(ThyBlackMan.com) This article is designed to make you think, think about what you do and why. What you believe and why. Who you listen to and why. I am more interested in those goals than I am in simply getting you to agree with me. So as I look forward to saying in my 2024 podcast, let’s go down the rabbit hole.
I guess before we get to the issue of the church and whether or not the “church” follows the truth, we need to ask the question “what church”? Whose church? Clearly God did not set up denominations. Clearly the Catholic Church is not even mentioned in the Bible, yet millions upon millions of people or more bow down to the pope, call him “holy father” and kiss his hand as if he walks on water. Really?
If you know anything about history, you know that the Lutheran and Presbyterian Church are offshoots of the Catholic Church via Martin Luther and John Calvin. That goes into the protestant reformation, but since I’m not so sure it reformed everything it needed to, I won’t go down that rabbit hole. Not today, but for another time definitely. Rewind from the Catholic Church and you have the Roman Catholic Church. Rewind again and you have the Romans and paganism. But don’t rewind anymore, because you really won’t like what you see.
My intention is not to insult any church, group or belief system. Whether mosque or synagogue, black church, or Baptist Association, Jehovah’s Witness, yes, or Mormons. But obviously, if all these groups say, they are definitely following God, and hearing from God, there is a huge problem, because they differ so much. Somebody is wrong, likely almost all of them. And if you are offended, the truth does tend to do that when it hits the nail on the head.
Of course, then we have religion riding on the back of denominations. Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, AME, CME, Church of Christ, Seventh-day Adventist, and the list goes on and on with offshoots of the above and then some. Not to forget, Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses, beliefs of a different sort. So you have to ask how so many of these groups can say they are following the same “God”, book or books, but go off in so many different directions.
Then we come to the self-seeking, self-promoting, money-grabbing, of the world pastors and “profits” whose names are on the buses and the vans and the buildings and the billboards. Think about it this way, McDonald’s has golden arches because it is promoting McDonald’s. UPS and Amazon, Polo and Coach, Mercedes and Zales have their names and logos on the trucks, buildings and stores because that is who they are promoting. So when you see pastors with their names and faces all over everything, guess what? My point is simple. Many of the churches today have become about the pastor, the church and its agenda, leaving the original mission that Christ laid out sorely behind. Since this is the case, how can they promote the truth at the same time? Especially when they won’t even tell you the truth about their agenda.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not stereotyping all churches, mosques, synagogues, and places of worship. Nor am I stereotyping all leaders therein. But the majority of them, I submit to you, are not even strictly following the books, the beliefs, and the God they say they represent. So I ask you, how can they promote the truth? And maybe, just maybe, that is why this question irritates so many people. Because they know they are not about the truth, they are about their agendas.
So in this article, because I’m limited in space and time, I’m going to tackle the “Christian” church. Before I do, I should tell you that I am not an atheist, nor an agnostic, nor a Hebrew Israelite in disguise. I am what and who God says I am. I am what the Bible says I am. I am a child of God. I am a son of the Most High. I am the head and not the tail. I am part of the bride of Christ. I am a believer. And I am everything else that the New Covenant says I am. I just needed to get that out-of-the way upfront before many of you want to call me something else, though you are probably going to do so anyway after you finish reading this article. If you dare finish.
Here is the truth. Christ was not likely born in December. Here is the truth, the name of the Messiah was not Jesus, and His name is not Jesus. Here is the truth, no matter how much He has been white-washed, Yeshua did not look like an Anglo-Saxon European. Here is the truth, God did not set up denominations. Man did. Here is the truth. The true church belongs to the Messiah, not to man’s (nor woman’s) wants, lusts and hidden agendas. Here is the truth. Abortion is completely inconsistent with the Bible and Christianity. God is about relationship, not man’s religion. A great many people who attend church are deceived by the leaders of those very churches. And many of them, leaders included, are going to bust hell wide open at the front of the line.
Here is the truth. There are several ways to communicate with God, without having to go through the pastor or the clergy, or the priest, or whatever other labels and channels man keeps promoting. I’m not saying walk away from the worship center. I am saying that many of you need to stop letting man be a mediator between you and your God. No man on this earth today should hold that position, no man nor woman.
God called many church leaders. But some of these people called themselves and answered. Some of them just went to cemetery, I’m sorry I meant seminary. And learned about theology and all the other “ologies” of man’s Pharisee-type religion that will take you straight to hell in an express elevator. That is the truth.
It’s hard to believe that people are still sending out free packets of miracle “holy” water. It’s hard to believe that hundreds of thousands of you, if not millions of you, had to attend a TD Jakes conference or camp meeting in order to get free or “loosed”, and paid out your money to do so. Talk about the money changers? Especially when the Messiah had freed you before TD Jakes even existed. It’s hard to believe that many of you will take the money you need to pay bills and instead give it to some churches, only to find that when you are in need, you have to go to them and beg or wait or apply for a loan or all of the above. And yes, I can name names as to which churches that refers to. So I ask you, where where is the truth in all of this?
This article should stir something in you, even if it upsets you. Why? Because it’s not just time to feed the sheep, it’s time to wake the other lions. The lack of accountability and truth in the churches and church leaders of today should not be the essence of your vulnerability, subjugation and blind trust today and tomorrow.
I know many of you have been told not to question “the man of God”, or touch not God’s “anointed”, but who said the charlatans are God’s anointed? If that’s what they told you, echoed by the cronies around them, did you expect any different answer? You have to think. And the more you think, the more you will wake up to the deception. Much of what happens in the churches today from the pulpit on down would make Satan blush. Or get discouraged and quit, because many church leaders are doing his work for him.
I recently attended a homecoming ceremony for a senior citizen. Needless to say, I was shocked when I found out the pastor’s eulogy was a reworded version of what he heard on TikTok. Why should I be surprised? I remember Juanita Bynum getting up on stage year after year as a “prophetess”. More like a “profit-ess” mess. Ironically, I listened closely to her over two dozen times. Each time, waiting for real prophecy to come through. Yes, people there’s a difference between those who prophesy and those who profit-lie.
I could go down the list even further, but there just isn’t time in this article. Still, you get the point. Or you should. Don’t question the pastor or the church leader? Give me a break. Accountability should start with the leadership. And many of you need to stop letting them off the hook while they are putting you on another hook.
So while so many people walk around and talks about being woke, I’m saying wake up. For real. Not just a cliché and not just because everybody wants to say they are “woke” when many of them are fast asleep and don’t even know it. Some of you want to say amen but you are afraid to. Some of you are mad at this article. Are you mad enough to wake up? Some of you don’t care. That is a big problem and some of you do not have a clue about what you just read. That is a shame. Wake up!
Staff Writer; Trevo Craw
A Free Thinker, who loves to talk about Politics, Religion, etc. Also, all about uplifting the Black Community even if it doesn’t fit your mindset. One may hit me up at; TrevoCraw@ThyBlackMan.com.