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.