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Colossians 2:8 (KJV) 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. One of the most powerful warnings our English language can produce is the word "beware". This word is only used to place an emphasis upon a situation promising eminent danger. The translators of the 1611 King James Bible chose this word to accurately match the original thought in the Greek tongue which was a warning to take heed against an object. But what was this warning? What was the grave danger facing the Colossian believers? It is very evident that the Apostle Paul had tremendous concern that the purity of the inner life and doctrine of the early church was at risk to become tainted and corrupted and thereby loose its power and effectiveness. In Paul's epistle to Corinth we find evidences of Paul wrestling with anxiety that the purity of Christ's bride would become corrupted from her pure and sincere devotion to Him. Modern Christianity is sporting a garment with a dingy grey color having lost its beautiful white array. The very warnings the Apostle thundered towards the hearts of our early church fathers have been ignored by the mechanical church leaving us as "spoiled" and ineffective as clabbered milk. It seems that with every passing generation our passion to uphold and embrace purity and sincerity of doctrine has diminished, being replaced by worldly rudiments or fundamentals. The embrace of these worldly ideologies within the church have crippled her divine influence upon the earth so emphatically that there no longer exists a sense of separateness or holiness within her stature. The power of the church is partially projected through its perception. Influence holds tremendous impact. The influence of the church has been greatly reduced because the world has lost its ability to perceive any distinction or association with divinity inwardly. These worldly rudiments or fundamental ideologies embraced and practiced by the modern mechanical church have destroyed its once powerfully held influence simply because the world identifies the church with itself and not with Christ. The fundamentals of corporate America being embraced and practiced within the hallowed function of the church have reduced the influence of the church by identifying her with this present world and not by that which is to come! Our church growth fundamentals are nothing other than blue prints borrowed from secular identities customized to ease our burdened consciences. The implementation of these idealistic maladies into the fundamental practices of the church has enslaved us to the same powers that hold this temporal world in bondage. It makes about as much sense as Moses trying to free Israel from Pharaoh's clutch by implementing Egyptian methodology to attain this end. This insanity is alive and its practices operative within Americana Christianity today. The results are utterly staggering. The poor sin-soaked world we are living in has lost its ability to look within to find a heavenly institution accurately representing a heavenly kingdom. Why would worldly men run to an institution governed by worldly fundamentals to attain benefits only afforded through a heavenly affiliated church? It is grossly evident that truly sincere people looking to find liberation from sin, and affiliation with Christ, are troubled in finding an institution on this earth with necessary divine representative ability to alleviate such need. The average American fellowship has been reduced to a mere social entity boasting of benefits aiding only social deficiencies. Its limited influence only permeates the temporal deficiencies of social interaction leaving the eternal abnormalities of spiritual dysfunction unscathed. Modern fundamentalism has spoiled the eternal purposes of the church; to prevail against the gates of hell and to influence and abolish the powers that hold degenerate men in captivity. Modern playtime Protestantism has been disqualified by fallacious fundamentalism. We've integrated the fundamentals of this world into the church, thus through transmutation our identification has been reversed rendering us inert. What can be done to cure this fundamental woe? We need to redefine the means we are practicing to obtain the end we desire. What this means is that the church must abort the idiomatic practices adopted that are concurrent with the schematics practiced by the world. Our church growth practices must loose their worldly means towards corrupted ends. We must return to scriptural patterns to attain the ends desired. Prayer and fasting must replace playing and feasting. Hype must be replaced by hope, programs by presence, drama by desire, social activity by spiritual exercise and recreation by repentance and thereby re-creation. In the church's attempt to cater to the world to win its favor, it has lost its reputation and influence by disobeying its own principle. To win back our influence we must return to our principle. Continuing to adapt to worldly idealism to procure favor and thereby produce a spiritual end is eternally fatal to both parties. The church needs an awakening to identify its indwelling hypocrisy manifest through forbidden idolatrous practices hidden under the guise of hyper-increase. Our short cut methodology and mentality has sterilized our productivity by poisoning our identity. It would do us well to re-dig the old wells of Abraham for only therein can clean water be found to produce and continue healthy lives that honor God.

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