We are seeing a deconstruction of Christianity in America. By deconstruction I mean the redefining of, and re-characterization of what it means to be Christian, all of which is leading our society headlong into an era of Christless Christianity.
We see an all-out assault on Christianity from the written media in the form of books such as “Jesus Interrupted” by Bart D Ehrman (who could be considered a modern-day “George Eliot” – aka Mary Ann Evans) who once having been an evangelical Christian himself, now tries to tell us that we can still be a “Christian” without believing that Jesus is the Son of God or believing that the Bible is the Word of God.
Next, we have recently seen efforts to deconstruct Christianity in the form of posting a huge highway billboard suggesting that Christians are “Jerks.” The alarming thing is that the billboard was put up by a Christian church no less! The truth be known, most often when you hear a Christian say that they are tired of the way Christians view the world, and make the suggestion that somehow Christianity needs to be redefined, such a Christian will invariably be walking down the path of compromising the truth. Such a Christian is quite simply, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “ashamed of the gospel of Christ.”
Next, we see various groups within the Christian church who, instead of placing emphasis on sound biblical doctrine, are placing an inordinate emphasis on empiricism in the forms of countless (practically daily) angelic visitations by angels which are leaving behind “feathers”, manifestations of brilliant and large “gemstones” that, if real, would be worth millions and millions of dollars, and let’s not overlook what I consider the most serious theological issue of all and that is the frequent trips to heaven during which certain Christians are claiming to have private audiences with the likes of Abraham, King David, the Apostle Paul and other biblical characters. The Christians who are claiming to have such trips/meetings are even saying that these patriarchs are divulging personal information about how they wish they had communicated their messages in differing forms and texts than what we have in the Bible.
What makes these “trip to Heaven encounters” with the Saints of Old, so very serious is that, if true, then the Christian experiencing such meetings would be “bringing back” revelation and information that would supersede the authority of the Bible, if not outright relegate the Bible to meaninglessness. This attack on the Word of God is wreaking havoc in the church and leading many astray as it essentially opens the door for all and various sorts of demonic doctrine. To put it in street vernacular, if someone is going to say that they had lunch with the Apostle Paul, and during the course of this luncheon, Paul tells this person that he wishes he had said “this instead of that” and then that Christian comes “back to Earth”, who then can question anything they might say, as that Christian has had a personal and exclusive audience with Paul. Thus, that person’s experience becomes of greater importance than, and more authoritative than the Bible. Nothing but trouble will come out of these false and made up stories. What we are witnessing is a form of Christianity that makes little if no mention whatsoever of the redemptive work of Jesus on the Cross.
Unfortunately, we are now seeing ministries that are being built, from the ground up, on these self-aggrandizing, self-focused, fantastic and Christless stories. Thus, having been started on such falsehood, it takes more and greater fantasy to keep such a ministry going. It is really no telling what craziness we are about to witness in the name of Christianity.
Next, we see an attempt at redefining Christianity in the political realm. It is becoming increasingly clear, with each election cycle, that any politician who claims to be a Bible believing Christian will now be ridiculed and mocked by the so-called objective media. We have recently witnessed during the political debate between the two senatorial candidates running for the U.S. Senate seat in the State of Delaware, how the Christian candidate is made to look like a “buffoon” for saying that she believes evolution is a myth. The media is in a “frenzy” to portray this candidate as literally a “moron” simply for her Christian beliefs, nothing else. Also, in the political debate, we have candidates who are claiming the label of Christianity but, their values are not Christian. This leads me to my next point.
We are witnessing in our society what I will call a Christless Christianity, that is, we are seeing and hearing certain individuals who are claiming to be Christians and who are espousing Christian values but, at the same time, these same individuals are denying Jesus. All of this is heading down a perilous path that will ultimately lead to an amoral society.
You cannot deny Jesus as the Christ without denying His values. To deny Jesus is to deny Christianity. To deny Jesus is to deny the written record of the words Jesus spoke. To deny Jesus is to deny God. Thus, our society has reached a point of societal schizophrenia in the sense that we see many claiming the values of Christianity but, at the same time denying the Christ of Christianity. This is leaving us with a Christless Christianity. We can already see this being played out during the Christmas season. We are encouraged to “get excited” about Christmas, spend lots of money on gifts but, just don’t mention the Christ of Christmas. What we have ended up with is a Christless Christmas.
We would do well to take a look at history, as history is repeating itself big time. Take for example the words of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) as found in his work titled “Twilight of Idols” as he says “When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one’s feet. This morality is by no means self-evident: this point has to be exhibited again and again, despite the English flatheads. Christianity is a system, a whole view of things thought out together. By breaking one main concept out of it, the faith in God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary remains in one’s hands. Christianity presupposes that man does not know, cannot know, what is good for him, what evil: he believes in God, who alone knows it. Christian morality is a command; its origin is transcendent, it is beyond all criticism, all right to criticism; it has truth only if God is the truth – it stands and falls with faith in God.”
From the above quote, we can see that if our society is going to deny Jesus, then our society cannot hold onto nor lay claim to the values of Christ. For to deny Jesus is to deny God, and, once God is denied, then morality is subject to wholesale redefinition without any moral frame of reference. This scenario is being played out before our very eyes and it is all going to end up badly. In his book titled “Twilight of Atheism”, we see the words of Alister McGrath (p149) as he says “To remove God is to eliminate the final restraint on human brutality.” McGrath makes this statement during a discussion of the early promoters of a godless society such as Fyodor M Dostoyevsky as they were wrestling with the danger of what could happen in a society without God. And, indeed, history has shown what has happened to the societies that have eliminated any concept of morality from their fiber. To say that one does not believe in God is to automatically open the door for a redefinition of morality, more so, it opens the door for an existence without any concept of right or wrong.
