In a Facebook apologetics forum, an atheist recently asked if there was any objective evidence that Christianity actually makes people have better character. He said that if no one could present such evidence, then that would be a defeater of Christianity. Lately, some former “Christians” are telling their “deconstruction” stories explaining why they are no longer Christians. Also, for years now friends and students have been asking me why so many who self-identify as Christians do so many really stupid and/or sinful things. And for years I’ve replied that it’s because “most ‘Christians’ aren’t,” and I’ve added that “one of these days I’m going to do a post on it.” Well, that day has come!
After all, if Christians do have the good news that saves and proclaim that they are following Jesus, then why do so many “Christians” do so many very bad things? Here are just three common examples to which skeptics point:
- Crusaders raping, plundering, and murdering
- Holocaust researchers not finding a difference between “Christians” and non-Christians when it came to rescuing Jews during the Holocaust
- “Christians” engaging in premarital sex at a similar rate as non-Christians
- Former “Christians” telling their “deconstruction” stories which has led them to proclaim that Christianity is false
So, if Christians have the good news and they are being transformed by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-24) then why aren’t they better than the average non-Christian? Also, why are some who once claimed to be Christians now telling everyone that they’ve decided that Christianity is false? The answer is that most “Christians” aren’t Christians.
Although the number is decreasing, a 2015 Pew survey of 35,000 Americans concluded that 70.6% of Americans still consider themselves Christians and a “clear majority (55%) of all U.S. Protestants” consider themselves “evangelicals.” 1 A 2015 Lifeway study of 1,000 people concluded that three in ten Americans hold beliefs that would make them evangelicals. 2 But most of them aren’t true Christians, and those who are Christians know that.
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells two parables which help explain my assertion that most “Christians” aren’t Christians.
Many “Conversions” Don’t Last
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. He says that some of the sower’s seed (i.e., the gospel of Jesus) “fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away” (v. 5-6). Jesus explains that this person receives His word “with joy,” and “endures for a while,” but “when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” (v. 21). Other seed fell among thorns which choked the newly emerging plants, just as “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (v. 22). Notice that both the rocky soil and thorny soil represent people who self-identify as having had a Christian conversion experience, but neither are actually saved. Of course, Jesus also talks about the good person soil what goes on to bear much fruit.
Thus in The Parable of the Sower, of the three different soil types that represent people who respond positively to the gospel, two of them didn’t actually become faithful disciples of Jesus. Thus, we should expect that many people who claim to have had a Christian conversion experience aren’t really Christians. Then, to make matters worse, many of them get attention by telling their “deconstruction” story although they were never properly constructed in the first place.
But It Gets Worse
The next parable in Matthew 13:24-30 is the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
The trouble is that some weeds look a lot like wheat until the wheat matures. If you try to pull it out early, you might mistakenly pull-out wheat. By the way, most commentators think that the weed was probably bearded darnel, which looks a lot like wheat but is actually poisonous. 3 In the photo above, counting from the left, the wheat are stalks 2, 4, and 5. The others are bearded darnel.
Jesus later gives the interpretation but what we’ve just read makes it pretty obvious. In the Lord’s field, Satan sowed bad seed among the Lord’s good seed. Well, we’ve already seen that two out of the three soil types, where Jesus’s good seed landed, failed to become disciples of Jesus. So we wouldn’t expect their behavior to be much different from that of those who have never claimed to have come to Christ. Now we see that Satan also sows weeds among the Lord’s seed, but they are solely Satan’s spawn. These individuals weasel false doctrines into evangelical churches and Christian schools—many are teachers, professors, and even pastors (especially, but not exclusively, pastors of “progressive” churches).
That Satan sows weeds among the wheat is why church leaders must meet lifestyle tests (1 Timothy 3:1-13—avoid church leaders who don’t let people get close to them).4 Jesus said to “beware” those who are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew 7:15) “who will secretly bring in destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1). Note the word “secretly.” Satan’s seed subtly seeks to subvert God’s kingdom. But, again, we can’t weed them out unless they demonstrate their true nature through overt rebellion in teaching or in lifestyle.
Hypocrites and Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing
So in the church visible (more about that shortly), we have a tremendous amount of people who might bear the name of Christ but who do not actually belong to Christ. In fact, many of them are Satan’s seed. Satan’s seed are the wolves in sheep’s clothing. Thus, we should expect there to be a lot of hypocrites and troublemakers in the Christian church and indeed there are.
Jesus said, don’t try to pull out the bad seed or you will accidentally rip up good seed. This is important because although there are many individuals in our churches who aren’t really Christians, we don’t have the insight, the knowledge, to tell sincere Christians from insincere Christians unless the insincere Christians are living in overt rebellion against God in either lifestyle or doctrine. I’ve known some people who, honestly, I wondered if they were really Christians at all, that after the Lord brought suffering into their lives, suddenly became abiders in God’s word who sincerely sought to do His will. If it were up to me, I might have mistaken their immature Christianity as not being Christians at all. Thus, we are not called to judge this, unless, as I said, someone is living in overt rebellion against God’s commands or is holding heretical doctrine.
A Weed I Knew
For a few months, almost twenty years ago, we attended an evangelical church that had great worship and the pastor was an enjoyable teacher. One day one of the pastors was talking with me after the service and when he found out I was an apologist he announced, “I’m thoroughly post-modern!” Well, we soon had breakfast and I started asking him the standard questions like “is it objectively wrong to torture babies for fun?” He said that it wasn’t objectively wrong. I asked him, “Is Christianity objectively any truer than any other religion?” He said “No” and he said that it bothered him when the senior pastor encouraged the congregation to evangelize. I asked him how he could agree with the church’s doctrinal statement and he replied that that was no problem because “that’s the way our community talks about truth.” He said that believing there is objective truth is a tool of oppression. What heresy does this commit? All of them! He didn’t think even one doctrine of historic Christianity was objectively true! I ended up sitting down with the elders about him (he was present) and one of the elders looked at me and said, “I have trouble with the word ‘objective,’” and I knew this was going to end badly. Indeed, the board sided with him and, heartbreakingly, we went to another church. On the surface this fellow was a “good Christian” but really, he was a weed. I shudder to think how many congregants he has misled.
Crusaders, Jew Rescuers, and the Sexually Promiscuous
Now, let’s apply the fact that a lot of “Christians” aren’t Christians to the examples I mentioned at the outset. How do we explain that so many crusaders raped, pillaged, and murdered during the Crusades? Well, most “Christians” aren’t Christians and that surely applied to those in crusader armies. Now some may object that I have no basis to say how few Christians there might have been centuries ago in crusader armies but consider the words of Martin Luther in his 1528 tract “On War Against the Turk.” Luther is characteristically blunt about the crusader armies: “there are scarcely five Christians in such an army, and perhaps there are worse people in the eyes of God in that army than are the Turks; and yet they all want to bear the name of Christ.” So Luther, who argued that it was okay to go to war against Muslim aggression, says that the overwhelming majority of those in crusader armies weren’t Christians. I have written a post on The Truth About the Crusades.
That most “Christians” aren’t Christians explains why researchers didn’t find a “Christian” difference between those who rescued Jews and those who didn’t (I’m not saying that sincere Christians didn’t sometimes refuse to help Jews when they had the opportunity). The trouble is that researchers only have the ability to see what the Reformers called “the church visible.” Researchers may consider such things as church attendance, doctrinal adherence, etc., but that is not, repeat not, sufficient to distinguish between the church visible and what Reformers called the church invisible—those who really are saved disciples of Jesus who are also members of the church visible.
Then there’s the amazing amount of sexual promiscuity among “Christians.” As I wrote in a recent post on sexual sin, often on TV, Jean and I have seen people proclaim that they are Christians, say that “my faith is very important to me,” pray to and talk openly about Jesus, but say these things even while they nonchalantly discuss their sexual trysts without showing a sense of shame. Now certainly sometimes sincere disciples will be sexually promiscuous, but if they are truly Christians, then their sexual sins will embarrass them!
For the last time, I’m not saying that dedicated disciples of Jesus don’t sometimes commit terrible sins. They do! But, I’m saying that many of those who self-identify as having had some sort of Christian conversion, or as being a part of the Christian community, aren’t Christians. And there are others who are Satanic poisonous plants. So, in sum, when someone asks today why Christians do so much evil or fail to do so much good, part of the answer is that most “Christians” aren’t Christians.
No wonder Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Note that Jesus said, “many.” Many.
As I’ve posted previously, The Sinners Prayer Never Saved Anyone and someone reading this might be wondering if he or she really is a true Christian. Well, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” Notice that Paul didn’t say, “If you prayed the sinner’s prayer you’re saved.” He said, “test yourself!” Are you keeping a clear conscience? Is Jesus really the Lord of your life to the point that you’ve decided to “obey” all that He has commanded? (Matthew 28:20)?
If not, ask Jesus to forgive you and then “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).
And you will be saved!
- “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” Pew Research Center, May 12, 2015, accessed October 12, 2016, http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/. Pew reported that 78.4% were Christians in 2007 and attributes this largely to a decrease of mainline Protestants and Catholics.[↩]
- Bob Smietana, “What Is an Evangelical? Four Questions Offer New Definition,” Christianity Today (11-19-2015), http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/november/what-is-evangelical-new-definition-nae-lifeway-research.html.[↩]
- E.g., D. A. Carson, Matthew, TEBC (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1984), 316.[↩]
- Obviously, pastors in larger congregations can’t “hang out” with everyone in their congregation. But you should have a sense that there are people you trust that do know the pastor intimately—have been at their homes, watched them interact with their kids and spouse, and have seen them when they’re not “on.” If pastors won’t let members of a congregation get close to them then go somewhere else. After all, hospitality—as in having people over to your house—is a requirement for church leadership (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:8).[↩]