily guarded space that wants to contain it, and taking us out into the wide, breathtaking expanses of unfettered faith.”

The folly in this one statement is nearly unquantifiable. The spirit that is leading this man and many like him is not the Holy Spirit found within the Bible. He is not even following the Jesus of the Bible and is truly following a god of his own imagination.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
(Matthew 7:13-14 KJV)

This man is not just “unfettered” from modern so-called Christianity, he is unfettered from Christ. If you are a part of man-made Christianity, come out and follow the Word of God, the Word made flesh, and leave that vanity of your mind behind.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
(John 14:6 KJV)