Why I Have Rejected the Christian Worldview

Wait! Before you brand me a heretic, take a deep breath, and hear me out. 

My reason for rejecting the Christian worldview is that modern Christianity has become a pocket “ism”, one of the many “isms” that define the spirit of the age in our day. The technical term for this is conventionalism, a word that stems from the word convention. Everyone on earth today lives according the convention that makes the most sense to his or her own mind. What’s more, it is possible for one person to adhere to more than one convention depending on what day of the week it is or what task is uppermost on our to do list.

In our compartmentalized world, it does not seem strange to decry abuse and low pay in the workplace on Monday and then Tuesday save some money by ordering clothes you know were made overseas in a sweathouse. It does not seem strange then on Wednesday to donate those savings to a food bank while decrying on Thursday the welfare system in a heated Facebook debate. Or to hire a woman on Friday to clean your house but fire her on Saturday for asking you to sign a petition to get her child released from border custody. After a compartmentalized week such as this it is no wonder that Sunday morning finds us sitting on the back pew of a church we chose purposely to keep us as spectators instead of participants, and for the quality of its armed ushers to keep us safe. 

Compartmentalism classifies us according to our preferred conventions. Pro-life. Pro-choice. Pro-immigration. Anti-immigration. Democrat. Republican. Green. Moderate. Conservative. Liberal. Other. Christian. Muslim. Buddhist. New Age. Lutheran. Methodist. Catholic. LDS. Nazarene. Introvert. Extrovert. And the list goes on and on and on. Our conventions are rational systems that make sense to our minds. We believe them whether we act on them or not. It is the logical endpoint of the Greek philosophical mindset preached by the likes of Plato and Aristotle. America was founded on Greek philosophical ideals. The modern church by and large has embraced the same mindset. To the Greek, understanding comes before action. The ancient Greeks valued intellectual virtue and freedom of thought. The ancient Greeks taught us to reason our way to solutions.

There are some biblical problems with embracing the Greek mindset. To Jesus, obedience comes before understanding. His message was simple and consistent: Obey God. To Jesus, salvation comes not when we change our minds but when we change our hearts—and prove it by taking action in the direction of obedience.

Too often preachers teach principles that do nothing more than get the listener to agree, “Yeah, I can believe that.” I also have too often preached simply to inform the mind. I never want to do that again! I want to love you the way Jesus loved people. For example, once a young man came to Jesus wanting what Ponce de Leon wanted in his search for the fountain of youth. He wanted to live forever. He had lived an exemplary life and believed all the right things. Jesus looked at him and loved him. Because Jesus loved him, he revealed the one hindrance that kept the young man from being able to get what he wanted. “Go,” said Jesus, “sell everything you own and give it to the poor. Then come and follow me.”

With this, the young man had only two choices, both requiring an action. He could do what Jesus said or he could refuse to do what Jesus said. Sadly, the young man refused and went away sorrowful for he was very rich.

This, my friends, is how I intend to love you from this day forward. I want to explain God in such a way that it forces an action on your part. You will immediately agree with God and change your heart, or you will go away sorrowfully clinging to what you will not give up. The choice is yours, but the job is mine. I need to expose you to the word that separates life from death. This is a scary thing for me because I fear many will reject the invitation to follow Jesus on God’s terms and thus lose their ability to understand truth at all (see Romans 1). The choice, as I know from personal experience, is sometimes bitter.

As a preacher of the gospel, I have to take the bitter medicine myself before I can give it to you. Change requires conflict, and I, a Greek by virtue of my training as an American, prefer passive spectatorship to active participation in the conflict that necessarily attends true discipleship in Christ. I would far rather be a handfed betta fish living alone in a tame jar of water than be an angel fish swimming in the wild expanse of the Amazon River feeding alongside other fish including piranhas. Yet I am not the boss in this. When I became a Christian, God dumped me into the River of Life where suffering teaches obedience and where conflict leads to growth.

And so, I forbid my body to act however it wants making it submit to the dictates of God’s holiness. I bring into captivity every thought forcing them to be obedient to Christ. Sometimes I have to repeat the exercises days on end before my body and mind get the point that I mean business. But that's okay. Eternity is forever and God is patient. When I look back, I am further along than I was a year ago. My job is to simply keep moving forward working out my salvation one obedient step after another. 

Working out your salvation one obedient step after another defines the Jesus-life. Christianity is worked out in pilgrimage not in placeholding. Christianity is following Christ in such a way that you and I, if we are both Jesus-followers, could freely swap places in the line behind Jesus and not go off course. If we can't do that then something is radically wrong with how we are doing Christianity. To be authentic, you cannot be Christian, you have to do Christian. Christianity is an action verb not a passive noun. 

In today’s Christian worldview Christianity has become a noun, something I soundly reject. Christianity is not a place, not a decision for Christ, not a mindset, not a power, not a government, not a system, not an organization, not an opinion, not a philosophy, not a title, not an ism. To be Christian is to obey God exactly as Jesus Christ obeys him.  

Therefore, this week I have dumped myself out of the pocket of the Americanized worldview of compartmentalized Christianity because it is an “ism” that has syncretized God's word with Greek philosophy. I have returned to the Way as Jesus preached it. I embrace the Jesus-life as a unified life without compartments lived singlemindedly inside the material framework of the world. I embrace the Cross of Christ. I lift up Jesus whose word promises that in return he will draw humanity to himself. As my act of obedience to prove my commitment, I registered to vote and ordered a ballot. I've been a spectator in American politics far too long. With no skin in the game I have no legitimacy when preaching to Americans as an American. I need a voice to do the part God has assigned me in Christ’s final battle for heart of this nation. I commit to preach the word of God in a way that gives the Spirit space to move. I will preach Jesus in such a way that the message requires a response that, if heeded, will transform the heart and not merely inform the mind. 

Dear friend, I urge you to examine your life against the Bible. I urge you not to compare yourself to what you have always known. Compare yourself to Jesus. If you don't know where in the Bible to begin your exercise, I suggest reading James in the New Testament. You could also start with Matthew or with Deuteronomy if you prefer the Old Testament. Go line by line asking God to show you the truth of your life. Adjust your life at every point where God points out a discrepancy between his way and yours. Don't just think about it, act on it. Obey quickly. Understanding will soon follow. Repeat often using the whole of the Bible to make adjustments in obedience for the rest of your life. Reject the modern Christian worldview. Get rid of everything that keeps you from walking with God in true pilgrimage. Come follow Jesus. Will you do this? I am praying for you!