I know what I would think if I read this title, but then I would be wrong! I am not talking about the origins of our universe. The evolution I am referring to has nothing to do with God and science being reconciled, affirmed, found lacking or even false. While many argue over six-day creation, I simply ask myself: do I believe in a God that is powerful enough to achieve the literal understanding of the creation story in Genisis? If so, then that is all that matters! But I digress from the point of this blog which is to compare the natural and the supernatural evolution of…

…Christianity

My premise is this; the current state of the church/Christianity in western civilization, especially in America, is the direct result of the natural rather than the supernatural evolution. I will take it a step further; the current presidential leadership team is what it is and where it is because of the natural rather than supernatural evolution of the church.

The church started as a collective of Christ followers.

I use this phrase because it suggests that faith in Christ leads to actions that imitate Christ. These actions were the defining factors in the early church. I am not a church historian nor am I an expert on the development of doctrine and dogmas, but I believe as an observer with hopefully little bias (no one is free of bias) I can point out the deviation from being a collective of Christ followers to being an attractive group to join.  History shows that what those who consider themselves part of the church hold in common, shifts because of natural evolution guided by our propensity for sin.

The first believers demonstrated this.

Peter, who was with Jesus, was the one who proclaimed that Jesus was “…the Messiah, the Son of the living God” later basically told Jesus that He didn’t know what He was talking about and Jesus replied, “…Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Quotes from Matthew 16 NIV) While this is one incident, it shows that the collective of Christ followers, even those who were with Him throughout His ministry on earth, had the propensity to be influenced by the father of lies and develop an understanding of Jesus and what it was to follow Him based on a worldly understanding of their faith.

The early church demonstrated this.

Paul’s correction of those who were part of the collective of Christ followers and their worldly desires was ongoing. “…you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:8-11 NIV.

This is a blog post not a doctoral thesis.

The natural evolution of Christianity is based around power. Humans desire position and power. God offers both but at the cost of our natural desire to act in a way we consider to be best for us. What God offers transforms us into what we were designed to be but there is one who would rather we seek power and position in a different way. His enticements are in line with our predilection to sin, our desire to be worldly, and our hunger for personal advancement. The supernatural influences our evolution so that we seek God’s power and comfort in our position as humble followers of Christ. Natural evolution causes us to pursue power and position that matches the ways of the world. Can I prove it? I will do my best but as I said before it’s a blog post not a doctoral thesis.

Let’s take a quick tour through history and see natural evolution.

Simon the Sorcerer wanted to belong to the collective of Christ followers. He saw the power and wanted it. His natural evolution, he did not have a supernatural evolution, at least not in the time of the biblical account, was to offer money to get the “Holy Spirit power” so he could have power and position. Acts 8:9-24 (NIV) . In 313 AD Constantine issued an edict that legalized Christianity. This was a natural evolution of Christianity because it made sense not to have this growing population as his enemy so he could maintain power not because he suddenly became a Christ follower. Later, Emperors Theodosius I, Gratian and Valentinian II made Christianity (Catholic) the official stat religion. This is also a natural evolution because it is the acts of man to make the power of man and the position of man official. Hearts were not changed, just laws.

Throughout history, natural evolution caused the church to be used for power. One king called on one form of Christianity to declare him as God’s king and used the church to secure his power and position. Others would join or at least say they were a part of the same system of faith to be part of the group. Another king would declare war on that king with his own denomination declaring him God’s king and his cause a holy cause. This is the natural evolution of Christianity, the proclamation that God has given people power and position that match not the supernatural transformation of faith in Jesus Christ but rather the desire to be in charge or at least a part of the group that’s in charge.

Only a little more history to go.

The foundation of the United States of America was in part due to the desire to free those who came across the ocean from the imposed religion of the reigning monarch. Some brought their previous ties with them making one state Catholic, another congregationalist, another church of England, another Quaker and so on. As the States were united, freedom of religion or may be better described as a freedom of denominational association created a “Christian Country”. The natural evolution of the collective of Christ followers was from mandated observance to freedom to observe as you wish because those who would call themselves Christians had power, meaning all who called themselves Christian had position.

Not quite done with this NOT exhaustive history lesson.

I am going to jump forward quickly to make a point. Christianity, when it naturally evolves often replaces the power of God and the humble position of His people with the power of law and the position of being in the right group who follow the right faith type that is legal and even sanctioned by those in power. This power is rooted in the worldly structures and desires for power. Christianity evolved further with the mega church and mega denomination movement. It felt good to be in a country that generally supported our beliefs, but it felt even better to be in a large gathering  and/or a large denomination/faith concept that affirmed everyone’s beliefs. While the appetite for living a transformed, Christ following life dwindled in the general population, the appetite to be somewhere that people felt they were embracing the same things grew in the Christian community.  

The natural evolution from mega church is…

…MAGA. The echo chamber of life in a large church and its influence on Christianity throughout the country evolved into the need to elect someone who would push the Christian ideas on the rest of the population. It also led to the replacement of supernatural evolution with our own sin nature evolution leading to the power and position to make others act in a way that make our Christianity comfortable.

Here’s what natural evolution does.

Humans left to their own devices will create systems to elevate God and force what they say are His ways on others. Humans will compromise to get into power and will maintain that power by sacrificing the very fundamental truths of the Bible and excusing the ungodly behavior of those in power just to be part of the world-based power structure that is the natural evolution of our sinful pride. Supernatural evolution lets God be the system and us be the moving parts, lets God have the power and we simply serve. Supernatural evolution succeeds even when the world’s power and those in high positions are against it. It does not compromise, it does not seek the praise of others, it seeks one thing, to please God at any cost even worldly position and power.

this video was the inspired the thought process behind this blog https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Gq8UJwUrJ/