We are living in a world where we believe truth is subjective. We can establish our presence on the Internet with no accountability. We can amass followings with little to no education in the subject we are talking about, and people are listening.
With the price of education sky-rocketing, and our ability to learn from the Internet, we’ve devalued the experts. Instead, we’ve promoted those we consider influential. Those with the cutest brands.
How do I know this? I’m an influencer.
As an influencer, I have established a following of 15,000 people who listen to my words. I don’t take this lightly. That said, I’ve felt challenged recently to share my experience. You see, many will dialogue with me about faith but they take my words very seriously. I began seminary, but dropped out after having three children in close succession.
I always fact check my statements against reputable sources. I rely on others as the experts in their fields. Yet, this should tell a story. What if this spreading of knowledge gets into the wrong hands and influences those that are young and don’t have sound doctrine? What if they can’t wade through the lies and find the truth?
We are seeing this in the publishing industry, which has taken a sharp turn. Now, they let every self-described “influencer” with a massive following write books. You see, if you have amassed a following you can now be a writer.
So, what does this mean for the church?
Many women have taken to the Internet by storm. They have amassed large bands of followers and are leading them in theological arguments.
Everyone has a blog, and an account where they can share their words, but misplaced words could be detrimental to those that aren’t clear on what they believe.
The downside to this epidemic is the voices that are rising in the church are being drowned out by those with the largest social media presence. The church is an institution. An institution that keeps accountability. Like any organization, the church thrives off of rules and regulations and there is a systematic approach to theology.
We see young people rising up with ideas about religion, they are unable to cut through the noise, and the tide is crashing in on them. They don’t know how to sift through and decipher whether the simple message of the gospel is being upheld. There is so much information, and there are so few ways to filter it.
We see those with the peppiest pictures and the most charisma rising up, and we see women with sound Biblical teaching that have a heart for shepherding people towards Christ that don’t want to play along with the trend, “Not a brand just a Bible teacher,” reads Amy Gannett’s Instagram.
In Francis Chan’s sermon, “The Two Most Dangerous Lies” he instructs the students to realize that we need to take Isaiah 55:8-9 seriously by understanding God’s truth is not our own.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Chan employs this statement humbly, “…that’s why this book (the Bible) is so important and so precious to me,” he says. He goes on to ask us to humble ourselves and value God’s truth above our own ideas: “We need to humble ourselves, I know this is a generation that has a real struggle with truth, cause they feel like they can find their version of truth and they believe their own thoughts. They value their own thoughts and that’s why I love that passage.”
One area where I’ve seen the dangers of this trend: the rise of the Bethel movement (New Apostolic Reformation). They promise each individual, “power and a voice” which each millennial longs to have. These individuals are hoping for influence, and Bethel provides that, According to one Christianity Today article, “their real power lies in their innovative approach to selling faith.” They’ve “combined multi-level marketing, Pentecostal signs and wonders, and post-millennial optimism to connect directly with millions of spiritual customers.” In addition, they place less emphasis on credentials and education.
What is the Bethel movement? An article on Christianity today says, “In some ways, it’s a really romantic vision. For most of the 20th century, most Pentecostals and evangelicals were pre-millennial—they imagined that God’s reign would appear in full only after the second coming of Christ. But the INC movement is explicitly post-millennial. In their minds, God’s kingdom can come to earth before Christ returns—and, by the way, it will be in America. There is this interesting combination of America first.”
The article explains why people are joining in droves, “And then you have the appeal of direct access to God—getting direct downloads from God. God is going to talk to me and tell me what to do…For many people, that’s more exciting than a 45-minute sermon examining the Greek terms from Paul’s writings.”
Bethel has recently infiltrated the realm of Instagram, and no-one can separate one person’s theology from another. The church to an on-looker appears to be more unified than ever, but really it is just more confused.
Bethel churches use of the, “Passion translation” points out their mentality, As Bill Johnson is quoted saying, “One of the greatest things to happen with Bible translation in my lifetime.”
But others have noted that the Passion translation is “not really a translation.” Johnson goes on to say that, “Translations attempt to convey as accurately as possible the thought of the original, whether they lean towards the word-for-word (KJV) or thought-for-thought (NIV) end of the spectrum. The Passion “translation” inserts all kinds of concepts, words and ideas of which the original gives no hint whatsoever (despite the occasional footnotes which say, “implied by the context”).”
So, why do I a Christian-blogging-Millennial beg for you to hear my voice?
Because I believe: We are muddying the gospel with our voices. We are unsure of what we believe. We need to make a spot for women at the table, before women make Instagram their table. We can bring back the value of the expert, and organized religion. We can teach our children how to wade through the mud, and we can empower the next generation to lead by the Truth. The ONE Truth, the Truth of the Bible.
Freedom and Christ can be realized through sound gospel teaching:
The Gospel after all is the ultimate “Good News.” The Gospel described by the Gospel Coalition says, “Christ bore our sin on the cross. He bore the penalty, turned aside God’s judgment, God’s wrath, from us, and cancelled sin. The brokenness of our lives he restores; the shattered relationships he rebuilds in the context of the church; the new life that we human beings find in Christ is granted out of the sheer grace of God. It is received by faith as we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus. We confess him as Lord, and bow to him joyfully.” Once we confess him as our Lord and Savior we get to spend eternity free of pain and suffering with him, forever more.
But, don’t take my word for it. Read your Bible. Listen to credentialed teachers of the Word. Find the truth outside of your Instagram feed.
