This article was written by a faithful "teacher" who I have known since the Jesus people days of the early seventies. William R Kimball. He was anointed then and still is to those who have "an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches".
“What in The World Have We Done to Jesus?” Many of our contemporary images of Jesus are far removed from the Jesus depicted in the Bible. Countless times throughout church history people have misrepresented Jesus and offered a manmade facsimile that would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic and deceptive. Many have kept Him suspended in a state of eternal agony on some crucifix while others have taken Him down and conveniently buried Him between the pages of the Bible. Our Americanized version of Jesus has come a long way. He’s domesticated, house-broken and, for all intents and purposes, “church broken”. We’ve managed to tone Him down, dumb Him down and water Him down. He's been sanitized, sterilized, religiousized, effeminized, formalized, ritualized, idolized, minimized, modernized, sensitized, commercialized, politicized, patriotized, militarized, secularized, hype-sterized, hip-sterized, sensationalized, compromised, tele-evangelized and Hollywoodized. He's so far removed from the Gospels you can no longer recognize Him. Jesus has been so distorted in many churches I scratch my head and wonder who the Jesus is that they are worshipping? He’s been Roman Catholicized, denominationalized, Judaized, fundamentalized and contemporized. He's now, accommodating, "user friendly", "seeker sensitive", middle-class, complacent, docile, churched and non-threatening. His revolutionary nature and message have been emasculated to the point of being essentially harmless and impotent. He’s now conservative, mainstream, Republican and a champion of “truth Justice and the American Way!” For many, the real Jesus was crucified on the altar of “our will be done” long ago. We’ve recreated our "Americanized" Jesus into our own image. Our ways are now His ways. Our opinions are now His opinions. Our values are now His values. Our ambitions are now His ambitions. Our lifestyles are now His lifestyles. Our love of the world is now His love of the world. Our “Christianized” version of the American dream is now His “Christianized” version of the American dream. Our gospel of “health, wealth & happiness” is now His gospel of “health, wealth & happiness”. Our politics are now His politics. Our social agendas are now His social agendas. Our “cultural correctness” is now His “cultural correctness”. Our rampant materialism is His rampant materialism. Our religious preferences are now His religious preferences. Our trendy ways of doing church are now His trendy ways of doing church. Our church fads are now His church fads. Our sensational experiences are now His sensational experiences. Our mega-church celebrities are now His mega-church celebrities. Our “pop theology” is now His “pop theology”. Our "self-empowerment theology" is now His self-empowerment theology. Our “User friendly Jesus” is now His “User Friendly Jesus”, Our false doctrines are now His false doctrines, Our idols are now His idols. The religious establishment crucified Him because He threatened their religion, their comfort and their prestige. They didn’t want a suffering Messiah but a political champion who would make Israel great again. We’re quietly guilty of doing essentially the same thing in the name of God. God created man in His own image and we have returned the compliment. And because of our tireless work on His behalf we have tamed Him and made our contemporary Jesus harmless, impotent and irrelevant. If Jesus showed up at most of our churches, He wouldn’t even recognize Himself when He saw what we have done to Him. For many, He will remain as a man-made caricature of the real thing. Many have embraced a version of Jesus that simply accommodates their lifestyles, their worldly values and their complacency. No doubt, He would eventually be crucified by them. What is even more alarming is the sobering reality that the version of Jesus they have taken into their heart will eventually shipwreck them spiritually. William R. Kimball
“What in The World Have We Done to Jesus?” Many of our contemporary images of Jesus are far removed from the Jesus depicted in the Bible. Countless times throughout church history people have misrepresented Jesus and offered a manmade facsimile that would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic and deceptive. Many have kept Him suspended in a state of eternal agony on some crucifix while others have taken Him down and conveniently buried Him between the pages of the Bible. Our Americanized version of Jesus has come a long way. He’s domesticated, house-broken and, for all intents and purposes, “church broken”. We’ve managed to tone Him down, dumb Him down and water Him down. He's been sanitized, sterilized, religiousized, effeminized, formalized, ritualized, idolized, minimized, modernized, sensitized, commercialized, politicized, patriotized, militarized, secularized, hype-sterized, hip-sterized, sensationalized, compromised, tele-evangelized and Hollywoodized. He's so far removed from the Gospels you can no longer recognize Him. Jesus has been so distorted in many churches I scratch my head and wonder who the Jesus is that they are worshipping? He’s been Roman Catholicized, denominationalized, Judaized, fundamentalized and contemporized. He's now, accommodating, "user friendly", "seeker sensitive", middle-class, complacent, docile, churched and non-threatening. His revolutionary nature and message have been emasculated to the point of being essentially harmless and impotent. He’s now conservative, mainstream, Republican and a champion of “truth Justice and the American Way!” For many, the real Jesus was crucified on the altar of “our will be done” long ago. We’ve recreated our "Americanized" Jesus into our own image. Our ways are now His ways. Our opinions are now His opinions. Our values are now His values. Our ambitions are now His ambitions. Our lifestyles are now His lifestyles. Our love of the world is now His love of the world. Our “Christianized” version of the American dream is now His “Christianized” version of the American dream. Our gospel of “health, wealth & happiness” is now His gospel of “health, wealth & happiness”. Our politics are now His politics. Our social agendas are now His social agendas. Our “cultural correctness” is now His “cultural correctness”. Our rampant materialism is His rampant materialism. Our religious preferences are now His religious preferences. Our trendy ways of doing church are now His trendy ways of doing church. Our church fads are now His church fads. Our sensational experiences are now His sensational experiences. Our mega-church celebrities are now His mega-church celebrities. Our “pop theology” is now His “pop theology”. Our "self-empowerment theology" is now His self-empowerment theology. Our “User friendly Jesus” is now His “User Friendly Jesus”, Our false doctrines are now His false doctrines, Our idols are now His idols. The religious establishment crucified Him because He threatened their religion, their comfort and their prestige. They didn’t want a suffering Messiah but a political champion who would make Israel great again. We’re quietly guilty of doing essentially the same thing in the name of God. God created man in His own image and we have returned the compliment. And because of our tireless work on His behalf we have tamed Him and made our contemporary Jesus harmless, impotent and irrelevant. If Jesus showed up at most of our churches, He wouldn’t even recognize Himself when He saw what we have done to Him. For many, He will remain as a man-made caricature of the real thing. Many have embraced a version of Jesus that simply accommodates their lifestyles, their worldly values and their complacency. No doubt, He would eventually be crucified by them. What is even more alarming is the sobering reality that the version of Jesus they have taken into their heart will eventually shipwreck them spiritually. William R. Kimball