Unfortunately, cultural Christianity has adopted this same strategy. Some, in the name of relevance, have cherry-picked the Bible to create a new-and-improved religion that the first followers of Jesus would never recognize. Because our postmodern majority wants a god that fits comfortably into its lifestyle, we are now saturated with a wildly popular, new-and- improved, "this ain't your granddaddy's" version of Christianity. This new brand offers the fragrance of spirituality without the substance. Whereas the Jesus of scripture required obedience and surrender, this modern pseudo-Jesus just wants to hang out with us and provide goodies. This new brand of Christian-lite boasts a god we may pacify rather than obey. The modern American god desires to partner with us to fulfill our dreams, rather than work out His plans in us. Where historic Christianity emphasized holiness and repentance, this new-and-improved version stresses self-esteem and personal fulfillment. This is a god who negotiates with us about our sin, rather than judging it and requiring us to stop it.
The addition of a few hand-selected, non-offensive Bible verses gives this imitation a semblance of authenticity. However, this new version is nothing but cheap plastic. It has no foundation. Every belief system must have a foundation upon which it is built, or it is merely conjecture. The foundation for true Christianity has always been the Bible--the whole Bible, not sanitized excerpts from it. And when we study the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), we realize that there is no way to make God's truth new and improved. It is already timeless and perfect. And His way is the only way to God. He did not invent a new way to pacify the self-obsessed.
It was this uncompromising gospel that got Jesus and his followers murdered. There is very little in today's new-and-improved, have-it-your-way version of so-called Christianity that would have gotten anyone martyred.
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