The Sin of All Earthly Theology (Edited by ChatGPT)

  

The real and core theology of the true faithful of the Lord Jesus Christ — of those who are born again in spirit and grow into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ both in person and as the assembly of the faithful — is not complicated. In essence, it is very simple. There are peripheral issues that we may fail to understand or agree upon, but the core is simple.

 

The reason we cannot see this simple truth is because we are confused beings who want to see our own delusion in the Bible — and often, we find it. Self-affirmation is our theological sin. The Bible, which affirms Jesus, is twisted to affirm our delusions, and we turn those delusions into theology. If you read the Bible with the eyes of a child, you will see Jesus. But we want to see ourselves, so we distort the truth, creating a god of our own desire and delusion. Our theology does not make us faithful according to God’s standard — it creates a god shaped by our confusion, sin, and self-interest.

 

Our theological starting point is simple: we are sinners, the devil is sin, and God is holy, perfect, almighty, and all-knowing. Heaven belongs to God, hell is the place of judgment prepared for the devil, and we are in the middle — either moving down to hell or moving up to heaven. The devil does not rule hell; he will be judged there by God. Our end is heaven, and the image of heaven is Jesus Christ. We must look like Jesus and grow toward Jesus in essence. We know our starting point (the fall) and our end point (glory with the life of God, as revealed in the teaching and life of the Lord Jesus Christ). The path between is Jesus Himself. We follow Jesus to reach God and to be, as far as humanly possible, His likeness.

 

With this fact, our theology should not affirm us, but Jesus. We are “the becoming” — justified to be called saints but needing to become saints in essence through an eternal process of spiritual growth — moving toward “the Being”: the sinless, perfect God known as the Lord Jesus Christ, the mirror image of the heavenly Father. Our theology should be about the perfection of the Being, but we want our imperfection to be the perfection of God. We want our darkness to be called God’s light. So we twist the light of God until our darkness becomes our light, and all the light in us turns out to be nothing but darkness.

 

When Jesus said, “Turn the other cheek,” He meant turn the other cheek. When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” He meant love your enemies. When Jesus said, “Pray for those who persecute you, feed those who seek to harm you, and forgive those who sin against you,” He meant that perfection and holiness consist in doing exactly those things. God is like that — so be like God. That is truth. That is true theology.

 

But the Roman Catholics came to hunt us, and we Protestants had nations that could protect us. To give your neck into the hands of the enemy, by faith, demands great faith — so we invented a theology to justify ourselves as “warrior faithful,” of course for the “good fight of God.” We reasoned that defensive war was justified, pointing to Jesus saying “buy swords,” and in the end we justified holy wars with the Bible. Jesus said, “Turn the other cheek,” but we kill those who look at us the wrong way — just like the children of Cain — and then we have theology to back it up. This is our delusion, our confusion, our faithlessness painted on the face of Jesus to affirm us rather than God. This is our sin, and it is the sin of all human theology.

 

We have marriage problems; marriage feels like hell and brings nothing but misery, so we end in divorce. But Jesus said that what God has joined together, no man should separate, and He clearly declared that He hates divorce. That is truth and perfection because it is the word of God. Yet we invent theology to justify divorce, find verses to back it up, teach our folly, and encourage others to divorce when things are “not right.” Why? Because we want to affirm our imperfection rather than the perfection of God.

Or consider our wealth. Countless faithful and countless faithless live in poverty and misery while we indulge in comfort, luxury, and affluence. Even those of us who are “not rich” but have our daily bread — saving for a house while our brothers and sisters starve — are guilty. Jesus would tell us to take our money, abandon the building project, and solve their need. But instead, we want a second house for our children while others cannot afford a shanty for a family of six. Is that love? No — we lack faith. We trust our bank accounts more than Jesus for our daily bread. We love comfort. So we create the prosperity gospel — or its hangover. Some preach wealth as the gospel; others, after vomiting up that poison, still hold on to its residue, saying, “We don’t preach prosperity, but God doesn’t promote poverty.”

 

The right theology is this: look down on money and look up to heaven. Whether in poverty or wealth, what matters is that God is with us. Whether God calls us to die on a cross in poverty or to build a kingdom for Him, what matters is that God is with us. Wealth is irrelevant; as long as we have food and clothing, we can endure any poverty. In general, any theology about “me” rather than “us” is a lie — because Jesus was never about Himself but about us.

 

Do I live by such perfection? Not even close. Many who preach wrong theology are more disciplined than I am. But I do not teach myself — I teach Jesus. He is perfect; we are not. My theology does not affirm me; it affirms Jesus. My choices are mistakes and failures that I must correct — but the One I proclaim is Jesus. My goal is to declare Him and His ways as perfection, so that we know the direction in which we must grow. If we were perfect, we would fully imitate Jesus in life — but until we are, we must grow toward Him.

 

If I divorce, it is not because God accepts it, but because I am weak, and I hope He understands my weakness. I do not preach divorce, even if I fail. If I build a house while others starve, it is not because I am justified, but because I fail — and I hope God will give me space to build basic shelter for myself. I am still flesh and blood, crucified with Christ yet not fully dead to self — that is why I am not selling all I have to gain the treasure of heaven, Jesus Christ. If I wage war to protect myself, it is because I lack spiritual maturity to turn the other cheek. Any other explanation, any theology that justifies it, is a lie.

 

Many will respond, “We are saved by grace,” to counter this. Yes — but that is to live by the Spirit, not the flesh. And I cannot keep re-teaching kindergarten truths when we should be speaking of elementary matters of spiritual maturity.

 

All evil theology comes from wanting the Bible to reflect our image when it can only reflect Jesus. So we create a caricature of our stupidity and call it theology. But when the foundation of faith is our sand, the inevitable end is the collapse of that faith and the rise of atheism.

 

That is why, as we run to shape our faith in the image of the world — a faith of war, greed, capitalism (and sometimes socialism, communism, nationalism, and every other “ism”), inequality, injustice, hate, and hypocrisy — people run to the world faster, to outcompete us in the way of the flesh. Or they turn to dead religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, which mix a little of God with the poison of making man a god unto himself — just as the devil tempted Eve in Paradise. And if people look at those dead things and think they are better than us, when in truth they are garbage before God — then we must truly be dead. So let us choose life — Jesus — over death, which is our theology.