To look in, look out, and look around the world we live in from a Christian perspective, we see a melting pot of different philosophies and differences in beliefs that are observed in todays society. In fact, we are seeing many of the anti-Christian and humanist perspectives that are being interwoven into the "general Christian mindset" or the "official Christian perspective" of the day. To see the thinking of the humanist perspective, New Age thinking, and metaphysics within Christianity is quite disturbing. As these realms of thinking convolutes itself within Christianity, the true, historic, and orthodox message is being replaced by a man-centered "what can Christianity do for me" instead of the God centered "how can I worship and exalt He".

I find it quite disturbing when a famous televangelist decides that the keynote speaker at his annual women's conference will be Maya Angelou, a poet well known for her explosive mixture of heretical Christian doctrines with the "mother nature" worship concept of pantheism, feminism, and her support for Louis Farakhan at the Million Man March years ago. It is disturbing when many Christian churches and organizations are endorsing the personal development training program "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey, who is a professed Mormon. Throughout this book, Stephen refers to his book "The Divine Center" where he openly denounces Christianity as "incorrect" and praises the Mormons and admits to taking Book of Mormon scriptures and making them "generic" to reach the masses. Many Christians, in search of health in their "promise" of "health, wealth, and prosperity", turn to the holistic healing and herbal recipies of Dr. Deepak Chopra. All Dr. Chopra did was to take ancient Hindu beliefs like "cosmic harmony", "inner tranquility", and "miracle herbal recipies" and make them mainstream. Today, we see men who use such catch phrazes as "name it and claim it" "confess and possess", and "health, wealth, and prosperity" use the same metaphysical techniques to convince us that through "matter over mind", we can see ourselves as rich, no sickness, and industrious. In fact, E.W. Kenyon, the father of the "faith" movement, was influenced by the New Thought movement. In many Christian churches today, to be less that wealthy, healthy, and prosperous is seen as a "lack of faith" or being as "inferior".

This blending in of other cultures thrives in times of change, cultural upheaval, and the passing of the guard. America has seen these factors take place within the past eight years where the generation of yesterday is being replaced by the generation of today. To see this prevalent in our churches today and in society, one has to wonder "Can true orthodox Christianity survive in the mentalities of New Age Reason, metaphysics, and holistic healing?". To this I say "YES!!!". In fact, since the Word of the Lord never changes and will forever remain infallable, we can expect God to be the victor over such ungodly teachings and remain intact when other teachings are exposed or replaced by another false teaching that tickles our ears more sensitive.

In fact, the Apostle Paul clearly shows us through the book of Colossians how to live, witness, and overcome in such a culture. Colosse was a city where Christianity had to compete with the dualistic thinking material or spiritual concepts brought forth by the ancient Greeks, the rigid legalism of Judiasm, angel worship, and the pagan polytheistic occultism that was flourishing. Because of these beliefs present, many Christians in the church at Colosse actually blended in portions of all the philosophical cultures together that in a nutshell is actually only a way to justify our personal, preferences, demands, and agendas as right. Therefore, many had a customized world view instead of a Christian world view in practice where relativism existed promoting the mentality of "all religions are the same" and "what's true for you may not be true for me". In Galatians, the scriptures state the "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump". Therefore, a little corruption makes the whole body corrput. Paul shows us in a straightforward way that Christ is not to be flippantly seen as "a God among many", but as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the entire universe. God is the creator of the cosmos and the only one who deserves honor, praise, worship, and obedience.

Even though other religions, new thought, and humanisms can offer what appears to be attractive claims of power and insight, the Gospel of Jesus conquers and holds dominion over other gods. Through this, Christianity is not just another true religion among other "true" religions, but Christianity is the only true religion. Expect conflict and criticism from those who disagree since this is not a popular belief in our world of cultural diversity and pluralism.

What further distinguishes Christianity from other religions or the syncretistic mixture of other religious beliefs within Christianity is the fact that true orthodox Christianity reflects on the personal every day side of us in our lives, churches, jobs, society, and families where other religions and cultures can not. Other religions and cultures are designed to fulfill man-made agendas instead of the Great Comission of reaching the lost.

About Colosse:

Colosse is a city located in Asia Minor in what is today modern day Turkey, It was located close to Ephesus, where Paul founded the church numerous years before this leter was written. According to Bible scholars, Paul was not the founder of this church and probably never visited this church in person. However, the concern of this church and it's pluralistic mentality grieved Paul. Why? Two reasons. The first reason was because of the dilution of Christianity taking place due to this heresy. The second reason according to numerous historians is that the church of Colosse was founded by Christians sent out from the church at Ephesus. Therefore, Paul was indirectly tied to this church.

Along with the dualistic thinking, Colosse was affected by the weather, earthquakes, and the emergence of commerce rival Laodicea to the point where the city was left abandoned and the descendants moved to Laodicea and Chonai. I find it interesting that this Laodicea was the same Laodicea that was mentioned in the book of Revelation as "neither hot or cold, but lukewarm". Therefore, we clearly see that the syncretism prevalent in Colosse spread to Laodicea to the point where the Laodicean church was worse off than the Colosse church as described in Revelation.

Click Here for part two of The Colosse We Live In.