"If the
world hates you, you know that it has
hated Me before it hated you. If you
were of the world, the world would love
its own; but because you are not of the
world, but I chose you out of the world,
because of this the world hates you."
John 15:18-19
Much of modern Christianity works hard
to be liked by the world. The researcher
George Barna calls this group "casual
Christians." According to his extensive
polls, surveys and interviews with more
than 30,000 Americans, 85% claim
Christianity as their faith. But of that
number 67% or about 150 million adults
are casual Christians. He calls the
fundamental evangelicals who believe the
Bible is the inerrant Word of God and
who try to live their faith, "captive
Christians." These make up about 16% of
the U.S. population.
While
captive Christians view themselves as
saints of God in an evil world, casual
Christians do not see the world as a
threat and are comfortable and at peace
with the world.
The Christianity of Jesus has been
confrontational and controversial from
the very beginning. The message of this
brand of Christianity is that Jesus is
the only Way to salvation and that all
others who came before or after Him are
thieves and liars. It’s Him or the
highway to hell.
Jesus told His disciples that He had
not come to bring peace but a sword, and
that receiving Him and living His Way of
life would cause strife and division
even among family members. Jesus and His
Apostles were all killed save John who
was exiled to the island of Patmos.
Casual Christians are comfortable
because their faith is not
controversial. Because they have no
strong convictions they sidestep
conversations about controversial
matters.
To make a stand only for
tolerance is to fail to stand at all,
but is only going along to get along.
The casual Christian will focus on the
love and mercy of Christ and stress how
we should love each other, but they are
not comfortable talking about the
problem of sin and the wrath that is
coming upon sinners.
Casuals do not believe in absolute
truth but believe that truth is relative
-your truth may be different than my
truth. This may sound pleasing to the
uneducated ear, but to a Bible student
it is blasphemous. Jesus proclaimed
Himself to be both the Word and the
Truth - to believe in different truths
for different people would be like
believing that there is a different Word
of God besides the Bible, or that you
can receive a different Jesus.
Casuals are usually not Bible literate
and generally are tolerant of sin in
others. They conform to whatever is
presently acceptable in society. Is it
any wonder why there is so much
immorality in the Church today? Casuals
place family over faith in importance
and are very image conscious. They
pursue happiness over holiness which is
why the prosperity and wealth doctrines
are so popular today.
Churches which emphasize using the Word
to get what you want are the largest
congregations in America. They believe
that the teachings of the Bible are
there for solace and to help them get
what they want out of life rather than
to teach us about God, about how He
wants us to behave, how to be saved and
to lead us to holiness. Can Christians
be at peace with a world presently ruled
by Satan? Only the casual Christians who
have come to worship a god of their
imagination.