UnBelievable (Part I)

I was just wandering about some articles when I spotted a link to research on global Christianity growth in the century between 1910 and 2010. Lots of numbers, but one in particular that absolutely shocked me. The research claimed that in 2010, out of a total population of 309.3 million people (at that time), 246,780,000 Americans (nearly 80%!) were “Christian.”

The number itself was bad enough, but that someone would actually take it to the point of publishing it was even more shocking. How could anyone take that number seriously? I couldn’t help but think their definition of “Christian” must have been so shallow that the word had no real meaning at all.

Think about it? What is a Christian? You would think, quite simply, that it was a believer in Jesus Christ. But that’s too simple a definition to be true. As James wrote in his book of the Bible, “even the demons believe in Jesus.” That certainly doesn’t make them Christian.

Look — do I get to decide who’s in the club or not? Of course not. But anyone with any sense of intellectual integrity can get a general idea of a better definition than the pollsters must have used just be reading the source documents. You know — the very document that tells me who Christ is at all. The Bible — a book that’s got to give me some kind of definition that would make for a better poll.

Quite some time ago, as I was reading John’s first letter, I saw the pattern. He even made it obvious by saying (as he was drawing the letter to a close), “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” So if I look through that letter, I should see the signs of a believing faith in Jesus – one that will actually save me. One that should make a difference in how I live. One that would actually tell me if I’m a “Christian.”

So I went back and reread the letter to check myself, and here’s what I found. Now, mind you, some of these passages may not seem a slam dunk, but you’ve got to consider the context of both the letter and the entirely of what else the Bible tells us about faith in Jesus when you read:

⁶ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:6-7

So Christians are those who “walk in the light,” and “have fellowship with one another.” And sure, a lot of people do this, so we should look further…

³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ⁶ whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

1 John 2:3-6

So we see that a Christian is one who “walks in the same way in which he walked.” We can’t be too particular here though — in the very same letter John reminds us that we cannot claim to be without sin. If we do, we make him out to be a liar, so we know we can’t walk perfectly as he walked…but we also can’t make it a habit of sinning (another thing that John mentions later).

⁹ Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. ¹⁰ Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. ¹¹ But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

1 John 2:9-11

A Christian doesn’t hate his brother, and sure, this should be easy enough. But even more so, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. So sure, love your brother. But it goes much deeper than that.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:15

This one is a bit tougher. I mean, where do we draw the line between a love for the world and a love for God? But we see it in people anyway in their callous disregard for doing the right thing, choosing instead to do that which is easier because it conforms to what the world expects of us.

²¹ I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. ²² Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. ²⁴ Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

1 John 2:21-24

I put this in here because there are a whole lot of people who say they’re Christians but who deny Jesus as the Christ — the anointed one. The Savior.

⁴ Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵ You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶ No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸ Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. ¹⁰ By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

1 John 3:4-10

Here I see the key phrase (and as I mentioned above), “whoever makes a practice of sinning…” A Christians sin should break him. For some, it is a long and hard struggle, but it is a struggle nonetheless. When it’s no longer a struggle, that’s when we should question the veracity of our faith.

¹⁴ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. ¹⁵ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

1 John 3:14 -15

Again with the love.

¹⁷ But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:17-18

This one should strike home for the crowd who turn their backs on the poor and those in need. I understand the need for toughness and accountability in government policy, but that should be more directed at the government and its wasteful incompetence and not at one’s own charity. There was a time in America where Christian giving actually meant something and made a real difference, but now we have far too many people — even those claiming to be Christian — abdicating to the government the responsibility to which they themselves are called.

²³ And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴ Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

1 John 3:23-24

A kind of repeat of a couple of the previous passages — believe in the name of God’s son Jesus Christ, love each other, and keep his commandments. This is what distinguishes the Christian in love over the love of those in the world.

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1 John 4:7-12

And again with the love…and again with the distinction that God’s love is directly tied to the coming of Christ into the world to save us (and again, the difference between the love of God and the love of the world). I think I’ll just let the rest of the passages speak for themselves…

¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 

1 John 4:13-16

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:19-21

¹ Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. ⁴ For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 John 5:1-5

¹⁰ Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. ¹¹ And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

1 John 5:10-12

²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 

1 John 5:20

This is just what I get from skimming through a single book in the Bible. I’ve long said here that to understand what that book has to say more completely, you should read it in its entirety and take it all within the context of itself. There’s so much more to be said on this, but one can easily see when comparing the actions of the typical American with the descriptions of the Christian life found in the Bible, there’s really no way you can say 80% of us actually fall into that category.

But oh, what an incredible world it would be if that many of us actually did…

Here’s the article for you: Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population