“Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the marketplace, and cried incessantly:
“I seek God! I seek God!”
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter.
…The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes.
“Whither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you.
We have killed him—you and I.
All of us are his murderers.…
God is dead.
God remains dead.
And we have killed him…”
This powerful passage was penned by the 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his work, The Gay Science.
The whole parable is quite striking as it acts as an indictment of the German culture of his day. The idea being that when a society builds itself on belief in God, it inevitably destroys the very foundation it is built upon. The reason for this is largely that the message of God for humanity gets lost in the struggle for political power and dominance. It is a lesson from history that we have not easily learned from.
The ancient Israelites didn’t learn it.
The post-Constantine Church didn’t learn it.
The Reformers didn’t learn it.
And now, conservative evangelicals are not learning it.
All of this lack of learning, even though, the evidence of such misdeeds is emblazoned across the pages of time. If such failures are this evident and still ignored, is there any hope of restoration?
Take the history of the Papacy as an example. Most Popes from post-Constantinian history until the Counter-Reformation were corrupt, violent, ungodly men whose only purpose was to collect the spoils from their various crusades – whether among Muslims, Jews, or even their own people. Each and every Pope had the opportunity to change (some did, but they were few). Each Pope witnessed the downfall or destruction of every Pope before them. And still, for over a thousand years, very little changed.
When Everyone is a Christian
“When everyone is a Christian, no one is a Christian!” Kierkegaard made this statement as an indictment of Denmark. He was observing the same phenomenon that Nietzsche did a few years later in Germany, as noted in the quote at the beginning.
It’s easy to call oneself a Christian. Anyone can do it. Even other people can call someone else a Christian, but that doesn’t make it so. This is why we are told that faith without works is dead. That is, one must have demonstrative proof of their beliefs through how they live their life.
But what of those works? Can they be just any? What if those works are not of God and are based on a misinformed belief system? How does one get out of or even notice that they are in a perpetual cycle of misinformation?
For example,
Person A says I am doing the will of God by enforcing laws that protect the life of the unborn.
Person B says I am doing the will of God by enforcing laws that protect the life of the mother.
Assuming both have an equal zeal and honesty towards their endeavor, who is right? Are both? Are neither? Does God even care about the issue? How does either perspective bring about the Kingdom of God?
These are the questions we must continuously ask ourselves when we evaluate our beliefs. But we won’t. We are lazy thinkers, and it is much easier to take a sound bite as fodder for the defense of one’s belief than to take the time to consider both sides of an issue.
I was recently reminded of this when reading a journal entry from Soren Kierkegaard, where he spoke about how he went to the local barber and had a stimulating conversation about a recent philosophical movement that was becoming popular. You can’t do that today. Can you imagine going into your local salon (no offense to salon workers, you fill an important role in making Americans beautiful), and asking the person doing your hair about the existential crisis taking place as a result of recent developments in AI consciousness? Probably not.
The very fact that anyone can claim to be a Christian without any criteria for making such claims demonstrates that the term is without meaning. Now the question seems to be What type of Christian are you? Are you one like me? Or, are you one of those other ones? It would be comedic if it weren’t so ludicrous. It does smack of the division between Jews and Samaritans in ancient times, and we all know what Jesus thought of that. You are either a Christian or you are not. There is no such thing as a “type of Christian”.
The term “Christian” is a representation of something that means “a follower of Christ”. But is that even true anymore? I wonder if people started referring to themselves as followers of Christ, would that change anything? Is there more meaning in referring to oneself as that?
Jesus had something to say about all of these people claiming to be followers of his, and it is terrifying. Matthew 7 should make everyone pause:
“…Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Is Jesus saying that there will be those who appear to be Christian, even confessing the name of the Lord, but will not be welcomed into the Kingdom of God. This is echoed in Luke 13:23-24:
“Someone asked him, ‘Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?’
He said to them, ‘Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.’”
Now, there is a certain segment of the Christian population that will have a knee-jerk reaction and respond to these statements with Bible passages that seem to contradict what Jesus is saying. However, it’s those people who probably need to hear this the most. It is this type of person who worries that what they are doing is not God’s Will, and they look for other passages that make them feel better about their complacency or misdeeds.
When I survey the early church and compare that to American religious life, it is hard to see the Christianity that Jesus promoted. We often believe that Christianity has grown into this mammoth movement, resulting in 1/3 of the human population claiming to be Christian (just ask Gallup or Pew). This contradicts what Jesus tells us in the aforementioned passages. Of all of the people throughout history who called themselves Christian, only a few will enter.
Concluding Thoughts
Calling oneself a Christian these days lacks any significance because we have diluted its meaning through schisms and non Christ-like character.
In a world of soundbites and instant access to world events, we rarely have time to sit in silence to think. There is no substitute for time and space when it comes to making decisions or interacting over controversial issues. We immerse ourselves in worlds that continually feed our narcissism. We exist in echo chambers of our own creation, yet we lack the critical thinking necessary to recognize when that happens. We are not individuals but automatons that have become good at regurgitating bits of information, regardless of their truthfulness. I think Nietzsche was wrong. God’s not dead, Christianity is.
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