Seriously Considering Christ and Christianity

As everyone knows, there is a crisis going on in the church which has massive ramifications for the church and, ultimately, for world culture.  Young people, especially, are being challenged to walk away from their families' commitments to Jesus Christ and the church.  They are being told that Christianity is simply not true, that Jesus is not the Son of God and Saviour of the world, and that exclusively to hold to the truth of Christ is intellectually irresponsible or disreputable.  And such claims are coming not just from university departments of philosophy or biology, they often come from inside the church, even from those with lifelong involvement with the church, as some of those previously committed to Christ now significantly question most of what they previously were taught and believed.  This is not just sad, it is tragic, especially when the challenges made to Christianity are so often grounded on less than the most rigorous intellectual, philosophical, historical foundations.

From merely a human perspective, Jesus the Messiah or Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Bar Joseph from Nazareth in Galilee, born about 4 B.C., is the most important, most admired, most followed human being who has ever lived.  The social ethic he taught and exampled is considered the most important, most revolutionary, most widely influential, loftiest social ethic ever conceived.  The social community He created has been the most significant, most influential, most powerful force for good that the world has known.  If the poor, the sick, the lonely, the heartbroken, the unattractive, the outcast, the hurting, the disadvantaged, the imprisoned, the persecuted, the oppressed, the self-destructive, the addictive, the demonized, the evil and the rejected ones have received from someone a blessing, a helping hand, a bed for recovery, a word of encouragement, an opportunity to arise from their misery, or an opportunity for healing, forgiveness, sustenance, grace, and love there is a good chance that the good things that have come their way ultimately have a source associated with Jesus the Jewish Messiah.  The extent to which the evils of humanity that otherwise would have been put upon each other, but which were avoided or overcome by Jesus and those who with genuine commitment have followed Him, is simply incalculable.  About these things there can be no debate.

Some today, and even many Christians, have been compelled to re-evaluate all this, as if maybe what I wrote in the previous paragraph is not empirically true.  They would speak of the Crusades, or the Spanish Inquisition, or colonization, or Constantinianism or American Imperialism or Capitalistic Materialism as if these movements are directly based on who Jesus was and taught, as if Jesus and His true followers were responsible for these tragedies.  I will admit that those who claimed to follow Jesus were to a lesser or greater extent behind such movements; but no one who has carefully read, or even cursorily read, the teachings and example of Jesus in the Bible could ever link together with Jesus such aberrations from true Christianity.  Humans beings who truly and consistently followed His teachings would not, could not perpetrate such sinfulness.  He was entirely non-violent when it comes to military, governmental, institutional, and private action by his followers.  He specifically commanded against violence.  He taught His followers to love everyone, including themselves.  He was accepting of all those who hurt, including those who greatly sin because of their hurt.  He and His closest followers made virtue, kindness, love, goodness, gentleness, humility, peacefulness, patience, meekness, and non-judgmentalism the core of Christian teaching about how to live. These facts about Jesus and Christianity are very easy to verify, and they need to be kept in mind by those threatened by the attacks and unbelief that frequently come against Christ and the church, whether from inside the church or from outside.

So, as one who has carefully investigated these things over the last 40 years, some words of advice.  Don't just accept accusations against Christ and Christianity or accept claims made about the irrationality of belief in God without considering these things at great length and seriously testing their veracity.  Often young people, especially, hear claims made against Christianity or the church and with very little serious investigation accept such claims, or at least allow such claims to colour their view of Christ and the church.  Please don't just accept such claims just because it is considered more socially acceptable to disbelieve or to criticize the church or because you are embarrassed to go against the grain of society in its attack against Christ and the church.  Study history for yourself.  Study ethics for yourself.  Study science and philosophy for yourself.  Read the Bible and evaluate the church, yourself.  And please don't stop after reading one or two or ten books critical of Christianity thinking that such critics have said all that there is to be said.  I weary of hearing about those who have taken a class or two, read a couple of books, listened to a couple of lectures, and have decided that Christianity is not true, or that it is not noble or intellectually defensible.  Often I find the intellectual effort that has been expended in such investigations of Christ and the church to be truly second class; it simply does not measure up to the best of human investigative efforts.  It is shallow and incomplete, and those who conduct their inquiries in this way too often reach conclusions and make statements about Christ and Christianity that have little or no merit whatsoever, simply because they are looking for an easy way to excuse themselves from taking seriously the claims that Christ makes on their lives.  They simply wish to not be uncomfortable in their belief, or they wish to sin and feel better about it, or they are lazy, particularly intellectually, and so do not want to do the hard work on their own of finding out the truth about Christ and Christianity, about Christian history, about the real teachings of Jesus, about what authentic Christianity looks like.  Some have been hurt by Christians, or by the church, or their loved ones have been hurt by Christians or the church, to the point that hearing criticisms of Christianity are psychologically soothing or satisfying, because accepting such criticisms fits with the anger or hurt they already feel toward Christians who have harmed them.  This is understandable and explainable, but to hold against Christianity what has been done to you by sinful Christians is like despising gravity because the contractor who built the deck on your house built it poorly, causing it to fall and injure you or your loved one.  It is like despising rye or wheat or hopps or those who harvest such crops because someone else bought the grain and made from it alcohol, which another person bought, got drunk from, and then he or she drove while drunk and killed your loved one.  It is hardly the fault of the grain or the harvester.  But for some, it is far easier to just believe what an author or professor or the internet or Facebook tell you about Christians and Christianity, because some Christians have made big mistakes, than it is to conduct a long careful investigation, and so many just accept the easy answer.  It is too easy to stay where you are in carrying out your lifestyle of less than noble pursuits, your materialism, your self-centeredness, and to criticize Jesus and His followers, than it is honestly and plainly to be confronted by who Jesus really was and is, by what He really taught, by what He really calls us to.  So, many simply parrot the easy answers they have heard.  Please, don't stop after a half-hearted, lazy, easy quasi-investigative look at Christianity and then settle yourself in unbelief, ignoring the fact that you haven't really put in the effort needed.  Because the decision of whether or not to accept Christ or to remain Christian and connected to the church is so significant in one's life, you owe it to yourself, if to no one else, to honestly read and study for yourself, without cutting corners and without accepting easy answers.  Listen not only to critics of Christ and Christianity, especially as Jesus, the church and Christians are portrayed in contemporary mass media and social media, but give attention, too, to those who have investigated at a profound level both the claims of the critics and the claims of Christ and His followers and have found Christianity not just defensible, but have found it to be a system of belief to which it is worth being faithfully committed for life.  Nothing less will do.  If, in the end, after much careful, serious thinking and investigation you find Christ and Christianity not worth giving your life to, then so be it.  At least you will have reached your conclusion in light of your own honesty and to your own intellectual satisfaction, and not just because those around you─who live in a questionable world with questionable motives, and who themselves may not have been very careful in doing their own searches─have told you that Christ and Christianity don't deserve your attention or allegiance.  Or, if you should choose Christ, you will not be doing so because you simply adopted your parents' faith or have believed blindly.  You will have a faith that is grounded in what you seriously take to be the truth because you have investigated the question and found that God was quite capable of defending Himself.  You will have seriously considered Christ and Christianity, chosen faith, and you will be Christian because you will have seen that it is the best system of faith the world has known, because it is the only faith system in line with things as they really are.