Over the last several years, Real Christianity, The Nature of the Church has traveled around the world—nestled in an evangelist’s knapsack in the northern regions of India—taken by a friend to southeastern Africa—and meandered all the way to the heart of the Middle East in the ancient land of Galilee. The book has also made the rounds in many if not most of the states in the Union.

In one particular instance, being used as a textbook in a Christian college in Georgia, Real Christianity became the object of controversy. The teacher, upon the class having serious questions about a certain subject in the book that few agreed with, assigned each student to write a paper about the subject without telling anyone else his or her findings. When the papers were turned in (as part of the grade), every student had changed their opinion based on their own research and agreed that the author was correct. This has happened many times.

Yet, believe it or not, some people still become quite agitated by the content. Others have actually opened their hearts, along with their Bibles, and had their eyes opened as well.

Generally speaking, Christianity in America has been going in the tank for decades, though fresh movements arise here and there at intervals.

Many have gone the way of erring Balaam, who was rebuked by a talking donkey. Others continue in the rebellious ways of Korah, thumbing their nose at the Lord by their blatant disobedience and hypocrisy. And many others still persist in the ways of Cain, ever ready to murder their brother.

Real Christianity is a simple effort at attempting to right our course. We must return to the bright, shining prototype of the first century. The Lord’s community was a powerful, united, and loving force then. It will be that way again.

We are currently in the early stages of an American Great Awakening, most likely the greatest to date. The Lord has been answering prayer and preparing His people here for decades. For those Christians satisfied with the status quo, the Awakening will largely go unseen. For real Christians, those paying attention and following the Lord, the Awakening is spiritually visible all across the country.

Real Christianity, The Nature of the Church was written in anticipation of today, remains vibrant and topical, and contains many of the answers we seek. It is a book for our time.

EXCERPT FROM PAGE 328:

In the beginning, He separated light from darkness and He’s still doing so today. The Church is supposed to be white light, not a gray cloud. The seven colors of the spectrum are derived from a white composite. Therefore, the Church is not any one of the seven colors but a totality of the seven. The different colors are not separate Christian bodies but distinct elements of the same body. Christianity cannot be divided into non-relational pieces and somehow also be mystically united. There must be common ground other than merely sharing the moniker “Christian.” Jesus is building one Church, not several. It is high time we recognized this in terms of synthesis.

Ecumenical action wrongly calls for throwing all things “Christian” into a blender, but this only compromises the work of Jesus by circumventing His direction. Real Christian unity results from submitting and committing to God completely and from being obedient to His will. This is the only way unity will come because it is the only way we allow Jesus to build His Church.

When we, as individual believers, each love and trust Him enough to submit to His authority in our lives—when we each cast our nets on the other side of the boat and follow Him—the “lost” creative ability of the Church will be magnificently restored. Upon this occurrence, the Qahal of the Lord Jesus Christ will flourish, as at the beginning, allowing each of us to be fully engaged in being about our Father’s business by operating from within our Father’s house. [Real Christianity, The Nature of the Church © 2001 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.]