Dear FB Friends

Before I confront some very harsh realities about your (beloved?) religion (evangelicalism), I want to share my heart, especially to those who oppose my (sometimes) hard-to-swallow postings. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” It is also true that out of the abundance of the heart the writer writes. My heart is far, very far, from pure. However….

However, after cross-examination of my quite defective heart, I can declare that Jesus is still my “first love”. Unlike almost every person who impacts your christianity, I am not religious; I serve Jesus Christ and no man, including myself. My determination is to be sensitive to Holy Spirit whom He has sent to each one of us. I do what “the Spirit of truth” says to do, say what He wants Me to say and write what He wants me to write. Ever before me is “the judgement seat of Christ”. So thanks for your tolerance (and prayers?). I now continue….

Evangelicalism is doctrinally unsound in every matter that makes an evangelical an evangelical. I am not suggesting evangelicals do not also have truth – they certainly do – but these truths do not make him/her an evangelical; “commandments of men” do that. So now…. please allow me to share some of many such “commandments of men” that have weakened your relationship with the Lord Jesus. Okay? Just four of dozens of harmful (devastating, destructive, anti-Bible) evangelical traditions….

One. The division of Christ’s church into two parts, the ‘clergy’ (or ‘ministerial’) and the ‘laity’. (Said another way, pulpit people and pew-people. Said another way, the salaried and the non-salaried. Said another way, the special and not-so-special.)

Two. The awful evangelical tithe.

The salaried stretch and twist and wring Scripture to convince the non-salaried to entrust ten percent of their income to them. Is there New Testament precedent for tithing of one’s income? No. Did Jesus ever instruct any person to tithe their income? No. How about Paul or John or Peter? No. How about the Old Testament…. is there an example of anyone tithing their income? No. Well, who gave Pastor Whoever permission to collect tithes? Evangelicalism, not Jesus, gave Pastor Whoever permission to collect tithes. I call it embezzlement.