Latest / Clear Path Christianity / What REAL Christianity FEELS Like || CPC Podcast Ep. 13

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What REAL Christianity FEELS Like || CPC Podcast Ep. 13 · Clear Path Christianity

• Cole Crone: It looks nicer, yeah. You got a good ombi on the phone you said it's currently recording out. Okay. Let me know when I'm about a minute, maybe. Testing, testing. We did a test recording and the audio was good. Right? Producer? Producer? We did a test recording and the audio was good. Okay. Okay. Is there there's a way to tell if we're pinging on there? Yeah, well it's yeah, it's going like that. It's pinging though. Yeah, it lights up every time you're pinging. If you pause, yeah, purple goes away. And keep talking and it's back to okay, it's going. All right. I'm gonna go ahead and try to get started. Okay. So so I grew up in a cult that was masquerading as true Christianity. I'm using air quotes to describe true Christianity, because that's laughable if you know anything about my background. So w I thought that I was one of a small number of real followers of Christ. All all my life, thirty-two plus years of my life. That was the that was my understanding of the world. However, when I looked inside and and and actually gauged my real experience, I was utterly miserable, lost, hopeless. my life felt ⁓ virtually meaningless. ⁓ and I I could go on and on and on and on, trapped in all types of behaviors that I didn't want, that I couldn't overcome, ⁓ community that wasn't interested in building me up, but was rather waiting for me to fail, that sort of thing. Now, it was only once I discovered what Christianity was meant to be, and and and what it was meant to feel like that I realized how significant the difference really was, right? ⁓ you you don't know how you don't know how good it can feel. To be healthy if you've never been healthy, right? So in this episode, I'm going to share some of the stark contrasts between my cult experience and my experience with biblical historical Christianity. So far so good? Yeah. So good. Okay. Get your coughs out. So the first major contrast that we're gonna be looking at is w what I'm calling ⁓ information control versus free inquiry. Counterfeit systems, ⁓ counterfeit religious systems in particular, like the one that I grew up in, they will rely on controlling the flow of information. They will demand thought conformity. They will centralize authority. In in my case, growing up, it was it was around. The the community's traditions. And the reason that they do this is because high control groups need these things to be in place. They're not optional. That's why you see them universally being the case. It's the only way the system survives. So so growing up, for example, growing up, ⁓ many of us were told that it was the despite the fact that we were being told that we were Christians and that this was a legitimate church, maybe. the only legitimate church, we were also told that it was ill advised to study the Bible. You and and I and us regular lay people, we're not qualified to read and understand and interpret and apply the Bible. Now, lucky for us, at least where I grew up, quote some quote unquote apostles had done that, you know, twenty plus years before I was even born. And so there was no need for us to th to look into the information ourselves to come to conclusions on our own. The the the truth was extracted, distilled, and bestowed upon us such that we didn't actually need to do any individual exploration at all. Now that's fine if you have access to outside sources that contest the infallible ⁓ the the infallible teachings of your particular group. But we couldn't because we were discouraged from consulting outside sources. We weren't allowed to look at what the Christians down the road believed or what that particular faith tradition taught or any of those things. We were just simply asked to trust the information that had been given blindly if necessary. Now again, you don't have any as I've said in previous episodes, we didn't have any way to actually historically verify the claims of our particular group. That it was that was impossible. There was no type of ⁓ documentation or anything like that that one could look to to discern whether or not so it it was just word of mouth, generation to generation. And so We were asked to simply trust in what had been handed down. Now, that is what I thought Christianity was supposed to be until I actually became a Christian and actually experienced what real Christianity actually looks like. Now, over here, what really changed are things like I was encouraged to seek truth. Myself, I I was encouraged to ask questions about the truth claims of the faith. I was never asked to simply trust that some other person long dead had discovered the truth, and all I needed to do was just trust that person, right? Absent any real verifiable, falsifiable evidence. So when you go from when you go from never ask questions, never ask those questions. Every group has those questions. High control groups only survive when there are those questions, right? The ones that you're never supposed to ask, but that everyone is asking and thinking all the time. Those questions. When you go from don't ask too many questions to we're happy for you to ask. All of the questions that you have, and we're going to do our best to answer those questions. ⁓ I I discovered a long tradition dating back 2000 plus years of individuals who were invited to weigh evidence, who were not asked to simply believe the preacher, to believe the evangelist, to believe the apostle. But we're instead pointed to the evidence. Look look through the book of Acts, for example. Notice that one of the things that Paul always uses are points of evidence. ⁓ take the resurrection, for example. Paul will commonly say that the reason that we know that Jesus was who he said he he was is because he was raised from the dead. Now, if God expected us to just believe that Jesus was who he said he was, he wouldn't have given us such an obvious proof. Right? And so that is the type of ⁓ faith system that I found myself in, in contrast to what I had been raised thinking was ⁓ was necessary. Because at in the final analysis, the the God of Christianity is not afraid of my questions, is not afraid of your questions, your investigation, your doubts, your the things that keep you up at night, right? Because everybody wants to live in truth. And when you can actually explore that truth for yourself, it is is a very freeing experience. So that's the very f that's the first so that's the first contrast that I wanna look at in this episode. Now, the second piece of this that I want to highlight is what I'm calling conspiracy versus continuity. Now, my faith tradition growing up ⁓ sold itself from the beginning as being something new. It it it marketed itself as something that was new. The founders of my movement. actually said that they were that they were preaching a new gospel, that they had a new gospel. Now, if you're familiar at all with the Bible or the even just the writings of the Apostle Paul, you know that that is impossible. That's the very thing that he's that he blows up the Galatians about, is, is that they had, they had, they had taken up, they had believed a a different gospel, which Paul, of course, says is no gospel at all. There's only one message that is good news. ⁓ good news to the caliber that the gospel is good news anyway. But but I didn't I didn't know that growing up. So I was like, ⁓ cool, this this new thing. That's awesome. I'm part of this like new thing, right? A truth had been lost and needed to be rediscovered. And lucky for me, I happened to have been born in the group that had the guys who had rediscovered that truth. Praise the Lord, right? So there they're the the un whether whether this teaching was explicit or not The their version of church history was ⁓ there was the apostolic age and then there's this eighteen year, eighteen hundred year gap where there there isn't a real Christian church. And then this apostolic age returns when these people from the Midwest ⁓ get a new gospel. This this was the story that that was that was told. Again, whether ⁓ explicitly stated or just implicitly stated, this is what it was. Our group had rediscovered something that was lost. Now, again, this is not something that could be historically ⁓ established. There there was no documentation. Of, well, there is no documentation of an apostolic age, a ⁓ major divergence from the apostolic teaching, and then you have to, you need a lot of evidence to establish the claim of something having been lost and then subsequently restored. So again, this is something that was the expectation was that. We would simply trust this blindly. Now, everybody and their mom had a story about our apostles being able to do this, that, or the next thing. But you gotta remember, the people who had lived during this apostolic age ⁓ were universally over the age of 70, and ⁓ frankly weren't making a ton of sense. in just their day-to-day lives, and yet we were supposed to trust their memories ⁓ eternally. That was the expectation. Because there were there was no documentation of either a falling away, and there was no document so there's no documentation for a necessary restoration. And yet here we are proposing a restoration that Also isn't documented. So your entire worldview is built on hearsay. And it and it's built on this idea that there was some kind of conspiracy, either an external conspiracy, someone directly after the apostles, there was a conspiracy to corrupt truth. And then that conspiracy continued to be victorious for 1800 and some odd years until it was rediscovered. Or, come to find out, there there's an internal conspiracy. And we're gonna get a little bit into how internal conspiracies work in a subsequent episode. But the major thing that changed for me is being able to see Christianity for what it is, and that is a a two thousand year ⁓ continuous tradition. From the apostles to Christians today. This this unbroken thread that goes from one end of the Christian history to the other end of Christian history. And so ⁓ I I I found myself being invited into this ⁓ this family that is not that is not bound by spatiotemporal boundaries at all. It is it is it is spatiotemporally unbounded, right? ⁓ like Justin Martyr and Irenaeus and Origen, if you if you believe ⁓ Origen Let's just it'll be fine. Let's just find Yeah, let's just go without it. Whatever. A little change in the video. That's fine, whatever. I noticed that. Yeah, well I don't care. It's what it is. Okay. So so Justin Martyr and Irenaeus and Origen, maybe? I know there's kind of some debate about him. ⁓ Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, the list goes on and on and on and on and on. These great thinkers and figures are just as much My brothers in Christ as the people that I go to church with every Sunday. Right? We are part of this bigger story that I, as I said, has been continuously told for two thousand years. And so what was what was what was best about that is I as I realized that the the Christian story is way bigger and more grand and and ⁓ more diverse and and ⁓ more sprawling than I ever could have imagined it was. I I I'm I'm getting to be a part of something that is transcendent for the first time in my life. ⁓ I I didn't I didn't have to put up walls. I I could I could instead make connections. You know, it's like ⁓ it's like Black Panther says, ⁓ a wise man what does he say? What does Black Panther say? Cut that. Yeah. He says something to the effect of ⁓ a wise man builds bridges. ⁓ whatever. Cut that. So so I didn't I didn't have to I didn't have to put up boundaries between me and that group or or me and and and this particular group. I didn't have to ⁓ I didn't have to say, yeah, they were perfectly fine until about ⁓ you know, three eighty. And but everybody else ⁓ kinda lost. And then where do I pick it up again? I don't know, it's just it's kinda muddy. No, I I I could I could I could literally trace my heritage going all the way back to the apostles to now. And I could I could see ⁓ is there disagreement? Sure. But they're overwhelmingly agreeing on the most important and key doctrines. And so this this being invited into this bigger story was massive for me. And so that's the second point. The third thing I want to look at is what I'm calling community identity versus Christian identity. Now, before I left the group that I came up in. ⁓ I I was subject to an insane amount of social pressure. looking a certain way, acting a certain way, having a particular set of interests, ⁓ fitting in at all costs, which was one thing when it was just me, another thing altogether when it's now ⁓ my I'm bringing up children in this world. Where fitting in is the most important thing that one can endeavor to do. So there's the those it the crazy social pressures. ⁓ the the personal identity needing to conform to a community approved identity was was enormous. I I was never an individual, ever. I was only ever a piece of a puzzle. I was only ever one cog in a a a relatively simple but but s but multi mechanical sort of structure. ⁓ I was I was never I was never an individual. Now these systems need to stifle individuality. ⁓ if if everyone looks the same, acts the same, they will behave the same, right, think the same ways, right? All of these things lead to one another. If you can control something as mundane as the way a person dresses, then you can control what a person thinks. Now, ⁓ for for many people, maybe that doesn't seem like that big of a deal. And it and it wasn't that big of a deal to me until I experienced something that was far better than that when I actually became a part of the Christian church. ⁓ rather than being just one small piece of ⁓ of a of a machine. I I got I became s an a a unique individual who had a unique role to play in a grander narrative, right? Not just something that goes back for two thousand years, like in the last point, but something that was global. Something that was that was happening that's happening everywhere, everywhere the gospel is touching. I'm I now have a part to play in that, right? I was invited to be a part of something that was ⁓ so so beyond myself, right? But still allowed me to be me. ⁓ I don't have to do every seriously, Olive. So get up and leave the room. Don't cough again. Okay. Where did I leave off? So I I was I was I was invited to be a part of something that was that's that was beyond myself, but but I was still me. I I was I was encouraged to be me. I was encouraged to build on the things that the Lord had given me, the unique way that I had been made, the unique calling that I had. So so there's this there's this there's this grand narrative that's being told. not only throughout time, but also throughout space. And and and I was made to be a part of that. This is this is this is a this is a mind-boggling ⁓ reality for me. So I I can I can I can bring my individuality to the equation and there are people who have been uniquely equipped by the Lord to help me to find out what that is. What is that individual contribution that I am meant to make to this greater thing? How how have how have I been uniquely equipped to bless others? And I had never I had never thought about that one time in my life. I I no longer had to defend ⁓ a man-made system of arbitrary rules because there was there was an actual purpose in following Christ and identifying with who I really am in him. As a member of his ⁓ as this as this body that is that is not spatiotemporally located. So you get to be a part of this this ⁓ this massive thing, this massive movement that has been taking place for 2,000 years. So that's the that's the third thing. The the the f the the the fourth point is definitely the most ⁓ emotional. People who know me know that I'm not generally somebody who's going to talk about how things feel. ⁓ and and yet this is definitely a spot where ⁓ Christianity on a day to day basis feels different. And that is what I'm calling perpetual fear versus eternal security. Now, before when I was in the perpetual fear category, ⁓ my life was marked by ⁓ fear that I would be deceived into believing lies, right? ⁓ the devil or one of his minions would corrupt my mind and prevent me from seeing what was true. When you when you live in a place where, you know, the the the devil is under every rock and behind every corner and you know, I mean he's he's he's at least as omnipresent as God is, you're you're you're you're kind of living in that spot where you you get to the point where you don't really trust anything except for the thing that you've been told you can trust, right? That you can't verify or right. So but anyway, you're You're you're constantly living in fear that you're going to be deceived. You have this ⁓ complete and total theological instability, right? You want to know the truth on the one hand, but you have nowhere to find the truth on the other. And so you're you're constantly untethered. And you're it's imp it's impossible to build a worldview, something something that you actually something that you can actually live into in it in your day-to-day life without facts. You need truth. And ⁓ if you have no place to find that, then you are constantly, my third point, living in spiritual anxiety, right? You don't you don't have an actual relationship with God. You have no knowledge about how one becomes reconciled to God and so you have no hope for the future. And this is definitely the area where there has been the most change for me. ⁓ God became at the same time a ⁓ a loving and knowable father. He became a great historical hero who who existed in time and space, and an inner presence. That was with me intimately in my inner being everywhere I went and was and was helping me to to see truth. That's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's Trinitarian. But God became those things rather than merely an authority just waiting to judge everything that I did. And in all the ways that I was coming up short. So so things like grace, mercy, ⁓ peace, hope, forgiveness, and and most importantly, real personal healing became real, tangible, experiential in a way that it was never before. And so these were these were these were actual. tangible realities, not just ⁓ theological fantasies. This this was not about ⁓ this was not about my personal subjective experience, ⁓ because I could actually see real objective change in in my life as I overcame this anxiety, that fear, ⁓ this sin issue, this ⁓ Whatever, right? Whatever it was, I was able to face it and overcome it. And to me, that turned my subjective feeling experience into objective reality. So I I realized that I had spent years trying to survive God instead of learning how to know God. And that shift. was significant. So when when I look back at my old life, I see a few very important things. ⁓ let me say that again. Cut that. So when I look back at my life, I see something that's very important. I wasn't just trapped in a system that had bad theology. I was trapped. I was trapped in a fundamentally distorted way of relating to God and to other people. Everything in my life revolved around fear, conformity, suspicion, survival. But when I when I moved from a a counterfeit Christianity to a biblical historical Christianity, I began to feel something completely different. Again, not because the switch removed every question. I still have lots of questions. ⁓ not because other Christians ⁓ you know miraculously became ⁓ perfect partners to walk through this life with. I'm far from perfect. Not because life suddenly got easier, because in a lot of ways it got harder. But the the version of Christianity that I found was different than what I was raised believing, in and in every way better than than than the one I was raised believing. I found that Christianity had I found a Christianity that could withstand scrutiny. ⁓ a Christianity that was rooted in history. Rather than conspiracy. ⁓ A Christianity that was centered on Christ rather than on just total control. A Christianity that invited me to actually know the true God rather than merely fear a caricature of God. So if you're listening to this and your religious system sounds more like what I left than what I found, I want to encourage you. Don't give up on Jesus just because somebody distorted him. Right? Rather, my advice would be to test everything, to ask hard questions. And to pursue truth fearlessly. Because the the truth does not fear investigation. Right? There there's no there's no there should be no fear in truth seeking. The real Christ does not need to hide behind ⁓ manipulation or conspiracy or control. Now, I can't promise that following Christ will make you comfortable. But what I can say is that in in in that endeavor, in in the endeavor to find Christ, I've I found truth, I found freedom, I found healing and humility and a relationship with my creator. And so my hope is that every one of you can find those things too. Thoughts?