We’ve all heard it–THE QUESTION. The query often pondered by a self-professed Chrisitan (the questioner) concerning the Christianness of another self-professed Christian (the questionee) is: “If he/she were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict him/her.” Three facts are generic to this question. The questioner is positive that he/she is a Christian; the questioner is equally positive that the questionee is not a Christian; the questioner uses his/her church’s “truths” as the standard of judgment. In other words, another’s Christianess is determined by the doctrines of the religious organization to which the evaluator belongs. And in that there are literally hundreds of churches, faiths, denominations, non-denominations, sects, cults, etc., there are therefore hundreds of different standards by which one’s Christianess, or in some cases his/her degree of Christianess, can be determined.

The scenario described above takes place on a continuous basis millions of times each day as each member of each religious organization consciously (during church services) or subconsciously (at all other times) evaluates him/herself relative to people in other churches, denominations, faiths, etc. The evaluation process is as predictable as sunrise–the evaluator is always a real Christian; the evaluee is always a fake.

Satan has programmed church people to play the evaluation game in order for him to maintain the status quo throughout his church system (Catholicism/Protestantism). If the aforementioned evaluation process should come to an end, all God-seekers would judge themselves and others according to one, singular standard–the same standard by which God will evaluate each person who has ever lived–the Holy Bible (Jn. 12:48). If that happened there would in fact be only “… one body, one Spirit …, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God ….” (Eph. 4:4-6). In the previous three verses God commands us to walk the walk laid out for us in His One-Way-Only Standard, thereby keeping the church unity (oneness) He commands us to keep. Under no circumstances will the Institutional Church allow that to happen. The Lord, knowing that religious man would reject His strict code of conduct in favor of a more self-directed, user-friendly modus operandi, warned His saints in 2 Corinthians 10:12 about such religionists who would “… commend themselves, … measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves.” The advantage of using this process of self-evaluation is that it eliminates any possibility of being wrong. God commands the exact opposite, stating that we must evaluate ourselves by His Word only and, if found to be wanting, to adopt His Way.

But Satan-inspired man refuses to compare himself to God’s Word. He also rejects God’s characterization of himself. Churchman refuses to abandon his program of self-determination and self-evaluation. The thought of obeying God’s written Word is repulsive to him in that he is already saved. The fix is in, so why go to the trouble?

The evaluation process conducted by the Institutional Church explains why Satan’s church system numbers its parishioners in the billions while God’s church numbers only in the thousands, exactly as He prophesied would be the case (Mat. 7:13,14).

Each Sunday morning the Institutional Church’s my-way-not-God’s-way mindset produces a highly predictable religious phenomenon involving millions of participants. Watching it all transpire would be highly entertaining if it were not so deadly. Here is how the “Vehicular Church Scramble” plays out. Family A leaves home and makes their way to Church A which is located across town where Family B lives. At the same time, Family B heads out to Church B which is located across town where Family A lives. While this is taking place, Families C,D,E,F,G,H … ad infinitum are each on their way to their respective churches. While en route to the “true” church, each family passes various “false” churches that “they” attend. While heading toward the “true” church they meet numbers of “them” who are headed out to their “true” church. All travelers pass by numerous “false” churches on their way to the one “true” church. A couple of hours later the process is reversed. This game of “musical churches” is repeated each Sunday evening and Wednesday evening. If God’s Word is true–that He recognizes only one church–then the only people who benefit from the thrice-per-week car derby are the owners of gasoline stations.

What would be the spiritual impact on the individuals involved in the “true church,” “false church,” “us,” “them” fiasco if people simply attended the church nearest their home? Outside of saving some fuel, very little would change. Though the trappings in which the activities would take place would be somewhat different, and the verbiage they would hear would differ slightly, each parishioner would nevertheless receive whatever was necessary to scratch his/her ears and give him/her a warm, fuzzy feeling (Gal. 1:6-9). The wiley Satan leaves nothing to chance. To be continued. L.J.