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CHRISTIANITY VERSUS CHURCHIANITY
part 1 - Who is telling the Truth?
Pastor William R. Cunningham
August 3, 2003
INTRODUCTION
There is an uprising in Christianity. There is a move of God in the house of God, the Christian church organization. What is this move? This move of God is the move to Christ. The Christian church has removed itself from Christ. It has committed adultery in that it has joined to another. What has it joined to? It has joined to secularism, materialism, lust, greed, and the satisfaction of the flesh. This was and is currently being accomplished by the perpetuation and proliferation of lies in the churches. Preachers have lied to the people and the people, not taking the time to know God for themselves and study the word personally, believe the lies they are told. Thus Christianity has been hidden and the world sees Churchianity and it stinks. No wonder so many resist Christianity to join another religion. The truth of the matter is that they never saw Christianity for the covering of Churchianity.
I began to watch ministers on the television on religious broadcasts that I normally would not listen to. I watched them because I wanted to know what people are hearing from the mouth of ministers and in particular the high profile ministers. After all, these are the ministers that people travel long distances to see in conventions, rallies, and the like. Some of these very men and women are the ones that are lying to the body of Christ and deceiving many. I watched and was amazed at what I heard. There was nothing about Christ. There was nothing about righteousness, salvation, the love of God, the Kingdom of God. Everything, and I mean everything was centered on getting from God through the false teachings of prosperity.
I heard such statements as the following.
- “God is trying to overtake us to prosper us”
- “Without the knowledge of goodness, we will be cut off from goodness”
- “Favor is for God to look good”
- “We can speak God’s favor into our lives”
- “Saying we have favor will manifest it in our lives.”
- Material prosperity comes from meditating and confessing the word of God
- “Faith is released through words”
- “We can change what we see by what we say”
- Wisdom operating in your life gets you what you want
One minister even declared that the congregation is out of debt. He declared that the congregation is free from all financial disorder and that his anointing would come upon them.
Another ministry invited the television audience to call to receive a word from the Lord for financial blessings. You could call to receive power to get wealth gold medallion.
There were also many people who testified how THESE MEN were so important to them and how THESE MEN were a blessing to them.
Everything that these preachers preached centered on material wealth. They bragged about how many cars they have, their jet, clothes, fine homes, and more. What made matters worse were that the people (probably not all) were just as blind to the heresy and deception that these men were perpetuating. They couldn’t see that nothing was about Christ. They didn’t realize that there was nothing Christian about what was going on in those services.
These men fed off of the emotions of the people. They manipulated the people to a state of stupor or something as they moved them into a realm of suggestion. At one point, I recall people getting up out of their seats while the minister was preaching to put money in the baskets that were at the front of the church. Of course the message was about material prosperity. Now I remember why I stopped listening to these wolves.
I used to be in that mess. I was once a proponent of the word of faith movement, though I didn’t quite know what it was at that time. However, I was accustomed to studying the Bible and that is what eventually saved me from that mess. I was fortunate enough, through the purposes of God, to share what God taught me through the Scriptures to others and some of them were set free from that bondage. However there are so many more people deceived. I’m sure that many honestly want answers to their questions and problems and they put their trust in the purported men and women of God, not realizing that these people are not representing God in any way. They are instead representing the deceiver of the world and destroy the people slowly as they gradually suck them dry of their resources.
I became outrages that these men and women would have the audacity to deceive God’s people. My heart goes out to these people because they are deceived and they don’t know it. They give and give with nothing in return. A few claim a cause and effect and proclaim God’s blessing because something happened when they did what the quacks told them to do. The majority are left searching for answers and holding on to the blind hope painted by these ministers of Satan.
I care about these people. I know how I have been deceived and robbed in the past. I know how these same preachers drained me of my life until I was finally delivered from that bondage. Praise God that I became free from that mess. I could only think of the many people that were still in bondage and were proud of it. I could only wonder how these men and women preachers could say such things in the name of Christ.
Well Pursuing the Truth Ministries is belligerent with regard to these false prophets. We stand against such lies and heresy and preach the truth of God’s word. We promote liberty through Christ. We promote a personal relationship with God and we accomplish this mostly through the media of education, that is, knowledge of the Word of God.
This lesson is the beginning of a series of lessons that I hope will expose the lies that these men and women pawn to the people. I hope that you will see what Christianity really is and how these men with their organized religion and false teachings have robbed you of months and years of a fruitful relationship with God. We will compare the philosophy and teachings of both. This series of lessons will be called, “Christianity Versus Churchianity: Who is telling the Truth?”
CHRISTIANITY
First of all, what is Christianity anyway? What do you normally think of when you hear the term, Christianity? Many associate Christianity with a local church or a particular way of life. However, true Christianity is a system of faith in Jesus Christ. Christianity is founded and centered on Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Christianity is not a legalist religion. It is not based on rules and regulations that its members are supposed to follow. Christianity is based on faith and that faith is in Jesus Christ. The most important thing to remember about Christianity is that it is founded upon Jesus Christ.
The word Christian comes from the Greek word Christioanos, which means one who belongs to Christ. The word “Christian” is used three times in the entire Bible (except for the more paraphrase Bible, Ex: The Living Bible).
- Acts 26:28
- 1 Peter 4:16
- Acts 11:26
Basically joining “Christ” and “ian” in the English language forms the word “Christian”. Christ, means the anointed one, i.e., the Messiah. The term “ian” means one related to, belonging to, or resembling. So as you can see, a Christian is one that belongs to Christ. In Churchianity it is one who resembles Christ but does not necessarily belong to Christ.
The term Christian was first used in Antioch where the converted gentiles saw the believers as being a separate from the Jewish religion. They began to call these followers of Christ Christians. On another note, the Jew would not have called them Christians because that would have been affirming that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
Salvation comes through Jesus Christ and therefore Christians believe that they are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus himself declared…
John 3:16 (NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
See also Romans 10:9, 1 Corinthians 15:1-3.
Churchianity
Now Churchianity is very different. The characteristics of Churchianity are as follows.
- Centers around a building
- Millions spent on ritual and materials
- Centers around dogma
- An alternate society
- Based on marketing, advertising, and business savvy
- The teaching and preaching are focused on the church
- Perverted Holiness
- Social gatherings
- Material growth
Michael Horton of ModernReformation.org writes, “Christianity deals with the personal relationship with Jesus Christ and Churchianity deals with the attachment to externals.”
Mark Lawson of “End Time Prophetic Vision” says, “The church, with all its programs and activities has somehow helped create an alternate society, nearly impotent to bring life to those who are perishing, and completely unattractive to the lost.”
I think that the most appropriate way to describe Churchianity is organized religion. Churchianity is a religious system created by men as a counterfeit to true Christianity. Now keep in mind that I am not comparing Christianity with other religions such as Buddhism, Muslim, etc. I am talking about the religious system that appears to be Christianity.
False Prophets
Consider what Jesus said.
Matthew 7:15-20 (NKJV) “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
There will always be wolves in sheep’s clothing. There will always be men and women of God that take advantage of others in order to fulfill their lustful desires. These false preachers are the standard in Churchianity. These men and women do not preach and teach the word of God, but rather preach and teach their own doctrine or the doctrine that they have been taught. Consider what Paul said in his letter to the Galatians.
Galatians 1:6-9 (NKJV) I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
This same thing occurs today in the Christian community. People are swept away by a new gospel or a new teaching. Typically it is a teaching that appeals to self then to service to God. This is why we have to be diligent to know the Word of God for ourselves and recognize when Christianity is not being promoted, but another Gospel or another message.