I received a book titled The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity
by Matthew Kelly. It came in the mail. I didn’t ask
for it or pay anything for it. I read it anyway. Matthew Kelly
is an accomplished author. He likes to be known for
developing “the-best-version-of-yourself” concept. The book does have
much good within. As a result it is not necessarily a bad or
misleading book. My concern is that Matthew doesn’t validate visions
of the-best-version-of-yourself for some Christians whose callings are
similar to those Old Testament prophets who pointed out the civil sins
of Israel.
I won’t spoil the fun of what this biggest lie is, where Matthew
spells it out on page 32. I like how Matthew uses questions to help
the reader think through their own worldview. In one place he asks
these great questions: “Does this contradict Jesus’ teachings?” and
“Lord, what is it that you want most for me and from me in this
moment?”.
He concludes his effort to encourage Christians to preserve “religious
liberty” as set up by our founding fathers by writing
"... it is essential that we resist the temptation to seek worldly solutions to spiritual problems. We should involve ourselves rigorously in the political process, but our main focus needs to remain on spiritual transformation."
Matthew places political process outside of spiritual problems. I
believe this does contradict Jesus’ teachings. The Pharisees and
Sadducees held quite a bit of political power. Jesus answered
questions about adultery, paying taxes to Caesar, as well as taught
about many of the Old Testament civil laws given to Israel. The
apostle Paul caught on. In Romans chapter 13 Paul wrote the civil
servant is God’s servant to execute, not his own but God’s version of,
justice. The definition of good vs evil (in a civil sense) was to be
God’s definition. This “God” is the one Christian Triune God. It is
not a pluralistic idea. Matthew, as most Christians today, believe
religious liberty can be applied outside Christianity to
pantheistic, Islamic, etc., even atheistic religions (or philosophy if
that sect refuses to identify their moral beliefs as religious).
Perhaps this error explains why he jumps over early American
Christianity embedded in a majority of the 13 colonies’ civil legal
systems when he says “So, where do we start? We begin by exploring
the strategy that made the first Christians phenomenally successful.”
Getting back to the good stuff, Matthew, thank you for the
encouragement. Yes, I do want to get on to be “a better version of
myself”. I want to create following after God and His Son Jesus
Christ.