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HAT is modern Christianity? It is not that divine system of religion foretold by the prophets and established by Jesus of Nazareth.

     Modern Christianity is no more like the faith that Jesus taught than the paste diamond is like the real stone; but the sham is not really deceiving many, for the soul detects the false and cries out for the Christ of the New Testament, who was born in a manger, who went about doing good and died on the cross for sinful men.

      Modern Christianity is a faith which has been manufactured to suit unchanged hearts of a vast multitude in the present day. The modern church is the church of prophecy.--II Tim., 3:1-5.

      I am prepared to give my reasons for my position. God says, "Be ready always to give every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."

      The Christ of the Holy Scripture is not the Christ commonly worshipped today.

      Matthew, 1:21, says, "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." Jesus of Nazareth saves from sin.

      He is the soul's deliverer. He changes character; He also deals with the bodies of men; He feeds the hungry multitude; He heals the body of the afflicted and restores sight to the blind.

      Jesus of Nazareth has not and cannot change, for He is God. He also gives sure hope of heaven.

      Hear the Apostle Paul ring out the words: "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Thousands have said with him, "To live is Christ; to die is gain."

      Now contrast the modern popular Christ with Jesus of Nazareth. The modern Christ is not a person, but rather a myth. He is a sort of religious Julius Caesar, who did wonderful things ages ago, but who does not help man in his agony and bondage now.

      This popular Christ does not change character. I know this by what I have seen and know of myself. In my ministry I have known, just as every minister knows, that some were true--the true metal has the ring that even devils know--but I also knew that the great majority were still the slaves of sinful appetites and passions.

      They are making a profession of religion without having really gone to the Deliverer.

      Men and women can be members of the modern church and profess to be followers of this make-believe Christ and be just as tricky and impure as anybody. The great majority live just as their neighbors do.

      Jesus of Nazareth makes a man true to the heart's core. He does not attempt to pass us off for pure, but He enables us to be pure.

      Bright men now living in heathen lands have emphasized this thought recently very clearly. When the learned Japanese Buddhist, M. Harai, read his paper at the Congress of Religions in Chicago, he said, "My subject is, 'The Real Position of Japan Toward Christianity.'" I now quote from his words:

      "There are very few countries in the world so mis-understood as Japan. I am not a hypocrite and I will frankly state that I was the first in my country who ever publicly attacked Christianity--no, not real Christianity, but false Christianity.

      "There is no sectarianism in my country. Our people well know what abstract truth is in Christianity and we do not care about names. The consistency of doctrine and conduct is the point on which we put the greatest importance.

      "We, the forty millions of Japan, standing firmly and persistently upon the basis of international justice,

await still further manifestation as to the morality of Christianity."

      A very remarkable address was also made in that Congress by Herant M. Kiretchjian, of Constantinople. He represented the young men of the Orient. He said, "Brethren from the sun-rising of all lands, I stand here to represent the young men of the Orient; in particular, from the land of the Pyramids to the ice fields of Siberia, and in general from the shores of the Aegean to the waters of Japan,

      "We do not want any of your isms, nor any other system or doctrine, but we find that we are wanting in strength and power to reach our conception of that which is high and noble.

      "We find there is a power which diverts men and women from the path of rectitude and honor in which they know they should walk.

      "There is a power outside of man which draws him aside mightily and nothing on earth can resist it. If you bring a religion to the young men of the Orient it must come with a power that will balance--yea, counterbalance--the power of evil in the world.

      "We want God; we want the spirit of God. We believe in God, not the god of protoplasms, that hides between molecules of matter, but God whose children we are.

      "Is chivalry dead? Has all conception of a high and noble life, of sterling integrity, departed from the hearts of men that we cannot aspire to knighthood and princeship in the courts of our God? What we want to do is to be like Him."

      This make-believe Christianity does-not change character. Let me tell you what the street car men say, and I believe them. They say they would rather haul theater people than church people, because many of the people who ride to church on the cars on the Sabbath are more full of tricks. They have to be punched for their nickels though they are carrying their Bibles, and if the car does not stop exactly at the right spot the forced Sunday toiler is reported in many cases.

      You may be a follower of the sham Christ and not even be truthful. Later years it is coming on me with awful force that a vow taken at the altar of God is binding on the soul.

      Well, do you know that when I made up my mind years ago that I would keep the Methodist discipline, that church in this part of the country, through her ministers and members, made fun of me? Read those rules and ask yourself who keeps them, or attempts to do so, unless it be some big fool like myself.

      But I tell you God will hold men to the vows they make to Him. He says it is better not to vow than to vow and not pay. He desires truth in the inward parts.

      This sham Christ gives no peace or joy and makes sport of the idea that Jesus of Nazareth can do anything for the body. They say He quit the work of healing long ago.

      Well, if He has, He is a sham, for He is God and changes not.

      Jesus says (John, 14:12), "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth in Me, the works that l do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father."

      Skeptics and infidels say, "We do not see these transformations of character, nor the sick healed. We want to see these things." I do not blame them for demanding these demonstrations. Man is so made up that he cannot believe without evidence.

      These great stories of what Jesus did long ago will not be credited much longer if His people are not examples of divine work.

      This false Christ gives no substantial hope of heaven. A multitude will fail in the final examination before the throne.

      Again we notice the great difference between the doctrines taught by modern Christianity and those taught by Jesus Christ.

      There were two doctrines taught by Jesus which are very little emphasized by the church of today.

     He taught that in order to enter heaven we must have pure hearts and live holy lives. Is this all-important truth much insisted upon today?

      I had been in the ministry seven years before I could define holiness. My teachers in the Gospel allowed me to be ignorant of this great essential truth, and they even cautioned me against seeking a clean heart.

      But when my soul-hunger drove me to God He showed me the meaning of those words, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Oh, I came to see the deep meaning of the "straight gate and narrow way."

      Popular Christianity does not preach holiness, but many ministers openly oppose it and say the experience cannot be lived on earth. But the Bible says, "Without holiness no man shall see God."

      The other doctrine He spoke in tones of love and yet awful warning was that sin would surely bring its fearful punishments. He did not pose as an artist, yet He painted some pictures of hell that no guilty soul can look at without a shudder.

      The modern church, in many instances, has ceased to preach this awful truth until hell is breaking out all about us.

      Notice, too, the difference between the Bible preacher and those of today. They left all to follow Christ, but the minister now finds all by following the Lord.

      Preaching is a paying business. In other words, it is a snap. Many ministers now are the most successful business men. They own houses and lands and loan money at exorbitant rates of interest.

      I borrowed money from one minister in this city and for several years paid him 10 per cent in hopes that I might save my home for my family, while a Catholic coachman charged me only 6 per cent.

      Paul made tents for his bread, but many modern preachers are modern Shylocks, who will have their money or their pound of flesh.

      Last winter I needed nearly $300.00 to relieve several cases of distress. I sat down and thought of all the men I knew who would be the most willing to let me have it.

      Who do you suppose I went to--the minister? No. A gambler, one of my neighbors, whom I have known for ten years, who knows he is wicked and says so, but who, thank God, is neither a Pharisee nor a hypocrite. That man gave me money without security.

      That gambler will not be saved unless he washes his hands and makes a bee line for heaven, but I can tell you some of the modern preachers will have to hustle, too.

      I make the charge, and I can prove it, that many ministers of today are greedy for place and for gold. They use the tricks of the politician to secure the best places. I know whereof I speak, and if necessary I can give names and facts.

      The "divine call" has come to be the loudest where the salary is the largest. The modern church, in order to pay the high salary of the minister, has, in many instances, made merchandise of the house of God, selling the seats to the highest bidder.

      This is business--it is worldly shrewdness--but the name of Christ has no place here. In the mad scramble for money and place the ragged poor have been turned from the places of worship.

      But perhaps their loss is small, for no man ever yet preached Christ who did not preach Him for Christ's sake.

      Edward Irving said: "The missionary after the apostolic school is a man without a purse, without scrip, without a change of raiment, without a staff, without the care of making friends or keeping them, without the hope or desire of worldly goods or fear of worldly loss, without the care of life, without the fear of death; of no rank, of no country, of no condition. A man of one thought the Gospel of Christ. A man of one purpose--the glory of God. A fool and content to be reckoned a fool for

Christ; a madman and content to be reckoned so for Christ."

      This is a true picture of the real minister of Jesus. The modern machine-made thing looks very different.

      God's ministers suffered persecution. The feet of Jeremiah sunk in the mire; Daniel was thrown to the wild beasts; John the Baptist was beheaded, and most of the apostles suffered martyrdom. Read the record: II Cor., 6:5; II Cor., 11:23-24.

      Jesus said, "They who will live Godly in this present world shall suffer persecutions."

      The Lord's ministers have an agony for souls (Exodus, 32:32; Romans, 9:3; II Cor, 5:11). Modern Christianity may get in agony over progressive euchre, or high-five, or a lawn social, but I have never seen one of our churches spend a night in agonizing, prevailing prayer over the souls dropping into hell all about us.

      Within the past four years, since I have come to see these things, I have been cautioned by my ministerial friends in this city to take it cool, not to agonize over souls. They say, "Better go away and take a good church and get a fine salary." And more than once, under their advice, I have almost stumbled and tottered to my fall. But I cannot go back--if I do it will be at the peril of my soul.

      There is something awfully wrong in the modern church and ministry. If the birth-pains do not come on the mother the child cannot be born.

      Our ministers are stiff and dignified, but I believe Jesus could have been approached anywhere. Brethren, let us be dignified when we are dead, not when broken hearts need binding up.

      Our ministry preaches in the churches; the followers of the lowly Nazarene went everywhere preaching the word.

      The apostles had the Holy Ghost, having received

him in the upper chamber after a ten days' prayer meeting. Now too often the word is without life and power and the so-called man of God has not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.

      God Almighty, send the tongue of fire on the ministry, burning up selfishness and church pride and making soldiers instead of cowards of Thy workmen. For God says, "Cursed is he that holdeth back his sword from blood."

      In conclusion, I say modern Christianity is a fraud. If we wish to be useful in time and saved in eternity, we must be Bible Christians. We must go by the Book through the door of the new birth and a holy walk with God. It is a costly thing to follow Jesus; it will take all you have. Don't lie! Don't be a hypocrite! None but the pure in heart shall see God.

© 2003 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller.