For many people the word “Christian” has lost or changed meaning. It used to mean someone who was an authentic follower of Jesus. Now it is often used as a synonym for nice, as in, “She’s a really Christian person,” or to describe someone who goes to church sometimes while rejecting the essentials of the faith.
Theological liberals tend to get very wounded if you imply that they don’t hold Christian views. They’ve been in false-teaching churches so long and have such a low view of scripture that they think that is the way church is supposed to be.
It is ultimately God’s job to assess who truly trusts in Jesus and who does not. I’m not qualified and wouldn’t want the job even if I was.
Jesus did say that you will know them by their fruit and that we should make right judgments, so it is fair to examine people’s lives to see if they have evidence for their faith. But mistakes can be made during fruit inspection. We would have probably thought that Judas was the real deal and that the criminal on the cross was not.
But it does seem fair to point out when self-described Christians don’t hold views that have historically applied to Christians, as shown in the Bible, countless creeds and denominational statements of faith. The views of theological Liberals mock the cross and the blood of the martyrs who died — and who still suffer and die today — rather than recant their faith.
First, consider this conversation:
Me: I’m a Muslim.
Real Muslim: No, you’re not.
Me: Really, I am, and I’m offended that you say I’m not.
RM: Do you believe the Koran is the word of God?
Me: No, of course not. A man wrote it, and it has obvious errors like saying that a body double died on the cross instead of Jesus. It was written hundreds of years after Christ, and even sources outside the Bible claim that Jesus himself died. And don’t get me started about all the violence it encourages! Why trust the Koran?
RM: Do you believe in Allah as the one true God?
Me: No.
RM: Do you like Jewish people?
Me: Yes.
RM: Do you eat pork?
Me: Mmmmmmm . . . bacon.
RM: You aren’t a Muslim.
Me: Yes I am!
Sounds ridiculous, right? Now consider this:
Me: Are you a Christian?
Liberal theologian: Yes.
Me: Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?
LT: No, not a bit of it. Even though it claims to speak for God roughly 3,000 times, I think those are all made up by people.
Me: Do you think Jesus is God?
LT: No.
Me: Do you believe any of the miracles recorded in the Bible are true?
LT: Of course not. I’m too smart for that. Miracles can’t happen. Writers made those up.
Me: Do you think Jesus is the only way to salvation?
LT: No.
Me: Do you believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead?
LT: No.
Me: Do you believe that we are created in God’s image and that we should protect innocent human life?
LT: Abortions for any and all reasons at any time are fine with God. Jesus is pro-legalized abortion. We get to decide who the real “persons” are.
Me: Do you look for opportunities to share the Gospel as outlined in the Bible?
LT: Of course not. All religions (or no religions) are valid paths to God. God loves us unconditionally. We don’t need a Savior.
Me: Do you realize how radically different your basic views are from those of Christians throughout the last 2,000 years, especially to the countless Christians who died rather than recant their faith?
LT: Sort of . . . but we’re so much smarter than they were.
Me: Indeed. But how can you claim to be a Christian?
LT: How dare you question my faith?!
Is the first conversation different from the second?
I haven’t had that precise conversation with any liberal Christians, but it is a highly accurate composite. Try it yourself. You may find that their views are even more bizarre. I’m almost certain that any of the “Jesus Seminar” members would answer the questions that way. For example, I read a book co-authored by Marcus Borg (a member of the Jesus Seminar) and he held all the heretical views noted above and more.
These people may be decent citizens and friendly neighbors, but calling themselves Christians wildly distorts the meaning of the word. I wish the frauds would be honest for once and officially switch to professing atheism or Hinduism, which are much more in line with their views.
Filed under: Bible, False teachers, Favorites | Tagged: atheism, Bible, christianity, False teachers, Islam, liberal, religion, UCC
My sentiments exactly! Good post
Excellent points!
Funny how when liberal theologians are done talking about “women’s health” and “inclusion” all neatly wrapped around selected quoting of Jesus, I take a step back at look at who is being glorified by their actions. Jesus…or themselves?
If you want to glorify My Savior you don’t “selectively” quote Him so others only hear what makes them like you. You quote ALL of Him knowing that may lead to others liking you less, not more.
I look at Carrie Prejean who took a stand against gay marriage and has been dragged through the mud. She is certainly no role model. She has certainly made poor judgments and done wrong things in her life. But she did reach a point where she finally decided to make a stand. And what is the standard applied to her? That if she is anything less than perfect, she is a hypocrite. Hey Carrie! You are not alone! I am not perfect either. I guess that makes me a hypocrite as well. The whole point of the attack against Carrie is to tell everyone you will be allowed mistakes if you only stop reminding us of everything Jesus calls us to be and do. Liberal theologians fail what I now call the Carrie Prejean test. They value people liking them more than they value glorifying Jesus. It is easy to stand up and say “Jesus is about love and would support inclusiveness and gay marriage because that is love.” It is much harder to stand up and do what Carrie Prejean did. She is no role model. But she is no lukewarm Christian anymore either.
Sad but very true post. Some people today seem to think they are a Christian because they go to church every now and then, have a Bible in their house, and believe that God may exist.
Good job, Neil. Hard-hitting, but accurate. You take some pretty tough stands and I admire your courage and pray for your efforts. don
Unfortunately for your argument, Islam is fairly explicit about what is required to legitimately call oneself a Muslim, so your analogy is (to lift a phrase) “not even wrong”. Even more unfortunately, Christianity is not anywhere near as clear as Islam about the same requirements – which is why you keep having conversations with people who don’t believe the same thing as you, but insist on calling themselves Christians. Boy, that must burn you up.
Your arguments are rancid, Neil, especially when you cripple them yourself by saying things like “I haven’t had that precise conversation with any liberal Christians” – and it’s fairly safe to guess that you haven’t had any conversations like that with Muslims either, otherwise you wouldn’t be parading your ignorance like it was the latest fashion.
“Hard-hitting”. Heh.
Hi Merkur,
Thanks, I always love lessons about Christianity from non-Christians and fake Christians. Thanks for the worldview tune-up, but it turns out that Christianity is explicit as well. For example, the Bible teaches over and over that Jesus is the only way to salvation and that there is one God. “Christian pluralist” is an oxymoron.
Wow, nothing gets by you! It is funny how literal people can be sometimes when they are deliberately missing the point. I have had many conversations with Muslims ensuring that I was characterizing their views properly and I have done a lot of research on Islam. I stand by the examples I gave (unless you can prove, for example, that they can eat pork and that my Muslim employee and a whole lot of others I am aware of are mistaken about their faith).
Fake Christians are warned about and railed against in the Bible many times — http://www.4simpsons.com/doctrine_counts.htm . Yes, they “burn me up.” That’s why I did this post. How perceptive of you!
Neil, it seems to me that, while there is indeed an aspect of Christian faith that is strictly between the individual and God — namely, whether Christ knows the individual, a question on which everything depends (Mt 7:21-23) — there is obviously an aspect of faith that is verifiable.
That aspect isn’t just “fruit” — or what I’ve heard called orthopraxy, “right practice.”
It’s orthodoxy, “right beliefs.”
Paul taught that anybody who preached a different gospel is accursed (Gal 1:6-9).
And just in case anyone gets the wrong impression that Paul was uniquely irascible, John — who preached that God is love, and that we are to love one another — denounced as ANTI-CHRIST those who denied that Jesus came in the flesh (I Jn 4:2-3).
It’s certainly. wrong to pronounce definitive judgment on anyone’s salvation, but I don’t think it’s wrong to judge a person’s affiliation — because affiliation with the essential beliefs of Christianity is a separate question from (but certainly related to) one’s eternal standing before God.
One can certainly go too far into the details, to deny (for instance) that those who sprinkle aren’t Christians.
But one CAN draw a line.
Christians believe in God. At the barest of minima, Christianity is a theistic religion.
Therefore, no atheist is a Christian. Anybody who denies the existence of God cannot honestly be considered a Christian.
This is simple stuff, but I’ve raised this very example with a theological liberal who claims to be a Christian, and the question was never answered, can an atheist be a Christian?
I think it goes further than that: Christians aren’t just theists, they’re monotheists, specifically trinitarians. Trinitarian Christianity is redundant, non-trinitarian Christianity is oxymoronic.
Christians believe that Jesus really existed in history, that He really is God Incarnate — fully God and fully man — and that He really was crucified, and that He was historically and bodily raised.
A denial of any of these tenets may allow a person to have some sort of “faith in Jesus” — as a good teacher, or as a prophet as Muslims believe, or as *a* god as the polytheistic Mormons believe — but it precludes a specifically CHRISTIAN faith in Jesus.
(Heck, even the belief that Jesus is the Christ — the Greek word for anointed, the Hebrew Messiah — entails certain beliefs about the authority of Jewish Scripture, since the Christ fulfills the text’s numerous prophecies about Him.)
We preach Christ crucified (I Cor 1:23).
And if Christ is not raised, then our faith is in vain (I Cor 15:12-19).
We proclaim the historical Christ, the crucified Christ, the risen Christ, and the living Christ: Christ the Incarnate Deity.
Those who don’t simply aren’t Christians.
(On the subject, Neil, I came across what appears to be a Spurgeon sermon that, at first glance, seems to hit the nail on the head in terms of what’s essential.)