What’s in this Newsletter:
Christianity is fracturing under the weight of 40,000 denominations, burned-out leaders, and mass exodus — and most diagnoses focus on the symptoms while missing the root cause. In this episode, I’ll make the case that the real crisis is a stolen microphone: Jesus, the founder and only true authority of the faith, has been systematically subordinated by 2,000 years of brilliant but competing voices. If you've ever sensed that something is deeply off in modern Christianity but couldn't name it, this episode will give you the diagnosis — and point toward the only cure.
There’s a moment in the Gospels that should settle forever the position Jesus should have in our lives.
Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration, radiating the glory of God. Moses and Elijah appear beside Him. And Peter—good old Peter—starts nervously yammering about building shrines for these holy men, trying to make sense of what he’s seeing.
And then the Father interrupts. A voice from heaven shouts:
“This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”
Not “Listen to Moses.” Not “Listen to Elijah.” Not “Listen to the prophets” or “Listen to the religious leaders.”
“Listen to Him.” To Jesus. Alone.
But here’s what’s happened over the last 2,000 years: we’ve stopped listening to Him alone. We’ve added other voices. Lots of other voices. Important voices. Brilliant voices. Voices that have shaped Christianity for centuries.
The Apostles. Paul. The Church Fathers. Medieval theologians. The Reformers. Denominational founders. Celebrity pastors. Theologians. Authors. Podcasters. And in listening to all that noise, Jesus has been reduced from THE voice to ONE voice among many.
He’s become an elective rather than the core curriculum. A consultant rather than the CEO. One opinion among thousands.
And that’s the root of our crisis.
Today, we’re beginning Act II: The Noise. My goal is that we will start paying attention to the noise. We will notice the noise and decide to silence it. We start here: with how Jesus went from being the singular teaching authority to being subordinated by a chorus of competing voices.
Recap
Welcome back to the Grounded podcast and this season’s focus “reJesus everything.” In case you’re just joining us, in Act I, we explored the pain of the current faith crisis. We acknowledged that millions are leaving the church, that people may be drawn to Jesus but repelled by Christianity, that even ministry leaders are burning out from running the machine, we’ve all inherited, and that having convictions and living by them will come at a cost today.
Our Next Episodes
In this section we’re going to diagnose the problem. Because pain without diagnosis is just suffering. So over the next six episodes, we’re going to look honestly at what’s gone wrong so we can fix it. And it starts here: Jesus has been subordinated. Despite all of our songs and nice words about him, he’s no longer the central authority of Christianity. He’s one voice among many. And when there are multiple voices claiming authority, you get chaos which leads to fracturing. Today we have 40,000 versions of Christianity.
Let’s trace how this happened.
In the Beginning, There Was One Voice
When Jesus walked the earth, there was no confusion about who had authority.
Jesus spoke, and people listened. He didn’t quote other rabbis to establish His credibility. He didn’t build elaborate theological systems. He didn’t defer to the religious authorities of His day.
He simply said, “You have heard it said... but I say to you.” That phrase—”but I say to you”—was revolutionary. It was scandalous. Because Jesus was claiming authority above all other voices, an authority that belonged to God alone.
The religious leaders noticed this. They said, “Who does this man think he is? By what authority does he say these things?” And Jesus’ answer was clear: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Not some authority. Not shared authority. All authority.
When Jesus taught, He spoke with clarity and simplicity:
- “Follow me.”
- “Love your enemies.”
- “Seek first the kingdom of God.”
- “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
- “If you love me, you will obey my commands.”
There was no theological maze. No complex systematized theology. No endless debates about predestination or free will or the role of women, or the nature of the atonement. Just Jesus. One voice. Clear. Authoritative. Uncluttered.
His sheep hear His voice. And for a brief moment in history, that’s all there was. Jesus and His disciples.
The Teacher and His students.
The Shepherd and His sheep.
But then Jesus ascended.
And other voices began to speak. And that’s where things started to get complicated.
The first of the new voices belong to the Apostles. Peter, James, John, and others were personally trained and discipled by Jesus himself for almost four years. He empowered them to extend the movement that he had founded.
After Jesus ascended, the apostles took on the role of spreading His message. And they were crystal clear about their secondary role. They were disciples of Jesus, not His colleagues. They traveled around repeating Jesus’ words, describing His practices and lifestyle, and calling people to repent and follow Him as Earth’s rightful King.
As the faith spread, their role included sharing what they felt Jesus’ position would be on contemporary issues. But here’s the key: they weren’t unquestionable in these judgments. Their reliability depended on how much they could push aside their biases and cultural expectations and apply what they knew of Jesus’ heart to the matters before them.
To an apostle, Jesus was the hermeneutic.
You use the totality of Him to interpret everything’s meaning and find the way forward. You see this in Acts when the apostles gather to discuss under what conditions Gentiles could enter the community. They have differences of opinion on this. They debate. They pray. They seek to discern what Jesus would say about this matter. You see this also in the writings of Paul, John, Peter, Jude, and Hebrews. They did their best to apply Jesus’ teachings, lifestyle, and stated mission to the ongoing experience of the discipleship community as it spread culture to culture.
The Bible contains 783,137 words. We have poems, letters, historical accounts, and tons and tons of stories written by over 40 different authors. It’s an anthology of sacred literature that took over 2,000 years to come together. But of all these words, 40,000 are words spoken by Jesus Himself.
If he is the word of God in the flesh, those 40,000 words are the foundation for all core knowledge about the new Kingdom of God. In these words Jesus reveals what he has come to establish, the community He is building, and the one true path that will take us away from sin and Satan into family of God.
Jesus Alone Knows
No other human has a path to greater revelation than Jesus possessed as the Word of God in flesh. Even the apostles’ words must be seen as commentary supplementary to His, not as alternative ways of thinking equal to or superior to His own.
Paul of Tarsus was not personally discipled by Jesus. In fact, he never met him physically. Never heard him teach. Never saw him do miracles or debate the scholars. He had a mystical encounter with him and had access to the living apostles for many, many years to hear their first-hand accounts.
Paul has, by far, the greatest influence over today’s Christianity simply because he was a prolific writer. Had he never picked up a pen, we would have a radically different Christianity today.
The books in the Bible I wish we had
I am thankful for all that Paul has written, and I have studied his letters all my Christian life. I wish the apostles had written more. I wish we had an eyewitness recording of what Jesus taught them in the six weeks after His resurrection. Paul’s voice lives on because while others taught in person, he used his times in prison to put his thoughts in writing. And writing wins over speaking in the battle against time. We are grateful for the insights Paul shares in his letters to his friends.
After the apostles and their contemporaries (Paul and whoever wrote Hebrews) died, the next generation of Christian leaders began to interpret and systematize the faith. And with each generation, more voices were added.
The “Church Fathers”
First there’s a group we call The Church Fathers (100-500 AD) Men like Augustine, Origen, Jerome, and Athanasius wrote extensively about theology, doctrine, and practice. Their writings became foundational for later Christian thought about things like the nature of the Incarnation.
They were brilliant men, deeply committed to Christ. But they also brought their own philosophical frameworks, cultural assumptions, and personal biases. Augustine’s theology was shaped by his background in Neoplatonism. Origen’s was influenced by Greek philosophy.
And their voices began to shape how Christians understood Jesus—sometimes clarifying, sometimes obscuring.
The Medieval Theologians
Then came the medieval theologians (500-1500 AD)—Thomas Aquinas, Anselm—who built massive theological systems. They asked questions Jesus never asked and gave answers Jesus never gave. They debated the nature of the atonement, the mechanics of salvation, the relationship between faith and works, the role of the sacraments. They created elaborate doctrines that required years of study to understand. More and more, Jesus’ simple, clear voice became buried under layers of theological complexity.
The Reformers
Then came the Reformation. Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and others challenged the corruption of the Catholic Church. They were heroes in many ways—calling the church back to Scripture, to grace, to faith. But they also created new complex theological systems. Calvin’s five points. Luther’s doctrine of justification. The Westminster Confession. The Augsburg Confession.
Protestant theology was largely built on the writings of Saint Paul, not the words of Jesus in the gospels. Reformed theology is built on the concept of “determinism,” the idea that God largely controls the actions of humans as part of his mysterious sovereign plan. We just act out what God has already predetermined. Even our eternity in heaven or hell was already decided (according to this system) before the world was even formed.
Reformed theology mutes the microphone of Jesus.
This theology has a problem with Jesus when He holds the microphone. His words mess up the meticulous theological package the Reformers packaged in the 1500s. They’d rather let Martin Luther and John Calvin explain Paul explaining Jesus.
They need to mute Jesus’ speeches, because if you confine yourself to His direct words, He won’t allow anyone to build theology where humans have no true freedom of choice. Jesus’ direct words won’t give you unconditional election, limited atonement, or irresistible grace. Those doctrines come from other sources (notably Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Calvin).
They say it’s easy to “misunderstand Jesus” when He declares that you have capacity and responsibility to choose to follow God. Jesus says that your actions, not your doctrinal beliefs or sovereign election, will be weighed in judgment before God. James, who grew up in the same household with Jesus, repeats this emphasis on actions with great conviction—leading Luther to call his part of the Bible “an epistle of straw” and wish he could delete it.
For the Reformed, Paul, not Jesus, is Christianity’s best thinker. I think Paul would be aghast. He wrote in Philippians, “For me, to live is Christ.” It’s completely unacceptable that Jesus isn’t the central teacher of His own disciples.
The modern Christian scene.
But it gets even worse in the modern era. After, and perhaps because of the multiplication of “authoritative voices” in the Reformation, Christianity splintered into thousands of denominations. Each one claimed to have the right interpretation of Scripture. Each one claimed to be following Jesus. But they all said different things.
The power of the written word, again.
We’re back again to the power of writing. The printing press changed everything. Suddenly, anyone could publish their theological ideas. Books multiplied. Pamphlets spread. Sermons were printed and distributed. And with each new voice, the noise grew louder.
Cult group leaders
Then came the cult leaders—Joseph Smith and the Mormons, Charles Taze Russell and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science, and countless others. Each one claimed new revelation. Each one claimed authority. Each one said, “Jesus is important, but you also need to listen to me.”
Today, we have over 40,000 Christian denominations worldwide. Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Reformed, Wesleyan, Anabaptist, Non-denominational—the list goes on and on. And each one has its own doctrines, practices, and interpretations. Each one claims to be following the Bible. But they can’t agree on what it says.
So let me ask you a question as a thinking person. How central should the words of Jesus be for those who would be His disciples? Did He just come to die and rise again, leaving theological development to each generation of Christians? Or does Jesus have a unique authority over us as our teacher?
An example of modern theological logic
Ask a question like, “Can a Christian divorce their partner?” You’ll likely hear, “Well, Christ says not, but Paul says...” Wait. Stop right there. “Christ says not, but Paul says...”Do you not hear what’s happening in that sentence? Jesus is being subordinated. His words are being treated as negotiable, as one opinion among others.
Here’s the core crisis we’re facing: Jesus has been reduced from THE voice to ONE voice among many.
The doctrinal maze we find ourselves trapped in arises from the continued practice of allowing our focus to diffuse by elevating the thoughts of the many great thinkers among us—which relegates the voice of the one called the Word of God to being just one voice among many. We have libraries filled with 2,000 years of doctrinal contributions from each generation of Christians.
The founder’s voice has been drowned out. And if we’re ever going to reconstruct a faith that can sustain us, we have to restore that one voice—the direct words of Jesus alone.
Recap
We’ve identified the first source of our Noise problem: the noise of multiple voices. Multiple voices have subordinated Jesus. He’s gone from being THE authority to being ONE authority among many. The Apostles voices. The Church Fathers voices. Medieval theologians. Reformers. Modern denominations. Cult leaders with new revelation. So many words. All considered binding on the people. And somewhere in all that noise, Jesus’ own clear, simple, authoritative voice has been drowned out.
The Christian Buffet
So today, we have no central authority to resolve theological disputes. Christianity has become a buffet where everyone picks and chooses what they like, discarding what makes them uncomfortable.
What’s coming up in our next episode?
In our next episode, we’re going to explore the carnival-like noise of “Christianity—the Everything Religion.” We’ll see what happens when there’s no center, no magnetic north, no authoritative voice that can provide direction. Because when Jesus isn’t the center, Christianity becomes whatever we want it to be—and in doing so becomes nothing at all.
Here’s our discussion question for this episode:
When you have a question about the Bible, faith, or theology, whose voice do you turn to first—-Google? John Piper? A Podcaster? ChatGPT? Jesus, Paul, your pastor, or someone else? And why?
Drop your answer in the comments. I read every single one, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Until next time, I’m Chuck Quinley. Thanks for joining me! Let’s get grounded.
PS: thanks so much to those of you who forwarded the last episode to your friends. I’m hearing from some of those people about how timely, this topic is for them and their life. Thanks for joining me in this ministry in God’s Word!
