"As Christians, we are taught by our leaders to believe certain ideas and behave in certain ways. We are also encouraged to read our Bibles. But we are conditioned to read the Bible with the lens handed to us by the Christian tradition to which we belong. We are taught to obey our denomination (or movement) and never to challenge what it teaches."
This is called blind faith or stubborn ignorance. The Calvinist church is guilty of this as much as the Catholic church, the Anglican church, the Lutheran church, the Presbyterian church, the Baptist church, the Pentecostal church, etc. Where how you were raised, what you were taught, and what you presently believe trump the evidence and truth of reality. Where you will blindly fight tooth and claw to retain and defend your concept of church and your man-made traditions rather than submitting and conforming to the New Testament Scriptures.
"Warning: If you are unwilling to have your Christianity seriously examined, do not read beyond this page. Give this book to Goodwill immediately! Spare yourself the trouble of having your Christian life turned upside down.
However, if you choose to 'take the red pill' and be shown 'how deep the rabbit hole goes' . . . if you want to learn the true story of where your Christian practices came from . . . if you are willing to have the curtain pulled back on the contemporary church and its traditional presuppositions fiercely challenged . . . then you will find this work to be disturbing, enlightening, and possibly life changing.
Put another way, if you are a Christian in the institutional church who takes the New Testament seriously, what you are about to read may lead to a crisis of conscience. For you will be confronted by unmovable historical fact."
Cowardly Christians do not want their Christianity examined, let alone their belief systems, lest at any time it prove they have believed wrongly. God forbid that in humility they should have to admit it and conform to Scripture. It is much more comfortable to tread the path well worn rather than to pull out a map and compass and see if the road is straight or not. Stubborn blindness, or blind stubbornness, chooses the path of least resistance. God forbid we should be corrected and have to adjust the course of our faith.
Serious Christians serious about their faith, and serious about Christ Jesus and their walk with Him, have no problem with taking the red pill. We want to know the truth, and we want to conform our lives to it. However, a great many in the church would rather take the blue pill and be blissfully ignorant as to truth and reality. Their walk and their faith, like their character, is shallow.
The above two quotes in blue come from the book Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna. This book, as well as its companion books, Reimagining Church, From Eternity to Here, and Finding Organic Church, need to be read by every serious Christian who loves God. Pagan Christianity? deconstructs, while Reimagining Church constructs. Those content to stick their head in the sand and keep it there, like the three monkeys covering their eyes, ears, and mouth, need not concern themselves with matters for the spiritually mature and faithful. Mature Christians, serious about their faith, wanting to conform to the image of Christ and to walk as His Apostles walked, welcome the challenges of these two books because they seek after righteousness and His kingdom. Their eyes are ever on Christ and to learn His will. The cowardly, while they pay lip service to Christ, have no love for Him and do not want their Christianity or their faith challenged. They want to remain comfortable and blissfully ignorant of the truth.
"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."