Merry Anti-CHRISTmas?

I heard a preacher recently teaching about the "real" Christian life and boy was it interesting. He went to great lengths to talk about the deeper, more mature life "in the Word" and how, when we were ready for it, he would let us in on the meat. This preacher talked as if he had arrived and he wasn't quite sure if we had. There was what I interpreted a spirit of superiority.

What confused me was how he kept talking about "the human side" of him. I kept thinking - "What part of you is not human?" Is he part alien, canine, monkey or elf? Then it dawned on me - this guy was functioning within a Greek dualism/gnostic paradigm. This belief holds that there is a human side (flesh/bad) and a spiritual side (eternal/good) to people and that the ultimate goal is to escape the flesh and ascend to the spiritual world through "being in the know" - gnosis -Greek for knowledge.

The early church dealt with this belief and the ensuing heresy of gnosticism [from Wikipedia: Gnostics regarded nature and the material world as flawed, corrupt, if not downright evil. They claimed that the natural world was created by a lesser deity, the Demiurge, not the true God who dwells in another realm outside space and time. The human soul, originating as a divine spark in the higher world, finds itself fallen captive to matter, exiled in the realm of the senses. Spiritual development means extricating oneself from enmeshment with matter and returning to the Source, the Light of God. Gnosis is the recognition of the presence of the Higher Self, the spark of Divinity trapped in matter, but only an elite few can realize this awareness and liberate themselves from blind enslavement to this world.]

The thing that chapped my hide was that this preacher was turning the Christian life into escaping the mundane life (in which we live) and climbing some mountain of mysticism and "Word play". Unbeknownst to some there, he was robbing the people of their lives by discounting their work, play, parenting, school, love-making, singing, golfing, cooking and friendships. The "real Christian life" sounded more like Harry Potter speaking words, manipulating the universe through the power of his spoken Word and living on a higher plain above us spiritual peons.

What's the problem? Jesus came to the mundane not to extricate us from this world but to fill it and us with His kingdom and glory. "Peace on earth, good will to men" and "They Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven".

Read this:

"My dear friends, don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world. Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ - the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person - comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!"

I John 4:1-3 The Message

Jesus came in the flesh and the spirit of antichrist keeps trying to get away from His fleshiness. They want a Jesus that let's us opt out of loving one another in community and focus on the more important job of singing, praying, word studies, prophecies and mystical experiences.

Remember this Christmas season - Jesus came to us here! Jesus moved into our neighborhood and lived with us. Religion has us trying to escape the neighborhood and has us movin' on up, Weazie. But Christianity has the Eternal, Divine Relationship (Father, Son, Spirit) earthed in Jesus in order that we can have overflowing, eternal life now.

God didn't run from our humanity - He ran to it (incarnation). He hasn't divorced Himself from our flesh - He converted it (cross and resurrection) and filled it (Pentecost).

May you experience Immanuel - God with Us - this season. Merry Christmas!