People instinctively sense right and wrong

Regardless of culture, religion, or walk of life, every person has an impression of right and wrong. Whether liberal or conservative, evolutionist or creationist, pro-choice or pro-life, “less filling” or “tastes great,” everyone appeals to some sort of standard that he or she expects others to know and follow. In the political realm, for example, liberals uphold tolerance while conservatives focus on personal accountability, but the key is that both groups point to some standard that they believe is right. But step back and ask yourself: Why do people have this sense of right and wrong, a “little voice” inside them that guides them and brings outrage when they see someone violate that standard? 

To Christians, Christianity provides a credible answer to the mystery of that little voice inside of you and I. It says that this awareness is from God, whose very nature (ultimate righteousness) sets the standard (see Chapter 7 for more on the Christian understanding of God’s nature). When he created people, he gave a conscience to guide humans and let them know when they stray from that end. 

This idea of right and wrong poses problems for people who don’t believe in God, because they allow nothing apart from the human race to back their standards. They may sincerely believe that morality is based on each individual’s personal decision, but this belief is out of step with how people actually live – everyone holds others up to some sort of a standard that they adhere to.  

If you’re sceptical, consider a test: Try cutting in line at the supermarket. The first time you do it, politely explain to the person you cut in front of that you’re sorry, but you’ve got a sick child at home and you simply must get cough syrup to her as soon as possible. In this case, most people will be glad to help out and aren’t bothered by the inconvenience. However, try cutting in line a second time, but this time be rude and aggressive when you do so, offering a sneer rather than an explanation. I guarantee the person you cut in front of will be outraged, and his anger will run deeper than the inconvenience you’re causing. Your rude action crosses a line in his mind over what’s acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Yet, without a God who gives us an idea of right and wrong, your belief that line-cutting is okay isn’t morally different from his belief that first come should be first served. (See Chapter 16 for more on the shortcomings of the belief that truth is relative.) 

A must-read: Mere Christianity

In the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist – in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless – I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality – namely my idea of justice – was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. “Dark” would be without meaning.  – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Harper San Francisco, 2001) 

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is a witty, persuasive, common sense-based account of the basics of Christian doctrine and the logic of the faith. Lewis was an atheist and set out to disprove Christianity only to become a Christian in the process. Early in my Christian walk, I often wrestled with intellectual doubts about my faith; more than anything else, Mere Christianity was the means that transformed my faith into a rock solid belief system. 

Demonstrating Christianity as a Liveable Faith

In order to be credible, any belief system that attempts to explain the world must be in line with known historical and scientific facts and provide answers to the big questions of life without contradicting itself. But it must also be consistent with how life is actually lived out in the real world. Any theory can look good on paper, but if you can’t live it out, then it’s not worth more than the paper it’s written on. Christians say that their faith not only has facts and consistent logic on its side, but is liveable as well. Two examples are as follows: 

Christianity gives life meaning. At some point in life, everyone – atheists, Christians, and Buddhists alike – grapples with the issue of finding meaning in life. Teenagers often go through a time of “soul searching” as they contemplate what they should do with their lives. When middle age looms, people often deal with a mid-life crisis in a desperate attempt to find meaning in a life that is already half spent. Christians believe that God designed people to have an instinctive need to find meaning – to enable humans to ultimately search and find him through this process. Even the most outspoken sceptics in history have struggled with finding meaning in their lives. Although some sincerely believe that people are nothing more than machines, their quest for meaning betrays that claim. 

Christianity meets people’s deepest need for grace. Although other religions focus on people’s ability to reach God through their own effort, Christianity is unique in saying that humans can’t reach God through their own means, but require God to do the work for us. From a Christian perspective, the quest for salvation by our own doing ultimately proves to be just like Sisyphus, the mythological Greek character who the gods forever condemned to roll a rock to the top of a mountain, only to have the stone always fall back due to its own weight. Because people can never measure up to the standard that their conscience holds them to, people need help, as hard as it is for them to admit it. In this light, Christianity’s offer of grace is liberating in a way that nothing else is. Grace, which I discuss fully in Chapter 3, meets people’s deepest spiritual needs and frees us from the Sisyphus-like effort of trying to be good when we do bad things most every day. 

Is real life like The Truman Show?

In the film The Truman Show, Jim Carrey stars as Truman Burbank, a thirty-something man who doesn’t realize that his whole life is a non-stop television show and has been ever since the day he was born. At one point, an interviewer asked Christoff, the creator and director of the show, why he thought Truman took so long to figure the secret out. Christoff replied, “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.” 

Christoff’s remark seems to describe the way most people deal with life’s big issues – accepting what’s given to them without too much bother. People grow up either believing or rejecting what their parents taught them (for reasons that often have nothing to do with whether they thought the teaching was true or not), go off to school and usually accept what they learn as fact, and then get on with building a career and raising a family. 

In this hustle-bustle world that never sleeps, it’s easy to remain distracted for decades with work, kids, exercise routines, TV, the Internet, sports, and vacations. Yes, people do experience angst about death and yearn to lead meaningful lives, but most tend to put off dealing with such matters until they’re hit smack dab in the face with them. Occasionally, a tragedy like 9/11 comes along, causing people to reprioritize and think of life-and-death matters... for a while. But unless the tragedy personally affects you, the normal grind of life gradually steers you back onto autopilot like you were before. Frankly, unless you deliberately work at it, modern life doesn’t promote a serious investigation of much of anything.

 

But when it comes to the big issues, the most important question that people should ask about what they believe is: “But is it true?” Ultimately, when all is said and done, a “yes”  answer to that question is all that matters.

Exploring Whether God Exists

Certainly, one of the most hotly contested issues throughout history is whether a God exists or whether humans are on their own. Although no one can definitively prove or disprove God’s existence, Christians consider several aspects in order to make an informed decision. In this section, I provide a snapshot of the many debates that range in this arena. 

If you want to look further into this topic, check out the resources available on my Web site at digitalwalk.net. 

The world appears to be intelligently designed

On a vacation in Colorado a few years ago, I gazed upon the brilliant sun as it made its slow, swooping descent toward the purple mountain skyline. The sunset was drop-dead gorgeous, and in my amazement, I remember saying to myself, “Who can deny that a God created this?” Later, when my first child was born, I uttered a similar line as I held my 7-pound, 14-ounce miracle in my arms. I’m certainly not alone in experiencing these thoughts when confronted with the wonders of this world. This kind of intuitive belief or “gut feeling” is enough to convince many that a God who created the earth and its inhabitants really exists. 

This intuition-based claim is similar to the teleological argument, a theory to prove God’s existence that William Paley originally put forth back in the 19^th century. Paley argued that if you found a watch when you were on a walk through the woods, you could quickly size up the object and conclude that such a highly engineered piece of equipment didn’t just bud on a nearby maple tree. The logical conclusion is that the watch wasn’t formed by accident, but was designed and constructed by an intelligent being. After establishing this idea, Paley told his students to back up and look at the universe – like the watch, its engineering is so complex, precise, and ingenious that it screams out evidence for a designer. 

Although this argument is logical and can be compelling, it doesn’t convince everyone. An atheist looks at the same sunset or the same human birth and sees these incidents as nothing more than evolution in action. Ultimately, the intuitive argument helps confirm suspicions you have toward believing in God, but doesn’t often change a diehard sceptic’s mind. 

However, a second, more compelling argument goes beyond mere intuition and says that not only does the world appear to be designed, but correct science cries out that there must be a designer. For example, in his critically-acclaimed book Darwin’s Black Box (Free Press, 1998), biochemist Michael Behe argues that evolution can’t sufficiently explain the complexity of organisms. Darwin insisted that evolution occurred through a series of small steps that transformed simple structures into complex ones. Yet, the more scientists discover about the complexity of cells, the more they realize the practical impossibility of them developing gradually. (See Chapter 16 for more on Behe’s arguments against Darwinian evolution.) 

People (most, anyway) can think and reason

A second argument that Christians hold up as proof that God exists is what goes on in that noggin of yours and mine. The fact that people have the ability to think in a logical and rational manner is explainable only by claiming the existence of God as designer and creator. Okay, I admit, not all people think rationally, but for the sake of argument, let’s keep the discussion using you and me as examples... okay, you. 

The fact is that people reason – no one can deny that. Therefore, God either created people with the unique ability to think, or else reason developed on its own. But believing that people acquired rational thought in small steps through natural selection reduces people’s ability to reason to nothing more than a biological process. In his book Mere Christianity (Harper San Francisco, 2001), C.S. Lewis points out the problem in this line of thinking by comparing human reason to human eyesight. Your vision is far more helpful and useful to you than the vision of a single-celled organism that’s sensitive to light but doesn’t have eyes to see. Now, suppose you give that cute little creature a set of eyes and throw in a pair of eyeglasses to boot. In doing so, you would enable the organism to see better, but you wouldn’t bring it any closer to an intellectual understanding of what light is. Remember, it’s not scientists with really good eyes who are experts in light. Instead, it’s the ones who’ve specialized in the related sciences. From this perspective, trying to fit human reason into an evolutionary process is like trying to watch a 3-D film without wearing those funny-looking glasses – everything important is lost in the process. 

A faith-filled atheist?

A step of faith isn’t unique to Christianity. Every religion, theory, or system of belief that attempts to explain the world requires faith – believing in something that can’t fully be proven. At first glance, you may think an atheist is exempt from this rule, but that’s not true. An atheist has faith, all right – not in a divine God, but in the belief that God doesn’t exist.

Christianity: But Is It True?

In This Chapter

Getting a grip on apologetics

Considering whether one ultimate God exists

Seeing how Christianity coexists with “real life”

Digging up the historical roots of the Christian faith 

I’m a PK (a preacher’s kid). Growing up, I learned about the Christian faith from my parents and church, and I became a born-again Christian at an early age. The question of whether Christianity was valid didn’t enter into my mind at that point; I just accepted it as true because that’s what I was taught. When I entered college, however, I started to re-evaluate my faith and ask myself, “Is Christianity really true?” After all, an awful lot of smart people don’t believe in God, much less in Christianity. 

Today, as I look back at that time in my life, I realize that the honest questioning I did as a college freshman was the crucial turning point of my life, transforming my squishy lump of unformed beliefs into a solid steel-equipped faith, ready for a lot of stormy weather. When I actually started to look under the hood of Christianity and ask hard questions, I realized that Christianity not only satisfies my spiritual and emotional needs, but also my intellectual needs. 

In this chapter, I survey several important claims to truth that Christianity makes and help demonstrate the idea that what the rest of this book covers is more than just fancy or wishful thinking. I explain how Christians respond to questions about the existence of God, the relationship between faith and reason, and the historical reliability of Christianity’s claims. 

Throughout this book, I address further topics that deal with Christianity’s claims of truth. Be sure to check out the following: 

For a discussion on the belief that Jesus rose from the dead, see Chapter 5.

To explore why Christianity claims to present the only way to God, see Chapter 15.

To assess whether Christian faith and Darwinian evolution are compatible, see Chapter 16.

For an exploration of whether absolutes are necessary in a relative world, see Chapter 16. 

Defending the Faith through Apologetics

The term Christian apologetics may sound like a description of a very sorry and pathetic-looking group of churchgoers, but it actually refers to the study and practice of demonstrating the truth of Christianity. In this context, the word apologetic isn’t sorry at all, but originates from the Greek word apologia, which means “defence.”

Like any religion or belief explaining the world, not everything that’s part of Christianity can be proven – it requires faith to believe in the unseen. But don’t take that to mean that you should simply throw evidence out the window. On the contrary, although facts and logic don’t explain everything, Christians believe they work hand-in-hand to support the faith’s claims to truth. That’s why Christians work across a spectrum of fields – science, archaeology, philosophy, history, and more – to provide a solid intellectual basis for the Christian faith.

 

Apologetics often deals with one of the most basic questions of all: Does God exist? I discuss this issue in the next section.

Relating Christianity to other world faiths

An outsider may look at the world’s religions and conclude that they’re all pretty much the same. But those who profess faith in one of these religions would beg to differ. Keep reading to find out how Christianity relates to the other dominant world faiths: 

Judaism: Christianity is most closely tied to Judaism. In fact, Christians share a common legacy and heritage with Jews (check out Chapter 10 for the lowdown). Moreover, Jesus – the very reason the Christian faith exists – was a Jew. 

Both Jews and Christians believe in the Old Testament teachings of the Bible (Jews call this part the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh) and proclaim people like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David as pillars of their faith. Their paths split, however, with Jesus Christ. Throughout the Old Testament, the authors refer to and prophesy of a coming Messiah (meaning Saviour) that will save the Jews (and non-Jews as well). Christians believe that Jesus was this Saviour, while Jews believe that their Messiah hasn’t yet come. 

Islam: Islam is the other major monotheistic (believing in one God) religion in the world. Muslims (believers of Islam) say that Allah is the same God as that of Jews and Christians. However, unlike Christians, Muslims don’t believe in a Trinity (see Chapter 7). Instead of Jesus being the Son of God like the Christians believe, Muslims say that he was just a prophet and wasn’t crucified (Qur’an 4:157). They also believe that the prophet Muhammad, who lived in the seventh century, was the greatest prophet sent by Allah. 

Islam says that people gain salvation by observing the Five Pillars of Islam: professing the statement of belief, praying daily while facing Mecca (the most holy city of Islam), giving to the poor, fasting during Ramadan (the holy month), and making a pilgrimage to Mecca. 

Hinduism and Buddhism: Chances are that if you encounter someone who claims to be a Hindu or a Buddhist in the West, he or she practices a pantheistic religion. Instead of having the belief in God as Creator and distinct from the world, pantheistic religions, while different from each other in their own right, claim that the world is actually identical with God. In Hinduism, for example, God is really Brahman, or the ultimate power underlying the universe. Everything comes from Brahman and everything eventually returns to it. 

The differences in belief between Christianity and pantheistic religions are great. For example, if God is in everything, then it follows that God is in both good and evil, rather than separate from it. Therefore, “good” and “evil” become relative, even illusionary terms. Additionally, while Judaism, Christianity, and Islam focus on a written Word of God given to man, pantheistic religions tend to focus on private mystical experiences instead. 

Christian-related religions: A final group of religions is made up of Christian-related faiths that differ from historical and biblical Christianity. These groups include Mormons (the Church of Latter Day Saints), Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Scientists. Although non-Christians sometimes consider them part of the Christian Church, most Christians stress the major differences in belief between these groups and traditional historical Christianity. 

Table 1-1 shows a summary of beliefs of these various religions. 

Faith Group: Christianity

Who Is Jesus? Fully human, fully God

What Is God’s Nature: Trinity (one God in three persons)

What Is God’s Written Word? Bible (Old and New Testaments)

Problem of Man: Sin

How Is One Saved? Accepting God’s grace 

 

Judaism

Just a man

One God

Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (same as Christianity’s Old Testament)

Sin

Observance of the law

 

 

Islam

Just a man, a prophet

One God (Allah)

Qur’an

Sin

Following Five Pillars of Islam

Hinduism

Just a man

Brahman (part of the world)

N/A

Ignorance

Goal isn’t heaven, but to be absorbed into Brahman

 

Buddhism

Just a man

No personal God exists

N/A

Suffering

Enlightenment is needed, not salvation

 

Mormonism

Fully human, fully God

Three Gods and three distinct personalities

Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Bible

Sin

Good works and merit

 

Jehovah’s Witnesses

A man

One God (not a Trinity)

Bible and additional teachings

Sin

144,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses are specifically anointed in heaven, the rest of Jehovah’s Witnesses earn eternal life on earth (no belief in hell for non-members)

 

Christian Science

God, but not a real man

One God (not a Trinity)

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, miscellaneous writings, Manual of the Mother Church

Sin

Everyone will be saved; no final judgment

Putting It into Perspective: Christianity in the World Today

Binoculars are handy when you want to gaze upon a distant object, but you don’t hold them up to your face as you drive a car or walk down the street. If you did, you’d end up hitting a tree or stepping into a mud puddle. Instead, before using a pair of binoculars, it often helps to first stop, scan the landscape, and then use the binoculars to centre on what you want to see more clearly. Similarly, before you look closely at the Christian faith in the rest of this book, take a step back and put Christianity into a larger perspective. 

Focusing on facts about the faith

Christianity originated with Jesus Christ some 2,000 years ago and remains a growing faith in the world today. To help you understand Christianity’s role in the world, consider some of these facts about the faith:

Christianity is the largest religion in the world. In terms of raw numbers, Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with more than 1.9 billion people professing faith, or 33 percent of the world’s population. Islam is next, with 22 percent, followed by Hinduism (15 percent), non-religious (14 percent), Buddhism (6 percent), and Judaism (0.5 percent) (adherents.com, 2002). Check out the section, “Relating Christianity to other world faiths,” later in this chapter, to see the major differences among these religions. 

The developing world, including Africa, Latin America, and Asia, has more Christians than North America and Europe do. As I discuss in the section, “Being forewarned of stereotypes: What Christianity is not,” earlier in the chapter, people sometimes consider Christianity a European religion. But, more and more, Christianity has truly become a world religion, spread out fairly evenly over all the continents: Europe holds 29 percent of all Christians, followed by Latin America (23 percent), Africa (18 percent), Asia (16 percent), North America (13 percent), and Oceania (1 percent) (zpub.com, 1995). Although many people think of North America as the major hotbed for Christian activity over the past 150 years, it’s interesting to note that Africa now has more Christians than the United States and Canada combined. 

More than 8 out of 10 Americans classify themselves as Christians. According to Barna Research, in 2002, 85 percent of Americans identified themselves as Christians. Further, 40 percent of Americans label themselves “evangelical” or “born-again” Christians. 

Not all Christians live biblical Christian lives. Being from Massachusetts, if I were asked what baseball team I support, I’d respond that I’m a Boston Red Sox fan. However, because baseball is one of my least favourite sports, I’ve never been to a Red Sox game nor do I even follow the team in the newspapers. At best, I try to act like I know what I’m talking about when my buddies discuss the Red Sox’s chances of winning the World Series.

 
Truth be told, many of the 85 percent of the Americans who identify themselves as Christians do so in the same way I call myself a Red Sox fan. Therefore, in order to prevent being misled by statistics, recognize the distinction between the season ticket holders (firmly committed Christians) and the fair-weather fans (those who make their faith as much a part of their life as the Sox are of mine).

Making Sense of Christian Paradoxes

The film Catch Me If You Can tells the real-life story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a teenager who impersonates an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer and extorts more than $4 million – all before his 20^th birthday. If I were to write a movie with such a plot line, I’d be laughed out of Hollywood for coming up with such an unrealistic story. Indeed, truth is often stranger than fiction. 

The Christian faith is strange like this, because so many of its teachings are so contrary to human expectations. It’s true: Christianity is filled with paradoxes that go against the grain of your natural line of thinking – you expect one thing, you get blindsided by another. Consider the following examples: 

God is love, but he requires justice. The Christian God is all-loving, but he still will punish those who don’t come to him. 

God is one God, but three “persons.” Talk about confusing – the idea of the Trinity is surely the most difficult concept to grasp in all of Christianity. God is one God, but reveals himself in three “persons” – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Chapter 7 explores this mind-bending topic. 

God is fully in control, but humans have free choice. The Bible makes it clear that God is all-powerful and is actively engaged in this world, but at the same time, allows people to have the freedom to make their own decisions and be responsible for the decisions they make. 

Jesus was fully God and fully man. Core to the Christian belief is that Jesus was a man who walked on the earth and who was both fully God and fully man. Confused? Flip to Chapter 5. 

God is all-powerful, but he died for humans. Because Jesus was fully God, it follows then that God – in the person of Jesus Christ – literally died for humanity. How can an infinite, eternal God die? And why did he do it? See Chapter 3 for more on this paradox. 

Humans can’t earn their way to heaven by being good. A key Christian belief goes against the rugged individualistic fabric of culture today. It says that you can’t pull yourself up by your own bootstraps (go on over to Chapter 15 for more). In other words, being a good person or keeping the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 34) won’t help you earn God’s favour and get you into heaven. Instead, it’s God’s grace alone that saves you, not yourself (go to Chapter 3 for the lowdown on grace). 

The Church is full of sinners. To some, the fact that Christians can’t seem to live out their faith consistently is grounds for dismissing the truth of the Christian faith. Yet, ironically, the sin in a Christian’s life only serves to underscore a core part of the Christian teaching – that all people have and will continue to sin as long as they live on this earth. See Chapter 15 for a full discussion on this subject. 

Ironically, these paradoxes of the Christian faith serve to underscore its truth. As C.S. Lewis once said, “Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons why I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed” (Mere Christianity, Harper san Francisco, 2001). 

Understanding How the Branches of the Church Came About

Most every human organization has groupings within it. Corporations have divisions and branches. Pro football divides its teams into two conferences, while professional baseball has two separate leagues. Professional wrestling probably has some kind of division to it as well, but I was too scared to ask. 

The Christian Church is no different. Although it started out as a unified entity and remained so for a thousand years, geography and doctrinal differences eventually caused a split in A.D. 1054 between the Western Church (Catholic) centred in Rome and the Eastern Church (Orthodox) centred in Constantinople. Then, nearly five hundred years later, the Protestant Reformation caused a new group, called the Protestants, to emerge from the Catholic Church. These three major divisions of the Church – Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox – remain to this day. 

Protestants further divide into many different denominations; some of the most notable are Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Anglican. Although these denominations agree on the major issues of the Protestant Reformation, they’ve tended to divide based on differences in doctrine and perspectives on how churches should be structured and governed.

 

The Catholic Church is the largest of the three major branches in the world, while the Protestant Church is the largest segment in North America (though it too is dispersed throughout the world). The Orthodox (Eastern) Church is more geographically oriented, being dominant in Greece, Russia, and parts of Eastern Europe and less elsewhere. You find out all about the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Chapter 10 and about the Protestants in Chapter 11.

Christianity isn’t just about love

Another extreme is the tendency to think of Christianity as being all about love – period. End of Story. Using 1 John 4:8 (“God is love”) as the mantra, some people proclaim that because God is love, any talk of judgment, punishment, or hell is bogus. 

Certainly one of Jesus’ key teachings was to love others. And he backed up what he preached by loving the outcasts and the down-and-out of his day. At the same time, love isn’t all he spoke about. He also talked a lot about sin and holiness, as I discuss in Chapter 5. 

The God of Christianity is a God of love and holiness (see Chapter 7). People have always had a hard time trying to grasp the balance between the two, which is why some people tend to focus on holiness and justice and forget about love. Others dwell on love and forget about God’s holy nature. But, as Chapter 5 discusses, Jesus walked the tightrope between these two extremes. 

Christianity doesn’t mean “no fun”

Christians are often portrayed as being “sticks in the mud,” or people who want to suck all the fun and happiness out of life. However, biblical Christianity says the opposite – that God is the one who created fun, a sense of humour, wonderful food and drink, sex, and adventure. 

Popular culture today says that excess – food, alcohol, sex, or whatever – means fun. In contrast, Christianity says that “more” initially seems liberating, but it ultimately ensnares and dehumanizes you, making you a slave to physical desire rather than allowing you to maintain control over yourself through your mind and will. Or to quote from the popular film Sabrina, “More isn’t always better; sometimes it’s just more.” 

Christianity insists that in order for these activities to be fun for you now and in the long run, you must do them in the right context and with the right amount. Consider, for example, the yeast that goes into a loaf of bread. Because yeast is the active ingredient, thinking that the more yeast you put into the batter, the better the bread will be is only natural. But, as any cook can tell you, you only spoil the loaf by doubling the yeast. Tasty bread features just the right amount of yeast put into the batter at the appropriate time. 

Christianity isn’t just a white man’s religion

Some people think of Christianity as a European or “white man’s” religion. Although Europe has played a key role in the history of the Christian Church over the past two thousand years, don’t confuse Europe’s role as catalyst with being the original source. Jesus was a Jewish carpenter, a Middle Easterner who never set foot in Europe or the United States. The early Church consisted of people from across the Mediterranean region – Palestine, North Africa, Asia, and Italy. As you discover in Chapter 10, it was only a couple hundred years later that Europe stated to play a dominant role in leading the Church. Obviously, Europe was a torchbearer of the Christian faith for more than 1,500 years, but the winds of change continue as the 21^st century unfolds. As I discuss in the “Putting It into Perspective: Christianity in the World Today” section of this chapter, the majority of Christians are now from the developing nations of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. 

Christianity’s not a religion?

 

An expression that has become popular over the past 30 years is “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.” The notion that Christianity is not a religion may seem perplexing or even ridiculous to many. If you think of religion as referring to a belief system about God and the world around you, then Christianity most certainly does match that definition. But Christians who speak this phrase are referring to a popular understanding of religion that means a set of rules that one has to follow to gain approval from God. In this sense, people may consider Christianity an anti-religion, because by its nature, Christianity affirms that humans can’t do anything to be approved by God. Instead, it’s only by his grace that people are saved. 

Jesus spoke against this notion of an earn-your-way religion to the people of his day. Instead, he talked of faith as an intimate relationship with him and his Father in heaven. 

Christianity isn’t just one of many paths to the same end

Many people treat religions as essentially being the same – as different paths to the same destination. However, each of the major world religions holds fundamentally different, mutually exclusive claims about who God is and what’s true. However, they can’t all be true without “dumbing down” God into some kind of being who constantly bends to meet the fancies of any human belief. 

What’s more, from a Christian perspective, the Jesus of the Bible didn’t allow for that “all roads lead to heaven” belief. On many occasions, he made it clear that the only way to God is through him and him alone. Most notably, in John 14:6, he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.” See Chapter 15 for more on this hot potato topic. 

Christianity isn’t just an hour-long obligation

To some, Christianity means going to church for an hour once a week. Although the Bible does call Christians to come together and worship God once a week, Christianity is more than just an obligation or an idea that affects life only on weekends. Instead, biblical Christianity is meant to be lived out 24/7 and should impact the way Christians think about every part of their lives and the world around them. Jesus didn’t water down his message at all to his would-be followers. He didn’t say, “Give me your spare change and a couple hours during the week.” Instead, he said, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34). See Chapter 13 for what his call means on a practical level.  

Christianity isn’t just a touchy-feely thing

Many people think of Christianity, or any religious faith for that matter, as an emotional tool, which Christians turn to in times of trouble. The thought is: “Hey, if it helps you, great.” However, Christianity claims that it’s not that kind of religion. Instead, Christianity claims to be a historical faith, directly tied to real space-and-time history. Given that, it’s either literally true and far more than a feel-good kick, or false and therefore not worth investing your emotions in. (See Chapters 2 and 16 for more on this subject.)