He gave everything He had to give. His love is total. He in turn asks exactly the same for those who would follow Him. Who will support the Lord Jesus?

.

CHOOSE FOR YOURSELVES TODAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE

“He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” [Matthew 12:30]

Serving the Lord Jesus is a 100% proposition. If one is to follow Him then one follows Him always. If one is to honor Him then one honors Him always. If one is to obey His teachings and commandments then one does not pick and choose but obeys His entire curriculum.

I coined the term Unreal Christianity many years ago. It refers to all the fake Christianity in the world and those fake Christians who claim to serve the Lord Jesus but do not. As it is in regard to the first two of the Ten Commandments, which text will follow shortly, the majority of Christians and their faux leaders believe in and serve the mere artificial religious constructs of men which exist as counterfeits and are only loosely based on real Christianity. It is a way to assuage one’s convicting conscience by engaging in a deception to fool it but one actually only fools oneself. Thus, Unreal Christianity in its many fake forms is nothing more than the creation of a deception to suit oneself and can never act as a true discipleship vehicle.

It is exactly the same when one attempts to create a god to suit oneself which is what the Second Commandment actually refers to. The real and only God will have none of it!

For greater spiritual light and understanding of the real meaning of this commandment, I wrote the following commentary and explanation of the Second Commandment in my book Real Christianity:

In Exodus 20:4–6, the second of the Ten Commandments flatly states: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

The word “idol” is translated as “graven image” in many Bible versions. The Hebrew word is pecel, and implies an image of a man or animal made from metal or wood. The word “likeness” in the stated verses is from the Hebrew temuwnah. This word has a more general definition—“form, representation, likeness”—but suggests three dimensionality. Both of these words connote something fashioned or shaped to be worshipped or served.

Hence, image building is designed to cover inherent flaws and promote a false representation of reality—a three-dimensional fashioning of an object other than God to be submitted to, and thus, to serve. Therefore, the intention of the Second Commandment is to protect God’s people from the temptation of honoring another above Him and consequently losing or never establishing both one’s blessed relationship with the Lord, and one’s dominion in Him. The most fully evolved form of an idol today is a living human being.[1]

GOD MANIFEST IN FLESH [1Timothy 3:16]

In light of what I just stated, let us read the text of the first two of the Ten Commandments once again. While reading, try to look through the lens of the revelation of our Lord Jesus who revealed Himself to the world as the one God of the OT. More importantly, ponder His actual identity as He made Himself known to His own people:

¹ Then God spoke all these words, saying,

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods before Me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

⁵ “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

⁶ “but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” [Exodus 20:1-6]

During His time on earth the Lord Jesus was the perfect representation of the Father. He was God manifest in flesh. We see then another clear reason why the unbelieving religionists and religious leaders of His time so thoroughly rejected Him. It was in regard to the following:

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” [John 14:15]

By stating this, using the exact wording, the Lord Jesus was applying Exodus 20:6 to Himself.

He did such things often. Such statements exist throughout the four gospels. Therefore, as a few learned men had deduced in the past, this Man was either God or He was crazy. There is no in-between.

Of course, He continued to prove that He was God regardless of those who refused to believe then or refuse at present. This is why actual belief in the Lord Jesus has always been an all-or-nothing proposal. It is simply impossible that there can be anything in the middle. Hence we have this forced duality that continues to present itself as saint or sinner, sheep or goat, wheat or tare, and heaven or hell. We are either with Him 100% or we are not with Him at all. A real Christian must therefore give Him his or her entire heart. It does no good to only circumcise a mere portion of one’s heart.

This is why, in this temporary fallen world, we have either real Christianity or Unreal Christianity. There is no such thing as 50% Christianity or even 90% Christianity. There is only the real and the unreal. Regarding belief in and following God, it was exactly the same in the very beginning with all the patriarchs and prophets. It was the same with Moses. One was either with God completely and absolutely or one was not with Him at all.

The Lord Jesus said the same thing as applied to God, quoting the following words about Him by an OT prophet over 700 years before His time, which perfectly conjoin the truth of God’s true identity in the Old Covenant and the New and also reveals real believers and fake ones:

“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,

‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;

You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;

For the heart of this people has become dull,

With their ears they scarcely hear,

And they have closed their eyes,

Otherwise they would see with their eyes,

Hear with their ears,

And understand with their heart and return,

And I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” [Matthew 13:13-17][2]

OUR CHALLENGING PRESENT

There was a time when Christians could get away with being halfway and partial or not at all in that it was relatively easy to keep up a Christian masquerade and still be accepted as legitimate. In the past, due to relatively good times in an apparent majority Christian nation, many faux bros could give forth the impression of being successful spiritually or appear that way enough to gain general acceptance and life success. Christians in general were simply less discriminating, less aware, and more easily deceived. In other words, doing one’s Christianity was easier. But though this former truth is far worse now in that the Christian masquerade has blown up like an exponential balloon with fake Christians everywhere emerging like sugar ants from the woodwork, the end result makes it that much more difficult for real Christians. This is why present times are such that successful spiritual warfare is now mandatory if a real Christian is to survive since a two front spiritual war has opened up featuring one’s usual obvious enemies but also one’s “Christian” enemies.

A quarter century ago during the “good times” I predicted in my book Real Christianity that Christian persecution in America would increase dramatically in the not too distant future. This is what I wrote then:

Christians have largely rejected the work of their most distant ancestors, and have lost due respect for the truths they taught, and the One who taught them.

Will we continue to be so blind and arrogant that we place the blame for this fact on them, rather than ourselves? They are the ones who built the foundation. They are the ones who paid in blood to set the example which all successive generations were to follow. If their very immature spiritual juniors of the present continue in this vein of quiet mockery and religious complacency, the Unreal Church of the Conformed will grow even larger with greater determination against truth. In fact, the bloody persecution of real Christians will expand from the present hell-holes of this world and will soon go international. Every nation will take part. The greatest enemy of the present day community of called-out ones, however, are not modern Herods and Neros, but modern religionists intent on protecting their turf.

And who are these chief persecutors? Who are the new Christian Pharisees? In what form do they exist today? Who are the ones influenced by the same spirit that gave Saul of Tarsus his commission to fight the Church? Such deceived ones are much closer to all of us than we think. Through their resolute and unwavering stand for their chosen form of Christianity, they have allowed themselves to become the very image of the unreal.

Our greatest enemy wears virgin wool.[3]

We are now there at that very place I predicted would come and actually have been for a while. But it is only happening for the most part to real Christians. (The devil is simply not afraid of Unreal Christianity. Why should he be?) Also, it is actually a lot worse than most Christians realize and this is proved by so many Christians essentially throwing in the towel and subverting themselves to the enemy’s playbook with very little if no fight left at all. Again, without successful spiritual warfare one cannot survive.

Unreal Christians, to their credit or discredit depending on one’s perspective, have therefore accomplished an excellent balance of being socially acceptable by both their respective Christian communities and the sinful decadent secular culture growing more degenerate by the day, and are thus compromised enough that Christian persecution has not and will not come to most of them. In fact, most of them are actually the chief persecutors of the real guys, which was the same dynamic in the first century.

Funny how that works.

© 2023 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. 

[1] Real Christianity—The Nature of the Church © 2001 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.

[2] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

[3] Real Christianity—The Nature of the Church © 2001 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.