Episode 14 exposed unforeseen problems brought by secularism, especially secular totalitarianism. Episode 15 answers the question “What can be done to overcome secularism and the evil results that follow from its widespread adoption?
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Transcript
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The Future of the Teachings of Jesus
4. A New Revelation of Jesus Is the Only Effective Answer to Secularism
The Need for New Teachers of Jesus’ Religion (Ep. 15)
Summary of the modern problem and its only effective answer. It has been observed that today’s Western world finds itself in the grasp of a withering secularism that seeks to erase true religion and the religious way of life from society and establish a totally secular totalitarian rule. Present day religion has proven powerless to stop this secular onslaught, which has been growing in power for over 300 years. Even many professed followers of Jesus live their lives as actual secularists, giving little or no thought to choosing and doing the Father’s will. Our only hope for overcoming the blighting of spiritual experience, disintegration, war, totalitarianism, and other major problems brought on by radical secularism is to adopt a new, more effective, and more powerful approach.
Our great hope, Jesus. The secret to vanquishing the extreme secularism that dominates Western society lies in Jesus. A revival of the unadulterated teachings of Jesus will provide the new, more powerful approach that we so desperately need to triumph over the modern secular threat. Religionists must embrace a more exclusive focus on Jesus’ actual teachings and his perfected life demonstrating those teachings. It is only through concentrating on Jesus and his original gospel of the kingdom that we may gain the power to overcome this modern secular menace.
The teachings of Jesus vs the teachings about Jesus. Jesus’ teachings are still alive but are submerged beneath the surface of modern Christian teachings. Most Christian leaders spend a majority of their time expounding on the teachings of Jesus’ early followers, especially Paul, and fail to give priority to the actual teachings of Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith.” (Heb. 12:2) The New Testament itself is a magnificent Christian document that contains many inspired teachings about Jesus, but it is only meagerly Jesusonian in its contents. Only four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are devoted to the Master’s life and teachings. The vast majority of its books are made up of letters by Paul and the teachings of Jesus’ apostles. These teachings do have great value, but it must be clearly realized that they are not the perfected teachings of Jesus; they are only teachings about Jesus.
Jesus’ teachings are supreme. The world must come to the conscious realization that Jesus’ teachings are supreme; they are perfect, above and beyond the human and fallible teachings of all other religious leaders. The supreme importance of Jesus’ teachings is recognized by the many red-letter Bibles that identify and emphasize Jesus’ words by putting them in red type. Unfortunately, Jesus’ perfect teachings are often confused and conflated with the teachings of his well-meaning followers. In this diluted form Jesus’ true teachings do not receive their proper recognition and lack the impact and power to transform our modern secularistic world.
What the world needs now–A new revelation of Jesus. Christianity has done a great service for this world but what is now most needed is Jesus. Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new revelation of Jesus’ life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation. We must answer the secular threat with a new revelation of Jesus that turns society to a more exclusive focus on learning and living his actual teachings. Jesus’ teachings must be recognized as supreme, and all other religious teachings must be judged by their compatibility and harmony with his original gospel message.
How can this new revelation of Jesus come about? How can this return to Jesus come about? How can the way of Jesus triumph over the powerful and entrenched secularism that presently dominates society and culture? There must come a restatement of Jesus’ actual life and teachings that makes clear the distinction between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings about Jesus. There must come spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. Their exclusive focus on his life and teachings will bring a revival of the actual religion of Jesus. These new teachers of Jesus’ religion will be less concerned with ecclesiastical authority, religious traditions, doctrines, creeds, special beliefs, and social and material problems, and will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men taught by the Master. It is only this new revelation of Jesus brought by these new teachers that has the power to overcome the radical secularism that threatens the destruction of Western civilization.
The new teacher-leaders will be spiritually advanced. Spirituality is the indicator of our closeness to God and the measure of our usefulness to our fellow man. These new teachers of Jesus’ religion will be spiritual men and women who have been “born of the spirit.” They will have chosen to follow the Father’s indwelling spirit and increasingly show forth the fruit of the spirit in their daily lives. They will not only have entered the kingdom as a child through faith, but they also will have grown up to spiritual adulthood. They will teach the way of Jesus not only by their exclusive focus on his actual teachings but, more importantly, by the lives they lead. Paul described this teaching method as “not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thess. 1:5) Just like Jesus the new teachers will be living demonstrations of the religion they teach. It is this combination of proclaiming Jesus’ actual teaching while also living those teachings that will inspire others to turn to Jesus in purity and wholeness. It is these spiritually advanced mortals teaching and demonstrating the way of Jesus who will possess the power to turn the world from Godless secularism and return to true religion, the religion of Jesus.
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