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It is very confusing these days for the average seeker in this modern world to figure out what “Christianity” is all about. With the advent of the online world and plethora of videos and podcasts proclaiming various “Gospels du jour”, it is no wonder there are more divisions between churches and people falling away from the faith than ever before in our confusion.

I consider myself broadly versed in various religions, denominations, and even Secular Humanism. If nothing else positive came out of my 35 year period of apostasy, I am now clear headed on the general differences between most of the world religions as well as the denominations and movements that call themselves “Christian”.

I learned the hard way that you cannot let organized religion define your personal faith 100%. Faith in Christ is based on faith in Christ…not churches, labels, pastors, teachers, evangelists, or “theologians”. Theology has almost become pop culture in America and the Western world. It is no wonder to me how the average Christian has become quite unsure about what they believe and why when there is such a hodgepodge of “systems” to believe in. Just think for a minute about so many “labels” that Christianity has to grapple with these days. Here is a short list:

Roman Catholic versus “Catholic”
Traditional protestantism
Fundamentalists
Calvinists
Arminians
Evangelicals
Liberals
Pentecostals
Charismatics
Reformed
“Mainline” denominations
Non-denominational churches
Seventh Day Churches
Mega Churches
Prosperity gospelists
Signs and wonders movement
108+ different denominations called “Baptist” in America alone

Within most of those categories are separate schisms and sub orders that further delineate and ALIENATE one believer from another. Satan has done a wonderful job of dividing the “Body of Christ” into something that has hardly any resemblance to the first Christian church in Antioch.

In addition we have many “pop up” organizations where you can take a test online and become an “ordained” minister in one or more of many of these categories! I know people who have become “ordained” primarily to make money by marrying or burying people who have no regular church affiliation. I can never figure out why a secular person suddenly wants “clergy” around when they want to marry or bury someone. I wonder what Jesus would have done about that when He was on earth? I wonder what He WILL do about it when He returns?

My wife and I returned to Christian faith from extreme opposite poles. She grew up Roman Catholic and went to their schools her whole childhood. I grew up a strange combination of fundamentalist, Seventh Day, and Pentecostal to boot. Try figuring all that out in one lifetime. Then in my 20s I toured internationally playing Christian music in churches of just about all these various traditions one time or another. You could call it an education, or you could call it perplexing. On top of that, I was heavily influenced by the “Jesus Movement” of the early 1970s which was the antithesis of almost all these organized institutions.

Now that I have come around almost full circle in faith from decades of Secular Humanism, I think I have some valid observations and opinions on a wide range of Christian labels. Since my wife and I both came back to faith through what we believe was divine intervention and spiritual revelation, we have agreed that our faith is not based or described by any particular contemporary label. We like and identify with what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “for I made the decision to know nothing [that is, to forego philosophical or theological discussions regarding inconsequential things and opinions while] among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified [and the meaning of His redemptive, substitutionary death and His resurrection]. (1 Corinthians 2:2 AMP) That is now the basis for everything we do and profess as Christians. Our cause is Christ and based on what He has done in our lives. It is not based on any religious dogma or creed. While we do recognize the spiritual authority of the scriptures, we trust more in our spiritual understandings than our intellectual understandings. Without spiritual renewal, we don’t think a person can “rightly divide” the “word of truth” simply by reading the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15). Truth is more spiritually discerned than by human reasoning. While it takes work and effort to understand the whole magical book called the Bible, to understand and believe what you are reading is a spiritual exercise.

Most “born again” Christians have heard a variety of preachers and teachers in their lifetimes. I would say most of the hundreds of preachers I have heard are “regurgitating” teachings they have received in seminary or from other teachers or preachers. Every once in a while you hear someone present a sermon where even if you don’t understand everything they are saying…you have a spiritual sense that they KNOW God intimately and are uniquely revealing applications and truths that are spiritually interconnecting truth and scriptures. You KNOW you are hearing as if from God Himself. When this has happened I have just been mesmerized by the revelations one person can bring to another. I have experienced that God reveals to us our place in the matrix of his will by periodically confronting us with truth through those who are anointed to give it. What is anointed is what comes from God as our higher power. We pray daily for HIS anointing to run our lives more than the acceptance or agreement of other humans. Over time we usually know the fruit of what was “anointed” or not. That which is in question will often not be clear until the day of His soon coming.

To these ends, it is my experience that there are three sources of information and options in this world. We have what GOD has said, we have what MAN has chosen or determined, and we sometimes have something direct from the Evil One who knows his days are numbered. If we are in faith, it is my experience we have nothing to fear from the Devil even should he oppress or persecute us spiritually from time to time. I think things are black and white between God and Satan. The hard and confusing part is when “men” get in the way of themselves in thinking THEY decide what is or is not going to happen.

As I have often written recently, Human Secularism is the fastest growing “religion” in this world. When humans put OURSELVES in the middle of God’s creation and plans for our lives, the Evil One has little to do to convince us to disobey God’s will for our lives. When we think WE can save ourselves or WE can determine of our own accord all things good or evil…we will usually fail and NOT see the spiritual side of anything.

Those are the main differences between God, man, and the devil.