Last night I was hanging out with some friends and we were playing a game called "Telestrations." The concept is a mixture between the old "Telephone" game and Pictionary. Each person is given their own word that no one knows but them. They write that word down and then draw a picture of it on the next page. They turn the page and pass the drawing booklet to the next person. That person can only look at the drawing and they have to write down what they think the drawing is. The next person receives the drawing booklet and they have to draw a picture of what the person before them guessed. This goes around for eight turns... one person draws and the next person guesses. By the end, what started out as a horse could come back as a hot dog.

You rarely end with the last person guessing what the first person wrote down. The game results in much laughter, excitement, and a really fun time.

When I went to bed last night I was thinking about the game and how it really illustrates what has happened with the Bible and Christianity. In the beginning, things started out with the truth, but over time men have seen things a different way and things have become distorted. Over the past 2000 years there have been many changes and departures from the original pattern. Sometimes these differences seemed very small, but many small differences and many years make for some pretty major distortions. Today we have more denominations, doctrines, worship styles, practices than anyone can count. Some have compared our religious environment to a buffet... You can go from church to church and find all kinds of differences until you find the one you want. This is far from the way Christianity began, it's far from what Jesus taught, and it's far from that for which Jesus died.

Some years ago people accepted these changes as necessary evils. Today they are glorified as "diversity" and embraced and praised. It does not take a long study of the scriptures to understand that such diversity and changes are wrong. In a very fervent prayer for His disciples, then and throughout time, Jesus prayed that "they would all be one" just as He and the Father were One (John 17:20-21). Paul wrote to the Corinthian church saying that there should be no divisions among them, but rather unity of mind and judgment (1 Cor. 1:10). Galatians 1:6-9 warns us about turning away from the true gospel to a distorted gospel. There Paul says that even if he or angel from Heaven taught something different that what had already been taught, that he was to be accursed. Later, he would write to Timothy and say, "the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths" (2 Tim. 4:3-4). This describes so well our religious culture today and the circumstances that have created it. All of these scriptures, and countless more, warn us about the danger of division and distortions in Christianity. Such changes are not acceptable.

At the end of the game Telestrations, everyone sits around anxiously awaiting the revealing of each person's original word. Everyone wants to know if we got it right and how far off the end result was. So each person reveals their original word and then flips through the pages to show each guess and drawing. Isn't the answer to the division and departures of our religious culture the same way? Instead of just accepted them or praising them, why don't we all just flip back to the beginning and see how things started! This will not be popular and it will certainly not be easy, but the nature of faith is neither a pursuit of popularity or ease. The nature of faith means seeking to walk in truth and righteousness regardless of the cost, challenges, and consequences. It takes everyone sincerely and completely setting aside the traditions and creeds of men for following only the Bible. It takes demanding authority for everything we believe and practice. It takes being willing to admit we were wrong and that those in our past were wrong. Achieving unity in our religious culture is possible if everyone would go back to following the pattern for New Testament Christianity.