Before I started seriously working on the 21st Century New Testament, I became aware of more and more things that American churches do that are often harmful for God’s kingdom. As the list of such items grew, I began posting a series of imaginary blogs that Satan might have written as he planned to get Christians to work against God. In all, I wrote thirty-six blog posts for Satan. This is a somewhat light-hearted look at the things we as Christians are doing wrong (though the reality is something Christians need to take very seriously). This website presently has twenty-nine of those articles. In fact, the thirty-six I posted aren’t the only things we’re getting wrong.
The 21st Century New Testament is a tool to help Christians attack these problems.
Post Twenty-One
Note to myself: I don’t want Christians to realize the importance of the things they suffer in this world as lessons to teach them how terrible their rebellion against God really is. I don’t want them to see how suffering helps them prepare for living in heaven where they will see what sin did to this world and where they will never, in all eternity, have any inclination to go back into rebellion. I don’t want them to see that God could never trust them in heaven without learning this lesson. (Think about it!)
Post Twenty-Two
Note to myself: I need to encourage Christians in believing that their real purpose on earth is to bring glory to God. This one sounds so innocent, and it is so evil! They just don’t realize what they imply when they say this, but even if others can’t put it into words, they’ll sense the implication. This implies that God created billions of people simply to get some of them to tell him and others how great he is. That makes God look like a narcissist in love with himself, a sycophant who wants to surround himself with “Yes-people.” It also implies that God must have a raging inferiority complex. It encourages non-Christians (my people) to ask, “Why should I want to worship or give glory to such an egotistical God?” I don’t want these people to see that what God really wants from them is for them to learn to serve him faithfully so they’ll be ready for the truly serious and exciting tasks God has planned for them in eternity. I don’t want them to recognize that this is another expression of God’s love, intended to make their experience of eternity everything it could be. And I certainly don’t want them to see that in focusing on praising God they’re actually increasing the risk that they won’t be prepared for heaven–and that therefore they won’t get to heaven. (Think about it!)
Post Twenty-Three
Note to myself: I want to encourage Christians to study one particular book in the Bible: Revelation. I would especially encourage them to also spend much time in studying Ezekiel and Daniel. I don’t want them to pay attention to what Jesus said about God keeping the details of end times to himself. I don’t want them to understand how this takes their focus off of what God has commanded them to do (Christian love) and keeps it on something about which they can do absolutely nothing. I don’t want them to recognize that it’s God’s intent to have the end come as a surprise to everyone. It’s so much better for them to spend long hours debating things that don’t really matter. That will at least keep them from harming my plans and my work. (Think about it!)
Post Twenty-Four
Note to myself: I want Christians to focus on themselves–their appearance, their clothing, their jewelry, and so on. The more I can get them to focus on themselves, the less they can focus on God and on doing his will. I especially want to encourage them to wear “Christian” jewelry and think of that as doing something “Christian” or as showing how “Christian” they really are. I want Christians to focus on anything but doing God’s will! (Think about it!)
Post Twenty-Five
Note to myself: Whenever the Bible is read in a Christian group, I want the leader to encourage those present to read along in their own Bibles. This will cause people to be distracted from the message, first because many of them will still be looking for the passage while it’s being read; second because those who have found the passage will be too focused on reading to pay close attention to the content; and third because many will have different translations creating a distraction in trying to match what they’re reading to what’s being read out loud. I also want the person reading the passage out loud to read it as if it were words with no meaning. I definitely don’t want people to hear the message and understand it clearly! (Think about it!)
Post Twenty-Six
Note to myself: I want Christian gatherings to focus more and more on using music that is relatively recently composed and to continually change the music as new songs are composed. That way, most people present are likely to be unfamiliar with the music, so they’ll be so distracted trying to follow the new words and tunes that they won’t get the message. Better yet, I’d like them to use songs that tell God over and over how wonderful he is (as if he didn’t already know exactly who he is and how awesome he is). That will take the focus off much more important messages while making it look to outsiders like God is some narcissist in love with himself and but insecure enough that he demands such reaffirmation of his greatness. I don’t want people to get the message of music that focuses on the real messages of Christianity! (Think about it!)
Post Twenty-Seven
Note to myself: One of my main goals if for Christians to think of Christianity as focused on rituals. Whether it’s kneeling, singing hymns or choruses, waving arms, sitting quietly, communion services, or whatever—as long as it’s ritual. I don’t want them to think of Christianity as focused on actively caring for the needs of others. I don’t want them to think of the Christian meetings as times of training and encouragement to prepare for actually spreading this caring love to others. There’s nothing more dangerous to my kingdom than having Christians actually caring about and meeting the needs of others. That’s when God is seen for who he is, and I want to distract people from that in any way I can. (Think about it!)
Post Twenty-Eight
Note to myself: Christian tradition has become one of my greatest victories. At one time, Christian tradition was a powerful help for God, but I’ve certainly turned that around! Today, I’ve managed to turn hundreds of Christian traditions against God and his people. And these traditions are so strong that even when people hear the truth of what their traditions are doing, they quickly forget what they’ve heard and hold tightly to their wrong traditions! I certainly wouldn’t want to see a return to the traditions that worked so powerfully against me in the early days of Christianity, but I love the traditions today. And most Christians don’t even realize how far their traditions have moved from the reality of what God intended. I love it! (Think about it!)
Post Twenty-Nine
Note to myself: I want Christians to think of Christianity as an add-on to their lives, something they do when they have them time and inclination. I don’t want them to realize that the only ones God will accept as his children are those who make their service to Christ the core of their lives. Fortunately, even Christian leaders seem not to understand this. (Think about it!)
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