Myth #2 - Christianity is a Subjective Faith
MYTH #2 CHRISTIANITY IS A SUBJECTIVE FAITH
I have said in this current series “Reason’s To Believe” that the god-talk in our culture is really confusing. When I first started ministry in the 1980’s most people you talked with about God at least came at life from a Christian world-view but today that is increasingly not the case. There are more and more people who think about life and faith from a secular/cultural worldview.
I think one of the by-products of the cultural mind is that Christianity appears to be subjective. James Emery White in his book THE RISE OF THE NONES, points out that one of the current trends in our culture is called privatization. James White says “Privatization is the process by which a chasm is created between the public and the private spheres of life, and spiritual things are increasingly placed within the private arena. So when it comes to things like business, politics, or even marriage and the home, personal faith is bracketed off. The process of privatization, left unchecked, makes the Christian faith a matter of personal preference, trivialized to the realm of taste or opinion.”
This concept is closely related to another word that describes some cultural thought about faith in our day which is called syncretism. Syncretism means the fusion of two or more thought systems, and can be applied to philosophy, politics, and religion. Religious syncretism usually involves the addition of a few essential parts of one religion to a dominant religion, resulting in a new religious system. This is what we see from many in Hollywood, the taking of some Christian thought and then mixing it with some New Age ideas or Eastern religious ideas which result in a kind of a home-spun faith that some will call Christian. We live in a time where people just make up what they want to believe. We also tend to think if I believe it then it must be right and authoritative. This mind-set is veiled through one of the most common responses you get about faith today which is the statement: “I’m spiritual but I am not religious.” This usually means that I am not affiliated with any church or religious organization but I have my own version of spiritual beliefs. It is private and something that I have come to create on my own. The problem is biblical Christianity is not private, nor subjective.
Timothy Keller in his book THE REASON FOR GOD gives another version of why Christianity may seem subjective to some people. From the outside people see Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Charismatics, Methodists, etc. and it appears to be almost distinct religions. On the surface they appear very different, almost as if Christians just pick and choose what they want to believe depending on whether you are Catholic or Protestant and then choose which version of Protestantism you prefer.
Keller points out that all Christians who take faith seriously will agree that the difference in churches is significant because they play out how ones faith is held and practiced. “Nevertheless, all Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christians assent together to the great creeds of the first thousand years of church history, such as the Apostle’s, Nicene, Chalcedonian and Athanasian creeds. In these creeds the fundamental Christian view of reality is laid out.” He then points out that in those creeds there are some specific truths that all Christians affirm, like the Trinity, and the fully deity and humanity of Jesus Christ.
He goes on to say, “Christianity is the body of believers who assent to those great ecumenical creeds. They believe that the triune God created the world, that humanity has fallen into sin and evil, that God has returned to rescue us in Jesus Christ, that in His death and resurrection Jesus accomplished our salvation for us so we can be received by grace, that He established the church, His people, as the vehicle through which He continues His mission of rescue, reconciliation, and salvation, and that at the end of time Jesus will return to renew the heavens and the earth, removing all evil, injustice , sin, and death from the world. “ So while there are differences among Christians about how faith is held and practiced, at the same time, there is also incredible unity around the essential nature of the Gospel. In Christ, God has arrived in flesh, born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life, died on the cross for the sins of the world and rose again. There is no hope of salvation apart from faith in the person and finished work of Jesus Christ.
So is Christianity a subjective faith? No. Biblical Christianity is not just ideas or thoughts we make up or like about Jesus. Biblical Christianity is built on the historical truth about Jesus as revealed in the bible and affirmed over the centuries through His body the church.
Pastor Scott
Timothy Keller- THE REASON FOR GOD—pp. 114-115
James Emery White- THE RISE OF THE NONES-- PP. 48-49
Read more: http://www.compellingtruth.org/syncretism.html#ixzz3D72PYiEM