Marginalizing Christianity

Today Christians are being judged and persecuted by the very culture and government that is working so hard to defend the rights of every other conceivable group. In fact, it seems the only group it is politically and culturally acceptable to marginalize and mock is Christians. And Christians are submitting to this persecution, bowing to the trend of sin-tolerance in the hope of avoiding the dreaded designation of ‘intolerant religious person’.

The Bible tells us to love our enemies, not their sin. Even more, it tells us to hate sin, in others and in ourselves (Psalms 97:10). It exhorts us to expose the soul-damaging sins of those in our lives. Please do not misunderstand: Christians are not better than other people, they are merely better informed (or at least should be) when it comes to human nature and God’s design for His world. We are called to expose false teachings and sin (Ephesians 5:11), to exhort and love our neighbors (Galatians 5:14). We cannot do these things if we bow down to marginalization. If we continue to meekly follow this path, we will become impotent in our faith, unable even to recognize wrong when we see it, much less able to call it out and combat it with righteousness (Romans 12:21, Psalms 94:16).

Let us not forget the exhortation in James 5:20 ‘Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.’ As we can clearly see from this scripture, we inadvertently help to damn souls to eternal hell when we refuse to recognize and call out (expose) their sin. We do our fellow humans—brothers and sisters in Christ and outside the body of Christ alike—a great disservice by turning a blind eye to whatever God calls sin.

But before we can do this, we need to first learn to keep a wary eye on our own souls lest we too be tempted (Galatians 6:1). We must first learn to identify the sin and sin patterns in our own lives (Matthew 7:5) and overcome them by God’s grace before we can take the next step. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Paul Tillich's Advice to the Church

In 1951 a theologian named Paul Tillich provided the church with this blasphemous guidance: ‘A theological system is supposed to satisfy two basic needs: the statement of the truth of the Christian message, and the interpretation of this truth for every new generation.’ Read that second part again. ‘The interpretation of this truth for every new generation’! Wow.

This statement suggests that God’s Word is malleable, able to be interpreted, tweaked, or updated as needed for every new generation. This is the inherent flaw in modern thought. Our spiritual leaders are under the impression that in order for Christians (and our faith) to remain relevant to the times, we must modernize scripture. This new thought idea is of course absurd. God used the Apostles to shape their times, not the other way around. God used Billy Graham mightily to influence the hearts and minds of believers and unbelievers alike during the second half of the twentieth century. He did not revise scripture in an attempt to please people and retain an appearance of importance in his days’ culture. These servants of God were obedient to their Creator, and it cannot be denied that they were relevant.

This man, Paul Tillich, made it his life’s ambition to bind together traditional Christianity with modern culture, and I cannot help but wonder if his work initiated the church’s drive to alter its very nature in order to compete with secular industries, a movement that is alive and thriving in American churches today, especially in the megachurch.

I don’t know. The point is to make you aware of what is going on in today’s church, to open your eyes to see the truth of the changes taking place, lest we be like the blind fools of Jeremiah 5:21 and be ‘Without understanding, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears, and hear not.’ I’d suggest a quick reading of the rest of that chapter; it is eye-opening indeed—and absolutely relevant today.