From 2020 to now, if we put the major global events in a sequence, I think the top two must be COVID and the American presidential election.
The impact of COVID is not yet eliminated, and the US election is over. Still, the result of the election is not the end - the follow-up influence will inevitably appear gradually. Since the impact of these two events on the world can affect all aspects of life, Christianity can't stand outside its shadow either. The pandemic has weakened Christianity's influence, which is absolutely different from Christianity's rise, caused by plagues at the Roman Empire. During the COVID, Christianity has had more negative than positive news. Its social influence is gradually fading because of its slow response to the crisis. While the American election went on, President Trump, who Christians elected, performed improperly and consequently brought about division to Christianity as a whole.
Dickens' words may be more appropriate to describe this era, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of ambiguity, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness. It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair. We had everything before us. We had nothing before us. We were all going direct to Heaven. We were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so. Far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, good or evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
For traditional Christianity, this is not a good time because the once fervent religious enthusiasm has almost become extinguished due to the pandemic and the defeat of Trump in 2020. Meanwhile, traditional Christianity has also come to an end era in a mixture of good and bad times. Whether orthodox Christianity can have its revival moment depends on the adjustment and change of conventional Christianity itself. However, we should not hold too much hope for the adjusting and change because traditional Christianity has formed an enclosed system. No one wants to shake their own interests. The solidification of parts also makes it impossible to transform orthodox Christianity to adapt to society.
On the other hand, the history of traditional Chinese Christianity has distinct characteristics of people and regions' times and distinctive features. So, the derivatives of that era are bound to become history, with that era coming to an end.
After China's reform and opening-up, the number of Chinese Christians increased dramatically since it allowed normal religious activities. Now there are at least 30 million believers and at most 50 to 60 million. The number of believers mainly formed before the trend of migrant workers in the 1980s and 1990s. However, most of these believers were from the countryside because the countryside was sacrificed to supplement the city in the past industrialization process. Therefore, in medical treatment, culture and education, old-age care, entertainment, etc., rural areas' development has always lagged behind cities' process. Other religions were almost eradicated in the past constant social movements. This provided a broad room for the spread of Christianity in rural China. That was why the majority of Chinese Christians had a rural background.
Because the population mainly lived-in rural areas, the following were considered Chinese people's motives for joining Christianity.
Atonement
This motive was only characteristic of the businessmen in the 1980s who did business by improper means of producing fake and inferior commodities. However, their inner morality and conscience became tense and uneasy, so they joined Christianity to alleviate this torture of conscience. Mainly small businessmen and generally aged over 60, they were keen believers and were financially generous to the church.
Entertainment
Due to the shortage of materials and the lack of entertainment as well as spiritual and cultural development in China's rural areas in the 1980s and 1990s, Christian gatherings had become an almost irreplaceable entertainment project in rural areas, especially Christmas carols and Spring Festival church services, indispensable entertainment opportunities for villagers. This also attracted many people to join Christianity, especially women.
Curing diseases
The introduction of medical insurance to rural regions was only a matter of recent years. In the 1980s and 1990s, the medical cost in rural areas was surprisingly high. As the medical technology was not developed and well introduced at that time, performing healing was brought into play, which absorbed many believers.
Caring for the aged
Like the medical burden, caring for the aged in rural areas was too weighty. Some elderly believers regarded the visiting that the church had done as a facility of care.
The distribution of believers determined the characteristics of pastors.
Most of them came from the countryside and a few from cities. Regarding geography, the north Huaihe River area was the central place where pastors came from, followed by the southeast coastal region. The evangelists in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River accounted for a small proportion. This was probably because the material life in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially in the Yangtze River Delta, was abundant with fewer or no natural disasters and wars, and cultural precipitation being rich. This determined the structural characteristics of traditional Chinese Christianity.
Pastors were mainly below the level of junior high school. The proportion of pastors who had high school and university education was very tiny.
Among the pastors who graduated from colleges, very few had bachelor's degrees or above. Most of them obtained certificates, not degrees. They mainly believed in the Lord while studying at their colleges and then took part in church services. After graduation, they became leaders of certain gathering places or professional pastors and lacked social experiences and sophistication.
They were male-dominated evangelists. It seemed to be natural to be prejudiced against women. In some extreme denominations, there were even open stipulations that women couldn't become pastors. This ran the opposite way to the general trend of gender equality in society.
The professional characteristics, such as stability, ease, popularity, status, and power, became the main factors in attracting young graduates to join a church and become its pastors. These characteristics caused the pastor to gradually isolate himself from society after entering a church. As time went by and they got older, they gradually became dependent on the church and could not leave the church. Since then, churches were gradually controlled by pastors.
The characteristics of believers and pastors determined the structure and development of traditional Chinese Christianity.
The tension between church and society was increasing significantly when the urbanization process was accelerating. Material l life in rural areas was improving. Electrical appliances were well introduced. The national medical system was well established, culture and entertainment became increasingly diversified. Christianity, which was based on the past tradition, lagged behind social development, so its tension increased. Now, the church tends to be more passive than ever, losing self-confidence. As a response, they have become gradually enclosed and conservative.
Castling Tulou is a building style typical in the southeast coast, and dock castle is a north building style. The courts were used as military defense facilities, which meant that the castle's residents were a blood community. The naming of these villages used to attach a surname as a prefix, for example, Lijiazhai (Li's Castle), Baolou (Bao's Mension), and Liujiabao (Liu's Castle).
Christianity, which was based on rural society, obviously inherited this characteristic. The church became a fortress and a military unit. It often lacked trust in other churches or people outside the church. Believers of the church called themselves the best soldiers of Christ. They formed a paramilitary unit with the pastor as the leader.
This kind of castling characteristic determined the member structure and mobility characteristics within the church. Marriage within a church was obviously the preferred and encouraged behavior. Marriage with other churches was also allowed, but it would bring the danger of membership reduction, so it was best to marry within a church group. Over time, it leads to an exclusive membership, and the whole group's mentality was gradually lowered.
There is a stern emphasis on obedience, the wife obeying her husband, the husband obeying the pastor, and the pastor following the Holy Spirit, who came from the church leader. In this way, a paramilitary system was established.
This was the continuation of the characteristics of castling. To defend and obtain the maximum survival and security resources, the connection between tulou and castles must be established in a relationship surpassing blood relationship to facilitate defense and attack. This was the blood culture of northern castling people who recognized each other as brothers even though they had no blood ties.
The Christian team's emergence was the reappearance of this castling relationship - forming a larger church entity to develop more entity churches and occupy more territory and resources.
The origin of believers, the culture and motivation of pastors, and the fortress's quasi-military structure determined that the church became an entity of secular interest rather than a spiritual entity. This characteristic decided that the number of believers and economic income became critical for measuring success or failure. In the pulpit, the pastor praised Jesus passionately, emphasizing obedience. In contrast, he tried his best to attract people to his church to the pulpit and increased its economic income.
The characteristics of traditional Christian doctrine was mainly based on Paul's letters and the Old Testament. Paul's letters emphasized hierarchy, obedience, men's superiority over women, and the difference between Gentiles and the chosen people. The Old Testament stressed the worship of money and power as a measure of God's favor. On this basis, the traditional Christian theology of prosperity was formed with influence, energy, and money as the criteria to measure a church's performance.
In theological structure, Gnostic dualistic system: spirituality vs. worldliness, body vs. soul, church vs. Gentiles.
Based on the above characteristics, the Christian church formed its own set of entirely independent moral value system. That is, it can do anything in the name of God, and obtaining money, fame, and power in the name of God was not bound by the Gentiles' social, moral system.
The unique believer base and missionary characteristics of Christianity determined its own styles and limitations. Of course, such a church group can't say that they completely abandoned Jesus' teaching, but in fact, the content of Paul's letters and the Old Testament in traditional church preaching and teaching were obviously high above Jesus' teaching.
Therefore, we seem to have found the crux of traditional Christianity, that is, we are far away from Jesus' teaching and misunderstand the historical characteristics of Jesus' teaching.
However, how to understand Jesus is still an insurmountable wall on the road of Christian development.
With Trump's defeat, the traditional Christian era has come to an end, but this does not mean that the faith in Jesus has also had the same fate. In fact, the influence of Jesus has been throughout history for more than two thousand years. Any significant social change can see the shadow of Jesus' teaching. It is that Jesus' thought never appears in the form of religions.
Only when the Christian era is over can Jesus enter the public eye. As for the form, it is not what religion can explain. However, a basic logic can be made clear: Jesus' faith will replace the Old Testament and Christianity based on Paul's letters.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and should not be understood to represent the views of China Christian Daily.)
- Translate by Charlie Li
从2020美国大选落幕谈中国传统基督教的特点及对历史的反思
2020年至今，发生的大事如果让我们排一个顺序的话，我想排在前两名的一定是新冠肺炎大流行和美国大选。
新冠肺炎的影响还没有消除，美国大选也已经告一段落，但是大选的结果不是结束，后续影响必然逐步显现。
这两个事件对世界的影响可以说方方面面，那么基督教同样不能站在他们的影子之外。疫情削弱了基督教的影响，这与罗马帝国时期，瘟疫成就基督教兴起截然不同。在疫情肆虐期间，基督教负面多于正面，面对危机反应迟缓，社会影响逐渐淡化。美国大选中，随着基督徒选出的总统川普出格表现，也为整个基督教带来分裂。
用狄更斯的话来形容这个时代，也许是再合适不过，“这是一个最好的时代，这是一个最坏的时代；这是一个智慧的年代，这是一个愚蠢的年代；这是一个光明的季节，这是一个黑暗的季节；这是希望之春，这是失望之冬；人们面前应有尽有，人们面前一无所有；人们正踏上天堂之路，人们正走向地狱之门。”
对于传统基督教来说，这不是一个好的时代，因为曾经火热的宗教热情，因为过去一年的疫情和川普败选而几近浇灭。传统基督教也在这个好时代和坏的时代混合中，结束了他的一个时代。
然而，传统基督教能否有复兴的时刻，这就看传统基督教自身的调整与改变。但是我们对这些调整与变革也不要抱太大希望，因为传统基督教已经形成了一个封闭的系统，这个封闭系统中，谁也不愿撼动自己的利益，利益的固化也就使寄希望于传统基督教的变革以适应社会的愿望成为泡影。
反观中国的传统基督教的历史，既有鲜明的时代特点，也有鲜明的人群和地域特点，他们是那个时代的产物，也就必然随着那个时代的结束而进入历史。
信徒人群分布特点
中国基督教在改革开放之后，政策允许正常开展宗教活动以来，人数获得飞跃增长，现在少说也有三千万人，多说也有五千到六千万，这些人数主要产生在八九十年代，打工潮兴起之前。然而这些信徒，大部分人是来自农村。这是因为在过去中国工业化进程中，是以牺牲农村来贴补城市，因此在医疗、文化教育、养老、娱乐等方面，农村的发展一直落后于城市的进程。而其它宗教已经在过去不断的社会运动中，几乎被铲除殆尽，这就为基督教在中国农村的传播提供了广阔空间。这也就是为什么中国基督教徒是以农村背景为主流的原因。
加入基督教的动机
鉴于人群分布主要以农村为主，那么也就有了以下加入基督教的动机。
1 赎罪
这种动机只是对于那些八十年代依靠不正当手段做生意的商人而言，因为他们靠生产假冒伪劣商品，或者其它欺骗的手段，赚得金钱财富，但是内心道德紧张，良心不安，所以加入基督教以求缓解这种良知拷问。他们以商人和小商人为主，一般年龄在六十岁以上，他们的特点就是向教会奉献大量金钱，信仰热情。
2 娱乐
由于中国八九十年代农村物质匮乏，娱乐和精神文化发展乏力，因此基督教聚会成为农村几乎无可选择的娱乐项目，尤其是圣诞和春节等的节日演出，成为村民们不可缺少的娱乐表演机会。这也吸引很多人加入基督教，尤其是以女性为主。
3 治病
医疗保险的普及是晚近几年的事，在之前的八九十年代，农村的医疗成本是出奇地高，此外当时医疗技术并不发达，也并未普及，因此基督教的医病赶鬼功能也就得以发挥，从而吸收了一批相当数量的信徒。
4 养老
与医疗负担一样，农村养老负担也极为沉重。教会的探访功能，让一些老年信徒把教会看做养老的辅助手段。
三、传道人特点
信徒的人群分布，决定了传道人的特点。
1 传道人来源和地域分布
大多出自农村。很少有出自城市的传道人。在地域分布上，又以淮河以北地区为主流，其次是东南沿海地区。长江中下游流域的传道人所占比例较小。这大概是因为长江长江中下游尤其长三角的物质生活较充裕，自然灾害、兵荒马乱较少，文化沉淀较为丰厚的缘故。
这也就决定了中国传统基督教的结构特点。
2 教育程度
传道人多以初中以下教育水平为主，高中和大学水平的传道人占比极少。
大学毕业的传道人，本科以上同样极少，大多是专科水平，他们大多在学校信主，然后参加教会工作，毕业之后就成为某一个聚会点的负责人，成为职业传道人，很缺乏社会阅历和经验。
3 性别结构
以男性为主的传道人群体，好像天生就对女性持有一种偏见。在某些极端教派中，甚至明文规定女性不能成为牧师。这与社会上男女逐渐趋于平等的大趋势背道而驰。
4 传道人加入教会的动机
稳定、轻松、受追捧、有地位和权势，这些职业特点，成为吸引那些刚毕业的年轻人加入教会成为传道人的主要因素。这些特点使得传道人进入教会之后，逐渐与社会隔离，随着时间的流逝，年龄增长，他们逐渐对教会产生依赖，继而无法离开教会。
如此以来，教会逐渐被传道人掌控。
四、中国传统基督教的结构特点
信徒和传道人的特点，决定了中国传统基督教的结构和发展特点。
1 封闭性
因为教会与社会之间的张力加大，尤其是城市化进程加快，农村地区物质生活提升，电器普及，全民医疗体系建立，文化娱乐越来越多元化，建立在过去传统之上的基督教，明显滞后于社会发展，因此与社会张力不断加大，此时，教会往往防守多于主动，自信逐渐丧失，因此与之相应地也就是逐渐封闭和保守。
2 坞堡性与土楼性
土楼是东南沿海的特点，坞堡是北方的特点。坞堡的特点是军事性和防御性，这就决定了坞堡之内为血缘共同体，往往这些后缀的村庄都以姓氏开头，比如李家寨，包楼，刘家堡等。
建基于农村社会基础上的基督教，显然继承了这一特点。教会成为一个坞堡，一个军事单位，对其它教会或者教会之外的人往往严重缺乏信任，教会内的信徒都是以基督的精兵自称，以传道人为领袖，形成一个准军事单位。
这种坞堡特点决定了教会内部的成员结构和流动特点。教会团体内部通婚显然是首选和鼓励的行为，与其它教会通婚也得到允许，但是这样一来，会带来成员减少的危险，因此最好的还是教会团体内部通婚，久而久之，导致近亲繁殖，整个群体心智逐渐低下。
强调顺服，妻子顺服丈夫，丈夫顺服传道人，传道人顺服圣灵，圣灵出自教会领袖。这样就建立了一种上下一体的准军事体制。
3 团队性
这是坞堡土楼特性的延续。为了防御，以及为求获得最大的生存和安全资源，以便于防守和进攻，那么坞堡之间的连合必然以超血缘关系的血缘模式建立，这就是以桃园结义为蓝本的北方坞堡血缘文化。
基督教的团队出现，就是这种超血缘关系的再现。组成更大的教会实体，以发展更多的实体教会，占领等多的地盘和资源。
4 世俗利益性
信徒的来源，传道人的文化和动机，以及坞堡性的准军事结构，决定了教会成为一个世俗利益实体，而不是精神信仰实体。这一特性决定了，信徒人数和经济收入成为衡量一个教会成败的标准。讲台上慷慨激昂赞美耶稣，强调顺服，讲台之下则是浑身解数拉人入教和增加教会经济收益。
五、传统基督教的教义特点
以保罗书信和旧约为主。保罗书信强调等级、顺服、男尊女卑、外邦人与拣选人的区别；旧约强调对金钱和权势的崇拜，把他们作为衡量上帝恩宠的标准。在这一基础上就形成了传统基督教的成功神学教义，以影响、权势、金钱作为衡量是否成功的标准。
在神学结构上，则是诺斯替二元主义结构，属灵与属世，肉体与灵魂，教会与外邦人等二元对立结构。
六、传统基督教独立的道德体系
在以上特点的基础上，决定了基督教教会形成了自己一套完全独立于社会的道德价值体系，那就是以上帝的名义可以做任何事情，以上帝的名义获取金钱、名望、权势是不受外邦人——社会道德体系约束的。
基督教特有的人群基础和传道人特点，决定了它自身的特点和局限。这样一个教会团体当然不能说他完全把耶稣的教导抛弃，但事实上传统教会在讲道和教导中，保罗和旧约的内容是明显远多于耶稣的教导。
因此，我们似乎找到了传统基督教的症结所在，那就是远离了耶稣的教导，也误解了耶稣教导的历史特性。
但是如何理解耶稣，这仍然是横亘在基督教发展道路上的不可逾越的一堵高墙。
随着川普的败选，传统基督教时代也随之落下了帷幕，但是这并不意味着耶稣信仰也遭遇相同的命运。实际上，耶稣的影响贯穿历史两千多年，任何一个重大意义的社会变革都能看到耶稣教导的影子。只不过耶稣思想从来不会以宗教的形态出现。
只有当基督教时代结束之后，耶稣才能走进大众。至于什么形式，那就不是一个宗教所能说明的了。但是，有一个基本逻辑是可以明确的：那就是耶稣信仰将取代旧约-保罗的圣经基督教。
从2020美国大选落幕谈中国传统基督教的特点及对历史的反思
From 2020 to now, if we put the major global events in a sequence, I think the top two must be COVID and the American presidential election.
The impact of COVID is not yet eliminated, and the US election is over. Still, the result of the election is not the end - the follow-up influence will inevitably appear gradually. Since the impact of these two events on the world can affect all aspects of life, Christianity can't stand outside its shadow either. The pandemic has weakened Christianity's influence, which is absolutely different from Christianity's rise, caused by plagues at the Roman Empire. During the COVID, Christianity has had more negative than positive news. Its social influence is gradually fading because of its slow response to the crisis. While the American election went on, President Trump, who Christians elected, performed improperly and consequently brought about division to Christianity as a whole.
Dickens' words may be more appropriate to describe this era, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of ambiguity, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness. It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair. We had everything before us. We had nothing before us. We were all going direct to Heaven. We were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so. Far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, good or evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
For traditional Christianity, this is not a good time because the once fervent religious enthusiasm has almost become extinguished due to the pandemic and the defeat of Trump in 2020. Meanwhile, traditional Christianity has also come to an end era in a mixture of good and bad times. Whether orthodox Christianity can have its revival moment depends on the adjustment and change of conventional Christianity itself. However, we should not hold too much hope for the adjusting and change because traditional Christianity has formed an enclosed system. No one wants to shake their own interests. The solidification of parts also makes it impossible to transform orthodox Christianity to adapt to society.
On the other hand, the history of traditional Chinese Christianity has distinct characteristics of people and regions' times and distinctive features. So, the derivatives of that era are bound to become history, with that era coming to an end.
After China's reform and opening-up, the number of Chinese Christians increased dramatically since it allowed normal religious activities. Now there are at least 30 million believers and at most 50 to 60 million. The number of believers mainly formed before the trend of migrant workers in the 1980s and 1990s. However, most of these believers were from the countryside because the countryside was sacrificed to supplement the city in the past industrialization process. Therefore, in medical treatment, culture and education, old-age care, entertainment, etc., rural areas' development has always lagged behind cities' process. Other religions were almost eradicated in the past constant social movements. This provided a broad room for the spread of Christianity in rural China. That was why the majority of Chinese Christians had a rural background.
Because the population mainly lived-in rural areas, the following were considered Chinese people's motives for joining Christianity.
Atonement
This motive was only characteristic of the businessmen in the 1980s who did business by improper means of producing fake and inferior commodities. However, their inner morality and conscience became tense and uneasy, so they joined Christianity to alleviate this torture of conscience. Mainly small businessmen and generally aged over 60, they were keen believers and were financially generous to the church.
Entertainment
Due to the shortage of materials and the lack of entertainment as well as spiritual and cultural development in China's rural areas in the 1980s and 1990s, Christian gatherings had become an almost irreplaceable entertainment project in rural areas, especially Christmas carols and Spring Festival church services, indispensable entertainment opportunities for villagers. This also attracted many people to join Christianity, especially women.
Curing diseases
The introduction of medical insurance to rural regions was only a matter of recent years. In the 1980s and 1990s, the medical cost in rural areas was surprisingly high. As the medical technology was not developed and well introduced at that time, performing healing was brought into play, which absorbed many believers.
Caring for the aged
Like the medical burden, caring for the aged in rural areas was too weighty. Some elderly believers regarded the visiting that the church had done as a facility of care.
The distribution of believers determined the characteristics of pastors.
Most of them came from the countryside and a few from cities. Regarding geography, the north Huaihe River area was the central place where pastors came from, followed by the southeast coastal region. The evangelists in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River accounted for a small proportion. This was probably because the material life in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially in the Yangtze River Delta, was abundant with fewer or no natural disasters and wars, and cultural precipitation being rich. This determined the structural characteristics of traditional Chinese Christianity.
Pastors were mainly below the level of junior high school. The proportion of pastors who had high school and university education was very tiny.
Among the pastors who graduated from colleges, very few had bachelor's degrees or above. Most of them obtained certificates, not degrees. They mainly believed in the Lord while studying at their colleges and then took part in church services. After graduation, they became leaders of certain gathering places or professional pastors and lacked social experiences and sophistication.
They were male-dominated evangelists. It seemed to be natural to be prejudiced against women. In some extreme denominations, there were even open stipulations that women couldn't become pastors. This ran the opposite way to the general trend of gender equality in society.
The professional characteristics, such as stability, ease, popularity, status, and power, became the main factors in attracting young graduates to join a church and become its pastors. These characteristics caused the pastor to gradually isolate himself from society after entering a church. As time went by and they got older, they gradually became dependent on the church and could not leave the church. Since then, churches were gradually controlled by pastors.
The characteristics of believers and pastors determined the structure and development of traditional Chinese Christianity.
The tension between church and society was increasing significantly when the urbanization process was accelerating. Material l life in rural areas was improving. Electrical appliances were well introduced. The national medical system was well established, culture and entertainment became increasingly diversified. Christianity, which was based on the past tradition, lagged behind social development, so its tension increased. Now, the church tends to be more passive than ever, losing self-confidence. As a response, they have become gradually enclosed and conservative.
Castling Tulou is a building style typical in the southeast coast, and dock castle is a north building style. The courts were used as military defense facilities, which meant that the castle's residents were a blood community. The naming of these villages used to attach a surname as a prefix, for example, Lijiazhai (Li's Castle), Baolou (Bao's Mension), and Liujiabao (Liu's Castle).
Christianity, which was based on rural society, obviously inherited this characteristic. The church became a fortress and a military unit. It often lacked trust in other churches or people outside the church. Believers of the church called themselves the best soldiers of Christ. They formed a paramilitary unit with the pastor as the leader.
This kind of castling characteristic determined the member structure and mobility characteristics within the church. Marriage within a church was obviously the preferred and encouraged behavior. Marriage with other churches was also allowed, but it would bring the danger of membership reduction, so it was best to marry within a church group. Over time, it leads to an exclusive membership, and the whole group's mentality was gradually lowered.
There is a stern emphasis on obedience, the wife obeying her husband, the husband obeying the pastor, and the pastor following the Holy Spirit, who came from the church leader. In this way, a paramilitary system was established.
This was the continuation of the characteristics of castling. To defend and obtain the maximum survival and security resources, the connection between tulou and castles must be established in a relationship surpassing blood relationship to facilitate defense and attack. This was the blood culture of northern castling people who recognized each other as brothers even though they had no blood ties.
The Christian team's emergence was the reappearance of this castling relationship - forming a larger church entity to develop more entity churches and occupy more territory and resources.
The origin of believers, the culture and motivation of pastors, and the fortress's quasi-military structure determined that the church became an entity of secular interest rather than a spiritual entity. This characteristic decided that the number of believers and economic income became critical for measuring success or failure. In the pulpit, the pastor praised Jesus passionately, emphasizing obedience. In contrast, he tried his best to attract people to his church to the pulpit and increased its economic income.
The characteristics of traditional Christian doctrine was mainly based on Paul's letters and the Old Testament. Paul's letters emphasized hierarchy, obedience, men's superiority over women, and the difference between Gentiles and the chosen people. The Old Testament stressed the worship of money and power as a measure of God's favor. On this basis, the traditional Christian theology of prosperity was formed with influence, energy, and money as the criteria to measure a church's performance.
In theological structure, Gnostic dualistic system: spirituality vs. worldliness, body vs. soul, church vs. Gentiles.
Based on the above characteristics, the Christian church formed its own set of entirely independent moral value system. That is, it can do anything in the name of God, and obtaining money, fame, and power in the name of God was not bound by the Gentiles' social, moral system.
The unique believer base and missionary characteristics of Christianity determined its own styles and limitations. Of course, such a church group can't say that they completely abandoned Jesus' teaching, but in fact, the content of Paul's letters and the Old Testament in traditional church preaching and teaching were obviously high above Jesus' teaching.
Therefore, we seem to have found the crux of traditional Christianity, that is, we are far away from Jesus' teaching and misunderstand the historical characteristics of Jesus' teaching.
However, how to understand Jesus is still an insurmountable wall on the road of Christian development.
With Trump's defeat, the traditional Christian era has come to an end, but this does not mean that the faith in Jesus has also had the same fate. In fact, the influence of Jesus has been throughout history for more than two thousand years. Any significant social change can see the shadow of Jesus' teaching. It is that Jesus' thought never appears in the form of religions.
Only when the Christian era is over can Jesus enter the public eye. As for the form, it is not what religion can explain. However, a basic logic can be made clear: Jesus' faith will replace the Old Testament and Christianity based on Paul's letters.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and should not be understood to represent the views of China Christian Daily.)
- Translate by Charlie Li
Characteristics of Chinese Traditional Christianity, Reflection on Its History in Terms of 2020 US Presidential Election
