Several years ago, the cry went out from Christian sources that the Great falling away was in progress. Not only was it imminent, but our children and grandchildren were already turning away from the church.

And our minds many of us could be seen shaking our head and making that tisk-tisk sound. Those poor deceived people we said. Leaving the church, leaving the only one who could save them. How could someone be so deceived, we asked ourselves?

But I would argue that the great falling away is our fault. When you trace the history of the church through the years I’m not sure how we could come up with any other conclusion, but we do come by if honestly. It is possible, I suppose, to attribute this to the great deceiver himself, and we would be partial accurate, I mean the enemy is surely amazing at twisting the truth. But he has to have a truth to twist. He’s not a creator. He can’t just come up with things on his own. He has to have something to work with. Only humans were made in the image of God. We are wired to create and come up with things from nothing. But Satan, not so much. He is dependent upon other people’s material to weave his lies.

Tracing our lineage through biblical and non-biblical sources alike, we see how the truth has been twisted by different sects. All of us really. I’m not picking on one variety over another. I’m sure if we’re honest, we can all remember a time when we hurt a loved one in the name of spreading the gospel; offended someone at the grocery store wearing that cross around out neck, pushed to get that choice parking spot with our “Keep the Faith” bumper sticker or felt it was our duty to set the record straight and victoriously win that debate with that aethist.

Yes, the church has a long history of bloody conquest in the name of God.

We’ve given him a bad name, I’m afraid. We’re dismayed when we realize the people are deceived and can’t understand why people won’t listen to reason. Even those sitting under an amazing sermon walk out in disbelief. We ask ourselves, how can this be? Where did they go wrong? But the truth is, it is our fault. For all of our great religious educational institutions, we would be hard pressed to find one that genuinely teaches the heart of the Father.

We recount, with the utmost certainty, that Jesus died for the grossest of our sins, and I truly hope that’s the case because the church is responsible for turning away the masses. Her arrogance and self-righteousness has been some of the best fuel to fire the arguments of those that Jesus died for.

Through formal religion and personal bias we have created our own worst enemy. Formerly great secondary education institutions, founded and headed by some of the greatest Christian minds have not just been infiltrated but thoroughly brainwashed, from the to down, into believing that the church is at the root cause of all of our problems.

Each and every subject and our secondary institutions have texts recounting the massacreal deeds of the Christian church and the missionaries who served them. Higher education portrays us as stupid, arrogant, controlling, unreasonable bigots. From anthropology to biology to archeology, our children have found a sympathetic comforter to nurse their parental and church wounds perpetrated by a narcissistic church or self-righteous parents.

The depth of the reprogramming is astounding. We are blamed, and rightly so, for the destruction of innumerable cultures foreign to our own. Are concepts of creation have been twisted to reflect a culture of non-feeling, self-centeredly ignorant backward individuals who deny the scientific evidence right in front of their face. How blind and diluted do the people have to be to negate reality? We point that question at them, not realizing that we have three more fingers pointed back at ourselves.

I’ve watched people come to the end of their lives only to realize how much time and energy they’ve wasted. They find themselves alone because they’ve spent their entire life alienating those who would love them. All in the name of Jesus. I’ll say it again, we’ve given Christ a bad name. And before we say that that’s not us, that we’ve not been responsible, I would ask us to check our hearts. To get really honest before the Lord and ask, like David did, search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me…

It hurts to be this vulnerable before the Lord. We see things that we despise. We see those qualities in ourselves that we lash out at in others.

I’m not sure how we got to a place where we thought we had to be perfect. Like the works of Jesus on the cross somehow needed our assistance. Like we knew how to get from point a to point b. Oh, yes I do. It’s called original sin. The idea that we know better than God we understand so we can somehow take it from here. Wasn’t that the deceit that our ancestors swallowed at the tree? The idea that God was somehow holding out on us? Or didn’t know what he was doing? Or we could somehow improve with our newfound understanding?

At the tree we lost the only connection to reality and truth! That’s it, that’s the truth, that apart from Christ we know, and can do, nothing of value. Remember this one? “I am astounded that you are so quick to remove yourselves from…the Messiah’s grace, and turn to some other supposedly “Good News”. How is it that we have twisted the word of God, adding and subtracting those things that fit our narrative and make us feel good about ourselves?

God doesn’t somehow overlook these things because we’re “covered in the blood of Christ”. While we may justify “moving things around” to be “more relevant” because the warning in Deuteronomy 4 was “before Christ”, there is this small little nugget tucked away in Revelation 22:18…And if anyone takes anything away from the words in the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the Tree of Life and the holy city, as described in this book.

We’ve been entrusted to preserve and recount the TRUTH! To do so for selfish gain of money or power over others is sick and twisted. It smears the reputation of the one who sent us and any wanting to truly follow in His footsteps. We are without excuse.