What is a Christian? Is it someone who checks the “Christian” box on the census form? Is it someone who celebrates Christmas and Easter, rather than Passover or Ramadan? Is it someone born in the United States? Is it someone who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, rather than just a great teacher? Is it someone who goes to church regularly? Is it someone who tithes to the church?
Is a Christian someone who says, “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior?” Is it someone who has the “right” political views? Is it someone who belongs to a “trusted” denomination? Is it someone who prays and reads the Bible? Is it someone who avoids sin?
Was George Washington a Christian? Thomas Jefferson? John Adams? Harry Truman? Jimmy Carter? George W. Bush? Barack Obama? Donald Trump? Mahatma Ghandi? Nelson Mandela? Martin Luther King Jr.?
Can a person who is a Christian be a homosexual? A thief? A murderer? An adulterer? A child abuser? A racist? A socialist? Is a Zulu in South Africa who has accepted Christ and still worships his ancestors really a Christian? Can a Ku Klux Klan member be a Christian? A transsexual?
What nation has the highest percentage of people who identify themselves as Christian? (Actually, the USA isn’t even close. We have 71% Christians, while there are 89 nations with higher percentages.) Among countries claiming over 90% Christians are Romania, Greece, Armenia, Puerto Rico, Greenland, Haiti, Poland, Ecuador, Rwanda, Mexico, Congo, and even Kenya is over 85%.
What makes a nation Christian? Is it the percentage of residents who self-identify as Christian? Is it the pronouncements from its leaders? Is it in the social culture of the country?
I find it interesting how many Christians’ ideas and opinions are based on cultural things, rather than Biblical teachings. For instance, with all the Bible says about sharing with the poor, America, with 4% of the world’s population has 30% of its wealth. Yet millions of Christians tend to support politicians who want to maintain and even increase our wealth at the expense of poorer countries. America’s unofficial religion may well be materialism, or individualism, or some other ism.
Judgment by non-Christians
While Christians identify themselves as such by many things, unbelievers have their own ideas of who Christians are. For example, most people who don’t call themselves Christian believe those who do should abide by much stricter moral and ethical standards than the rest of the population.
And in Muslim nations, because America claims to be a Christian nation, the Muslims think that everything that comes from America is Christian. Therefore, they think that our society’s violence and love of pornography, materialism and greed are simply representative of Christianity. They also think that whatever our government does is representative of Christian thinking.
With all of the complaining by American Christians about the ungodliness of American society, what we are complaining about is seen by foreign Muslims as being representative of our faith.
What defines a Christian?
In Acts 11:26 it says, “the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.” The word disciples means follower, student. Many great teachers had disciples, students who listened, studied and followed the teachings and/or lifestyle of the leader. By that definition, a Christian is one who studies the life of Christ, follows his teachings and emulates his lifestyle.
The Greek word that is translated Christian is the word for Christ with a diminutive suffix. So it literally means “little Christs.” While many thousands of Christians in the U.S. today could be described as such by those who know them, millions of others show little to no inclination to be like Christ.
Can a person call himself a Christian who never attends worship services, never reads the Bible, seldom prays, never gives to Christian or charitable causes? Can a person call himself a Christian who is vindictive and angry, holds grudges, cheats on his boss, his wife, his taxes and/or his golf game? Who curses at other drivers, looks down on the poor, homeless, disabled, minorities, immigrants or Muslims? Even if he checks the Christian box on the Census form?
What does the Bible say about these things? When judging nations, the Bible speaks of more than government, but of society as a whole. And in the Old Testament the prophets condemned nations basically for four different sins: idolatry, violence, immorality and mistreatment of the poor and powerless. And the only portion of the Bible that directly addresses lawmakers is Isaiah 10:1–4 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. But try to sell that to prosperous Christians.
Jesus said that of all the commandments the greatest was to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. And to love others as ourselves. And he said to his followers, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15) Paul tells us we are to have the mind, the attitudes, of Christ, putting the welfare of others above ourselves. (Philippians 2:4-5)
Christians and the Church
Is it possible to be a good Christian and not go to church? Actually, let’s look at that a little deeper. The Bible doesn’t say much about going to church. But it says a whole lot about being an active part of a church, encouraging others, praying, giving, helping.
The Gospels tell us about the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hades will not prevail against it.” Then the book of Acts is 28 chapters about the beginning and growth of the Church. The next nine books are letters by Paul — to churches, about living with and for the Lord together and in the community. The next three are to pastors of churches, again about life in the church and in the world. And in Revelation there are letters from Jesus to seven churches, commending and condemning them because of their good and bad stuff. Never is there a hint that the Christian life could be lived in isolation from the community of believers called the church. As believers were scattered from one another by persecution, they began new churches where they settled.
The difference between the noun and the adjective.
We are speaking of being a Christian. Being Christian is an entirely different matter. Being a Christian is believing in Jesus, and identifying as such. It means being saved, forgiven, and expecting to go to heaven when this life is over. Being Christian means living in ways that exemplify the Bible’s teachings about Christian behavior.
Jesus taught and practiced humility, generosity, faith, faithfulness, eschewing of sin, loving one’s neighbors, strangers, and even enemies. It means following the example of the Good Samaritan, putting others’ welfare above our own, living for eternal values. We must not only be Christians, we must be Christian.
I’m not sure a nation can actually be “Christian” in the Biblical sense of the world, though it has been claimed and tried in dozens of countries. However, it can promote many Christian values and encourage many of the things that would be considered “holy living.”
Who, then, should we think of as Christian?
Good question, which I trust you were already wanting to ask. There are two ways to handle the question. The first is for ourselves. Am I a real Christian. I must consciously ask myself if I am Christlike in my attitudes, generous towards others, thinking holy thoughts toward others, faithful to Christ, to my family and to my church. Do I pray as deeply and as often as I should? Do I love others as myself? Do I love my enemies, or the enemies of my own pet causes? I must judge myself by the high standards of God. Do I really love God, and not just do religious stuff?
How about others? God has not called you or me to be the judge of anyone else’s Christianity. Their strengths are different from ours, their sins different from our sins. Jesus specifically taught us not to try to be the judge of others.
But what if someone claims to be a Christian and doesn’t do any of the things a Christian ought to do? Unless God took a vacation and put you in charge, it’s not up to you to decide. If a man or woman tells me he or she loves God and knows Jesus Christ as savior, I must treat that person as a brother or sister in Christ. I dare not look down on them because I think their sins are worse or more offensive than mine.
by Ken McGarvey