Cultural Christianity
I am writing today knowing that I am opening a door to ridicule but to be perfectly honest I am a bit distressed. I am so tired of watered-down, cultural, feel-good Christianity! I am tired of so many Christians minimizing the power, authority, and sovereignty of Christ. Many I truly believe do not even know they are doing this. That is the scary thing about cultural Christianity. There are many Christians that truly love the Lord and are committed but they do not realize how much of the culture comes out of them when they speak, share, and live their lives. They also are in no way teachable or even open to the fact that they might resemble the culture. Many denominations pride (yes, pride) themselves on being teachable but that only goes as far as to apply to those things that sound acceptable to them. If it is a challenge to their previous line of thinking then it is condemned as heresy without being given any consideration, prayer, or an opening to the Spirit. Tradition trumps Truth, comfort trumps conviction and the culture prevails. Thus cultural Christianity rules. It is what around our home has become called K-Love theology. Do not get me wrong, I LOVE Christian radio, but there is more to Christianity than a song that encourages and makes you feel good. There is more to Christianity than empathy, sympathy, compassion, and prayer. All of these things are a part of living the Christian life but alone they are not the Christian life. Where is the conviction, repentance, and purging of sin, the accountability, the surrender, submission, and sacrifice? There must be a balance. Cultural Christianity feels good most of the time; but a life surrendered to God may not always feel good, may be difficult, may cost us, but brings glory to God and conforms us to His image.
Tags: Add new tag, Christianity, culture Posted in Christianity
January 25th, 2009 at 11:26 am
I wrote out a reply but hubby said I sounded bitter, which was not my intention.
Simply put many Christians have bought into the idea that there is no absolute truth. That their emotions are the basis by which they determine the rightness or wrongness of an action. In a word, many Christians are social humanists.
We absolutely must preach and teach the gospel of Scripture. To do otherwise is to increase our social club at the expense of true conversion.
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January 25th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
“To do otherwise is to increase our social club at the expense of true conversion.” I totally agree Daisy.
To use the word ‘Christian’ is such a loose term now. I don’t want people to think I’m a cultural Christian. I now say I’m a Born Again Believer and that I attend a Bible- Believing church. I am a separated Christian. I suppose as the days become exceedingly more sinful we will find a new term for the kind of Christianity people ‘should’ be living.
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January 25th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
“There is more to Christianity than empathy, sympathy, compassion, and prayer. ”
Yes, yes, YES!
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January 26th, 2009 at 4:34 am
I agree!
I think most christians are too attached to earthly traditions and such, that they are not willing to let them go.
Maria’s last blog post..mm1991: i stink at blogging and will not blog until i have something useful to write!
January 26th, 2009 at 5:11 am
I am in agreement with all of you. Kristine, I was thinking of posting something very similar to this. I don’t have it all worked out in my head yet, but when I do I’ll give you a heads-up. Thinking these days is a challenge for me, let alone actually having the time to sit and write a thoughtful post! But I’ll get there.
Please pray with me for this generation of “entitlement” teens and young adults, as well.
Blessings,
Trish
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January 26th, 2009 at 6:52 am
How appropriate that our Bible reading this morning was Revelations and the letters to the 7 churches. B and I talked about how many Christians now live in the world by being tolorant about everything and how this is so against God’s commands for us. My DH has really felt this attitude when it comes to our Outreach ministry. So many people feels they are “alright” with God because they love their neighbors, no matter what, and are good people.
I guess this is why I am so passionate about building a foundation with our son about following the one true God!
Be blessed!
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January 26th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Am seeing that more than I thought I would lately.
Good post Mama.
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January 27th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Hello again, this was a good post. I appreciate the sentence that said “Tradition trumps Truth, comfort trumps conviction and the culture prevails.” There is a world of truth in the statement. Where is our heart? Our love? If it is in feeling comfortable instead of letting God deal with our heart. If it is in what the preaches teaches instead of what the Spirit says to our lives. And if it is what is acceptable, normal, expected in our culture instead of what God considers revelant or our reasonable service then perhaps our heart and love is not in Christ who we call out to an say, “I surrender All.”
But Christ asks, “What is truth?” It is not something most like to hear.
Thanks for sharing with us thoughts that cause us to ponder such truths.
Sincerely,
Linda
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March 4th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
It’s like I’ve said before– I think that Christianity has forgotten the truth and power of its message, and as it sinks into the minority it feels it needs to sell Christianity, or appeal to the masses because somehow that’s what God needs. I’ve got news for them– God doesn’t need us, He loves and wants us to love Him, but He doesn’t need us. He asks us to join Him in His work– it’s a priviledge.
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