The terms Christianity and Christian have fallen on hard
times. I don’t wish to abandon them, but
to rather clarify the qualifications for legitimately applying them. Consider that a choir sung at Michael
Jackson’s funeral, “Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.” I once saw a plaque honoring a notorious
rapper as a Christian who had lived a wicked life and died a violent
death. When Elvis Presley died,
ministers declared emphatically that he had gone to heaven. I saw a sign in front of a nightclub honoring
one of their waitresses declaring, “She’s in heaven tonight.” The idea of heaven that prevails in society
is best captured by the song, “Prop me up against the jukebox when I die.” All manner of secular individuals who spent
their lives in rebellion against God have been eulogized into heaven, but they
never arrived as citizens of that celestial city.
People get highly offended if I dare imply that they were
not Christians and were in fact diabolical.
Although C. S. Lewis would not make a determination about an individual,
whether he or she was or was not a true Christian, he made an interesting point
about the term Christian. In his book,
“Mere Christianity”, he makes a point in the introduction that certain terms
have fallen from their original intended use.
For example, the term “gentleman” once described a man of landed
property who had a Coat of Arms. It was
not a complementary term, but an informational one. The gentleman who owned
land and had a Coat of Arms might have been a scoundrel, but he was a
gentleman. You would not have been
insulting a common person in that day had you remarked that he was no
gentleman. Gradually, and over a
significant period, the term became a complimentary one. Now when you call someone a gentleman, you
are not necessarily referring to his social standing, but to his nature. In
modern times, to say that someone is not a gentleman is an insult. The same thing goes for the term “lady”. Lewis goes on to state that the term
Christian also used to mean something other than what it does today. The term was coined as an informational one,
but has now become a complimentary term.
I agree with C. S Lewis that the term Christian is an
informational one. We may be able to
afford the misuse of the term gentleman, but we cannot afford to allow the term
Christian to be misused. Of course, people
believe that they have a right to the term Christian no matter how much their
lives contradict God’s Word. For
example, there are terrorists who profess Christianity, yet commit horrific
crimes in venues such as Ireland and Lebanon.
There are professing Christians who also declare themselves homosexuals
and lesbians. Some professing Christians
do not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Other professing Christians have no qualities
of Christianity at all, but rather identify with the world system. However, each of them would become indignant
if informed that they were not true Christians.
Although not many of us are willing to engage in conflict,
we must be willing to delineate the boundary between Christianity and the World
System. In doing so, we are bound to
rile some pretentious soul who attempts to live in both venues with one foot tentatively
stretched across the God-established boundary.
What do we do then? The time is
come to proclaim true Christianity. It
is more than a religion—it is a life empowered by the Holy Spirit and fed by
God’s word. A Christian is more than a
believer in Christ, a doer of good works, an attendee of religious meetings, or
even an adherent to sound doctrine. One
can commit to all those things and remain at his or her core a sinner, as
Corinthians 13 declares. A Christian is
one who has in him or her, the Spirit of Christ. If we are indwelt and submit to the Spirit of
Christ, more than good works or habits will ensue. The life of Christ will flow from us. Of course that means light and darkness will
hate us for it. The temptation is to dim
our glow to the extent that we can maneuver in the shadows without attracting
too much attention.
All confessions of Christianity will have to pass God’s
smell test at the Judgment. Many of them
don’t even pass the human smell test. The truth is that a true Christian will speak
and live God’s truth no matter what it costs him or her. One will not have to search for the
characteristics of godliness in them—those qualities will be evident. They do not chase after sin while claiming to
be indwelt by the Sinless One. They are
not perfect, but they do not use that fact as an excuse to live unrighteous. I refuse to apply the term Christian to people
who refuse to surrender to and honor Christ.
I am sad that they reject(ed) the truth, are soured with bitterness and in
bondage, and some may have died lost, but my sadness does not compel me to
misapply the term Christian. To do so is
to give license to more lost people to follow in their steps. God forbid.
I want to make this final statement and I know it will be
interpreted as harsh. If one stands for
Christ as Ephesians 6 declares, he or she is
going to be persecuted from this time until the Second Coming of Christ. Knowing this, we have a duty to prepare
ourselves to be strong. If not, then we
are not going to stand, or if we stand it will not be long or strong. I say and write this repeatedly; this is not
a game where we get to pick up our marbles and start all over. It is the process of life in the temporal realm
to prepare for the eternal one. Deadly
forces of evil are against us getting the eternal perspective. Those forces want us to become mired in the
temporal realm, live for its pleasure, and ignore God and His right to our
heart, mind, body, and spirit. If all
one has is a verbal claim, a false doctrine that provides an invalid ticket to
heaven, or a variation of self-righteousness, he or she will be eternally
disappointed, to say the least. Time has
come to make your calling and election sure.
Time is short. The dark storm is
approaching. The door is about to
close. Don’t be caught standing outside
beating on it and begging to get in when all hell breaks loose.
Comments
Post a Comment