Dream: The Problem with Christian Legalism
Who are the modern Pharisees?
I've been praying a lot about hell and sins that lead us there, and I have stumbled upon some accounts of hell that I wanted to investigate further. Some claim that people can go to hell for braiding their hair, wearing eye shadow, wearing wigs, drinking wine, wearing certain clothes, etc.
So, as always, I am praying to God, looking for answers, and I asked Him, are these interpreations of sin correct? He led to me an answer about Christian legalism, which is doctrinal emphasis on a system of rules for achieving salvation. If you are interested in why we don't support Christian legalism, you should read our book The New Pharisees: Calling Out All Christians. In the meantime, I believe this dream and its interpretation will help you better understand what God truly wants for us when it comes to being Christian. In other words, he answered my prayer in the following dream.
The Dream
In the dream, I am in another, stricter country, and there are many rules and regulations. For whatever reason, I am not very concerned about these rules, and I can tell I am slightly annoying Witness 1. Now, in real life, I really like ketchup, and in this dream, I am carrying around a huge bottle of ketchup. Men who are watching me approach me, and they tell me I cannot have that ketchup, according to some specific rule.
I reply, "I know the legality of the situation, and I know my rights. I can have this ketchup."
I know, it all sounds a little absurd, but I promise there is deeper meaning coming.
So, I know these men are watching me, and Witness 1 tells me they are doing some very disturbing, sinful things while watching me. I decide to leave, and I come back wearing a nice outfit, which they again criticize. I ignore them, leave, and I find myself in one of the most beautiful, resplendent scenes I have ever seen in a dream.
I see the most astounding, unblemished white sands, pure blue skies, and an endless container of dazzling jewels. These jewels were in bins stretched as far as the eye could see. I looked through the jewels, and I found a gorgeous purple (violet) diamond and it turned into a bracelet that fit me perfectly. I was so excited and went back inside to show Witness 1. He seemed a little annoyed that now I had taken a jewel, but the truth was, I didn't break any rules. It was there for free, and it seemed made just for me:
I woke up, and of course, I asked God for the meaning of the dream. I believe it answers my question about Christian Legalism in the following interpretation:
Interpretation
So, I have to admit, I'm not the most rule-oriented person; however, I don't openly and unreasonably defy rules either. While the dream could be about that, I believe, due to the positive ending, it had an entirely different meaning. To note, I believe the ending was positive because purple in biblical symbolism is associated with royalty, which I will go back to at the end of this post. Anyway, there have been times, like Jesus, that I have broken rules out of love. Have you? Here is a time Jesus broke the law out of love:
3 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
In the dream, I was constantly being accused by the men there, though I wasn't really doing anything wrong, nor was I truly breaking any important law - just some dumb rules. Why did they have a rule about ketchup anyway?
In the same way, Satan has infiltrated many ministries with legalism, especially online ministries. This creates an accusatory form of Christianity - not a merciful version. After all, Satan is the accuser.
In other words, Christians have become so obsessed with sin and not sinning, that the rules become their idols. This is exactly what happened with the Pharisees. They could not understand Jesus and His love because their love and idolization of the rules.
Of course, there is the other extreme in the churches - rules and laws do not matter, and anything goes! I am NOT advocating for this lukewarm Christianity either. Rather, I am stating two important Biblical views that will help us avoid both extremes of legalism and lukewarm Christianity:
1) We must know the law of God first. We learn this law through the Bible.
2) Then, we must operate in love in all we do.
The question is - how do we know we are operating in love in all we do? After all, the heart is deceitful above all things. How can we trust our own judgment? We can't!
Instead, we have to love God first! If we love God first, through his son Jesus, who shows us how to love, then we will know how to love. To simplify:
1) We have to love God first - with all of our hearts.
2) We can only truly know God through His son Jesus.
3) In order to know Jesus, we must have a relationship with Him and walk with Him daily.
4) If we walk with Jesus, He will show us how to love - by loving others as ourselves.
So, if you wake up each morning, and you ask Jesus, "Please show me how to live my life like you and operate with your love", you will notice that the rules are not as important. In other words, you don't need a list of 1,000 rules of right or wrong anymore when you follow Jesus in each moment of your life.
It isn't so much that the rules don't matter at all, but rather, they matter less. When you are truly operating through Jesus's love, you don't need to be told about the rules because your heart will always lead you or convict you. Your heart will no longer deceive you if it is full of Jesus. Of course, we are flawed humans, so rules still come into play. The point is - the more we follow Jesus, the less we need the rules.
At times, you may even find you break certain rules because His loves commands you to. Jesus explained this in Matthew 12:
Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
The ending of that section is pretty dark but in a way...morbidly funny. Hear me out. Because Jesus wanted to break one of their rules and help someone out of love, they decided they wanted to kill him. Yes, because Jesus is full of love, they wanted Him to die.
Does any of this sound familiar in our modern world? How many of you have been threatened in online forums for speaking the truth and love of Jesus's words? Have you been threatened to be killed online? I have!
Then, think about the world's view of love and how often it contradicts God's view of love. While the worldly churches talk all about loving and tolerating all, God's view of love often requires sacrifice and even, gasp, discipline.
Everything we do in this lifetime is recorded in the book of life. These books will be opened on Judgment Day. I have listened to many near death experiences, and it seems that even the intentions behind our actions are recorded. Will God be more concerned that you followed the rules of the world OR operated out of His love?
So, there are only two types of rules to follow in life:
1) The worldly rules/the world's view of love
OR
2) God's rules/God's love
So many Christians are leading themselves to hell because they fall for the trap of the worldly views of right or wrong. They put the world over what God says.
So, when it comes to Christian legalism, this is exactly what happens. So many Christians put rules over what God puts into their hearts.
We have probably all been guilty of this idolization of rules one way or another. The point is, we need to repent and bring ourselves back into God's perfect love.
If we follow Jesus daily, the rules become almost obsolete and unneeded - though not entirely. Again, we are still human!
Now, going back to the dream, because I did not try to fit in with a ridiculous worldview, it seems that I was rewarded with a diamond of spiritual royalty.
I believe this will happen to all of us who choose God's Law over the World's Law (aka Satan's absurdity).
May God bless anyone reading, and I pray God continues to send me dreams to post!
- Witness 2
